Armoured vehicles - Italy: books - history, types and construction

The First Forty Years of Italian Armoured Vehicles

A very detailed analysis of the Italian armoured vehicles up to World War II. Their main features and deployment during the WW II are described in comparison with the ones of the allied forces.

A Century of Italian Armored Cars

Encyclopedic work dedicated to Italian armored cars, divided into three parts. The first part is dedicated to the doctrinal classification of the subject and to the operational use of wheeled combat vehicles. In the second part all the vehicles built both adopted and tested by the Italian Army from 1912 to the present day are described chronologically, i.e. armored cars, protected trucks, vans and crawlers, half-tracks and trucks.

Each model is illustrated with several black and white and color photos (mostly unpublished), technical drawings on a constant scale and a summary of the features and services available. Text, captions and tabs are bilingual.

Italian Armoured & Reconnaissance Cars 1911-1945 (Osprey)

The first Italian armoured cars were used in the war in Libya in 1911-12 against the Ottoman Empire. With few tanks being developed, the Italians relied instead on the development of more mobile armoured cars like the Ansaldo Lancia 1 Z, during World War I, but post-war the army, focusing on the Alpine battlegrounds of Italy's northern borders, did not consider armoured cars suitable for reconnaissance duties.

The experience of the Spanish Civil War would provide the much needed last push for the Italians to develop modern armoured cars.
The result were the famous AB 41-43 models, which fought against the British in North Africa and Marshall Tito's forces in Yugoslavia, along with other vehicles such as the AS 36 light armoured car.

Using detailed colour plates and contemporary photographs, this book examines the development of the Italian armoured car in the two world wars and the inter-war years, from the deserts of North Africa to the slopes of the Alps.

Italian tanks and combat vehicles of World War II / Carri armati e veicoli da combattimento italiani della Seconda guerra mondiale

Although clearly the efforts of the Italian armored weapon never reached the levels achieved by the Germans or the Americans, the Italians made some first-class combat vehicles, especially with regard to self-propelled material, and made a substantial contribution to Axis operations in North Africa, the theater where they were mostly employed.
The courage, determination, and sacrifice of the Italian tank and self-propelled artillery crews are beyond doubt, especially given the numerical and technological disparity with respect to those they had to face.
This book is neither a justification for the defects of Italian tanks nor a revisionist history, but, on the contrary, it considers many factors intertwined in an understandable and realistic panorama.

Text in English and Italian.