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

Italian Soft-Skinned Vehicles of the Second World War (1): Motorcycles, Cars, Trucks, Artillery Tractors 1935-1945

This first volume provides a historical and technical overview of Italy's civil and military motorization from the 1920s to the end of World War II. It includes dedicated chapters on motorcycles, cars, and light trucks, covering their development, technical evolution, and specifications, supported by numerous period photographs.
It is often believed that Italy lost the war mainly due to the poor quality of its combat vehicles. However, impartial studies conducted since the war have shown that the real issue was the lack of vehicles and an inadequate logistics system. Despite this, many Italian vehicles were well-designed, durable, and efficient, particularly in the standardized motor vehicle category. These vehicles enabled Italian forces to operate in the challenging environments of North Africa, the Balkans, and the Soviet Union, and played a crucial role in their campaigns.
This is the first English-language study on the non-armored vehicles of the Italian Armed Forces, from the 1930s colonial wars and the Spanish Civil War to World War II. Each vehicle is described with details on its development and key technical features, accompanied by photographs, line drawings, a historical introduction, appendices, and color profiles.

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Italian Soft-Skinned Vehicles of the Second World War (2): Motorcycles, Cars, Trucks, Artillery Tractors 1935-1945

Volume 1 on the soft-skinned vehicles of the Italian Armed Forces provided a historical and technical overview of civil and military motorization in Italy from the 1920s to the end of World War II, covering motorcycles, cars, and light trucks.
Volume 2 focuses on medium and heavy trucks, artillery tractors, special-purpose vehicles, and trailers. Each vehicle is described with details on its development and key technical features, accompanied by photographs and, for notable examples, line drawings. The book includes a historical introduction, appendices, and color profiles. Additional appendices cover vehicle colors and markings, manufacturers, production data, and other details.

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Light Trucks of the Italian Army in WWII

This book provides a detailed account of the specialised light gun trucks produced by the Italian industry in response to a specific request of the Regio Esercito between mid-1942 and mid-1943, known as the AS42 and the AS43.
'AS' was standing for 'Autocarro Speciale' or 'Automezzo Speciale' (Special truck), or more currently, camionette. These vehicles were meant to be used in desert warfare, issued to the unit called the Raggruppamento Sahariano, (Saharan Group), to be used in action against the British Long Range Desert Group, or for special operations behind enemy lines, in force to the Italian special forces designated the X Reggimento Arditi.

In point of fact, they came too late and in too small a number to make a real impact in that theatre, and after the fall of Africa into Allied hands they were diverted to several different units as anti-paratroopers companies or anti-bridgehead mobile battalions either in Sicily or in the Italian mainland.
After the Italian Armistice, they served both with German troops and with the armed forces of the Republica Sociale Italiana.

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Italienische Kfz und Panzer 1916-1945 (Typenkompass)

Avec la montée du « Duce », la confiance en soi des Italiens grandit: le pays construisit une puissante industrie d'armement et développa une variété de véhicules qui furent utilisés dans les colonies d'Afrique du Nord avant les Allemands. Beaucoup d'entre eux ont également trouvé leur place dans la flotte de la Wehrmacht.

This reference book presents cars, trucks, armored cars, tanks and other vehicles used by the Italian Army between 1916 and 1945.
Each type is presented with a photograph, a historical description and a technical data sheet.

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Kfz und Panzer der Achsenmächte 1939-1945

Even 75 years after the end of the Second World War, surprisingly little is known about the tanks of the Third Reich's allies in Europe and their practical use. Italy, for example, used tanks in the First World War and even had two of its own manufacturing companies, Fiat and Ansaldo. Later, Italy built a series of self-designed light and medium-weight models. A heavy type, the P40, was even created.

Hungary based its own developments on Czech and Swedish models. Romania had light tanks of Czech and French origin. Bulgaria bought not only light tanks made in Italy and England, but also Czechoslovakian types. Finland mainly used tanks of Soviet origin.

In this unique volume, Gabriele Faggioni describes all the important tank types that were sent to the fronts by the German Reich's European allies such as Italy, Finland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia during the war years from 1939 to 1945.
He answers the questions of how the tanks were used militarily, how they were armed and how they performed. This book is illustrated by around 200 historical, mostly rare photographs.

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Alfa Romeo AR 51-AR 52 - Alfa 'Matta'

On behalf of the Italian Defense Ministry, Alfa Romeo produced in 1951 a utility van, designed by Giuseppe Busso and based on the Alfa 1900. The vehicle was offered in two different versions: the "Military" AR 51 and the "Civilian" AR 52, but the model was nicknamed Alfa "Matta" ("crazy" in Italian).
The book offers a wide range of informations - technical datas and the sporting history of some units (the car also took part to the 1952 Mille Miglia) - as well as a large amount of illustrations which will be absolutely useful for restoring vintage models.

Text in Italian.

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Veicoli dei carabinieri - 200 anni di storia

In 2014 the Carabinieri, one of the top corps in the Italian armed forces, celebrated its 200th anniversary. Theirs is a story of great achievements in both the civil and military fields; one of great men and, of course, the most diverse means of transport of the corps in these first two centuries of its history.
There has never been a book published that focuses on this subject, one that covers the history of Carabinieri transport from the horse to the automobile.

Written by an authoritative student of the sector, Giuseppe Thellung di Courtelary, this book catalogues and conducts a census of the most diverse vehicles: from the first Fiat cars and trucks of the start of the 20th century to the models that became part of four-wheel history, like the Fiat 500 C Coloniale, the Campagnola and Alfa Romeo "Matta" right through to the more recent Alfa Romeo 75, 155 and 156, looking in on unforgettable icons like the Giulia and Alfetta on the way.

This monumental work is completed by the various on/off road and safety vehicles used by the corps over the last century. All the historic and modern photographic material for this book has been made available by the Carabinieri archives in Rome.

Text in Italian.

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