WW2 - Italian Tanks

 After finishing up the Autoblinda AB-42 yesterday, I just carried on with the rest of the Italian armour and finished off the rest of the tanks that I have... so far... 

Italian Tanks! 

This one is a Carro Armato M13/40 - a medium tank that started seeing service in 1940 and was meant to replace the Carro Armato M11/39.. which looked pretty similar, but had the main gun in the hull and the machine-guns in the turret!? 

This model, like the two L3/33 are from Army Group North Miniatures. I picked them up... oh... probably a decade ago... I assembled, based and primed them. Apparently I based this one thinking I'd be picking up a pack of tank crew/commanders at some point...? 

I'd like to get some more of these at some point - or even some M11/39s (as I'm sure there were still some serving in North Africa at the time of the initial Italian invasion of Egypt in 1940. 

This is a pair of Carro Veloce 33 (CV 33) or L3/33 - wee little italian tankettes. They are incredibly small. I swear I've seen children driving around four wheeled ATVs in farm yards that were bigger than these!? I also read that 70% of the italian armour that served in North Africa were dinky little tankettes like these. 

I'm sure they are going to be absolutely useless in Bolt Action (unless fighting against a purely infantry force with no anti-tank ability... but I'd still love to get a few more of these - maybe three to fill out a full platoon of five. 

There was also a version that mounted an Anti-Tank Rifle in place of the machine-guns... I could probably do with a couple of those... 

There was also a version with a flame-thrower... I'm less excited about those.. 

All the Italian stuff so far!!

All of the Italians so far... but in nice neat rows so it's a bit clearer what I've got going on here... 

I've got an understrength infantry platoon with a platoon commander and three squads of 6-7 troops. There is also parts of a weapons platoon (and a weapons platoon commander?!) including a machine-gun and a mortar. Then there is the "Armoured Platoon" with a mix of armour, including the Autoblinda AB-42, Carro Armato M13/40, and the two Carro Veloce L3/33...

(oh, and the X Arditi Secion in the back... which probably won't often be fielded with the rest of these...) 

I have a few more infantry to finish up, which I would LOVE to spend all day tomorrow... but I have a book club in the evening (and I have not yet finished the book!!) So... might have to wait until Monday or Tuesday to finish them all off!!

There is a part of me that not only wants entire platoons of the tankettes and either M13/40 - or M11/39! But also build a small force of British with a few platoons of all the weird little early war tanks that they had for those first actions in 1940/41 (Italian invasion to Operation Compass) like the Cruiser Mk. I (A9), Cruiser, Mk II (A10), Cruiser Mk III (A13), Matilda, Mk. VI light tank, etc... to oppose it and play out some of those early actions.

But maybe let's see if I get around to playing ANY games with THESE before I go buying MORE STUFF!!!