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Hi Again CD
Not sure if the spanish order was filled or not. ie are you saying that only the one prototype was ever produced for 20mm Breda M35 L65 armed cv?
Best Regards Chuck.
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The order wasn't filled becouse they (the Nationalist HQ) at the end preferred the PzI refitted with the same 20mm Breda gun (unit present in the spanish oob33 as PzKfpw I/20 [unit 291]), so AFAIK only a prototype of the CV with Breda gun was build. From Wiki (Franco Lucas Molina, "Panzer I" as a reference):
"The Panzer I was upgraded in order to increase its lethality. On 8 August, 1937, Major General Garcia Pallasar received a note from Generalissimo Francisco Franco which expressed the need for a Panzer I (or negrillo, as their Spanish crews called them) with a 20-millimeter gun. Ultimately, the piece chosen was the Breda Model 1935, due to the simplicity of the design over competitors such as the German Flak 30. Furthermore, the 20mm Breda was capable of perforating 40 millimeters of armor at 250 meters (1.57 in at 275 yd)
(but AP 3 for SPWW2 and also for tarrif.net, [ndr]), which was more than sufficient to penetrate the frontal armor of the T-26. Although originally forty Italian CV.35 light tanks were ordered with the Breda in place of their original armament, this order was subsequently canceled after it was thought adaptation of the same gun to the Panzer I would yield better results. Prototypes were ready by September 1937 and an order was placed after successful results. The mounting of the Breda in the Panzer I required the original turret to be opened at the top and then extended by a vertical supplement. Four of these tanks were finished at the Armament Factory of Sevilla, but further production was canceled as it was decided sufficient numbers of Republican T-26 tanks had been captured to fulfill the Nationalist leadership's request for more lethal tanks.
The Breda modification was not particularly liked by German crews, as the unprotected gap in the turret, designed to allow the tank's commander to aim, was found to be a dangerous weak point."
Should be noted that the no
"weak point" is present in SPWW2, but instead a more protected turret is considered (2 for unit 291 instead 1 of the other Pz I).
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Some of these are field modifications, not production vehicles. Most of these were done by the forces in east africa which had only a handful of medium tanks. They converted light armor by adding weapons with some AT capacity. Information is hard to come by, the Italian side of the operations in east-africa is hardly the most well documented aspect of ww2. So the lack of mention of these in sources that are based on production models or field modifications in the north african desert shouldn't be taken as proof of non-existence.
Unfortunately I don't have sources available myself on these vehicles.
Narwan
PS the brixia version was likely just a single model converted in east africa.
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From the Pignato book "Italian Armored Vehicles In WWII":
"In the fall of 1940 few tankettes were rearmed with either the 20MM Solothurn S18-1000 or S-18-1100 1000 anti-tank rifle, or the 12.7mm Breda-SAFAT heavy machine gun(
an aircraft mg present in the oob34 (should be the weapon 163). I forgot to mention in my previous posts that this CV doesn't appear in the italian oob34 [ndr])
Other tankettes received 45mm Brixia infantry support mortars, while a number were also fitted with an antiaircraft machine gun bracket."
So the plural is used by Pignato for all those CV modifications and although not exactly specified ("few","a number", etc...).
In particular the picture in the book shows two CV with the brixia mortar. This picture and also the one showing the CV with the 20mm AT, are both taken in North Africa.
Unfortunately i haven't a direct access to the book "Fronte Terra. Carro veloce 33-35 evoluzione del mezzo 2/1." which should contain a lot of details (90pp dedicated only to the CVs).