This might help...
The FIAT 3000 prewar active service.
Only a few FIAT 3000 model 21, due to their moderate price, were sold abroad. They were taken in account by the
Royal Albanian army, and the Latvian army. Some were also part of the puppet government of Abyssinia (Ethiopia). Their first and most well-known use was during the conquest of Ethiopia: After the first Italo-Ethiopian war in 1927, which ended with the treaty of 1928 defining the definitive borders between Italian Somaliland and the Ethiopian empire. Facing no resistance from the leagues of nation, the Italian colonial army built the Welwel fort in 1930, encroached well inside the Ethiopian territory and beyond the 21 leagues border limitation. After several patrol incidents and official Ethiopian protests, a clash occurred in december 1934, which led to a full-scale war. This invasion was supported by nearly all available Model 21, and a few model 30, which proved successful since the Ethiopian army lacked any form of armor or efficient anti-tank weapons. Ironically, most of the 595 tanks fielded by the Italians were CV31-33 tankettes, which were opposed to the three Fiat 3000 model 21 previously sold to the Ethiopian government, and a handful of hastily-built Ford-based Armoured-cars. Three other Fiat 3000 were sold to the Hungarian government in 1936, which fought during the Slovak–Hungarian War, in march-april 1939.
This was the last version of the FIAT 3000 series.
The L5/21 and L5/30 in world war two.
When world war two broke out, most of the FIAT 3000 still in reserve, which had been used in training units, were reactivated in active units, due to Italian lack of tanks for upcoming operations in June 1940.
If most were based overseas, in Colonial duty in Eritrea, Libya, Abyssinia and Somaliland, some were retained in local defence units, in Southern Italy and Sicily. At this moment, all FIAT 3000 had been renamed FIAT L5/21 and FIAT L5/30 according to the new Regio Esercito nomenclature. They were hopelessly outdated, but during the east-african campaign of 1941, they stood their ground against mostly third-rate British models (like the British Mk.I to VI light tanks), and Anzac armoured-cars. Two units equipped with FIAT 3000 also fought during the Albanian campaign, but proved totally inefficient in Greece. Their last memorable action occurred during the landing at Gela, part of the allied operation in Sicily, in July 1943, when two units equipped with FIAT L5/30 operated as mobile gun positions around the bridgehead... None is known to have survived to this day.
On the FIAT L6/40 this is what I found as the most informative...
Albanian use seems questionable for this type. The refs are consistent as to where this tank was used. A Russian tank museum has an example of one captured in Stalingrad which is the only known battle to have occurred between the Russians and Italians per that site.
http://www.war44.com/italian-motoris...ank-print.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28095414@N02/4386654000/
Regards,
Pat