Ok, I've been kicking around this idea for quite a while now, and I'm hoping that some of you guys have some answers. I know that the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia (Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia, or CSIR) and the Italian Army in Russia (Armata Italiana in Russia, or ARMIR) had truck movable infantry divisions & Alpini divisions; but did they have any armored divisions? I saw on Model Victoria that the L-6 tank was employed in Russia (T-34 vs. L-6; not much of a contest), but what about the M13/40 or M14/41 or were they primarly used in North Africa? I've cheked Commando Supremo, but it wasn't much help.

Jim

I'm 100% positive the Italians only had a limited number of light tanks and armored cars on the eastern front (L6's and Autoblinda 41's.) No M-series, no Semoventi. They did capture and use some T-34's and other Soviet AFV's (mostly T-60's or T-70's) though.

http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/Italy/Ita-T34-RickMente.jpg

http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/Italy/Ita-T34-Russia-RickMente.jpg

BTW, the book "Operations near the Don river" in the "Military Chronichle" series has pictures of Italian AFV's on the eastern front. You definitely want to check it out:

http://www.aviapress.com/viewonekit.htm?MCS-007

Unfortunately, it's in Russian only (with photo captions in English), but the pictures (something like 130) more than justify the price (about $30.)

P.S. Don't buy the super-expensive Model Victoria kit: Italeri is about to release a plastic L6 in 1/35.

Thanks for the info. Yes, that Model Victoria L-6 is quite expensive. I bet it's nice though. Can't really justify the price as I'm going to model it as knocked out anyway.

Jim

Italeri has a L6 coming out in plastic. It was shown at the Nuremburg fair. Trumpeter has on their site for future release CV33's which were also used in Russia by the CSIR. Believe it or not, Italy sent more troops to fight in Russia than in North Africa. The M series tanks were specifically to be used for the three Italian Armor Divisons and Fiat Ansaldo could hardly keep up with their needs as the Ariete and Littorio saw action and the third was not fully built up.
I do wish that the Model Victoria line was more accessible in the states, even with their price. They have some exquisite pieces in their line. Except for Model Victoria there isn't many figures to use for Russia. It'll be the continental uniform like used in Greece and not the Tropical uniform of North Africa. Warrior has two suitable sets, but Italian figure sets even in resin are scarce, in plastic extremely rare.

Mike T.

I may be mistaken but didn't they deploy a few semovente 47/32s in the USSR ?

Hi

With regard to finding Italian figures in Russia for resin you may want to consider these

from the Allarmi range 35020 and 35021.

Here's a link to the page, you'll need to scroll down some to see them

http://www.italiankits.it/allarmi.html

then you have this offering from Alexander Miniatures

http://www.alexanderminiatures.com/product_info.php?products_id=1&osCsid=c2ed00ea2db5c0015a919b0e0314336c

Looks as if it's pretty cold....

Alan

Thanks for all your help, guys! I really appreciate it.

As far as Italian solders, there's always these guys too: http://www.royalmodel.com/

Jim

You may be right (though I haven't seen any photographic evidence.) I was thinking about the more famous Semovente da 75/18, which was only used in Italy and in North Africa. The Semovente da 47/32 shared many parts with the L6 (most of them were actually L6 conversions), so it would make sense to include a few of those, even though the 47mm gun (ballistically similar to the German 50mm KwK38 used in the Panzer IIIG thru early J, including upgunned E's and F's) would have to fire from a pretty close range (less than 500 meters) for a decent chance of penetrating a T-34.

BTW, I'm pretty sure Italeri will also release a Semovente da 47/32 kit (6 months after the L6 maybe?) That's how they get us to buy the same sprues twice!
They'd be foolish if they didn't do that...

I doubt that the Semovente 47/32 was used in Russia with the CSIR. It didn't appear in North Africa until the very end of 1942, then used in Sicily and the Italian pennisular. Yes, they came after the Semovente 75/18. Many were used for anti-partisan work in Yugoslavia which is technically the eastern front by both the Italians and the Germans after the Armistice.

Mike T.

Their seems to have been some Semovente 47/32's sent to Russia. At least the
XIIIth Group Cavalleggeri di Alessandria had them in Russia during 1942.
Mike T.