Carro Veloce L3/33

The Carro Veloce 33 or L3/33 was a tankette originally built in 1933 and used by the Italian Army before and during World War II. It was based on the imported British Carden Loyd tankette.

This Carro Veloce L3/33 was on display at the Bovington Tank Museum.

Carro Veloce L3/33

This is the flamethrower variant, which was captured in North Africa. It carried 500 litres of flame fuel in a special trailer (which you can see behind the tankette). The flame fuel was delivered by a pump, driven off the gearbox, which gave it a flaming range of about 35 metres. However crews were warned not to use the flamethrower when travelling at full speed (26mph) as they might set themselves alight.

There is no evidence that they were used in battle One of the things I find seeing these kinds of armoured vehicle in the “flesh” is how small they are. I am surprised anyone can sit in that let alone two  crew. It must be really cramped and having the flamer fuel pumped through the centre of the tankette, wouldn’t be surprised by the reluctance of these being used.

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