Hello bajtársak and fellow forumdwellers,
The Semovente were a series of self propelled guns (commonly called SPG) that were inspired by the success of the StuG vehicles.
After the success of the Semovente 75/18, the Italian army decided to further invest in SPGs, in 1942 it was proposed that the 105mm howitzer should be built inside the P26/40 Italy´s most modern tank design. However the P26 was still in development so as a stop-gap solution, the 105/25 howitzer was built into a M15/42 tank that was readily available, but to fit the cannon the chassis had to be redesigned, increasing the width of the vehicle as well as lowering the hull.
In the end this modified design proved to be quite adequate as well and was put to mass production.
The 105mm L/25 howitzer is very powerful in infantry support, however the crew only consisted of 3, the commander who is also the gunner, the loader/radio operator and finally the driver. This system put too much stress on the commander thus heavily decreasing the fire rate and effectiveness of the vehicle.
Despite the shortcomings, the vehicle can still be devastating against infantry and enemy tanks alike with its HEAT shells (120mm pen).
The secondary armament is a 8mm Breda 38 machine gun on paper however in reality, it was often replaced with the more readily available Mg42, the MG was operated by the loader/radio operator.
Its 75mm frontal armour is powerful as long as the transmission area is not exposed which only has 50mm armour, due to the tank’s casemate nature, angling the armour is not an option.
Overall, the Semovente 105/25 M43 is an imperfect but unique vehicle that could fill the BR3 tech tree howitzer tank´s role in the Axis while staying reasonably balanced against any BR2-4 tank.
Its two weaknesses, the lack of turret (no coax MG) and slow reload would be balanced out by the dual purpose HEAT shells.
Semovente da 75/46 M43
In 1944, with the war increasingly unfavourable for the Axis, a new tank destroyer variant was ordered on the M43 hull.
To fulfil the requirement, the 105 mm L25 howitzer was replaced by a long Cannone da 75/46 C.A. modello 34 which was originally conceived as an anti-aircraft gun but worked well armoured targets as well thus it was converted to tank use much like German flak 88.
Its armour was increased to 100mm, though the previous weak spot with 50mm on the front is still present.
The Semovente da 75/46 M43 was produced in Italy but was only used by the German Wehrmacht in the defense of Italy.
Only 11 vehicles were built before the end of war.
Though not used by Italian units, the Semovente da 75/46 M43 is Italy´s best armoured fighting vehicle of the war. A fine BR4 addition for the Axis.
