Friday 21 October 2016

Tanks & The First World War: Fiat 2000

Welcome back to the Tanks & The First World War series. Whenever I think of Fiat, I think of a little 500 or a punto, I certainly don't think of it as a tank, but in the First World War, that was exactly what Fiat made.

Okay, so it only made two prototypes and never actually saw combat during the war, although it was designed to. The design of the Fiat 2000 was very similar in size to that of the British Mark V tanks at the time, although the Fiat was considerably heavier, weighing in at a staggering 40 tons compared to the Mark V's 28 tons. One noticeable difference was, aside from the Renault FT, this was the first tank to have a rotating turret mounted above the hull, something that today, we take for granted. The space inside the turret allowed for two crew members so sit inside, bring the total crew the Fiat 2000 was able to carry up to ten crew members. This turret also meant that the gun had better elevation, which paired with the ten machine guns it was also armed with, meant that it could be a very powerful tank.

When the Italian's designed the Fiat 2000, they designed it which the driver being able to sit at the front, giving him the best view possible. The engine could be found underneath the crew as appose to behind them, creating a better working environment. Although an order of 50 was placed, it was never completed, whilst the prototypes had been trialled, it was found that, at 4 km per hour, it was just too slow in competing in post-war battles and so the design was scrapped.

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