| The L3/35 was developed from imported British Carden-Lloyd Mark
VIs (designated CV29 in Italian service, CV stood for Carro Veloce, "fast
tank"). It was built as the CV-33 in 1933, but was retrofitted as the CV-35 in
1935 and renamed the L3/35 in 1938. The L3/35 was a lightly armored two-man
vehicle typically armed with two tandem machine guns. The differences between
the L3/33 and the L3/35 were not many. About 2500 L3 tankettes were built in
different models and variants. The L3s tankettes were sold to Afghanistan,
Albania, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Greece, Hungary, Iraq, and
Nationalist Spain. The Italian develop a hooded long barrel flamethrower in
place of the MG to L3/33 and L3/35 with a towed 110 gallon/500 liter fuel
trailer. One platoon in each Italian tank company was equipped with the L3 Lf in
North Africa. |
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