37 mm Vickers-Terni L/40 Cannon Used in Italian M11/39 Tank

[M8owner]

I do not believe I have ever seen any information on the ammunition used by this weapon. Does anyone have any pictures or documents that they can share?

 

[Hoeksel]

I do know the case is brass and measures 37x201R58 mm. Never found a case for my collection, I have seen only 1 for sale ever and missed it.

 

[jeff w]

TM9-1985-6 has nice illustrations of the AP and HE rounds, not much other useful info though.

 

[ron3350]

If this is the 37/40 I have 2 nice projectile types.
The steel nose fuze type and the pointed base fuze type with original paint.
Photos if needed tomorrow but I do not consider them as a scarce cartridge. I find a few of the cases.

 

[Depotman]

I do not believe I have ever seen any information on the ammunition used by this weapon. Does anyone have any pictures or documents that they can share?

I have some technical drawings and photos, but am still trying to produce good copies to post - please be patient! Depotman

 

[Buster]

I have the document shown which has some drawings of 37/40mm. Pics attached

 

[M8owner]

What a wonderful document. I have never seen an Italian ordnance manual before. May I request that you also show us the pages for the 37/54 mm and 47/32 mm ammo? Scanning the whole manual and adding it to the downloads would be great also. Thank you.

 

[Buster]

A few more pics as requested. Sadly I could not find anything on the two calibres you mentioned. The pamphlet is dated 1932, would this be too early for the rounds you mentioned?

 

[ron3350]

I expected to see photos of the 37/40 in other collections. Here are my 2 examples. Hard to find over here with projectiles.

 

[Depotman]

I have some technical drawings and photos, but am still trying to produce good copies to post - please be patient! Depotman

I can't extract good quality pics from my pdf document, so here it is:

View attachment Italian 37mm guns & ammunition.pdf

 

[M8owner]

What wonderful information. Thank you gentlemen. Was there any other use of this weapon besides the tank? I do not think the tank existed in 1932.

ron3350 - May I request that you show photos of the complete rounds, complete projectiles, fuses, cartridge cases and case head stamps?

 

[greif]

Head stamp of a 1935 case.

 

[ron3350]

Photos of my Italian 37/40 cartridges and headstamps.

 

[M8owner]

The 37/40 mm gun was used first on the Fiat 3000 tanks. Its use was adopted in 1930, and some number of these tanks were rearmed with this weapon. I believe these rounds are some of the most difficult to obtain tank ammunition from WWII. I can see why they ended up in Australia as several M11/39 tanks were captured and used by Australian forces in Libya.