AB 43
Contents
Description
The Fiat-Ansaldo Autoblinda 43 was an attempt by the Italian Army to modernise and replace the AB41 with a newer model that had more firepower. At the beginning of the war, and also during the Spanish Civil War, most armoured cars were armed with heavy machine guns or autocannons. However, the first options soon proved to be underpowered to deal with more modern tanks and even other armoured cars (especially in the African theatre). The AB43 emerged as an attempt to mount a 47 mm cannon on the existing AB platform, combining aspects of the AB41 and AB42. Only one prototype was ever built. In 1943, after the "Armistice of Cassibile", production and further development of the vehicle was halted. The prototype was captured by Germany saw little use.
Introduced in Update 1.85 "Supersonic", the AB43 is comparable to the German Sd.Kfz.234/2 Puma or the Soviet BA-11. It has very poor armour, to the point that it can be easily penetrated by .50 cal ammunition, common in American tanks such as the Sherman. The tank also has subpar mobility for an armoured car, with a top speed of 43 km/h. It lacks the mobility of the Puma, and its firepower is also not as good as that of the BA-11 relative to its BR, though it is still a capable tank when used correctly. Due to its poor armour, it is not made for frontline combat; it is best used in the flanks of the battle, ambushing tanks trying to flank your team or tanks focused on the midst of the battle. It should be noted that its main shell lacks explosive filler, so it requires aiming at critical points, like the crew compartment or ammo stash, to be effective.
General info
Survivability and armour
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour (hull, turret)
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 8 mm (22°) Upper Plate 8 mm (44-68°) Upper Glacis 8 mm (19-50°) Lower Glacis |
8 mm | 8 mm (16°) Crew Compartment 5 mm (33°) Engine Compartment 8 mm (27°) Lower plate |
6 mm Crew Compartment 6 mm (18°) Engine Compartment - Centre 8 mm (39°) Engine Compartment - Sides |
| Turret | 18 mm (16°) Turret front 37 mm (cylindrical) Gun mantlet |
8 mm (28-29°) | 8 mm | |
Notes:
- The wheels are 10 mm thick while the torsion bars are 1 mm thick.
- The gun barrel is 10 mm thick while the coaxial machine gun is 5 mm thick.
As a thin-skinned armoured car, the AB 43 offers very little in the way of real protection with 8 mm of armour all around, and a slightly thicker 35 mm gun mantlet. This struggles to keep out heavy machine gun fire at anything other than long range and remains extremely vulnerable to artillery and strafing aircraft. However, the vehicle's internal modules are relatively widely spaced, so that AP rounds will often not knock out the AB 43 in a single hit. The car's low-mounted ammo racks also reduce the likelihood of ammunition detonation.
Mobility
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 91 | 43 | 7.8 | 170 | 210 | 21.79 | 26.92 |
| Realistic | 82 | 39 | 97 | 110 | 12.44 | 14.1 | |
The AB 43 offers outstanding mobility on flat smooth ground. As well as a very high top speed, the vehicle also has an excellent turning circle making it extremely agile on more urban maps. The car also has fantastic reverse speed, being almost as fast in reverse as it is going forward. This allows the AB 43 to escape from a bad situation incredibly quickly when the need arises.
As with most wheeled vehicles, however, the AB 43 loses much of its speed on soft ground. Sand, thick mud and water of almost any depth slow the car to a crawl making it extremely vulnerable to enemy fire.
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Armaments
Main armament
| 47 mm 47/40 mod.38 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 146 | -7°/+20° | ±180° | N/A | 13.3 | 18.4 | 22.4 | 24.8 | 26.4 | 4.29 | 3.80 | 3.50 | 3.30 |
| Realistic | 8.3 | 9.8 | 11.9 | 13.2 | 14.0 | ||||||||
The 47/40 mod.38 gun offers an average penetration power at its battle rating. Its good muzzle velocity still allows for pretty flat firing trajectories. The accuracy drop is noticeable from 700 m distance and becomes a handicap over 1,000 m. The rotation speed of the turret is rather slow but average compared to other tanks at the same rank or battle rating. The elevation angle of the gun is important, allowing you to fire at an elevated position and the depression angle average, making it possible to fire only from behind mild ridges. Lacking a stabilizer, the tank can't reliably fire on the move. The reload time of the gun is long when compared with other tanks equipped with a 47 mm cannon at the same BR (twice longer in average). The gun recoil is important but it does not turn out to be a handicap as its effect is offset by the length of the reloading process.
Ammunition
The shells available for the AB 43 are limited:
- Granata mod.35: HE; a high-explosive useful for destroying open and lightly armoured vehicles. It however is a very slow shell travelling (twice slower than the other projectile). You can pack a few of those as you lack a heavy machine gun.
- Granata Perforante mod.39: APBC; a solid shot with an average penetration but no explosive filler. Make sure to target modules and crew positions to maximise the damage. Disabling the enemy gunner on your first shot will be critical to win engagements as you'll most likely need several shots to destroy an enemy vehicle. This shell should be your default ammunition.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| Granata mod.35 | HE | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Granata Perforante mod.39 | APBC | 62 | 61 | 53 | 46 | 39 | 33 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| Granata mod.35 | HE | 364 | 2.37 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 150 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| Granata Perforante mod.39 | APBC | 755 | 1.44 | 1.2 | 9 | 30 | 47° | 60° | 65° | |||
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 146 | 74 (+72) | 1 (+145) | No |
Notes:
- As they are modeled by sets of 3 or 4, shells disappear from the rack only after you fire all shells in the set.
- Both racks are massive and deplete from rear to front.
Machine guns
| 8 mm Breda Mod. 38 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 1,992 (24) | 600 | N/A | N/A |
The small calibre of the Breda Mod. 38 machine gun makes it largely ineffective against all armoured vehicles but the ones with an open compartment. It still can be used to ping targets as a rangefinding help or to mow down minor obstacles blocking your line of sight.
Usage in battles
The AB 43 makes for an extremely effective vehicle at its BR, combining outstanding mobility with an effective gun. This allows the vehicle to scout extremely well for its team, while still having the firepower to punish enemies who allow it to flank. Urban maps give the vehicle a chance to use its speed and mobility to quickly enter caps and good flanking positions, and their close-range gives the car a chance to outmanoeuvre larger enemies and fire shots into their rear and side armour.
On larger rural maps the AB 43 will have to stick to roads in order to maintain its speed advantage, so players should be careful not to charge directly into enemy tanks. Players must be careful not to get caught out in the open, as the vehicles' tall profile makes it an easy target for enemies firing from a distance even when moving quickly.
The vehicle remains a fairly effective scout at higher battle ratings and can be a viable choice in higher-rank lineups if properly played. The 47 mm gun can still penetrate the side armour of most medium tanks up to 3.7, and its strong post-penetration effects give it good knock-out potential
The most consistently dangerous enemies for the AB 43 are those with fast traversing, fast-firing guns that can hit the car as it races around the map. Heavy tanks such as the KV-1 are effectively immune to the 47 mm gun, but only appear if the AB 43 is teamed with higher-rank Italian tanks.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Excellent speed and agility on flat ground, with an outstanding reverse speed
- Effective high-velocity gun against enemy contemporaries
- Speed and scouting ability remains useful in higher-rank lineups
Cons:
- Very poor armour and general survivability
- Extremely slow over poor terrain
- Large flat profile presents a good target for enemy guns
- The Italian tech tree lacks effective vehicles on par with AB 43's matchmaking, often forcing players to make a lineup with higher-rank tanks
History
Origins
The AB43 was the intended successor of the AB41 and AB43. During the Spanish Civil war, many armoured cars where used, but Italian soldiers had good experience with the Soviet BA-6 armed with a 45mm gun, compared to most armoured cars at the time (armed only with HMGs or autocannons) this was a serious firepower, challenging even the firepower of some light tanks armed with 37mm guns.
However the AB41 still proved very effective, the autocannon was a solid option at dealing with infantry due to the continuous firepower ability when compared to a gun, and it was still able to destroy other armoured cars and engage some light tanks in the right conditions. This changed however with the start of WWII and specially in the African Campaign.
In the African Campaign, the AB41 proved to be rather ineffective against more heavily armoured British infantry tanks like the Matilda, and even the Crusader tank. It was still able to deal with Armoured Cars but due to the open grounds with little cover of the dessert, many AB41s where destroyed against enemies with heavier guns, higher armour and more range. The AB41 was also not able to deal with fortifications or machine gun nests.
A successor was needed and as such Fiat started the development of the AB43 with .
Development
Fiat and Ansaldo started to develop the AB43 mounting a 47mm gun in the AB41 and even on the AB42. The gun used was the 47/32 Mod. 1932. A new wider turret turret was developed to allow the vehicle to use the gun with a two crewmen configuration, a loader and a commander/gunner. The machine gun on top of the vehicle was removed to facilitate crew mobility when getting in and out of the vehicle. The prototype performed well, just slightly slower than the AB42 even when being 2 tons heavier. The prototype also featured two drivers, on at the front and another on the rear to give the crew the ability to retreat quickly without the need of complicated manoeuvres to change direction.
Service
The vehicle never entered service due to the Armistice of Cassibile, but even before that, when it was presented to the Italian Army in December 1942, the African Campaign was already in a very poor state for the Italians. After the Armistice, the prototype was captured by the Germans, who conducted testing on the vehicle but decided to not place it into service or production.
Media
- Skins
- Videos
See also
- Vehicles equipped with the same chassis
- Vehicles equipped with the same gun
- Other vehicles of similar configuration and role
External links
- [Wikipedia] Autoblindo Fiat-Ansaldo
- [Tanks Encyclopedia] Autoblinda AB 41/43
- [Military Factory] Autoblinda 40/41/43
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|---|---|
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