75/18 M41
Contents
Description
The Semovente 75/18 M41 is a Rank II Italy tank destroyer
with a battle rating of 2.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.85 "Supersonic".
General info
Survivability and armour
The Semovente 75/18 offers little in the way of effective protection, with its primary defence against enemy tanks being its small frontal profile. the 50mm frontal plate struggles to keep out even rank 1 British and US guns at close range, while the extremely cramped interior means that penetrations will often knock out multiple crew members and modules in a single shot.
Despite this, the Semovente's armour is still capable of keeping out machine-gun fire from most angles, and its fully-encloses design offers protection aircraft machine-guns unlike many of its low-rank open-top contemporaries.
Mobility
The Semovente is reasonably mobile for a low-rank tank destroyer, hitting around 30km/h on flat ground off-road with a fairly fast hull traverse and a poor reverse speed.
Armaments
Main armament
75 mm 75/18 mod.34 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Capacity | Vertical guidance |
Horizontal guidance |
Stabilizer | ||
43 | -12°/+22° | ±18° | N/A | ||
Turret rotation speed (°/s) | |||||
Mode | Stock | Upgraded | Prior + Full crew | Prior + Expert qualif. | Prior + Ace qualif. |
Arcade | 12.3 | __.__ | __.__ | __.__ | __.__ |
Realistic | 8.3 | __.__ | __.__ | __.__ | __.__ |
Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||
Stock | Prior + Full crew | Prior + Expert qualif. | Prior + Ace qualif. | ||
7.8 | __.__ | __.__ | __.__ |
Ammunition
Penetration statistics | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration in mm @ 90° | |||||
10m | 100m | 500m | 1000m | 1500m | 2000m | ||
Granata Perforante da 75 | APCBC | 44 | 43 | 38 | 33 | 28 | 25 |
Granata mod.32 | HE | 10 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
Granata Perforante mod.32 | APCBC | 51 | 50 | 44 | 38 | 32 | 28 |
EPS M42 | HEAT | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
Shell details | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity in m/s |
Projectile Mass in kg |
Fuse delay
in m: |
Fuse sensitivity
in mm: |
Explosive Mass in g (TNT equivalent): |
Normalization At 30° from horizontal: |
Ricochet: | ||
0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||
Granata Perforante da 75 | APCBC | 425 | 6.4 | 1.3 | 15 | 270 | ° | 48° | 63° | 71° |
Granata mod.32 | HE | 450 | 6.4 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 610 | ° | 79° | 80° | 81° |
Granata Perforante mod.32 | APCBC | 476 | 6.3 | 1.3 | 15 | 270 | ° | 48° | 63° | 71° |
EPS M42 | HEAT | 399 | 5.3 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 500 | ° | 62° | 69° | 73° |
Smoke characteristic | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ammunition | Velocity in m/s |
Projectile Mass in kg |
Screen radius in m |
Screen time in s |
Screen hold time in s: |
Explosive Mass in g (TNT equivalent): |
Gr. Fumogena | 450 | 6.4 | 13 | 5 | 20 | 50 |
Ammo racks
Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
---|---|---|---|---|
XX | XX (+XX) | XX (+XX) | XX (+XX) | No |
Machine guns
8 mm Breda Mod. 38 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pintle mount | ||||||
Capacity (Belt capacity) | Fire rate (shots/minute) |
Vertical guidance |
Horizontal guidance | |||
504 (24) | 600 | __° | __° |
Usage in battles
The Semovente will struggle to be effective with the extremely poor penetration of its APHE rounds. With a max penetration of barely 50mm at point-blank range, the vehicle will have problems penetrating the angled front armour of many similar rank vehicles, with light-tanks, armoured cars and SPAA being the best targets. In a full up-tier, the Semovente will struggle to do any damage at all with stock shells, with the sole exception of light tanks and AA vehicles.
In this case, it is best for drivers to attempt to flank and shoot enemies from the side, where the powerful explosive capacity of the APHE shells offer excellent single-shot knock-out capability.
The vehicle's effectiveness improves massively once the HEAT shell is unlocked, with 100mm of penetration at all ranges. This allows for reliable penetration of practically all the Semovente's potential adversaries with the vehicle's most dangerous opponents being fast and agile light tanks such as the M22, which can easily penetrate the Semovente from close range and whose speed and size make a difficult target for the Semovente's low-velocity howitzer.
With the HEAT shell, the Semovente can make for an effective support vehicle, albeit one whose lack of survivability punishes positional mistakes harshly. The one thing to remember about the HEAT shell is that it sacrifices the one-shot capability of APHE, meaning that larger tanks will often take multiple hits to disable, and its even lower velocity makes its excellent long-range penetration difficult to exploit.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Good penetration with the HEAT shell
- Top-mounted machine gun offers some utility not available to many low-rank tank destroyers
- 75/18 M41's position in the tech tree can allow for a decent aircraft and tank lineup with vehicles like the AB43 scout, M15/42 medium tank, and Re.2001 CB fighter-bomber
Cons:
- Poor armour and survivability
- Mediocre mobility
- Low-velocity gun with a slow reload makes long-range shots difficult
- Poor post-penetration damage with the HEAT shell, and terrible penetration with either APHE
History
The Semovente 75/18 was originally intended to be a self-propelled gun rather than a tank destroyer, with the War Thunder version being an improved variant built upon the M41 tank chassis with improved armour.
In response to the poor effectiveness of existing Italian tank destroyer designs such as the 47/32 L40, the Semovente was pressed into service to combat US-built M3 Lee and Stuart tanks in service with the British Army in North Africa. Utilising a HEAT shell, the Semovente proved to be an effective counter to early-war British tanks, with its small size making it ideal for dug-in defensive positions where its lack of speed wasn't an issue.
In one engagement in 1942, Semovente's of the Ariete Division repelled an attack from 40 British light and medium tanks, destroying 20 with no losses of their own. While the Semovente's HEAT shell proved effective against early-war tank designs, tougher Allied tanks such as the M4 Sherman represented a new challenge. This, as well as the Semovente's cramped interior, low-velocity gun and under-powered engine lead to the development of larger and faster dedicated tank destroyer designs with superior firepower.
Media
Skin and Camouflages for the 75/18 M41 in Warthunder Live.
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the vehicles;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
Italy tank destroyers | |
---|---|
Italy | |
M41 | 75/18 M41 · 75/32 M41 · 90/53 M41M |
M42 | 75/34 M42 |
M43 | 105/25 M43 · M43 "G.C.Leoncello" · 75/34 M43 · 75/46 M43 |
Wheeled | Lancia 3Ro (100/17) · AS 42/47 · Breda 90/53 · Breda 501 |
Other | L3/33 CC · 47/32 L40 |
Germany | ▄StuG III G |
USA | M36B1 · ▄M109G · M113A1 (TOW) |
Hungary | |
Zrínyi | Zrinyi I · Zrinyi II |
USSR | ◔2S1 |