Italy entered World War 2 on the side of the Axis powers in June of 1940. The M11/39 series was already in stock and promptly shipped to the battlefront that was North Africa (an improved version - the M13/40 - was already in the works by this time). About 72 M11/39 series vehicles were delivered for the North African campaign while a further 24 were sent to the east portion of the continent - providing a much needed "punch" for Italian armor offensives. At the beginning, the M11/39 proved a serviceable combat tank though, when ultimately pitted against thicker-armored foes, it fared quite poorly - particularly in its own armor protection and main armament. Additionally, the M11/39 - like other complex machinery of the interwar years - proved mechanically unreliable, particularly when pressed by the rigors of combat in environments for which it was never designed for. As such, the M11/39s tactical reach was rather limited in the broad scheme of war and the later British cruiser tank developments - primarily the Matilda and Valentine - proved more than a match for the Italian design. Once British tacticians realized their superiority over the M11/39, definitive steps were enacted to expose the Italian weakness in several campaigns. The M11/39 was simply in a fight that it was never truthfully designed for and its war record would go on to prove this. Some examples were known to be captured by the Allies - specifically the Australian Army - who reused these vehicles against their original owners for a time. These were appropriately painted with the white kangaroo insignia to mark their new owners. M11/39 tanks served operationally up until about 1944 - its production limited by the arrival of the more-capable M13/40 series.
An attempt to improve upon the M11/39 became the aforementioned "M13/40" - its designation marking it as a medium-class tank weighing in at 13 tons and adopted by the Italian Army in 1940. This model fielded a 47mm main gun in a 360-degree traversing turret with 104 x 47mm reloads as well as up to 4 x 8mm machine guns. 779 of this type were ultimately produced and used by several parties including Germany, Australia and the United Kingdom. The M13/40 became Italy's most-produced tank of World War 2 - leaving the M11/39 to the pages of history for other, less reputable reasons.
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