Breda 501

Breda 501

▄M24

▄M18

Breda 501

▄M24

▄M18

Italy

III Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
4.7	5.0	5.0

Class:

Tank destroyer

Research:40 000

Purchase:135 000

Description

The Semovente Ruotato da 90/52 Breda 501 (shortened as Breda 501) is a Rank III Italian tank destroyer with a battle rating of 4.7 (AB) and 5.0 (RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.85 "Supersonic".

General info

Survivability and armour

The Breda 501 represents a large and poorly-armoured target for any enemy vehicle. The crew members, barring the driver, are extremely exposed to machine gun fire and players will regularly find themselves being strafed into oblivion by aircraft.

The vehicles' internal modules are spread throughout, with the engine and ammo racks being placed high up at the rear behind only 8mm of armour. This makes it possible for the Breda to be immobilised entirely by machine-gun fire. As well as this, the Bredas' gun breech is totally exposed and rises above even the minimal side armour, making it incredibly easy to knock out from the sides.

The thickest armour on the vehicle is the 30mm gun shield and frontal plate. This protects from heavy machine guns, but does little to stop any kind of tank shell, making the Breda easy to penetrate even for lower-rank SPAA.

Mobility

As a wheeled vehicle the Breda 501 struggles on any kind of soft ground such as snow, sand and wet mud. It also cannot turn on the spot as a tracked vehicle can, making turning the vehicle around in a confined space extremely time-consuming when combined with its very slow reverse speed.

However the Breda does boast a high straight-line speed, and can easily hit 50km/h on flat smooth ground allowing it to outrun the majority of vehicles it faces. It can also corner quickly when moving forward, allowing it to zip around the streets of urban maps at high speed

Armaments

Main armament

90 mm 90/53 mod.41
Capacity			Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance	Stabilizer
30			-4°/+21°	±45°	N/A
Turret rotation speed (°/s)
Mode	Stock	Upgraded	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
Arcade	9.7	__.__	__.__	__.__	__.__
Realistic	6.5	__.__	__.__	__.__	__.__
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 90	APCBC	131	130	120	110	100	91
Granata da 90	HE	13	13	13	13	13	13
Granata Perforante mod.43	APCBC	158	156	146	134	123	114

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 90	APCBC	758	12	0.8	28	520	°	48°	63°	71°
Granata da 90	HE	850	10	0.1	0.5	1	°	79°	80°	81°
Granata Perforante mod.43	APCBC	773	11	0.8	28	180	°	48°	63°	71°

Machine guns

8 mm Breda Mod. 38
Pintle mount (Rear left)
Capacity (Belt capacity)				Fire rate (shots/minute)	Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance
1,680 (24)				600	__°	__°
Pintle mount (Rear right)
Capacity (Belt capacity)				Fire rate (shots/minute)	Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance
1,680 (24)				600	__°	__°

Usage in the battles

The Breda 501 boasts a very effective high-velocity gun for its rank, offering high penetration and excellent post-penetration damage. This combines well with the vehicles' high top speed and allows players to quickly get into strong flanking positions early in the game. The Breda can heavily punish enemy vehicles from a variety of ranges in these positions.

The Breda can also be used in a more aggressive role on some urban maps. The 90mm gun has an excellent horizontal traverse range, meaning players can get their gun sighted round corners without fully exposing the vehicle. With a high top speed, the Breda can knock out enemy tanks before quickly disengaging, although players must beware of the slow reverse speed when planning an ambush.

The Breda can encounter BR 4.7 heavy tanks such as the Sherman Jumbo, whose thick, angled frontal armour presents a significant challenge. If possible the Breda should look to flank the Jumbo, where its gun can easily obliterate the US tank from the side. If forced to engage an angled Jumbo from the front, the Shermans' machine gun port represents a small weakspot. Aside from this, shots into the turret ring can penetrate the Jumbo, but this may not be reliable.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Excellent gun with a fast reload, good penetration and high explosive mass
• Wide horizontal gun traverse for a tank destroyer
• High top speed and excellent agility on flat hard ground

Cons:

• Very poor armour and exposed crew
• Machine guns only fire over the back of the vehicle, and are effectively useless
• Very poor mobility on soft ground, and no neutral turning

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ground vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too big, take it to a separate article, taking a link to an article about the vehicle and adding a block "/historical reference" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/Name-vehicles/historical reference) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to include links to sources at the end of the article.

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

Read 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.

ETC.

Sources

• [Devblog] Breda 501 - When Looks Deceive
• [Forum<nowiki></nowiki Official Forum Thread for Breda 501.]