M13/40 (II)

M13/40 (II)

M13/40 (II)

Italy

I Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
2.0	2.0	2.0

Class:

PREMIUM

Medium tank

Purchase:400

Show in game

This page is about the Italian medium tank M13/40 (II). For other variants, see M13/40 (Family).

Description

The Fiat-Ansaldo M13/40 II Serie (shortened as M13/40 (II)) is a premium rank I Italian medium tank with a battle rating of 2.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced during Update 1.85 "Supersonic" as a battle reward in the 2018 War Thunder Festivities. It has since been available for purchase with Golden Eagles.

The M13/40 (II) is nearly identical to its other in-game variants. Compared to the M13/40 (I), it has 5 degrees worse gun depression, but its reload rate now matches other rank I tanks, being 3.5 seconds after experting the crew. Compared to the M13/40 (III), it just has worse gun depression with everything else being same.

Visually, it can be distinguished from the mark I by its default African camouflage and folded antenna on the right side (left if head-on), and by the lack of chassis parts on top of its left track (right if head-on). It can be distinguished from the mark III only by lack of the block on top of the middle of the turret.

An average gun for its BR, it can penetrate the front of some of the tanks it will face and one-shot them. It has decent armour, strong enough to bounce shots at high angle. The worst aspect of the M13/40 (II), as with the rest of them, is its speed. Poor acceleration makes it hard to achieve its top speed of 32 km/h, and with worse vertical angles it's even less worth it to go up hills.

General info

Survivability and armour

All of your armour, which can realistically be targeted, is flat, so despite quite high frontal armour values the M13/40 (II) must always be angled when squaring off with an enemy combatant or risk direct shot penetration of your vehicle. Your side armour value is not as good as the front, but at extreme angles, it becomes more effective.

As long as you angle your tank right, you will have 36 to 50 mm of effective armour thickness and use it to block enemy shots. Destroy British tanks and any SPG as soon as possible, as every single one of them can destroy your tank. It is also worth destroying Soviet and certain USA tanks first as well, however, not every one of them can penetrate your armour.

The rear end is also rather long, so enemies could pick this piece off if it is exposed. But it's better to be shot at your engines, than your crew compartment, located in the middle of the tank. Don't give your opponent any time to do that and make them go away before they started firing onto your second tier.

Armor Composition:

• Rolled Homogeneous Armor
• Cast Homogeneous Armor - Interior Mantlet
• Structural Steel - Fenders, Storage Boxes
• Tracks
• Structural Steel of Chassis - Suspension

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	30 mm (12°) Upper Plate 25 mm (80°) - 30 mm (66°) Upper Glacis 30 mm (Curved) Lower Glacis	30 mm Upper Front 25 mm Upper 25 mm Lower	25 mm Upper 3 Levels 27 mm Lower Level	15 mm Crew Compartment 5 mm - 15 mm Engine Compartment
Turret	45 mm (13°) Turret front 30 mm + 40 mm (Curved)Gun mantlet	25 mm		15 mm

Notes:

• Turret Ring Guard - 50 mm
• Fenders, Storage Boxes - 4 mm
• Tracks - 20 mm
• Suspension - 10 mm to 15 mm
• Main Gun - 15 mm
• Machine Guns - 5 mm

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	36	6	13.6	201	248	14.78	18.24
Realistic	32	5		115	130	8.46	9.56

Mobility is the same as M13/40 (I) - It is rather slow and is unable to scale hills well, 32 km/h being its top speed, reachable only on flat land.

Armaments

Main armament

Like the other M13/40s, the M13/40 (II) has a 47 mm gun with ammunition capable of destroying most of tanks in one shot, assuming they are within 200 m range. Upgraded ammunition improves performance against angled tanks and damage potential at long range.

47 mm 47/32 mod.35					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	87	-10°/+25°	±180°	N/A	13.3	18.4	22.4	24.8	26.4	3.8	3.4	3.1	2.9
Realistic					8.3	9.8	11.9	13.2	14.0

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 Perforante mod.35	APHE	55	52	41	30	22	17
Granata Perforante mod.39	APBC	54	52	46	39	33	29

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 Perforante mod.35	APHE	630	1.5	1.2	9.0	30	47°	60°	65°
Granata Perforante mod.39	APBC	630	1.44	1.2	9.0	30	47°	60°	65°

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the M13/40 (II)

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	Visual discrepancy
87	79 (+8)	54 (+33)	1 (+86)	Yes

Turret empty: 54 (+33)

Machine guns

Although the pintle-mounted machine gun cannot traverse independently of the turret on the horizontal, it's limited vertical traverse can make it useful against unprotected enemy crew as well as incoming aircrafts. The coaxial-mounted machine gun is hard to use for anything, as it's limited by the traverse of the main gun.

8 mm Breda Mod. 38
Mount	Capacity (Belt capacity)	Rate of fire (shots/minute)	Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance
Coaxial	1,524 (24)	600	N/A	N/A
Pintle	1,524 (24)	600	-10°/+20°	N/A

Usage in battles

Like the M13/40 (I), it can be used as a breakthrough tank to push through enemy defences and slowly, but surely destroy them, while driving at them at an angle to maximise armour effectiveness. This role is reinforced by a fact that this tank has better reload rate and doesn't have to suffer two counter-shots for one, and can destroy all the tanks that pop out of cover with nearly no break.

Just as with other models, you can also use flank route to go along with your team and to destroy every enemy tank that tries to flank your team.

The important difference from other models is that your gun depression is somewhat worse, so scaling hills is even more risky and has less worth than before. Instead, focus on pushing enemy tanks, as your fire rate when trained is 3.5 seconds, and your ammunition is good enough to destroy most tanks in one shot.

Modules

Tier	Mobility		Protection	Firepower
I	Tracks		Parts	Horizontal Drive
II	Suspension	Brake System	FPE	Adjustment of Fire	Granata Perforante mod.39
III	Filters		Crew Replenishment	Elevation Mechanism
IV	Transmission	Engine		Artillery Support
This is a premium vehicle: all modifications are unlocked on purchase

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Like all M13/40 tanks, has armour decent enough to break through enemy lines when angled
• Compared to mark I, reload speed upgrade allows it to dominate over groups of enemy tanks while they try to figure your armour out
• Allows player to use full M13/40 lineup and dismiss all the other Italian rank I tanks, which is arguably for the best

Cons:

• Still struggles at fighting other heavily armoured tanks at 500 m range
• Has worse gun depression than either of the reserve Italian tanks

History

Intended to replace the unsatisfactory M11/39, the M13/40 retained its main mechanical features, but with a more powerful gun in a fully rotating turret. The M13 was slow, unreliable, and suffered from the tank commander doubling as the gunner. Similar to early Russian and French tanks, it did not receive radios as standard equipment until 1942. Nevertheless, it became the standard Italian medium tank from 1941 on, and is the best known Italian tank of the war. In War Thunder, the M13/40 (II) represents those made in the mid part of the production run, with hydraulic traverse gears and fixed radio installations.

It first saw service with the 3rd Medium Tank Battalion (Battaglione Carri M) in Libya's Sollum-Halfaya region. It later equipped 132nd "Ariete (Ram)" Armoured Division (Divisione Corazzata) in North Africa. From January to April of 1941, it also saw action in Yugoslavia and Greece with the 131st Centauro (Centaur) and 133rd Littorio armoured divisions. For a short time after the first rush of British victories in North Africa in early 1941, there were enough captured M13s to equip a British armoured unit, 6th Royal Tank Regiment, in Libya. These were all lost in turn to Rommel's offensive in March of that year. In late August of 1941, Italian medium tank platoons increased their number from four to five.

When Italy surrendered in September 1943, 22 M13s were captured by Germany, who handed them over to the Italian fascist forces. It is uncertain how many in total were produced, as many were converted to M14/41s: estimates range from 710 to 1,049.

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

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

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• topic on the official game forum;
• encyclopedia page on the tank;
• other literature.