L3/33 CC

L3/33 CC

47/32 L40

L3/33 CC

47/32 L40

Italy

I Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
1.0	1.0	1.0

Class:

Tank destroyer

Research:2 900

Purchase:700

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Description

The Carro Armato L3 Contro Carro (shortened to L3/33 CC) is a rank I Italian tank destroyer with a battle rating of 1.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.85 "Supersonic".

The L3/33 CC is an Italian tank that is the War Thunder equivalent of a shoe-box on tracks (with a gun, of course). This vehicle has very little armour, which allows for it to quickly and deftly maneuver across the battlefield, scouting for pockets to position the vehicle in for tactical advantages against the slower and heavier enemy vehicles it faces.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	8 mm (79°) Front glacis 14 mm (0°) Lower glacis	14 mm	8 mm (0-32°)	8 mm 5 mm Hatches
Superstructure	14 mm (13-64°) 14 mm (0-62°) Gun mantlet	14 mm (0-15°)	14 mm (0-17°)	8 mm 5 mm Hatches

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	46	7	3.2	61	82	19.06	25.63
Realistic	43	7		38	43	11.88	13.44

The L3/33 CC is very mobile both on and offroad. Thanks to its light weight, it accelerates quickly and can cruise at 40 / 25 km/h (AB/RB) in seconds. It does not lose much speed when turning but tends to oversteer when turning while driving over 40 km/h (in AB). With only -6 km/h in reverse (AB & RB), turning around and driving away is easier to retreat form unwanted situations.

Armaments

Main armament

Wielding an anti-tank rifle with a 10 round magazine capable of launching a small APHE every second, the L3/33, in the hands of a competent commander, is able to deal with multiple lightly-armoured vehicles in quick succession. The only thing holding this quick-firing gun back is a lack of effective penetration to deal with all tanks at its battle rating, requiring the commander of this vehicle to be up close and personal and/or flank in order to deal with well-armoured targets (M3 Stuart, Pz.38(t) F, T-70). Certain heavy targets (B1 bis) should be avoided altogether.

20 mm Fucile Controcarri S Mod.39						Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	110 (10)	60	±15°	±10°	Vertical	17.6	24.4	29.6	32.7	34.8	7.8	6.9	6.4	6.0
Realistic						11.9	14.0	17.0	18.8	20.0

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration in mm @ 0° Angle of Attack
		10m	100m	500m	1000m	1500m	2000m
Perforante mod.35	APHE	40	38	29	20	14	10

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):	Ricochet:
							0%	50%	100%
Perforante mod.35	APHE	832	0.14	1.3	15	1.7	47°	60°	65°

Ammo racks

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	5th rack empty	6th rack empty	7th rack empty	8th rack empty	9th rack empty	10th rack empty	11th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
11	10 (+1)	9 (+2)	8 (+3)	7 (+4)	6 (+5)	5 (+6)	4 (+7)	3 (+8)	2 (+9)	1 (+10)	0 (+11)	No

Ammo racks of the L3/33 CC

Usage in battles

The L3/33 CC is best used in ambushes, as this tactic allows it to strike from a close distance; a hill can provide a nice spot for this, as the L3 has 15 degrees of gun depression and can get to cover by simply reversing if it is spotted in time. It is also useful as a flanker due to its small size (hard to spot) and high mobility.

When playing the L3/33, incoming fire should be avoided at all costs. Due to the cramped layout of internal modules and crew of 2, any penetrating shell is enough to destroy the vehicle. In addition, the armour is so weak that it cannot even protect against .50 calibre machine gunplay carefully.

Enemies worth noting:

B1:

The B1 is covered by thick armour of at least 50 mm in all directions, even the turret ring and the copula are 40 mm which all exceed the maximum penetration of the L3 (38 mm). Do anything to avoid fighting this tank, leave it to your teammates by pinning its position on the map. But if unfortunately, you have to confront it, you must avoid its guns. Don't think you are small enough to slide beneath its guns, as it's hull-mounted 75 mm cannon has a whopping -20° depression, and the 47 mm in the turret has -18°, meaning that even if you are squeezing right between its tracks, it can still hit your fragile roof armour and eliminate a crew member with shrapnel. The only real damage you can do to it is to repeatedly shoot at its tracks to immobilize it.

Modules

Tier	Mobility		Protection	Firepower
I	Tracks		Parts	Horizontal Drive
II	Suspension	Brake System	FPE	Adjustment of Fire
III	Filters		Crew Replenishment	Elevation Mechanism
IV	Transmission	Engine

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Extremely tiny profile is sometimes a big advantage
• It utilizes small amounts of cover/bushes effectively
• Can easily sneak into lots of unexpected positions and set up for an ambush, advance or retreat
• Low silhouette can be fully covered behind a single one big bush decoration. It can even be covered with normal grass
• Amazing gun depression of -15° makes it a great mountain combat tank; combined with its tiny profile it can poke out only its gun to shoot from behind cover
• Quick firing cannon with an autoloading magazine can pinpoint enemy crew, especially with the spread-out ones like the LVT(A)
• Short stock grind, the best (and only) shell comes stock

Cons:

• 20 mm penetration isn't great and drops dramatically over range, over 400 m away it can effectively penetrate nothing except soft targets like T-26, GAZ trucks or Flakpanzers.
• Thin armour with only two crew cramped together makes it very vulnerable
• Vulnerable to .50 calibre fire, one bullet to the crew can eliminate the tank
• Low cannon calibre of 20 mm makes it difficult to destroy obstacles like walls

History

The Carro Veloce L3/33, also known as the CV-33 was a tankette produced by Carro Veloce for the Regio Esercito beginning in 1933. The design was an adaptation of the British Carden Loyd tankette, which had seen wide success on the international export market and became the basis for a number of similar tankette designs throughout the 1930's. Because Italy lacked the industrial base to produce large numbers of more complex and advanced tank designs, the L3/33 and later L3/35 tankette formed the backbone of the Italian armoured corps and became the most widely produced Italian armoured fighting vehicles of the war, seeing service from the Italian invasion of Ethiopia to the very end of WW2. Several variants were produced, including a flamethrower variant (the L3/33 FL, standing for "Lanciaflamme"), a bridge carrier variant and a command radio variant.

As the war progressed, and the Italians faced the Allies in France and North Africa with their more heavily armed and armoured tanks and long-range anti-tank guns, the deficiencies of the L3/33 and 35 became apparent. Although fast and possessing a low profile, it was too thinly armoured, capable of only withstanding infantry rifle calibre munitions. In addition, its standard armament of a 6.5mm machine gun proved inadequate for long-range combat or engaging other armoured vehicles. While the Regio Esercito began slowly upgrading its armoured units to more modern standards, stopgap solutions to make up for the difference were considered and adopted. One of these was to mount a Fucile Controcarri S Mod.39 (20 mm) in a small number of L3/33's and 35's, replacing the 6.5mm machine gun and creating an ad-hoc tank destroyer platform. These were designated as the L3/33 CC, which stood for "contocarro" ("anti-tank"). Arriving too late to see action in Libya before the Axis retreat, they saw only limited action in Tunisia. Gradually, the L3/33 and L3/35 would be withdrawn from front line service, serving largely in behind-the-line roles such as artillery towing vehicles and police vehicles in Axis-occupied territories. After the Axis’s fell, many tanks were captured and either destroyed or repurposed. The last recorded use of an L3/33 in service was during the Iraqi war, where the US captured the tank.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the L3/33 CC from live.warthunder.com.

See also

Vehicles of comparable role, configuration and era

• AMR.35 ZT3
• ASU-57

External links

• [Wikipedia] L3/33