"Lancia Ansaldo IZ / IZM " Topic

The Lancia Ansaldo IZ / IZM is now available from Warlord Games.

"The Lancia IZ armoured car was built by Ansaldo of Italy starting in 1916 and was the most common of the early Italian armoured cars. Based on a Lancia truck, the armoured car was an advanced design for its day. For firepower the vehicle was equipped with twin turret mounted machine guns. The initial ten vehicles featured a further small turret on top with yet another machine gun. This gave the vehicle considerable firepower for the time. As a result of experiences in World War I, steel rails were installed over the top of the vehicle for cutting wire.

Having had good results with the early car, another production run of a slightly modified version (the Lancia IZM) or "Model 1918" was ordered. The major difference between the IZ and IZM was that the IZ had a top turret on the main MG turret, whereas the IZM did not.

The Lancia IZM was the second batch of Ansaldo-Lancia armoured cars built. 110 cars of the improved model were ordered in 1917 and all were delivered before the end of 1918. Sometimes difficult to identify from the original Lancia IZ ("Model 1916"), the most obvious difference is the removal of the top machine gun turret. This left the IZM with just the one larger, twin machine gun turret. Other features that will help are that the first IZM's usually have two spare tyres mounted on the right side of the vehicle (on the IZ they were under the rear). The cooling vents and front armour of the engine compartment are slightly different and there are fewer vision ports in the armoured crew compartment. The front bumpers were also simplified. However, some of the original IZ series were modified to initial IZM standard by the removal of the extra top turret and up-dating the chassis. This makes it possible to find photos of IZM armoured cars with both IZ and IZM features. American troops on the Italian Front during World War I trained with and used some of these vehicles…"
From wiki

Main page
warlordgames.com

Hope you enjoy!

Amicalement
Armand

The Italians used these in East Africa in WW2 as well.

Is this the Force of Arms model? I converted one to a IZ, but it took quite a bit of work.

Either way, neither of these cars are right for WW1. The wheels are wrong, the machine guns are also wrong.

This is what a IZ looked like:

Note the armored fenders, the right side door, and the spare wheel is not mounted on the side (it was usually carried underneath the rear of the car). The front fenders were often removed, as they got jammed with mud. Also notice the right side of the car has a kind of bulge that sticks out and has a small search light on it.

There's no rear machine gun. The machine guns were usually M1911 Maxim-Vickers, although sometimes M1906 Maxims were installed (both in 6.5mm Carcano).

Here are some photos of the WW1 era 1ZM:

The front fenders have been updated to a more conventional design, and the top turret has been removed. There are fewer vision slits than in the earlier design and the hood/bonnet also has a different shape.

The weaponry now consists of only two St. Etienne machine guns (although I remember reading an article that claimed they also carried Chauchats to fire through the vision ports).

The cars were used for a long time, and underwent many different types of upgrades and modifications. Fiat-Revelli machine guns replaced the notoriously temperamental St. Etienne's, and a third one was added to the rear. Some more changes to the hull shape seem to have taken place, but I believe they always had the right side door.

The wheels, fenders, and guns make these models more suited for the 1930s or WW2.

To be fair Warlord don't claim it to be for WWI. All the text that Tango has copied and pasted has nothing to do with Warlord. I think he's found a 2 and another 2 and come up with 5.

There are four photos of such a vehicle in service with I.Bataillon/SS-Polizei-Regtiment "Bozen" in the book 'German Armoured Formations in the OZAK 1943-45. It has the spare wheel on the right side of the body. The mudguards on the rear wheels are as in your photos and not like the Warlord ones.

Deephorse -- it's not bad for a later IZM. They sometimes removed the sides of the rear fenders to allow the use of fat sand tires:

To be completely fair, Warlord Games very strongly implies that they are for WW1, as they show them on a website entitled "Preview WW1 Tanks". ;-)

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