Fiat 2000

The Fiat 2000 was an Italian heavy tank that Fiat designed and built during the First World War, when Italy came late to armoured warfare. After the Italian army evaluated a French Schneider tank in 1917 and set up a tank assault office, Fiat began work on a 40 tonne machine armed with a 65 mm main gun and seven machine guns. It was conceived as a mobile fortress in the manner of the German A7V, with thick armour, a spherical cupola for the main gun on the roof, a roomy interior with a prominent driver's cab, and an aircraft engine from Fiat driving ten road wheels mounted on bogies. Only two prototypes were completed and it never entered serial production, because the army judged it too slow and heavy for the north-eastern front and preferred the lighter Renault FT. A single Fiat 2000 was sent to Libya in 1919, and a volunteer project completed a running full-size replica in 2020.