Fiat 665NM protetto

The Fiat 665NM protetto, also called scudato, was a wheeled armoured personnel carrier produced in Italy and used during the Second World War by the Royal Italian Army, the National Republican Army and the Wehrmacht. It was developed in 1942 at the Arsenale Regio Esercito di Torino together with Fiat Veicoli Industriali, after the Military Staff asked for a troop carrier for the armoured divisions on the African front. It was based on the Fiat 665 heavy truck, the diesel, four-wheel drive version of the Fiat 666, with the mechanics unchanged and 7.5 mm steel plate armour that protected against small arms fire. The driver's seat was fully armoured, and the open-topped rear compartment, with eight firing slits on each side, carried 20 soldiers on two benches. Of 300 vehicles ordered, 110 were built before the Armistice of Cassibile stopped production in 1943. They never reached Africa but served in the Balkans against partisan forces, and afterwards with forces of the Italian Social Republic and the occupying Wehrmacht.