Semovente da 105/25

The Semovente da 105/25, formally the Ansaldo 105/25 M43 and nicknamed Bassotto, the Dachshund, was an Italian self-propelled gun of the Second World War, designed by Ansaldo. It carried a 105 mm gun with a barrel length of 25 calibres in a fixed casemate on a widened and lowered hull derived from the M15/42 medium tank, and it was the most powerful self-propelled gun Italy built in numbers during the war. Ansaldo showed its prototype in February 1943 and the Royal Italian Army adopted it on 2 April 1943. Units took part in the defence of Rome after the armistice of September 1943, and after the Italian surrender the Germans captured examples and built 91 more, designated StuG M43 mit 105/25 853 (i). About 121 were built in all, at the Ansaldo-Fossati plant in Genoa.