Post Description

The Italians already had experience with truck-mounted gun systems (autocannoni) prior to their entry into World War I. Well before the conflict engulfed Europe, Italy had been among the first to understand that the emergence of aircraft as a weapon represented a new threat dimension in military operations. This belief was fostered and reinforced by their own direct experience with air operations during the Italo-Turkish war of 1911-1912 in Libya, when the Italians were the first to use aircraft in reconnaissance operations and were the first to drop a bomb (on 1 November 1911) on enemy troops. With their well-established automotive industry, the Italians began to think about mounting guns on modified truck chassis to produce mobile antiaircraft systems as early as June 1913. Between 1913 and Italy's entry into the war in May 1915, the Italians mounted a German Krupp 75/27 antiaircraft gun on a truck chassis on an experimental basis. This was the genesis of the autocannone (the plural is autocannoni), or gun/truck combination, in Italy. The onset of the war, which saw Italy and Germany on opposite sides, put an end to dealing with Germany for acquisition of the Krupp guns, but by September 1915 Italy had begun to field mobile air defense batteries consisting of the Mod. 1906-1915 75/27 gun mounted on a modified and strengthened Itala X heavy truck chassis.