IT.7508 ''ALZZER wargame approved ''

Ansaldo projected by its own initiative the mounting of a 90/53 gun on an Alfa Romeo lorry and presented it to the army on 7.1.1941; the study was approved on 12.1.1941 but using a Lancia lorry. A document of the the army dated 20.1.1941, states that it was planed to build a "pezzo controcarro mobile di grande potenza" ( = mobile heavy antitank gun): for the moment using a standard lorry ("autocarro unificato") or using a "dovunque coloniale" lorry and then finally a self-propelled one (they meant on a tank chassis, I suppose). Consequently, Ansaldo had the order of studying in the same time the mounting of the gun on Lancia and Dovunque chassis and than to consider the "self-propelled" (=on a tank chassis) installation. Prototipe on Lancia chassis was ready early in February.
A first order for 30 autocannoni on Lancia 3/Ro was issued on 10.3.1941. Then as usual orders were reduced, increased, canceled, issued again, etc. with an intricated series of communications. To be concise: the initial order was reduced to 10 Lancia 3/Ro on 1.4.1941, enough to form 2 batteries and hold 2 autocannoni as reserve; they were in production on 24.5.1941 but in the meanwhile also 70 autocannoni on Breda 51 were ordered. By 18.9.1941 the order for Breda was reduced to 50 but other 20 Lancia 3/Ro were ordered, together with 64 ammo carriers, 16 command lorries and 16 "carri attrezzi". Ansaldo documents states that a last communication on 2.12.1941 increased the order to 90 autocannoni on Breda and 96 ammo carriers, but reduced the command lorry to 12.
In the meanwhile these vehicles get the official designation of "Autocannone da 90/53".
As concern actual production, all 30 autocannoni on Lancia 3/Ro and 20 autocannoni on Breda 52 were deleivered to the army during 1941. Last autocannone Breda was delivered to the army on 1.5.1943 for a total of 120 autocannoni. It is not clear to me if this number (120) refers to autocannoni Breda only or to both types. If we no other orders were issued after 2.12.1941 we had a global order for 30 Lancia and 90 Breda, so 120 would be the total production. This is supported by the fact that only 12 command lorries were ordered, so that 12 batalions were schedules (for a total of 120 autocannoni). The book by Pignato-Cappellano is not very clear in this point, because two pages earlier in the technical description of the Breda 52 thay wrote that "notwithstanding production of this autocannone was 4 times more than that of Lancia, it is less known because entered service later ...". In this case 4x30=120 autocannoni Breda.

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