Mars 72704 Lancia 3ro Blindata

MarS: Lancia 3ro Blindata - Vehicles photos are now available.

The vehicle became famous because it transported Mussolini in person the day before his death (28th April, 1945), during his final escape from Milan to the lake of Como, attached to the column of Italian and German army vehicles. The column was stopped by local partisans in Musso on April 27th. After a fire exchange and next negotiations with Italian officers, Mussolini was passed on, captured and shot dead.

Due to the lack of a specifically projected vehicle, the Italian Army (Regio Esercito) and the fascist Militia (M.V.S.N.) employed a certain number of armoured trucks as troop-carriers in the Second World War. Among the various field variants, there was one Lancia 3 RO owned by the 36^ Brigata Nera “Benito Mussolini” (which changed its name to “Natale Piacentini” in 1945) based in Lucca (Tuscany). A Brigata Nera (“Black Brigade”) was a local paramilitary unit (with the strength of a Company, more or less) of the Republican Fascist Party, often poorly motorized and equipped, whose primary aim was to fight against partisans.

The mentioned vehicle was protected with 9 mm-thick armour plates in late 1944 in a Piacenza workshop, and employed for anti-partisan warfare in northern Italy, following the unit to which it belonged during its northbound retreat. It was armed with two Breda 8 mm. Mod. 38 machine-guns on both sides, one forward Breda 8 mm. Mod. 37 machine-gun plus a Scotti Isotta-Fraschini 20 mm. Mod. 39 gun in the rotating turret. With a crew of 6 men (one driver plus five machine-gunners), it could transport up to 15 passengers.