This 75 mm self-propelled anti-tank gun was made for the Regio Esercito (Royal Italian Army), which needed a weapon of this kind to counter enemy tanks; the reason for this was that, at the start of the Second World War, its own tanks had insufficient firepower to do the job. Developed around the hull of the M 13/40 medium tank, this self-propelled gun performed well thanks to the characteristics of the gun itself, which allowed Allied tanks to be fought on an equal footing. The M40 saw action in North Africa and was also used by the Germans during the long Italian campaign.