Camionetta AS 42 Sahariana I, Sahara Truck - Scouting and Patrolling vehicle

Sahariana

The performance was very good, but the vehicle was expensive and mechanically complicated. Little more than 80 of the AS 42s completed went to the Raggruppamento Sahariano, to the 10° Reggimento Arditi and to some training schools or minor units. Twenty six Sahariana I vehicles were used in Libya and Egypt from October 1942 and in Tunisia from January 1943, whereas 18 of the Sahariana II vehicles were used in Sicily in July and August 1943. Many AS 42s were destroyed by Allied bombing in the factories or during transit. A few of them fought against the German paratroopers in Rome on 9th and 10th September 1943, after the Italian-Allied Armistice. Six joined the 2. Fallschirmjäger Division on the Eastern Front, with Italian crews, and were all lost during the fighting in the winter of 1943-44. Ten remained in Rome with the PAI or Polizia Africa Italiana (Italian African Police), and a Sherman tank destroyed one when American troops entered the Italian capital city on 4th June 1944. Neither the Repubblica Sociale Italiana (Mussolini's Social Republic) nor the Germans used any of the AS 42 produced and after the War the surviving AS 42 Sahariana II were used by the Italian Police until the middle of the 1950s. These had a crew of six and were fitted with a radio set.

Camouflage and markings
The first AS 42s produced were painted in the Italian yellow sand colour. Most of the Sahariana II were painted in the standard factory three-colour camouflage of medium green and red-brown patches on the base yellow sand used for Italian fighting vehicles from the Spring of 1943. After the War Italian Police vehicles were a shade of red. No units marking were used on these vehicles during the War, but all carried Italian licence number plates.

(IMG:http://www.militarymodelling.com/news/Imag...ahariana005.jpg)
One of the six Sahariana IIs manned by Italian crews serving with the recce battalion of the 2. Fallschirmjäger-Division, operating on the Eastern front from October 1943. (Cioci)

(IMG:http://www.militarymodelling.com/news/Imag...ahariana009.jpg)
Sahariana II used by the Italians was very effective against Soviet troops. (Cioci)