Vespa car with anti-tank cannon

The anti-tank Vespa was built by the French army in the 1950s to parachute into the battlefield and disable armored vehicles.

Piaggio produced the first Vespa in 1946 and by 1950 became the "national motorcycle" of the Italians and nearly a decade later became a global phenomenon.

Due to the great demand, Piaggio licensed the design to several independent manufacturers, including Ateliers de Construction de Motocycles et Automobiles (ACMA) from France.

Based on the civilian model, ACMA designed a special military version of the Vespa to meet the French army's need for a light and cheap gun carrier for parachuting with men.

 

Military Vespa model called 150 TAP, can carry an M20, 75mm recoilless gun equipped with an anti-tank warhead. It can penetrate 100mm steel case from nearly 7,000m away. This gun is designed so that explosive gases and fumes are released to the rear to reduce recoil, so it can be mounted on a Vespa chassis. The weight of both the vehicle and the gun is not large, so it is possible to 'parachute'.

Vespas were dropped in pairs (one carrying a rifle rack, one carrying ammunition) along with a team of 2. At that time, the M20 did not have a aiming device, so it was difficult to hit the target when fired from a moving vehicle. So the soldiers often took the gun out of the Vespa and fired it with a tripod mounted on the ground.

 

The Vespa 150 TAP is not much different from the civilian version except that the frame is reinforced and the engine is slightly modified, with additional cannons and ammunition compartments. Through two productions with a slight upgrade in the second, about 600 Vespas with anti-tank cannons have been produced.

Vespa 150 TAP becomes the strangest scooter ever officially produced.