The prototype pf the L6/40 was finished in 1938, and the following year the series model was ready. The hull was copied after the preceding L3/33 and the new machine was powered by an SPA 18D 70 cv engine which gave it a maximum speed of 42 Km/hr. It was armed with a Breda 20mm canon and a huge machinegun. Even though it could already be considered obsolete from the moment it went into production, it was nonetheless used in Africa, Russia, the Balkans and in Italy. Many of them were captured by the Germans after the armistice and used directly, or supplied by, the Italian Socialist Republic.