Italeri #5626 M.A.S 568 4a Serie With Crew 1:35 Scale

The Royal Italian Navy, since the First World War, has paid great attention to the development of small and fast boats generally armed with torpedoes.   The armed torpedo boats, better known with the initials MAS, were boats of direct civil origin. During the First World War the results obtained were absolutely significant with the sinking, by Commander Luigi Rizzo,   of the battleships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy Wien and Szent István.   Although they were suitable for closed and not very rough seas such as the Adriatic, the Italian Navy continued to work to improve the performance of the small but fast torpedo boats.  The MAS 500, equipped with the new Isotta-Fraschini petrol engines, more powerful and reliable, built during the Second World War, were used both as torpedoes and as antisubmarine platforms for the launch of depth bombs. They could reach a maximum speed of 45 knots and were armed with two 450 mm torpedoes.