Vespa 150 TAP (Military Vespa) - 1956

The Piaggio Vespa 150 TAP "Truppe Aero Paracadutate", also known as ACMA Vespa 150 TAP, was a military anti-tank scooter, commissioned from Piaggio by the ministère de la Défense nationale and built from 1956 to 1959. The "Vespa TAP" was conceived in the early fifties to be used in Vietnam, when during the Indochina war CEFEO (Corps expéditionnaire français en Extrême-Orient) troops found themselves in serious difficulty because of the artillery and the Soviet T-34s, supplied in large copies by China to General Giap's Viet Minh troops and positioned in almost inaccessible woods, hardly detectable by aviation. In those circumstances it was vital for the French army to have a particularly agile vehicle capable of transporting anti-tank artillery, which could be dropped behind enemy lines from the "C-119 Boxcar", supplied by the United States. The rapid and unpredictable evolution of the conflict, culminating with the fall of Dien Bien Phu, rendered the "TAP" project useless, which, however, was completed for its subsequent use in the Algerian war. Made on the basis of the "Vespa 150" model with the same engine, introduced in 1955, the "Vespa TAP" (an acronym of the Italian "Truppe Aero Paracadutate" and the French "Troupes Aéroportées") was presented at the 33rd Milan Motor Show in December 1955. It entered production in January 1956, in the plants of the French subsidiary ACMA (Ateliers de Construction de Motocycles et Automobiles) which was already producing under license the "Vespa" for the transalpine market. The bonnet is smaller than the civil version and so is the front fender. The scooter is equipped with various structural strengthening, such as the perimeter bumper, the steel guards for the engine crankcase and the muffler or the lower part of the slide reinforced with two strips of steel coated with rubber, in order to make it suitable for heavy military use and to protect the vehicle from the impact of the landing, after being parachuted. The vehicle is modified to carry a US-made 75 mm recoil-free M20 gun and its ammunition, capable of piercing armor up to 100 mm thick. The barrel, positioned under the saddle and slightly oblique to the longitudinal axis of the scooter, protrudes more than 1 m from the shield which guarantees its front support. The "TAP" can carry two people and, if necessary, tow a small single-wheeled cart. The rear luggage rack, consisting of a sturdy semi-perimeter tube and a vertical support, can hold six bullets. The support is easily removable and forms the stand for pointing the cannon. On the front rack there are two oil-petrol mixture tanks. Contrary to the widespread popular legend, it is not possible to fire without removing the gun from the scooter and even less with the vehicle in motion, for obvious reasons of armament and pointing. 500 copies of the "TAP" were built in the "TAP 56" and "TAP 59" versions, mainly differentiated from the series production updates, in green or sand camouflage colors. TAP 56 with a 150cc engine with a TAP 59 displacement and a 150cc engine. All the Vespa TAP 56 and 59, were of 150cc of displacement. Only the Vespa TAP pre-series or prototypes of the (1955) fitted the engine of the civil 125 increased to about 150cc of displacement.