The Italian Artillery needed a powerful self-propelled gun to support armored units, and only one M149/40 was completed at the Ansaldo Factory in Genoa in late 1942. It mounted the Model 35 149mm cannon on a highly modified Carro Armato P40 tank chassis, but it was not placed into immediate production because Italian industry could not meet the heavy demand for both the gun and the tank. The design was considered very promising, able to fire a 101-pound projectile to nearly 26,000 yards, and its limited crew armor was not seen as a major flaw because it was intended to fire well behind the front lines. After Italy surrendered to the Allies on 8 September 1943, the German Army took the M149/40 to Germany for evaluation. The U.S. Army captured it at Hillersleben, Germany, in 1945 and shipped it to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, where it was eventually given to the Ordnance Museum. It arrived here in late 2010.