The Breda 35, Oto 35 and SRMC 35 were three offensive grenades issued to the italian Army. They were offensive bomb, because they were throw by the soldiers during an assault, so that the area of the burst was very limited, about 10 metres. The body of those grenades was built in alluminium. They were painted in red, and for this reason they were called Red Devils by the Commonwealt troops.
The fucile mitragliatore Breda 30 was the light machine gun of the Italian Army fusiliers squad.
It fired the italian standard ammo 6.5x52
This LMG has a great problem, it has a fleeble primary extraction, so that the cartridge needs to be oiled, and with the desert sand they often jammed, while in Russia during winter time the oil become very dense, compromising the efficience of the weapon. It had a fixed 20 cartridges magazines, and it was needed a strip to reload it, and during fighting action this was a severe handicap.
The beretta M1934 was the ordnance semi-automatic pistol of the Italian Army, it fired the 9x17 cartridge (.380 ACP) , it was light and very well done, but underpowered as military weapon, there was also the Beretta M1935 7,65 × 17 mm Browning (.320 ACP), used mostly by the Regia Marina and by the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Navy and Royal Air Force).
The old Glisenti cal 9x19 mm had been the ordnance automatic pistol issued during the Great War, but had limited use in WW2, the cartrige looks like the 9x19 mm parabellum, but it had a reduced charge, because this sidearm was designed with a short recoil operating system, not suited for such a powerful ammunition.
The Mannlicher Carcano was adopted in 1891, it was a bolt action rifle, it fired a 6.5x55 rimless cartridge. In period of peace among the two war was developed a new cartridge in 7.35x51, because the old cartridge was a little underpowered and was considered inadequate in a modern war, but the italian arsenal and industries couldn’t fulfill the huge amount of weapons needed for the molibilization of the army, and the project was suspended. There were different types of this rifle, the old 91, the new shortened version 91/38, various musketry and the new model 91/41 issued to the troop sent to Russia.
The Moschetto Automatico Beretta 38A was a long and sturdy sub-machine gun, but it was realiable and very well done, it fired the 9x19 parabellum cartridge; during war was produced a shorter and less expansive version, the Beretta 38A/42, widely used also by German troops.
Before the Cassibile armistice in September 1943 few sub machine guns were distributed
to the Italian troops, when the northern and Cenral Italy were occupied by German troops was
formed the Social Republic and three fighting corps were created: the Republican National Army,
the actual army organized into four divisions, the Republican National Guard which replaced
the military police (Carabinieri) and the Black Brigades, a politicized voluntary militia.
These forces were used mainly to counter the partisan formations, and
for this type of gurrilla war the sub-machine gun was a particularly suitable weapon.
So was produced the MAB38A42, a shortened and lightened version of the MAB38A,
with many simplifications that shortened production times and costs.
This machine gun was also joined by the FNAB-43 and TZ-45 9mm Parabellum machine guns produced by the Armiguerra.
The first was a well-made complex weapon, which uses a lever-delayed blowback system firing from the closed bolt position
the second was a last ditch weapon which used the simple blow-back system firing.
Many of these weapons were captured by the partisans, and at the end of the war a good part
it was hidden in secret warehouses, ready to be used in a possible revolution.
Back in 1970, when a low-intensity civil war was underway in Italy, the so-called
years of lead, some of these weapons came out of secret depots, and two FNAB-43s and 1 TZ-45.
were used by the terrorists in the attack on Via Fani, in which the escort was killed and
the Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was kidnapped it seems that in the action the TZ-45 jammed.
