Ansaldo 102mm/40.
In late 1942 the Regia Aeronautica began to explore using its larger bomber, the Piaggio P-108B as a long rance maritime recce and attack aircraft, much like the way as the Fw 200 employment in the Luftwaffe.
For that task several types of armament were tested in this aircraft, including radio controlled topredos and armor piercing bombs. However the closeness to enemy Flak remained as a problem. An alternative to attack transport ships and destroyed was to employ heavy artillery piece.
Originally a 75 mm antitank cannon was to be used, but eventually the heavier 102mm was selected to arm the P-108A ( A for artigliere, artilleryman)
The Ansaldo fist tested the gun in ground shooting inside a mock up nose in october 1942.
In april 1943 2 P-108A were ready for test.
Ansaldo`s 102mm howitzer was emplaced in a solid nose aimed by the copilot with a Reflex San Giorgio gunsight with a line of fire tangent up to 4000 meters. It had weight of 680 kg, and was manually loaded from a revolving ammunition dispenser of 6 rounds. A total of 53 round could be carried in the frontal section of the aircraft, the complete gun ad related devices/ammunition weight over 1500 kilos. Some minor damage to the nose section forced to use a steel sheet to protect the structure from the muzzle blast.
The Piaggio P-108A was tested intensively until september 1943, the 4000 meters range was saw as excesive and most of the shots were carried out at 1500 metes for better view of the target. there is no information if this type entered in action. One was captured by the Luftwaffe and tested as well in Rechlin in early 1944.