The Italian Guns.

[Vincenzo]

italian army used Garand almost until 1997

 

[Dogwalker]

As an interesting side note, in the 1950's Breda made a short run of M-1 Garand Infantry Rifles that were exact duplicates of the American originals as made by Springfield Armory and Winchester during World War II. The vast majority of Italian Garands were made in the 1950's by Beretta.The company had been supplied the old Winchester machinery left over from World War II by the U.S. Government. In the 1950's the Italian army and several other of our European NATO Allies used Garands to equip their armies.

Thanks to these machinery, Beretta became the largest producer of M1 rifles outside US, and even armed some of the allied troops in Korea.
Then, when, at the end of the '50s, the Garand began to be considered obsolete, and the Army began to aim to a 7.65 NATO battle rifle, Beretta tecnicians looked to the vast stockpiles of Springfield M1 war relics (donated by the U.S. at the end of the war), and brand new Beretta M1, in the Italian Army inventory, and decided that they can provide a rifle at the level of the new M14 and FN-FAL, at much lesser price, with a modification of existing rifles. It was the Beretta BM59. (BM stand for "Beretta Modificato" - "Beretta Modified"). In fact, on many of the Beretta BM59 rifles made in the '60s, there are still the original US markings on the reciever, indicating that's a revitalized veteran of WWII.

 

[swampyankee]

Necroposting alert!

Question: I've read that some of the Italian pilots, especially those flying CR.42s would make head-on attacks vs British aircraft, as their planes were too slow to keep up with the RAF planes, but the Italian 13.2 mm MG had a greater effective range than the British 0.303 in. Any truth, as it does seem to be unlikely.

 

[davebender]

Most early war Italian fighter aircraft had cowl mounted machineguns. I think that contributed a lot to effectiveness. For an average pilot two centerline mounted weapons are probably worth four wing mounted weapons.

 

[Shortround6]

Necroposting alert!

Question: I've read that some of the Italian pilots, especially those flying CR.42s would make head-on attacks vs British aircraft, as their planes were too slow to keep up with the RAF planes, but the Italian 13.2 mm MG had a greater effective range than the British 0.303 in. Any truth, as it does seem to be unlikely.

Both guns had almost identical muzzle velocities so while the bigger bullets hold their velocity better at any "practical" range the difference in time of flight (or trajectory) is going to measured in hundredths of a second or inches. The 12.7s may do more damage once they hit but that seems a poor bet, especially as most British planes are putting out a LOT more bullets. Even a CR 42 and a Gladiator in a head on pass are closing at about 250 yards per second so it calls for some rather good timing to get a burst without getting hit back.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Very interesting gents.