The
Villar Perosa
Villar Perosa ( Occitan ''Lhi Vialars''; French: ''Grand-Villars'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southwest of Turin.
Villar Perosa borders the following municipal ...
is often technically regarded as the first submachine gun. The Villar Perosa was somewhat odd, and had sort of a heavy double automatic pistol configuration, with two 25-round box magazines feeding each barrel and a rate of fire in excess of 1000 rounds per minute. It was originally intended as an auxiliary aircraft weapon but was removed from airplanes to be replaced by light machine guns using rifle rounds. It saw wide use with ground forces mainly for defensive use when fitted with a protective armored plate. A large quantity was seized by Austrian troops during the battle of Caporetto. it also aided development of the next Italian submachine guns, the OVP 1918 and the Beretta 1918. It is always claimed that the Beretta beat the
Bergman MP18 by a couple of months or a couple of weeks in the field but there is absolutely no trace of its use by the Arditi units who were supposed to have fielded it, unlike the Bergmann MP 18.1 that appears on many pictures and is cited in both German or Allied reports.
The Beretta's rate of fire was estimated to be in the 1000 to 1300 rounds per minute range.
The small quantity of Beretta 1918 available after World War I was converted as semi auto carbine for the Forestry Service.
Since the rate of fire of a SMG can be estimated↑ by its bolt mass and the ratio with the weight of the projectile being fired, the examination of semi auto carbine and 1918/30 samples confirms the rate of fire and explains the reputation of unreliability of these first Beretta submachine guns.
†unless using a system that delays rearward move or forward move: locking rollers, Blish lock, buffer or cyclic rate reducer.
The Beretta 1935 was inspired by the French STA studies led by Section Technique de l'Armée from 1918 to 1938. Many technical details are close to the STA 1922 that was adopted as MAS 1924 and used in post World War I limited colonial conflicts.
Starting with the 1938 A, the Beretta SMG gained a well-deserved reputation of accuracy and reliability. They used the Italian 9 mm model 38, a round much more powerful than the German made 9 mm Parabellum.
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Villar Perosa
Villar Perosa ( Occitan ''Lhi Vialars''; French: ''Grand-Villars'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southwest of Turin.
Villar Perosa borders the following municipal ...
(1915)
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OVP 1918 (developed in 1918 from the Villar Perosa)
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Beretta Model 1918
The Moschetto Automatico Revelli-Beretta Mod. 1915 (Commonly known as the Beretta Model 1918) was a self-loading carbine that entered service in 1918 with the Italian armed forces. Designed as a semi-automatic rifle, the weapon came with an overhe ...
(1918)
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Beretta Model 1938A
The MAB 38 (''Moschetto Automatico Beretta Modello 1938''), ''Modello'' 38, or Model 38 and its variants were a series of official submachine guns of the Royal Italian Army (1940–1946), Royal Italian Army introduced in 1938 and used during World ...
(1938, based on earlier 1935 model)
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Beretta Model 38/42 (1940s, formed basis for model 3)
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TZ-45
The TZ-45 was an Italian blowback-operated submachine gun produced between 1944 and 1945, with an estimated 6,000 made.
History
The TZ-45 submachine gun was designed by two Italians; Tonon ("Toni") Giandoso, a colonel in the RSI Army and Zorzo ...
(1940s, later produced as BA-52 for the
Burmese Army)
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Armaguerra OG-43
The OG-43 and its subsequent version, OG-44, are submachine guns manufactured in small numbers in the Republic of Salo.
Origins and development
The OG-43, designed by Giovanni Oliani in the factory based in Cremona named Società Anonima Rev ...
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FNAB 43
The FNAB-43 is an Italian designed and developed submachine gun manufactured from 1943 to 1945. The first prototype was built in 1942 and the ~1,000 built by the FNA-B according to Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons (''Fabbrica Nazionale d'Armi di ...
(1943)
*Variara submachine gun (1944), entirely engineered and produced by Italian
partisans
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Franchi LF57 (1957) (original production ended in the 1980s)
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Beretta Model 3 (1950s)
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Beretta M12
The Beretta M12 (Model 12) is a 9×19mm Parabellum caliber submachine gun designed by Beretta. Production started in 1959, the first users were the Italian Carabinieri, Italian State Police and the Guardia di Finanza, though in limited number, ...
(1960s),
Beretta Model 12S (1983)
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Spectre M4
The Spectre M4 is an Italian submachine gun that was produced by the SITES factory in Turin. It was designed by Roberto Teppa and Claudio Gritti in the mid-1980s. Production in Italy ceased in the year 1997, with the closure of SITES, but proc ...
(1980s)
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Socimi Type 821 (1980s, later produced as LF821 by Franchi)
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Benelli CB M2
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Beretta PMX
The Beretta PMX is a 9 x 19 mm Parabellum caliber submachine gun, designed and manufactured by the Italian company Beretta. The PMX was presented in 2017 and is intended to replace the Beretta M12 as an ordinance weapon of some law enforcement in ...
Machine pistols:
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Beretta M1951R (1950s)
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Beretta 93R
The Beretta 93R is an Italian selective-fire machine pistol, designed and manufactured by Beretta in the late 1970s for police and military use, that is derived from their semi-automatic Beretta 92. The "R" stands for ''Raffica'', which is It ...
(1970s)
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Beretta 963r
Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta (; "Pietro Beretta Weapon Factory") is a privately held Italian firearms manufacturing company operating in several countries. Its firearms are used worldwide for a variety of civilian, law enforcement, and milita ...
Other Italian automatic firearms
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Breda 30
The ''Fucile Mitragliatore Breda modello'' 30 was the standard light machine gun of the Royal Italian Army during World War II.
Design
The Breda 30 was rather unusual for a light machine gun. It was fed from a fixed magazine attached to the ri ...
(6.5mm)
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Mitragliatrice Breda MOD.37
The ''Fucile Mitragliatore Breda modello'' 30 was the standard light machine gun of the Royal Italian Army during World War II.
Design
The Breda 30 was rather unusual for a light machine gun. It was fed from a fixed magazine attached to the righ ...
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Beretta MOD.34 Automatic Pistol
See also
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List of submachine guns
This is a list of submachine guns.
It includes Submachine guns (SMG), Machine pistols (MP), Personal defense weapon systems (PDW), and "compact submachine gun-like weapons" not easily categorized. Weapons may fit in more than one category.
S ...
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List of firearms
This is an extensive list of small arms—including pistols, revolvers, submachine guns, shotguns, battle rifles, assault rifles, sniper rifles, machine guns, personal defense weapons, carbines, designated marksman rifles, flamethrowers, multipl ...
References
{{Reflist
Submachine guns, Italian
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submachine guns
A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an automati ...