Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "Forgotten Weapons"
channel.
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the Revelli 1914 was, all in all, a good HMG. The 1935 conversion not so much (it fired from a closed bolt, that's indifferent for a water-cooled MG, but not so good on a air-cooled one) despite having at least a good feature, an ultra-modern disgregating metallic belt, but it was intended as a cheap stopgap. The ones that had been converted, had not been in exchange to other models, but simply to have more MGs on the field.
The 7.35 carcano cartridge was developed to completely replace the 6.5 one but, as the war broke out when the conversion just started, the plans were cancelled and the 7.35 cartridge simply had not been used on the field.
Austrian captured weapons had been used almost exclusively in AOI (Africa Orientale Italiana, Italian Eastern Africa, that means Ethiopia, Eritrea and Italian Somaliland). Due to the geography, those lands would have been completely cut off from the mainland in case of war with the British Empire (like they infact did), and the local troops would have had to use only what they already had there up to exhaustion, so logistic was less of a issue.
The easiness of servicing was among the things Allied reports of the time praised about the Breda 30.
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Pure short recoil systems (like those used in handguns) and long bottleneck cartridges don't match well.
In a short recoil system, in the moment the barrel stops, the case, in respect to the chamber, abruptly passes from "0" to the max speed. Long rifle cases have a lot of surface that's stuck to the chamber's walls, so, even if the pressure isn't high, with this abrupt acceleration there are high chances to damage the cases, sometimes break them, and so jam the action.
To avoid this, there are several possibilities. To unlock the bolt from the barrel first than the rearward motion of the barrel ends, so allowing the residual pressure of the gasses to start extracting the case first than the barrel stops ("chiusura labile", like in the Fiat Revelli 1914). To use a lever action to ensure that the bolt recoils slightly faster than the barrel ( Browning M1919, Brixia 1920, Breda SAFAT...). To reduce the locking surface of the case (fluting the chamber). Or to reduce the friction between the case and the chamber (lubing the case).
However this is not the only example. The Japanes Type 96 LMG had an oiler, and the Hispano Suiza Hs 404 cannon, and it's derivates in use up until today, has an internal oiler as well.
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@jimbob1427 150 Rounds in a minute is what you could fire with the BAR, first to have to stop and take cover for five minutes, waiting for your weapon to cool off while the other guys fought.
BREN gunners were expected to fire a magazine a minute (30 rounds theoretical, 27 real). At the start of the war it was contemplated a "rapid" fire, to use in emergency situations, of 7 magazines a minute. During the war, due to the practical experience on the field, it was REDUCED to 4 magazines a minute (120 theoretical rounds, 108 real), and keeping in mind that the entire provision of the LMG squad was of 20 magazines, so only 5 minutes of fire at that pace.
That's why, in Allied reports on the Breda 30, and instruction given to the Allied soldiers that were ISSUED with the captured ones, the rate of fire and the reload time HAD NEVER BEEN DEEMED AS PROBLEMS.
RL is quite different form movies.
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"probably after advancing..."
That had something to do with the fact that BOTH the Breda 30 and the BAR were used by 3 men crews?
"Oh, and don't forget..."
Really the Allied used them, The Brits even stamped an English manual for the British gunners equipped with the Breda 30. That's what the Tactical and Tecnical Trend (the magazine of the US Intelligence) No. 7, Sept. 10, 1942 "Use of Captured Italian Weapons" said of it :
"The Breda light machine gun is similar to the British Bren gun. It is mechanically superior to the Bren gun under dusty conditions. It requires only one man to service it as compared to several for the Bren gun. It has a slightly higher rate of fire than the British weapon. Its disadvantages are that it has no carrying handle, cannot be fired on fixed lines, and has no tripod mounting."
That was what the contemporaries, the ones that had to DAILY fight the weapon and use the captured ones, tought of it. Not the armchair opinion of someone that saw it once on a video. No hints of the oiler or the dust cover, or the loading procedure, to be problems at all.
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@robosoldier11 To me, as a technical enthusiast, both the Scotti action (the one you see in the Model X, it had been scaled up to 37mm automatic cannons) and the Breda gas action (the one you see in the Breda PG, that too had been scaled up to 37mm automatic cannons) were very good. The Scotti bolt was made of four pieces, with little precision machining required. The Breda of five, with only straight cuts. The Scotti rifle only required to fire from a closed bolt and a magazine to be a very good semiauto, and it's difficult to imagine a simpler one.
But in 1939 Italy had 1/4 of the industrial output than Great Britain. There were budgetary constraints. France, that had other economic possibilities, adopted a new bolt action in 1936.
In the same period, the US had something like 42% of the world's industrial output.
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