Close up of the ammo belt of one of two Breda-SAFAT 12.7mm (0.50-inch) machine gun of an Italian Regia Aeronautica’s Macchi MC.200 Saetta. Photo taken during the rearming of one of this fighters on an unknown location, but perhaps not in North Africa (note the armorer’s dress). Employed also by the bombers together other MG types, the Breda-SAFAT 12.7mm was the classic weapons of Italian fighters, biplane and monoplane, two machine guns over the nose, fire synchronized with the propeller, prior of the German Mauser 20 mm cannon mounted on Reggiane Re.2001CN (Night Fighter) and on the Series 5 fighter (Macchi MC.205, Fiat G.55 Series 1 and Reggiane Re.2005). Victor Sierra

Italian fighter’s ammunitions

Eritrean Askari with MGs and Italian officer in the 1930s



Eritrean Askari

Detail of the two Breda-SAFAT 12.7mm (0.50-inch) machine gun’s mounting of an Italian fighter Macchi MC.202 Folgore (Lightning) with the ammo belt in foreground. Clear visible the ammunitions of this excellent weapon which could fire a high-explosive-incendiary-tracer (HEIT) round with 0.8 grams of PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate). The Italian fighter pilots preferred the armor-piercing and incendiary rounds to the weak destructive capability of a mere 0.8 grams of explosive. The Breda-SAFAT 12.7mm had a rate of fire of 700 rounds/min (575 rounds/min synchronized) and a muzzle velocity of 765 m/s. Victor Sierra

