Italian Forces

Breda-SAFAT machine guns

Stato Maggiore Aeronautica

This detail of a Breda 65 ground attack airplane of the Regia Aeronautica’s 50th Stormo Assalto, notice the unit’s insignia over the engine cowling, show well the two machine guns which, apart the Scotti’s MG, was almost the standard Italian aircraft’s armament during the WW2 both in fixed (in the wings or synchronized with the propeller on the nose) and flexible installations (turret): Breda-SAFAT caliber 7.7 mm (0.303 in), in foreground, and Breda-SAFAT caliber 12.7 mm (0.500 in), in background, well recognizable for the different length of the barrel: 64 cm (25 in) for the 7.7 mm (total length 109 cm/43 in), 80 cm (31 in) for the 12.7 mm (total length 139 cm/55 in). Based on the M1919 Browning machine gun, and developed upon a Regia Aeronautica’s requirement half Thirties by Società Italiana Ernesto Breda of Milan which absorbed the Società Anonima Fabbrica Armi Torino (SAFAT), a former division of FIAT Group, the two Italian MG were chambered to fire indigenous ammunition with 7.7 mm (0.303 in) and 12.7 mm (0.500 in) caliber, predominantly ball, tracer for the 7.7mm, including high-explosive-incendiary-tracer (HEIT) (filled with 0.8 grams of PETN), or armour-piercing (AP) for the 12.7mm. In particular the 12.7 mm Breda-SAFAT was a belt fed, short recoil operated weapon, essentially an Italian modified Browning M1921 mechanism, but shorter and slightly less heavy than the US machine gun, which was mounted experimentally first in the FIAT CR.30 fighter biplane and introduced in large scale in the his successor, the CR.32 fighter. During the use in the war both the MG proved itself well-constructed, sturdy and extremely reliable weapons rarely jammed in action. Other characteristics: weight 7.7 mm 12.5 kg (28 lb), 12.7 mm 29 kg (64 lb); rate of fire 7.7mm 800–900 rounds/min, 12.7 mm 700 rounds/min (575 rounds/min synchronized); muzzle velocity 7.7 mm 730 meter per second (2,400 ft/s), 12.7 mm 765 meter per second (2,510 ft/s); feed system belt-fed; cooling, air. The MG, especially the 12.7 mm, was also produced and employed as ground weapon in particular for AA defence. Victor Sierra