Detail of one of two wing-mounted Mauser 20mm cannons of an Italian Macchi MC.205 “Veltro” (Greyhound) fighter aircraft, The plane is likely one MC.205 of the ANR-Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana (National Republican Air Force), the air force of the German allied Repubblica Sociale Italiana established by Mussolini on October 1943. Victor Sierra

The weapons of the “Veltro”

Italian bombers Fiat BR.20M “Cicogna” (Stork) in mission above the Balkans, 1941. The aircrafts have already the new dorsal turret manually-operated Caproni Lanciani Delta E armed with a Scotti 12.7 mm machine gun which has replaced the electrically-operated retractable Breda M1 turret mounted on the planes of the previous series. The long tube visible in the opposite side of the MG’s barrel serve as aerodynamic balance. In substance is a tube symmetric to the MG’s barrel which move top and bottom along with the same barrel (in the photo MG’s barrel and tube for aerodynamic balance are top traversed) balancing in this matter the aerodynamic drag opposed to the gunner. The traverse of this turret is 360 degrees. Victor Sierra

Above the Balkans with a new turret

An Italian serviceman posed over the right wing of a Fiat G.55 “Centauro” (Centaur) likely of the ANR-Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana (National Republican Air Force), the air force of the German allied Repubblica Sociale Italiana established by Mussolini on October 1943. The picture highlight one of two wing-mounted Mauser 20 mm cannon, adopted by the G.55 Serie 1 (Series One), as well the housing of the two Breda-Safat 12.7mm over the engine cowling and synchronized with the propeller’s blades. Victor Sierra