Italian Armoured Cavalry Squadron with Fiat 508 CM 1100 - 1939

Italian Regio Esercito Cavalry Squadron

An Italian pilot going on board of a Breda 65/Fiat A-80 single seat ground attack airplane with engine idling for warm. This photo well highlight the wing installation of the Breda 65’s weapons and the different barrel’s length of the two version of the Breda-SAFAT machine guns: shorter the barrel of the 7.7 mm (0.30), the external MG, longer the barrel of the 12.7 mm (0.50), the inner MG. The fixed armament of this “Aereo d’Assalto” (literally “assault aircraft”), which ended the series of aircraft influenced by the theories about the “Aviazione d’Assalto” (assault aviation) of Amedeo Mecozzi, (previous Ansaldo-Dewoitine AC.1, Caproni AP.1 and Breda 64), was four MG, two 7.7 mm, two 12.7 mm in the wings, for the single seat version, or five weapons, the four MG in the wings plus another flexible 12.7 in turret, for the two-seat version. Of the four airplanes developed in accord with the Mecozzi’s theories, the Breda 65 was the only used in true war operations: by the Italian Regia Aeronautica in the Spanish Civil War and in North Africa during the first months of Italy’s involvement in the WW2 and, for a very brief time, by the Iraqi Air Force during the Iraqi’s uprising angainst the British. Victor Sierra

The Breda 65’s weapons

I at first thought that this was a destroyed tankette, but closer inspection suggests that it is actually an Italian Carro Armato M13/40 medium tank which has suffered a catastrophic internal explosion, resulting in serious disruption to the armour plate and the "popping off" of the turret.  I think you can just see the turret ring in the tank's deck, and one side of the turret to the left of the photograph.  Best regards, JR.