Splinter’s traces over the fabric covering of the fuselage’s aft section of an Italian bomber Savoia-Marchetti S.79 of the 257th Squadriglia, 109th Gruppo, 36th Stormo, Castelvetrano, Sicily. The lack of the fuselage white band date this photo Summer 1940, few after the entry in war of the Italy. The photo highlight the waist station of the Breda-SAFAT 7.7 mm machine gun in this moment traversed on the fuselage’s right side. Under the fuselage is also visible the nacelle (removed in the S.79 torpedo aircraft) with the Breda-SAFAT 12.7 mm (.500 in) machine gun used for the downward defence. Visible also the strut of the right horizontal plan. Victor Sierra

Splinter’s traces

M13/40 Italian medium tanks parade through Tripoli, Libya, 1941.  Sandbags were dispensed with in this relatively safe environment.  I had not really noticed before - but is notable (though perhaps not surprising) how often sandbag supplemental armour appears in photos of this tank.  Best regards, JR.

Carro Armato M13/40 on parade.

The Breda-SAFAT 12.7mm (.500 in) machine gun in the dorsal turret backward defence of an Italian bomber Savoia-Marchetti S.79’s traversed at high elevation’s angle. Its caliber made this MG – on the S.79 with two loader, each with 250 shot, side angle traverse 300 degrees for each sector, elevation angle traverse 70 degrees, muzzle velocity 765 meter per second (2,510 ft/s) installed also in the dorsal turret of the Fiat BR.20M and CRDA Cant-Z-1007bis bombers - a weapon for its time particularly redoubtable. In effect the most common British bomber in the Mediterranean theater at beginning of the war, the Bristol Blenheim Mk 1, had a dorsal turret with a single 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers K, later two, but again of the same caliber, on the Blenheim IV. Victor Sierra