Type Medium Machine gun Used by Royal Italian Army | Place of origin Kingdom of Italy No. built 2.000 | |
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Wars First Italo-Ethiopian War, World War II Manufacturer Breda Meccanica Bresciana | ||
The Breda 5C was an Italian medium machine gun, which was adopted by the Royal Italian Army and used in the First Italo-Ethiopian War and in World War II.
Contents
History
Breda 5C, together with Fiat Mod. 26, was designed by the Italian Society Ernesto Breda Costruzioni Meccaniche to replace the machine gun SIA Mod. 1918. Despite the unsatisfactory results of both arms during the tests, however, they were adopted by the Royal Italian Army for to address the critical shortage of automatic weapons. Assigned to the troops of Tripoli, a few dozen unit were used by meharists during World War II. It also armed the armored cars Fiat 611.
Description
The weapon had many features that will then be taken in the machine gun Breda Mod. 30. The barrel was quick change and, through a handle in asbestos, was pulled away, with a half rotation, from the barrel holder sleeve. The functioning was blowback operation of the barrel with locking of the bolt through wing and with oil lubrication of bullets. Shooting with bolt closed. The rear of the receiver ended with two knobs with the firing button and a false wooden stock. The feeding was through a magazine on the right side, front-hinged. For charging, it was front rotated, you could insert the plate with 20 rounds, then this was withdrown leaving the rounds in the magazine, which was then closed by rotating to the rear. The iron sights was elevated through a cursor. To be fired the weapon necessitated for a 2,860 kg tripod, which doubled as a saddle for the transport of the weapon.
Breda 5G
This version is essentially the same weapon, with the same operation, but adapted to machine gun size. The knobs are replaced by a stock with a lower removable tip and pistol grip with wooden grips and a trigger. The tripod is eliminated and replaced by a bipod attached to the barrel holder sleeve.