La mitragliatrice FIAT modello 1924

La mitragliatrice FIAT modello 1924 era un'arma estremamente accattivante e moderna.

Le caratteristiche salienti erano:

• Canna fissa con alette longitudinali per il raffreddamento ad aria;
• Rinculo del solo otturatore;
• Velocita iniziale del proietto 650 mt/s;
• Calibro 6,5 x 52;
• Cadenza di tiro colpi 400 al minuto;
• Serbatoio colpi da 25;
• Peso dell'arma con il treppiede Kg 14;
• Lunghezza totale 1,010 cm; 470 la canna.

L'arma a canna fissa funzionava per effetto dell'arretramento dell'otturatore sotto la pressione diretta dei gas di combustione. Il caricamento delle cartucce avveniva tramite piastrine in latta da 25 colpi. All’epoca le fu preferita il modello breda 34 munito di bipiede. Per quanto riguarda la sua qualità, era in linea con la tradizione fiat: una tradizione di mediocri prodotti rifilati alle nostre forze armate e per i quali troppi nostri soldati sono caduti. 

Il FIAT Modello 1924 ha una certa somiglianza familiare con il FIAT Modello 1926, che era poco più di un FIAT-Revelli M1914 convertito al raffreddamento ad aria e all'alimentazione convenzionale da 20 colpi in un caricatore ubicato sul lato sinistro. 

La FIAT M1924 non entrò in servizio, ma fornì le basi per il modello M1926 migliorato, che fu adottato dall'esercito italiano in numero limitato.

La FIAT tornò poi con il Modello 1928, che fu progettato da un ing. Mascarucci nella fabbrica SAFAT. L’arma era ancora basata sull'M1926, ma con alcuni miglioramenti sotto forma di un cuneo di bloccaggio rimodellato, la rimozione della pompa dell'olio del ricevitore e del serbatoio integrati, e modifiche al caricatore a cassetta in modo da poter utilizzare lo stesso caricatore rapido del Breda Modello 1924.

La Breda sviluppò il suo Modello 1924, originariamente conosciuto come Tipo (Type) 5C nel 1924. Questo modello era dotato di due impugnature per l'uso come cannone flessibile per aerei, e di un calcio in legno e bipiede per la fanteria. L'uso delle impugnature in combinazione con il calcio in posizione prona doveva essere un esercizio interessante e alquanto scomodo per il soldato. Il caricatore a scatola da 20 colpi era fissato in modo permanente sul lato destro del ricevitore e veniva caricato con speciali clip a forma di ferro di cavallo o con clip standard per fucile; insolitamente per l'epoca aveva anche una canna a cambio rapido.

Nel 1930, la Breda-SAFAT introdusse il più noto Modello 1930, che era essenzialmente il Breda M1924 con alcuni miglioramenti ottimizzati per il ruolo di fanteria, ad esempio, la sostituzione delle impugnature con un più convenzionale assemblaggio, impugnatura a pistola e grilletto.

Per rendere le cose ancora più interessanti, nel 1920 uscì una società bresciana, la Tempini, con uno spin-off molto migliorato ma ancora complesso della Fiat-Revelli M1914 chiamata Brixia Modello 1920. L’arma era ancora raffreddata ad acqua (come la FIAT-Revelli M1914) ma aveva tutti i meccanismi di riavvolgimento completamente contenuti all'interno di un ricevitore per carichi pesanti chiuso. Un complicato regolatore della velocità di tiro era montato, e la pistola mitragliatrice era alimentata da un caricatore a scatola sul lato inferiore destro del ricevitore; l'espulsione delle cartucce esaurite era effettuata obliquamente dal lato superiore sinistro. La Brixia M1920 non fu mai adottata e fu infine abbandonata negli anni '30.

Nel frattempo la FIAT fu incaricata di revisionare la FIAT-Revelli M1914 e di mettere in produzione la "nuova" arma. Il risultato fu il Modello 1914/35, che aveva una canna raffreddata ad aria simile a quella della M1924 e della M1926, ma camerata per la cartuccia più grande da 8 mm. Il sistema di alimentazione a trappola per topi fu mantenuto, non c'era ancora un'estrazione primaria, e le cartucce dovevano ancora essere oliate, così che tutti gli svantaggi della mitragliatrice del 1914 furono mantenuti e, anzi, peggiorati dall'adozione di una cartuccia più potente". 

Nel 1938 la FIAT cercò di risolvere il problema dell'estrazione primaria introducendo camere scanalate in nuove armi di produzione e contemporaneamente rinunciando agli oliatori per cartucce. Purtroppo, anche se il concetto era corretto, l'esecuzione del progetto non fu eseguita correttamente e le armi a camera scanalata funzionavano - ironia della sorte - solo quando le cartucce erano state pre-oliate. La FIAT rinunciò e ritornò alle camere e agli oliatori non scanalati per il resto della produzione della M1914/35.

ENGLISH

The FIAT machine gun model 1924 will be an extremely attractive and modern weapon.

The salient features were:

• Fixed barrel with longitudinal fins for air cooling;
• Recoil of the bolt only;
• Initial velocity of the projectile 650 mt/s;
• Caliber 6.5 x 52;
• Shooting rate 400 rounds per minute;
• Tank of 25 rounds;
• Weight of the weapon with the tripod Kg 14;
• Total length 1.010 cm; 470 the barrel.

The fixed barrel firearm operated due to the bolt retraction under direct flue gas pressure. The cartridges were loaded by means of 25 rounds tin plates. At that time the breda 34 model with bipods was preferred. As for its quality, it was in line with the fiat tradition: a tradition of mediocre products trimmed to our armed forces and for which too many of our soldiers have fallen. 

My knowledge of Italian machine guns is rather lacking, so I was pretty excited when I received a copy of a FIAt Model 1924 manual from our friend Hrachya. However, it has really created more questions than it answered…as best I can tell, the Model 1924 was never accepted by any military service, but did lead to the development of the Model 1930, which did serve as a standard Italian light machine gun. However, I did find references to several other 1920s model guns produced by FIAT/Breda, and I really don’t know what the bigger picture of Italian MG development between the world wars looked like. It anyone knows of a good reference work on this subject, or has a good handle on it themselves and would be interested in writing a guest post giving us all some background, I would be most appreciative!

FIAT Model 1924 machine gun on infantry tripod

Anyway, a few details on the Model 1924…it used the same type of 20-round charger and fixed magazine as the later Breda 30, although this early design has the magazine on the left side, and it was fed from the right side with those chargers. The Model 30 required the magazine to pivot out from the receiver, and the ammo would be stripped directly into the magazine.

Ian Hogg’s “Machine Guns” does much to trace the trends in Italian MG development between the wars, and also explains quite clearly the Italian system of model designation and nomenclature that often lead to a great deal of duplication with subsequent confusion among researchers. To add fuel to the fire, the SAFAT works changed ownership from FIAT to Breda in the middle of all this, with consequent design and name overlaps. Chapter Five (“Between The Wars”) is a must-read, and it also puts Italian MG development in perpective vis-a-vis that of other countries.

Some things I have noticed:

The FIAT Modello 1924 shown above has a certain familial resemblance to the FIAT Modello 1926, which was little more than FIAT-REvelli M1914 converted to air cooling and left-side 20-round conventional box feed. If I’m not mistaken, the FIAT M1924 did not see service but did provide the foundations for their improved M1926, which was adopted by the Italian Army in limited numbers as a stop-gap weapon.

FIAT later came back with the Modello 1928, which was designed by one Ing. Mascarucci in the SAFAT factory. It was still based on the M1926, but with some improvements in the form of a reshaped locking wedge, removal of the integral receiver oil pump and reservoir, and modifications to the box magazine so that it could use the same quick charger as the Breda Modello 1924.

Breda developed their Modello 1924, originally known as the Tipo (Type) 5C in (what else?) 1924. It was fitted with dual spade grips for use as a flexible aircraft gun, and a wooden stock and bipod for infantry use. using the spade grips in conjunction with the buttstock in the prone position must have been an interesting and somewhat uncomfortable exercise. The 20-round box magazine was permanently fixed to the right side of the receiver and charged from special horseshoe clips or standard rifle clips.Unusually for the time, it also had a quick-change barrel.

In 1930, Breda (now Breda-SAFAT), introduced the more well-known Modello 1930, which was essentially the Breda M1924 with some improvements optimized for the infantry role, eg., replacement of the spade grips with a more conventional buttstock, pistol grip and trigger assembly.

To make things even more interesting, a company named Tempini, of Brescia, came out in 1920 with a much-improved but still-complex spin-off of the Fiat-Revelli M1914 called the Brixia Modello 1920. It was still water-cooled (like the FIAT-Revelli M1914) but had all the recoiling mechanisms fully contained within an enclosed heavy-duty receiver. A complicated rate-of-fire regulator was fitted, and the gun was fed from a box magazine on the lower right side of the receiver; ejection of spent cartridges was accomplished obliquely from the upper left side. The Brixia M1920 was never adopted and was eventually abandoned in the 1930’s.

6. In the meantime, FIAT was tasked with overhauling the FIAT-Revelli M1914 and putting the “new” gun into production. The result was the Modello 1914/35, which had an air-cooled barrel similar to that of their M1924 and M1926, but chambered for the larger 8mm cartridge. To quote Hogg : “The mousetrap feed system was retained, there was still no primary extraction, and the cartridges still had to be oiled, so that all the disadvantages of the 1914 gun were retained and, indeed, made worse by the adoption of a more powerful cartridge”. In 1938, FIAT attempted to address the primary extraction issue by introducing fluted chambers ( which Agnelli had incorporated into the SIA aircraft gun, but that’s another story ) to new production guns while simultaneously dispensing with the cartridge oilers. Unfortunately, while the concept was correct, the design execution was not properly done and the fluted-chamber guns only worked — ironically — when the cartridges were pre-oiled. FIAT gave up and reverted to unfluted chambers and oilers for the rest of the M1914/35’s production run.

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