From the January 2000 issue, pages 6 - 10.

By Robert Jensen

A seemingly odd fact has long puzzled me and other collectors of French and Italian rifles. Both nations had armies numbering over a million men in both World Wars I and II. These armies were predominantly infantry and infantrymen are armed with rifles - thus there were certainly over a million French and Italian rifles manufactured. Why, then, are French and Italian sniper rifles apparently absent from collections in this country and even pictures of their soldiers equipped with scope mounted rifles never seen. I have seen two different pictures of French snipers with scoped Lebel 86/93 rifles in trenches but have NEVER seen even one picture of an Italian soldier with a scope mounted rifle.

Dick Hobbs, in his book on the Carcano, states flatly that no telescopically equipped rifles were issued to the Italian Army. He based this statement on his thirty years of collecting data on Carcanos and the fact that he too had never even seen a photo of one in all that time.

Four years ago I was fortunate enough to finally purchase a Lebel sniper to give my collection a representive example of a French sniper rifle (see Issue 61 of the MRJ ) but still had yet to locate or even hear of an Italian example. Then it happened!

At the last Tulsa Gun Show a man came in carrying a rifle that his next-door neighbor had brought back from his service in W.W. II. It was stated that it came from North Africa and it was accompanied with an Italian pith helmet and a. Fascist Youth Honor Dagger. It was a Model 38 Cavalry carbine in 7.35mm caliber - quite a scarce rifle in itself and one I did not have in my collection. It was in excellent condition, matching, had beautiful bore, an original sling, and the two cleaning rods in the butt trap. Best of all, it had an optically perfect, Beretta made telescopic sniper scope in two left side rail mounted clamp type bases. The scope still had the original rubber eyecup. Could one ask for more? I was not at the show but a friend of mine was and he immediately bought the piece. Happily, he later sold it to me.

Photo 1 is a full length view of the left side of the rifle with the scope in place.

No. 2 is a close-up of the right side showing the action, the scope mounted, its eyecup, and the sling.

No. 3 is a view of the top of the rear of the barrel. It shows that the barrel was originally a W.W. I 6.5mm barrel made in 1917 at Terni Arsenal. The barrel was bored out to 7.35mm in 1939 at Terni and re-issued and numbered to this rifle. This is the first time I have ever seen a re-worked and re-issued Carcano although such pieces are quite common among the rifles of other nations.

No. 4 shows the original 1917 serial number above and the 1939 serial number below.

No. 5 is the left side rear of the stock with the matching serial number, the well struck Terni arsenal seal, and the prominent Cal. 7.35 stamp to insure the use of the proper ammunition.

No. 6 illustrates the two bases with the clamping sides and tightening screws which are knurled and tightened by finger pressure and with a screwdriver. The connecting rod between the two clamp sides and the screws fits into corresponding grooves in the. bottom of the scope base to insure totally correct alignment.

No. 7 is the scope in place on its bases on the rifle.

No. 8 (I hope. it will show up in the photo ) is the BERETTA marking on the top of the scope body.

The receiver of the rifle, the scope tube, and the two bases are covered with a light to medium color brown paint. Its old, dried, and crackled. I presume this was done to camouflage the rifle (?). The scope has no visible serial number but it could be under the paint. The adjusting knob is marked ALD (elevation ?) and SI (?).

When I obtained the piece it was deeply covered both inside and out with a fine almost powdery dust that was 'caked' on and almost as hard as a rock. I wondered if this could be a combination of grease applied to protect the piece which was totally impregnated with dust from the Sahara. I wondered further if I should clean it or leave it untouched. I decided to clean it up and in so doing uncovered the "puzzle" referred to in the title of this article. I am asking the membership for help in solving this riddle.

After dismounting the action and cleaning the dried grease and dust off the metal I uncovered on the underside of the rear of the barrel what appeared to be two SS runes. The right side rune is only partially struck due to the curvature of the barrel but there. is no doubt that it is a second rune. It is pictured in Photo 9. I cannot conceive of any reason why this marking should appear on an Italian rifle supposedly brought back from North Africa. Even more strange is why it would be at that location on the rifle. I have a number of SS rifles and the purpose of the runes is to show ownership of the rifle by the SS. Thus the runes are always in a visible location above the wood line. Placing the stamp under the barrel makes no sense as it is not visible unless you dismount the action. I decided that while the marking certainly appeared to be unmistakably two SS runes and is certainly genuine given the obvious age and condition of the rifle, it must be something else that just happened to resemble SS runes. What that might be I couldn't guess but I felt quite uncomfortable with that conclusion.

The war in the Western Desert has long been a favorite campaign of mine and I have many many books on all aspects of the battles. They are all, however, military histories and do not speak to the involvement of such political organizations as the SS in that theater. Nowhere in any of them could I find mention of the SS in North Africa.

I then turned to clean the stock and found the stamp shown in Photo 10. I did not recall ever having seen that before but it looked like two intertwined SS runes and now I was really wondering what this one might be. I showed it to several local collector friends and one who is deep into Nazi militaria immediately recognized it and said he had an SS NCO police sword with that proof on the base of the blade. We went to his home and compared the two and they are identical. Now there were two proofs to tie the piece to the SS. He showed me in one of his books on SS regalia by John Angolia the proof illustrated and described as an SS "Inspection Stamp."

I still cannot make any connection with the SS and an Italian sniper rifle. If the rifle had been brought back from Italy itself I could better make a scenario that would explain this otherwise apparent enigma. After the Italian surrender and change of sides in 1943, the Germans invaded northern Italy, disarmed the Italian Army in the area, and re-armed the troops of the new R.S.I. who remained loyal to the Fascist cause. The SS was quite active in this endeavor and perpetrated a number of atrocities.

I hope to obtain the name of the veteran who brought back the rifle and thus get the true story of its history. I ask that any member who has studied the SS and its role in Italy and North Africa and can construct a valid explanation to solve this puzzle to please share his ideas with us. I'd like to believe the Germans, and especially the SS, were somehow involved in the story of the rifle and I await the members input. In the meantime, I am delighted to have a genuine Carcano sniper rifle and if some connection with the SS can be proven then that would be the proverbial "icing on the cake."