I have become fascinated by the Breda Model 30; not looking to acquire one but just learning more about them. Everything that I've read echoes Ian McCollum's review of it as possibly the worst light machine gun of WWII. The operational issues with this gun seem severe and probably cannot be fixed. Many are directly related to the lack of primary extraction provided by the fermeture nut and the non-rotating bolt which required oiling the cartridges which led to contamination which led to stoppages.
However I think Ian may be overly critical about the continuity of fire issue. Reloading the magazine in situ on the side of the gun may not have been intended to be the primary method of re-supply. It may have been included as a "plan b" in case the assistant gunner/loaded was killed or wounded and the gunner had to reload it alone. A lot would depend on the assistant gunner/loader's standard issue kit.
The gun becomes useless without a magazine so the loader should have carried at least one and preferably two or more loaded magazines and a large quantity of chargers, at least 8 or 10 and possibly more. If that were the case then reloading could be accomplished by detatching the empty magazine from the dust cover, inserting a new magazine and continuing to fire. The empty mag could then be reloaded from a charger. Operated in this way the continuity of fire would not be significantly worse than BAR, Bren or Type 96…until it inevitably jammed.
Does anyone know for a fact what the loader's standard issue consisted of? How many chargers and if there were any spare magazine bodies as well? And what did the gunner himself carry in the way of ammo or mag bodies?
However I think Ian may be overly critical about the continuity of fire issue. Reloading the magazine in situ on the side of the gun may not have been intended to be the primary method of re-supply. It may have been included as a "plan b" in case the assistant gunner/loaded was killed or wounded and the gunner had to reload it alone. A lot would depend on the assistant gunner/loader's standard issue kit.
The gun becomes useless without a magazine so the loader should have carried at least one and preferably two or more loaded magazines and a large quantity of chargers, at least 8 or 10 and possibly more. If that were the case then reloading could be accomplished by detatching the empty magazine from the dust cover, inserting a new magazine and continuing to fire. The empty mag could then be reloaded from a charger. Operated in this way the continuity of fire would not be significantly worse than BAR, Bren or Type 96…until it inevitably jammed.
Does anyone know for a fact what the loader's standard issue consisted of? How many chargers and if there were any spare magazine bodies as well? And what did the gunner himself carry in the way of ammo or mag bodies?
