Fiat–Revelli Modello 1914

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The Mitragliatrice FIAT Modello 1914, often referred as Fiat-Revelli mod. 1914 was an Italian water-cooled medium machine gun produced from 1914 to 1919. It was the standard machine-gun of the Italian Army in World War I, and was used in limited numbers into World War II.[1]

The Mitragliatrice FIAT Modello 1935, often referred as Fiat-Revelli mod. 14/35 was an Italian machine gun, a modified version of the Mod. 1914, which had equipped the Italian Army of World War I.[2] It was a vast improvement on the early model, offering superior penetration power due to the adoption of belt fed 8mm (8×59) rounds. It saw extensive action during World War II.

Mitragliatrice Fiat Modello 1914

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Mitragliatrice FIAT Modello 1914
TypeMedium machine gun
Place of originItaly
Service history
In service1914 – 1945
Used bySee § Users
Wars
List of conflicts
Production history
DesignerAbiel Bethel Revelli
ManufacturerFiat
Metallurgica Bresciana già Tempini
Produced1914 – 1919
No. built~57,500
Specifications
Mass
43.4 kg (95.68 lb)
(Fully loaded)
  • Gun:
    16.5 kg (36.38 lb)
  • Water:
    3 kg (6.61 lb)
  • Tripod:
    19.2 kg (42.33 lb)
[4]
Length1,180 mm (46.46 in)[4]
Barrel length650 mm (25.59 in)[4]
Cartridge6.5×52mm Carcano
ActionShort recoil[5][6]
Rate of fire
  • Cyclic:
    400–500 rounds/min
  • Practical:
    250 rounds/min
Muzzle velocity660–680 m/s (2,170–2,230 ft/s)[7][8]
Effective firing range1,000 m (1,100 yd)
Maximum firing range3,000 m (3,300 yd)
Feed system
Sights{{ubl

History

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In 1908, Italian Regio Esercito Colonel Abiel Bethel Revelli patented and presented to the world a brand new machine gun, inspired by his own contemporary-designed Pistola Mod. 1910 overall concept.

The first iteration of this Mitragliatrice Automatica "Revelli" was almost identical to the final Mod. 1914, with just small external differences: it featured a large oval milled aperture on top to expel the spent cases and quickly inspect the chamber and address any magazine issues; it used 100 round box magazines, and instead of a water jacket, it had a fluted heavy barrel to lighten the overall weight to an astounding 12 kg. With a 14 kg very flexible tripod, it was a really light Machinegun, especially compared to its contemporaries, weighting (with Tripod) around 33-40kg.[9] Cyclist units in particular show interests for this really light gun, that would have been a perfect fit for the corp.[10]

The gun was immediately put under trials by the Royal Italian Army,[11] always looking for better machineguns in a world where military technologies were evolving at an incredible fast pace. They had already adopted the Gardner Mod.1886, the Maxim Mod. 1887 Perino Mod. 1908 and would soon experiment with the Maxim Mod.1911 and the Vickers-Maxim Mod.1912.

Revelli, looking for a manufacturer for his concept, sold his patents to FIAT in Turin within december 1913[12], starting a decade long collaboration that will generate several other successful gun related products. FIAT, mostly in the Automotive business at the time, immediately set up a production line dedicated to its production for the trials, in its Villar Perosa facilities.

After the Sarajevo assassination and foreseeing the inevitability of war, the Italian Army opted to finally adopt the new machinegun as the Mitragliatrice FIAT Mod. 1914. The definitive version had several lightning cuts in the receiver, a foldable cover on top of it to protect the case expulsion area, a fixed, ribbed water jacket with an external pump, standard 50 round box magazine, and an improved tripod.

The Italian Army entered the First World War with just 37 FIAT M14 Machineguns delivered to corps, but the number quickly rose up to arm most machineguns sections. To help in the rearmament and to ease Fiat's automotive production war effort, Metallurgica Bresciana già Tempini intervened since 1914, taking upon itself most of the M1914 production, with a grand total of about 37,500 machineguns produced during the war. FIAT instead managed to produce about 20,000 M1914 during the entirety of the conflict.[13]

The Mitragliatrice Fiat Mod. 1914 remained the standard Medium/Heavy Machinegun of the Italian Army until the adoption of the Breda Mod. 37. Most of these machineguns got updated in late 1930s to the Mod. 1935 configuration.

Overview

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Despite its similarity to the Maxim design in overall appearance (the typical water-cooling jacket and tripod), its internal mechanism was entirely different.

As with the M1910 pistol, the gun works on short recoil and unlocking the bolt via locking wedge. The force needed to unlock the wedge is regulated by a leverageable pin positioned in the wedge' pivotal point, and can be set to three positions: Meno (Less), Più (More) and midway between these two. Positioning the lever on Più, the wedge gets slightly higher, offering more resistance to the bolt and absorbing more recoil. On the Meno position, the wedge is slightly lower, offering less resistance and absorbing less recoil. This helped in offering more or less recoil force from the fired bullet, in order to cycle the gun reliably with different batches of ammo, different magazines and different environmental issues.[14]

There were several out of battery safety preventive measures in the mechanism, in order to avoid feeding and ammunition issues as much as possible.

The water jacket (ribbed in early productions, smooth in late ones) has an unusual and thoughtful feature – in addition to the standard filling plug on top, it has two drain plugs on the bottom. One is to relieve steam pressure into a condensing can (as with all water-cooled guns), and the other allows the use of a manual recirculating pump to move condensed water back into the jacket.

It was chambered for the 6.5×52mm Carcano, which eased logistics (as it was the same cartridge of the Carcano rifle) but made it somewhat underpowered compared to higher-calibre weapons, weighed 17 kg (37.48 lb) (the tripod weighed 22.4 kg (49.38 lb)) and had a firing rate of 400-500 rpm, rather low for this type of machine gun.[15]

One feature was the presence of select-fire, which allowed for the choice between single shot, "normal" fire, and full automatic fire.

In December 1916 a conical flash hider was devised and patented by Belardo Italo; it got quickly implemented in production, offered complimentary by MBT.[16]

Magazine

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Fiat-Revelli M1914 magazine.

The FIAT mod. 14 was fed from a 50-round or 100-round magazine referred to as a multi-column strip-feed box magazine (or “mouse-cage” magazine), divided into 10 or 20 separate columns, each holding 5 rounds under pressure with a separate spring. Loading could be done by hand, or with some loading tools that allowed to simultaneously load 5 columns.

The magazine is inserted in the left side of the gun, and indexes on the first column of cartridges. Once all the five round of a column are fired, the box is pulled inward and indexes on the next column, somewhat like a typewriter. This continues until the final column is fired, at which point the box falls out the right side of the gun and a new one can be inserted.[1]

Despite being a fairly compact magazine, it had a multitude of problems:

  • Flimsy construction — The magazines could easily be dented (in particular, when they fall out empty). Once dented, they would unlikely work reliably. If any of the ten recoil springs becomes weak, or any of the 20 feed lips is not in perfect shape, the gun will malfunction.
  • Lack of interchangeability with other small guns — These magazines had no compatibility with the 6-round Mannlicher clips Italy was using in their Carcano rifles at the time.[1]

In June 1917 there were experimantations with a circular 250 circular magazine, but trials revealed reliability issues since it couldn't be supported from the bottom. Basically, the gun mechanisms didn't have enough force to keep up the weight of such a bulky and unsupported magazine and to cycle it reliably at the same time. The 100 round magazine had the same issues, that was solved on Aircraft mounted machineguns by adding a base plate to support the weight of the magazine and facilitate its cycling.

The magazine system was changed in the 1935 update to a belt system and it wasn't used by any other italian ordnance.

Variants

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- Mitragliatrice Automatica "Revelli", Mitragliatrice Automatica "Revelli-FIAT" Mod. 1910[11][10][17]

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Early version, without water jacket, with a floating, fluted heavy barrel. Production of prototypes for trial was soon overtaken by FIAT.

- Mitragliatrice Fiat Mod. 1914 con refrigerante[18]

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Standard Infantry version with water jacket. The most produced, widespread and the most known in popular culture.

- Mitragliatrice Fiat Mod. 1914 con canna ad alette e supporto Aviatori[19]

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Aviation variant, with perforated heat shield and heavy fluted barrel. It was designed to swivel and be used to defend the airplane from the front or from the rear, depending on the plane model.

Further development

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Some sources claim that it had a cartridge-oiling system, but the weapon manual does not mention its presence, and it seems that only a 1930 version briefly incorporated such a system.[20]

The machine gun saw some use within armored vehicles, such as the Ansaldo Light Tank Prototype 1931,[21] a precursor to the L3/33 tankette.

It was developed into the Fiat–Revelli Modello 1935.

Users

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Fiat–Revelli Modello 1935

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This section is an excerpt from Fiat–Revelli Modello 1935.[edit]
A Fiat-Revelli 35, mounted on its tripod.
The Fiat–Revelli Modello 1935 was an Italian machine gun, a modified version of the Fiat–Revelli Modello 1914, which had equipped the Italian Army of World War I.[22] It was a vast improvement on the early model, offering superior penetration power due to the adoption of belt fed 8mm (8×59) rounds. The Modello 35 also omitted the oil reservoir found on the earlier Modello 14. Later it was found that the new chamber still jammed and rounds had to be lubricated before use. Despite its faults the Modello 35 saw extensive action during World War II.[23]
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Fiat–Revelli Modello 1935
  • Italian soldiers aiming a Fiat-Revelli 35.
    Italian soldiers aiming a Fiat-Revelli 35.
  • Italian soldiers firing a Fiat-Revelli 35.
    Italian soldiers firing a Fiat-Revelli 35.

See also

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Notes

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Popenker 2010
  2. ^ Popenker 2010
  3. ^ Esdaile 2018
  4. ^ a b c Revelli 1914.
  5. ^ Gucci 1918.
  6. ^ Manganoni 1930.
  7. ^ Comando 7a Armata 1918.
  8. ^ Grandi 1938.
  9. ^ Menarini, Giuseppe (15 April 1909). "La mitragliatrice automatica "Revelli"". La nuova rivista di Fanteria. p. 270.
  10. ^ a b Pocobelli, Gustavo (15 July 1909). "Mitragliatrici e ciclisti". La nuova rivista di Fanteria. p. 550.
  11. ^ a b Sacchi, Ettore (7 March 1911). "Gli esperimenti di una nuova mitragliatrice". Rassegna dei lavori pubblici e delle strade ferrate. p. 189.
  12. ^ "Foglio D'annunzi della Rivista Marittima". Rivista Marittima. 1 December 1913. p. 1.
  13. ^ Montù 1948, p. 758, 771<nowiki>
  14. ^ Revelli 1914, p. 16<nowiki>
  15. ^ Big set N°20 Armi della fanteria (infantry weapons) by John Weeks
  16. ^ Stabilimento Costruzioni Areonautiche. "Relazione sui lavori compiuti dal suddetto Reparto nel mese di dicembre 1916". Reparto Artiglieria Aerea.
  17. ^ Enciclopedia Militare. 1933. p. 495.
  18. ^ Revelli 1914, p. 56<nowiki>
  19. ^ Revelli 1914, pp. 55–56<nowiki>
  20. ^ Segal 2023
  21. ^ Hills 2020.
  22. ^ Popenker 2010
  23. ^ "MITRAGLIATRICE MODELLO 35". quartermastersection.com. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
Sources
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fiat-Revelli.