Italian Artillery

Cannone Da 47/32 M35



The little Böhler 47mm anti-tank gun was first produced in 1935 and is thus sometimes known as the Model 35. It was first produced in Austria but its use soon spread outside Austria and licenses to produce the gun were taken up by Italy. In fact the Italian production run reached a point where the Böhler gun became regarded as an indigenous Italian weapon, the Canone da 47/32 M35.

It was built in two versions, the first with semipneumatic disk wheels, and the second (in 1939, from which the name 47/32 mod. 39) with improved barrel and suspension (in some series also electron wheels with celerflex semipneumatics).

To tow this piece, the tractor OCI-780 CM and the light tank L3 were used, but these projects were soon abandoned as the gun was subjected to braking at the axels spindles and shanks.

The Böhler gun was a handy weapon that was soon diverted into other roles. It was widely issued as an infantry gun and, as it could be rapidly broken down into a number of pack loads, it was also employed as a mountain gun. Although it turned out that the gun was something of a multi-purpose weapon, it was not extremely successful in any of these extra roles. It did prove to be a fairly effective anti-tank gun however and was widely used during the early years of the war. Italy was the main user, but other nations also employed the gun including the Netherlands (Kanon van 4.7) and the type turned up in the Soviet Union as the M35B. Germany also received a number of these weapons when they took over Austria and they were called the 47mm PaK.

This weapon was also employed as the "autocannoni" AS37 and AS43, on the tanks of the M series, on the L6/40, on armoured diesel-electric trains, and on armed train cars, in fixed positions.

Thanks to its light weight and the capability of being dropped with a parachute, it was widely used by airborne troops, and had extensive use on every front.

The gun could fire both armor piercing and high explosive projectiles, the latter having a range of 7,000 meters to provide the gun with a useful infantry support role. As the armor thickness of tanks increased, the Böhler increasingly assumed this infantry support role.

Cannone Da 75/32 Modello 37



When Italy emerged from World War I its economy, never particularly sound, was in no state to support a rearmament program and thus the weapons were mainly from reparations received from Austria-Hungary, and the army was otherwise left to cope with what it already had. By the 1930s even the large number of weapons at hand were seen to be no real answer to the more modern designs, so a program of new weapon design was undertaken. The first weapons to be considered were those of the field artillery and thus the first post-war artillery design to be introduced since 1918 was the Cannone da 75/32 modello 37.

The new gun was an Ansaldo design. It was a good, sound and modern idea that was intended from the outset for powered traction. It had a long barrel refitted for a muzzle brake and had a high enough muzzle velocity that it could be usefully employed on occasion as an anti-tank weapon. When the split trail was deployed it provided a traverse of 50 degrees, which was no doubt useful in armored warfare. But this was rather negated by the need of large trail spades that were hammered into the ground through the trial legs so that a rapid change of traverse angle was not easy. Even with this slight disadvantage the modello 37 was a very useful field gun and the Italian gunners clamored for as many as they could get. Unfortunately they clamored in vain as Italian industry was in no position to provide the numbers required. There was simply no industrial potential to spare to produce the guns and all the raw materials, or at least the bulk of them, had to be imported. Thus gun production had to get underway at a time when all other arms of the Italian forces were in the process or rearming. The air force was given a far higher degree of priority over the artillery and the Italian Navy was absorbing a large portion of the few available manufacturing and raw material resources. So demand for the modello 37 constantly exceeded supply and by 1943 most of the Italian artillery was still made up of weapons that dated from World War I or earlier.

In 1943 the Italians changed sides. The Germans had already noted the finer points of the modello 37 and as Italy withdrew from the Axis partnership, the Germans swiftly moved in to take over as much of the Italian armory as possible. In this grab, a large number of modello 37s changed their designation to 7.5mm FK 481(i). The Germans used them until the war ended not only in Italy, but in the fight against the Yugoslavian partisan forces.

Cannone Da 75/18 Modello 37



Ever since the establishment of Italy as a nation, a certain sector of its armed forces has associated itself with the specialized art of mountain warfare. This has included the provision of special types of artillery adapted for the mountain role. Many of these mountain artillery pieces came from Skoda. By the 1930’s much of the mountain artillery material was obsolescent and overdue for replacement.

The Italian firm of Ansaldo undertook to produce a new mountain howitzer design. By 1934 this had emerged as the Obice da 75/18 modello 34, a sound and thoroughly useful little howitzer that was intended for the mountain role and could thus be broken down into eight loads for transport. In the interest of standardization and logistics it was decided that the 75/18 modello 34 was just what was required as the light howitzer component of the normal field batteries. Thus the 75/18 modello 34 was ordered for them as well, but using a more orthodox carriage with no provision for being broken down into loads. This field version became known as the Obice da 75/10 modello 35. The modello 35 was ordered into production, but could not be produced in the numbers required. This was despite the fact that the carriage used had many features in common with the later modello 37 gun, and the same barrel and recoil mechanism that was used for the mountain howitzer was also used on the modello 35.

The supply situation was not eased in any way by the need for the Italians to sell the modello 35 abroad in order to obtain foreign currency. In 1940 a sizeable batch was sold to Portugal, and more went to South American countries in exchange for raw materials. More production capacity was diverted to the production of versions for use on various forms of Semovante self-propelled guns, but very few of these ever reached the troops. Those that did proved to be very efficient as any of the comparable German assault guns. After 1943, the Germans took the modello 35 under their control as quickly as they took over the rest of the available Italian guns and used the modello 35 as the 7.5cm leFh 255(i).

Cannone Da 90/53



Of all the anti-aircraft guns in service with Italy from 1941-1943, none was better than the Cannone da 90/53. It was an excellent weapon that could stand comparison with any of its contemporaries and it was a good, sound and modern design. The Cannone da 90/53 was built and designed by Ansaldo and the first examples were produced in 1939, with production being authorized in three main versions. The most numerous version was supposed to be the modello 41P intended for static emplacement only with 1,087 guns of this version being ordered. A further 660 guns were ordered as the towed modello 41C, while another order was for a further 57 guns to be mounted on a variety of heavy trucks and called the autocannoni da 90/53. A later order requested yet another 30 barrels for mounting on self-propelled tracked vehicles.

Ordering these weapons was one thing, but producing them was another and the final production figures never reached the optimistic totals. By July 1943 only 539 weapons of all variants had been delivered. In July 1943, the production line fell into German hands and was continued for German use alone. German forces in North Africa had already had the 90/53 in service for some time as they recognized it was a good gun comparable with their own 88. At first the 90/53 resembled the 88 Flak 18 and Flak 37 weapons, but there were many differences and the similarities were only superficial. The 90/53 had a pivot carriage mounted on a cruciform platform, but on the carriage itself the arrangement of the fire control instruments was quite different from those of the German guns. In addition, the barrel was a one-piece construction instead of the multi-section arrangement of the German 88s.

The Italians used the 90/53 as a multi-purpose weapon on occasion, but some were emplaced as dual-purpose anti- aircraft/coast defense weapons. At times they were used as long-range field guns and the performance of the gun was such that it could match the 88 as an anti-armor weapon. Numbers of the gun were also diverted to the Italian Navy. The Germans valued the 90/53 so highly that following the Italian surrender in July 1943, they impressed as many of the 90/53s as they could find and sent many of them back to Germany for defense of the Reich as the 9-cm Flak 41(i), although the official designation was the 9-cm Flak 309/l(i). By December 1944, 315 such guns are mentioned in German records, though many were emplaced in Northern Italy. The Allies too captured many 90/53s in their march north and used them for the coast defense role with British coastal batteries around the main Italian captured ports.

Cannone Da 105/28



In the first decade of the 20th Century the French Schneider concern took over the Russian Putilov armaments factory as part of a deliberate plan of commercial expansion. Putilov had for long been the main Russian armament concern, but during the early 1900s had been restricted in its expansionist ideas by the backwardness of the Russian commercial scene, so the infusion of French capital was a decided advantage.

Among the designs found on the Putilov drawing boards was an advanced design of a 107mm field gun that appeared to offer considerable increase in range and efficiency over comparable models. Schneider eagerly developed the model and offered it to the French army that was at first not interested as the 75 was all it required and there was no need for heavier weapons. But eventually the Schneider sales approach triumphed and the Russian design was adopted by the French army as the Canon de 105 modele 1913 Schneider, more usually known as the L 13 S. The events of 1914 rammed home to the French that fact that the 75 was not capable of supplying all the artillery fire support required, and that heavier guns would be necessary. Thus the L 13 S was placed in higher priority bracket and large numbers began to roll off the Schneider production lines.

Between 1914 and 1918 the L 13 S provided sterling service. It was a handsome gun with a long barrel and conventional box trial that provided enough elevation for for the 15.74 kg shell to reach a range of 12,000 meters. After 1918 the L 13 S became a French export as it was either sold or handed on to numerous armies under French influence. These nations included Belgium, Poland and Yugoslavia, but it was in Italy that the L 13 S achieved its main market penetration. There the L 13 S became the Canone da 105/28 and it remained one of the Italian forces until 1943. The Poles modified their L 13 S guns to take their new split trail design, and this armata wz 29 was still in service when the Germans attacked in 1939.

After 1940 the Germans found that the L 13 S was still a viable weapon and out of the 854 still in French service in May 1940, they captured many that were still intact. Large numbers were handed over to various occupation units but it was not until 1941 that a real use was found for the bulk of the booty. When the Atlantic Wall was ready to be armed, the L 13 S was decided upon as one of the primary weapons to be used. There were enough on hand to become a standard weapon, and there were stockpiles of ammunition ready for use. Thus the L 13 S became the German 10.5-cm K 331(f). Ex- Belgian guns were given the designation 10.5-cm K 333(b).

The Germans took the guns off their carriages and mounted them on special turntables and protected them by curved or armored shields. These were placed in bunkers all along the French and other coasts. As a beach defense gun the L 13 S was more than suitable, and the bunkers were difficult for any attacking force to overcome. Not all of the guns in these bunkers were ex-French and Belgian guns, but included ex-Yugoslav (10.5-cm K 338(j)) and ex-Polish (10.5-cm K 13 (p)) and ex-Italian guns (10.5-cm K 338(i)) as well.

Cannone-Mitragliera Da 20/65 Modello 35 (Breda)



One of the two standard Italian 20mm anti-aircraft guns was the Cannone-Mitragliera da 20/65 modello 35 (Breda) that was first manuafctured in 1934. The Breda was designed as a dual purpose weapon for use against ground and air targets and was taken into service by the Italian army in 1935. The 20mm Breda was a very effective weapon and was much used by the Italian army. It had a rather complicated twin-wheeled carriage that could be towed into action behind a truck but that was light enough to be broken down into four pack loads for man or mule carriage. In action the gun required a three-man crew. The aimer sat on the gun and used a complex telescopic sight incorporating a predictor function. Ammunition was fed into the gun on 12-round trays and the feed mechanism contained the feature of placing the spent cartridges back into the tray once it was fired. This feature appeared on many Italian automatic weapons and had the advantage of keeping the gun position tidy.

Against ground targets the gun fired armor-piercing rounds. Aircraft targets were engaged with a high explosive projectile that incorporated a very sensitive percussion fuse to operate against light aircraft structures. The projectile also had a self-destruct feature if it did not hit a target. The tripod platform of the gun provided a steady base for firing and against aircraft the gun proved very successful. Against tanks it was less effective, but any weapons captured by the Allies during the North African campaigns were usually mounted on the light armored cars to provide them with more offensive capability than a machine gun provided. The Germans also took over numbers of Breda guns for their own use in North Africa under the designation 2-cm Breda (i). Breda guns were also given to the German allies after Italy’s surrender, such as Slovakia, and was used in China as well. There was also a modello 39 that was a more complex weapon on a static pedestal type mounting on which the gun itself was suspended below curved arms that carried the sighting system. This version was usually retained for homeland defense of Italy.

Obice da 210/25 Howitzer



During the late 1930s, the Italian Army decided to replace the bulk of their heavy artillery park that by that time resembled an oversize military museum with all the World War I pieces. The army selected two good and thoroughly modern designs, one a gun with a caliber of 149mm and a howitzer with a caliber of 210mm.

An Italian Army team designed the 210mm howitzer, but Ansaldo produced the howitzer. The howitzer was known as the Obice da 210/22 modello 35. Although shown in prototype form in 1935, it was not accepted for service until 1938 when a production order for no less than 346 was placed. The modello 35 was a very sound and modern design. It used a split trail carriage with two road wheels on each side. When the howitzer went into action these wheels were raised off the ground and the weight was assumed by a firing platform under the main axle. The entire weapon could then be traversed 360 degrees once the stakes that anchored the trail spades to the ground had been raised.

The main problem for the Italians was that having designed a first-rate howitzer, they could not produce it quickly enough. Despite the good intentions of the Italian Army not to enter the war with the antiquated gun park still largely undisturbed by modern equipment, by the autumn of 1942, only 20 modello 35s had been built – 5 were retained in Italy and 15 were in action on the Eastern Front. Part of the state of affairs was due to the fact that despite the requirements of the Italian Army, modello 35s were sold to Hungary as they came off the assembly line in exchange for raw materials and food. The Hungarians found it necessary to make their own carriage modifications to suit this 21-cm 39.M to the rigors of their service and eventually set up their own 21-cm 40.M and finally 21-cm 40a.M production line in 1943.

In service the modello 35 was successful enough. It could be transported in two loads, but for prolonged moves it could be broken down further into four loads with extra loads for assembly equipment and accessories. The modello 35 attracted the attention of the Germans and, when the Italians surrendered in 1943, Ansaldo was forced to continue production of the modello 35 for the German units in Italy and in German service was known as the 21-cm Haubitze 532(i) and was still in action when the war ended.

After 1945 attempts were made By Ansaldo to sell the modello 35 on the home and export market. There were no takers as the home market was sated with American equipment that was freely supplied to the Italian Army and war surplus equipment was freely available elsewhere.