I recently acquired this round. While it has unfortunately had a hole drilled in it, I believe these are quite scarce. It is also interesting (to me anyway) in its own way. It could have been a British soldier’s souvenir from North Africa which they inerted themselves. How widely did Italy use the 13.2mm Hotckiss. Am I correct that they were mainly used by the Regia Auronautica Italiana?
Is inspector “C.T.” known or not?
Is “VIII” the month (8 - August) or something else?
Thanks for any info.
The 13.2mm Hotchkiss round was used in the Breda M31 HMG which was fitted to some light tanks and also (I believe) used by the Italian navy (I recall seeing a pic of some multiple mountings on submarines).
The Italian Air Force never used the 13.2mm cartridge (AFAIK the only aircraft which did were Swedish and Romanian); they used the 12.7x81 SR (Vickers export .5 inch) instead, in Breda-SAFAT and Scotti MGs.
I “lifted” this list from a “closed” forum so can’t give credit (written by “historian”)
A.A Aldo Adamo Pirotecnico di Capua From 1936 to 1940
A.C Unknown Pirotecnico di Bologna after 1890
A.S Unknown Pirotecnico di Capua From 1959
B.P Unknown Pirotecnico di Capua From 1942 to 1963
B.P Boschesi Pietro Pirotecnico di Bologna From 1899 to 1918
C.A Alfredo Cavallo Pirotecnico di Bologna From 1939 to 1942
C.A Alfredo Cavalli Pirotecnico di Capua From 1939 to 1942
C.R Unknown Pirotecnico di capua From 1889
DCE Unknown (perhaps: Direzione Centrale Esercito) Pirotecnico di Capua From 1953 to 1955
E.S Unknown Pirotecnico di Capua From 1899 to 1911
F.O Unknown Pirotecnico di Torino From 1888
F.P Unknown Pirotecnico di Bologna From 1902 to 1928
F.P Unknown Pirotecnico di Capua From 1910
G.D Unknown Pirotecnico di Capua From 1882 to 1892
L.N Nicola Leggiadore Pirotecnico di Capua From 1914 to 1935
P.S Unknown Pirotecnico di Capua From 1894
P.V Vincenzo Pascarello Pirotecnico di Capua From 1943 to 1946
R.M Mario Rubino Pirotecnico di Bologna From 1914 to 1944
S.A Unknown Pirotecnico di Bologna From 1885 to 1899
S.A Unknown Pirotecnico di Capua From 1951 to 1957
S B Santoro Bernardo Pirotecnico di Bologna From 1916 to 1918
S.G Unknown Pirotecnico di Capua From 1952 to 1962
S.L Scotti Luigi Pirotecnico di Bologna From 1890 to 1900
T.M Unknown Pirotecnico di Bologna From 1935 to 1939
T.R Unknown Pirotecnico di Bologna From 1915 to 1943
T.R Unknown Pirotecnico di Capua From 1911 to 1913
V.S Unknown Pirotecnico di Capua From 1892
Z.G Gaetano Zangari Pirotecnico di Capua From 1935 to 1936
But, according to Municion.org, C.T.= Campo Tizzoro.
I would think Municion is correct on this one: SMI did have a facility at Campo Tizzoro and, I believe, inspectors’ initials were not ordinarily found on cartridges produced by commercial firms. Jack
[quote=“TonyWilliams”]The 13.2mm Hotchkiss round was used in the Breda M31 HMG which was fitted to some light tanks and also (I believe) used by the Italian navy (I recall seeing a pic of some multiple mountings on submarines).
The Italian Air Force never used the 13.2mm cartridge (AFAIK the only aircraft which did were Swedish and Romanian); they used the 12.7x81 SR (Vickers export .5 inch) instead, in Breda-SAFAT and Scotti MGs.[/quote]
13,2x99 was mainly an Italian Navy ammunition and Breda 31 HMG was the backbone of short range AAA during the '30s, with the 40 mm Vickers and 37 mm Breda.
During this period this HMG was on of cruisers, destroyers, torpedo boats, submarines ad MAS but towards the end of '30s was replaced by Breda and Scotti 20 mm HMG, remaining practically only on submarines, MAS and auxiliary vessels.
Italian Army experimented the Breda 31 on CV tankettes during the '30s (five sold to Brazil in 1938) and installed this weapon only on Armoured Command Vehicles of self propelled artillery units (75/18, 75/34, 105/25) on M41 and M42 tank chassis.
These weapons used a 12 rounds magazine, specially designed for use in AFV.
Regards
stecol