Post by volkssturm on Aug 27, 2018 14:49:11 GMT -5
Here's a video from Forgotten Weapons about the Italian Carcano M38 carbine.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-lJZPF_fJQ&t=105s
The Italian nomenclature gets rather confusing, because what he has is frequently called a carbine, the Italians called it a short rifle (Fucile Corto). There were also cavalry carbines a good bit shorter, and carbines that were only a few inches shorter. There was also the M91/38, which was basically the M38 but in the old 6.5x52mm cartridge. I'm still trying to sort them all out.
But anyway, the key points of the video is that the Italians after WWI made a great leap in small arms thinking. The concept of the "short rifle" for both infantry and cavalry dated to pre-WWI I nthe US and UK, with the Springfield and the SMLE (Short Magazine Lee Enfield). Both of these still used adjustable sights graduated out beyond a thousand yards. Most everyone else, including the Italians, went through WWI with a long infantry rifle. After the war the Italians came to the conclusion that the long barrel was a pain in the ass in trench warfare and didn't serve any purpose. Nobody was seriously shooting at anything beyond about 300 meters. And in the middle of a battle no one was fussing with sight adjustments. So they came up with the M38, a short rifle with fixed sights set for 200 meters. This concept was, and still is to some extent, heresy. But the rifle is sighted in at the factory and short of major trauma nothing is going to change, unlike and adjustable sight which can be damaged fairly easily or inadvertently changed. It's worth noting that the original M1 Carbine sight was a flip over thing with two preset ranges. The original AR-15 / M16 rear sight was also a flip design (100 and 300 meters, if I remember), with fine adjustment being done by raising or lowering the front post, which was generally done once on the range and then left alone.
Unfortunately for the Italians, they also decided to change calibers along with the new M38, adopting the 7.35x51mm, but then the war started before they could re-equip with the new rifles. Since most Italian troops were still armed with older weapons, they retained the original 6.5mm, modified the M38 to the M91/38, and developed a shorter version of the old Model 1891 as the M91/41. Some 70,000 M38's were sold to Finland, where they were mostly issued to Home Guard and rear echelon troops because of the uncommon ammunition. While far from the best weapons of WWII, the Carcanos have an undeservedly bad reputation.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-lJZPF_fJQ&t=105s
The Italian nomenclature gets rather confusing, because what he has is frequently called a carbine, the Italians called it a short rifle (Fucile Corto). There were also cavalry carbines a good bit shorter, and carbines that were only a few inches shorter. There was also the M91/38, which was basically the M38 but in the old 6.5x52mm cartridge. I'm still trying to sort them all out.
But anyway, the key points of the video is that the Italians after WWI made a great leap in small arms thinking. The concept of the "short rifle" for both infantry and cavalry dated to pre-WWI I nthe US and UK, with the Springfield and the SMLE (Short Magazine Lee Enfield). Both of these still used adjustable sights graduated out beyond a thousand yards. Most everyone else, including the Italians, went through WWI with a long infantry rifle. After the war the Italians came to the conclusion that the long barrel was a pain in the ass in trench warfare and didn't serve any purpose. Nobody was seriously shooting at anything beyond about 300 meters. And in the middle of a battle no one was fussing with sight adjustments. So they came up with the M38, a short rifle with fixed sights set for 200 meters. This concept was, and still is to some extent, heresy. But the rifle is sighted in at the factory and short of major trauma nothing is going to change, unlike and adjustable sight which can be damaged fairly easily or inadvertently changed. It's worth noting that the original M1 Carbine sight was a flip over thing with two preset ranges. The original AR-15 / M16 rear sight was also a flip design (100 and 300 meters, if I remember), with fine adjustment being done by raising or lowering the front post, which was generally done once on the range and then left alone.
Unfortunately for the Italians, they also decided to change calibers along with the new M38, adopting the 7.35x51mm, but then the war started before they could re-equip with the new rifles. Since most Italian troops were still armed with older weapons, they retained the original 6.5mm, modified the M38 to the M91/38, and developed a shorter version of the old Model 1891 as the M91/41. Some 70,000 M38's were sold to Finland, where they were mostly issued to Home Guard and rear echelon troops because of the uncommon ammunition. While far from the best weapons of WWII, the Carcanos have an undeservedly bad reputation.