Notes: The designer of this weapon is Gino Revelli, who also designed the Fiat-Revelli machinegun and the Glisenti pistol. This should give you some idea what kind of mechanical nightmare this weapon is. When fired, the entire barrel of the weapon slides back 10 millimeters to allow the bolt to unlock. The barrel was kept in its track by large retaining bolts, and the charging handle had to be pulled back by pulling on the front of the sling. Luckily, only about 500 of these rifles were built and forced into the hands of unlucky Italian soldiers during World War 2, with a change in caliber helping to ensure the slowness of their manufacture by requiring a tooling change soon after the beginning of its manufacture.

Notes: Shortly after World War 2, Beretta began to manufacture the M-1 Garand rifle for the Italian, Indonesian, and Danish armies. As years went by, the need for a more modern weapon became apparent, and the M-1 Garand was modified into a selective fire weapon chambered for the then-new 7.62mm NATO cartridge and feed from a detachable box magazine.

Beretta’s first BM-59s were produced in 1958; they were essentially M-1 Garands with a minimum of modifications. The barrel was shortened to 19.35 inches, a lighter weight of wood was used for the furniture, the rifle was given selective-fire capability, and of course the chambering was changed and a box-feed ability was added (in addition to the ability to top off the magazine from the top of the receiver using chargers). For about a year, this was the BM-59. The BM-59D, introduced in 1959, was essentially the same weapon, but with a deeper pistol grip wrist. The original cyclic rate, about 800 rpm, was then judged to be too high; this resulted in the BM-59R later that year, with a cyclic rate reducer. (In game terms, however, this has no effect, and the BM-59, BM-59D, and BM-59R are identical for game purposes.) A bit later that year, the BM-59GL was also introduced, with a muzzle device added allowing for the firing of rifle grenades.

At this point, variations of the BM-59 proliferated wildly. 1960’s BM-59 Mk I had a trigger with a somewhat lighter pull and a barrel tipped with what Beretta called a "tri-compensator" – it served as a flash suppressor, could fit NATO-pattern rifle grenades, and also functioned as a low-grade compensator. A modification of the Mk I designed with an extra selector setting for three-round bursts (the BM-59 CB) was also built, but never put into even low-level production. 1961’s BM-59 Mk II had an altered stock with a true pistol grip, a winter trigger guard, and a folding bipod attached under the gas block. At about the same time as the Mk II, the Mk III was introduced; this version had a folding tubular triangular-shaped stock with a well-made buttplate, in addition to a foregrip under the handguard and the bipod deleted. In 1962, the Mk IV version was introduced; it was designed to be a light support version a la the M-14A1, and had a plastic stock similar in shape to that of the M-14A1 as well as a hinged shoulder support, a heavy barrel, and a folding bipod.

In 1962, the BM-59 Mk Ital was introduced, and it became the standard BM-59 for most of the rifle’s service. It is essentially a conventionally-stocked rifle made of weatherproofed walnut, a folding bipod with a mount that wrapped around the gas tube, and a special folding sight for rifle grenades behind the standard front sight. (When this sight is raised into position, the gas tube is virtually closed to allow grenade firing.) A folding-stock version, the Mk Ital A, was also designed, and is identical to the Mk Ital except for that stock.

The BM-59 Ital Alpini was based on the Mk III; it had the same folding stock, foregrip, absence of a bipod, and also had a winter trigger guard and trigger group. The Ital Paracudisti has shorter 18.21-inch barrel, a detachable muzzle device, and no winter trigger group or guard, but was otherwise similar to the Ital Alpini. Finally, a civilian model, the BM-59 SL, was also put on the market; it is essentially a BM-59D restricted to semiautomatic fire and with no bayonet lug.

Notes: This weapon was one of several tried out by the Italian Army and used in the inter-war years and during World War 2. It is an entirely ordinary gas-operated semiautomatic rifle with a straight wrist stock instead of having any sort of pistol grip. This could make it uncomfortable to fire, and production costs also tended to run a bit high. As a result, it was not adopted in any large numbers. The bottom of the integral magazine also pivoted forward to load it, a somewhat unusual feature. The BM-937 was a short rifle version of the BM-931, and was also chambered for different ammunition. This rifle was top-loaded in a conventional manner, dispensing with the forward-pivoting magazine housing.

Notes: Despite the cartridge it fires, the PG is sometimes cited as an early ancestor of assault rifle development. It was produced in small numbers between 1935 and 1936 (when about 850 were built), and it had modern features such as a high-capacity magazine, short barrel, gas operation, sights calibrated for short range, burst firing capability, and other such modern design features. However it was not without its faults, the chief of which being that it is a beastly heavy weapon despite its small dimensions. It also has a very complicated firing mechanism, particularly in the burst mechanism. The only known sales were to Costa Rica.

Notes: This rifle was built for the Japanese Army at the beginning of hostilities between that country and China. Japan found herself with too few rifles for all its troops, and made an emergency order for rifles from Italy. Italy offered a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle modified to fire 6.5mm Arisaka ammunition, a butt 20 millimeters shorter, and using the Japanese 38^th Year bayonet. In addition, most of the makings on the rifle were translated to their Japanese equivalents. Some 60,000 were bought by the Japanese and distributed to their troops.

Notes: This was one of the Italian Army’s primary service weapons from 1891 to 1945. The TS (Truppo Special) carbine is the most common version of the M-1891 system. It is basically a Mauser-type rifle, with a Mannlicher-type magazine, and a new bolt safety system. These carbines were mostly sold off in large numbers after World War 2, an act from which its greatest infamy came: it was the weapon Lee Harvey Oswald used to shoot John F. Kennedy.