Italian rifle

[Panzergrenadier2967]

Did Italians use in WW2 (before 8th September) K98 rifles in REI (Regio Esercito Italiano) or Royal Italian Army? For example in Russia.

[Poot]

Italian troops used Carcano bolt-action rifles and carbines. Italian Beretta SMGs were also in use, but not as widespread. I have not seen any period photos of Italian troops using K98k rifles, which is no surprise since there was no Italian supply chain for 7.92X57mm ammunition.

[Panzergrenadier2967]

I saw some Italian SS with K98s (but the common rifle was Carcano91) so I asked if they used it before armistice

[jwsleser]

No German small arms were used by the RE during the war. The RSI units sent for training in Germany (1944) were trained and issued German weapons. RSI units that remained in Italy (trained and equipped in-country) used a mix, depending on whether they could get Germans weapons. The RSI did extensively use German grenades and hand-held A/T weapons.

Pista! Jeff

[Phaing]

Let's flip this around; Didn't the Germans use Italian small arms?
I recall seeing a pic of a German Paratrooper standing guard with a Beretta slung over his back.

Weren't the Italian rifles roughly equivalent to the Mosin-Nagant?
Aside from caliber, I mean.

[jwsleser]

The MAB 38A was a very popular weapon with the Germans. The Germans captures significant stocks and continued to produce the MAB during the RSI period. It was an excellent SMG and it helped that it was already chambered in 9mm parabellum, the standard German 9mm round. The Beretta M34 and M35 were also fairly popular and continued in production as well.

You see some Breda 37s used by Germans and occasionally some other weapons (mainly AA guns and the like), but the main Italian small arms, the Carcano rifles and the Breda 30s, were only used to equipped allies and security forces.

People can argue back and forth about it, but the M91 series Carcano was a very serviceable military rifle. As it was not a German caliber, there was no reason to use it. While the rifle itself could be rechambered, the magazine system couldn't be altered to handle the German 7.92mm round. Some Carcanos were converted to 7.92mm in the closing years of the war because of small arms shortages. These were essentially single-shot and only a limited number of the conversions were completed.

Pista! Jeff

[Poot]

Let's flip this around; Didn't the Germans use Italian small arms?
I recall seeing a of a German Paratrooper standing guard with a Beretta slung over his back. pic

Weren't the Italian rifles roughly equivalent to the Mosin-Nagant?
Aside from caliber, I mean.

As noted above, they did. Just under 400,000 Italian rifles were noted (in December 1943) as having been seized by German forces after the September 1943 armistice with the Allies. They saw extensive use for the rest of the war, and not just in the Volkssturm. There are many photos of Luftwaffe, Fallschirmjager, Heer and Ordnungspolizei units armed with Carcanos.

Carcanos are quite different than Mosin-Nagants.