Breda 30 - Combat Performance

Combat Performance

Although distinctive in appearance, the Breda 30 was widely viewed as a poorly designed weapon. It had a slow rate of fire (although this increased accuracy), low magazine capacity, used the underpowered and unreliable 6.5×52mm cartridge and was highly prone to jamming. The vital oiling system quickly picked up dust and debris, making the weapon unreliable in combat conditions.

The Breda also lacked a handle for changing the barrel, and the rear and fore sight were both on the gun body, so only one barrel could be zeroed. The magazine was loaded using 20 round stripper clips, which were known to be fragile, especially in combat conditions. In North Africa the weapon was nearly unusable: desert sand and dust caused the weapon to jam continuously. The oil from the lubrication necessary to fire the Breda exacerbated its flaws. In the Balkans, Russian Campaign and other theatres of war the weapon achieved slightly better results.

Low magazine capacity, frequent jamming and the complicated barrel-change made firing and reloading a slow and laborious process, resulting in the Breda 30 being a weapon only capable of laying down a diminutive amount of firepower and making it a very modest contributor to a firefight. When considering all of the gun's deficiencies, taken during combat when it was at its worst, the practical rate of fire of the Breda 30 could even have been comparable to a semi-automatic weapon's practical rate of fire, as the standard American rifle was (the M1 Garand).

Although considerably flawed when compared to its contemporaries, the Breda 30 was still considered the deadliest weapon of the standard Italian infantryman's arsenal, since heavy machine guns were seen in relatively small numbers and submachine guns were very rare. The Breda 30 along with the Carcano M91 rifle made up the backbone of the Italian infantry armament during the Second World War. Field reports on the weapon were of mixed nature: the Breda's very slow rate of fire often resulted in a turning of the tide during a firefight against Italian soldiers; however, the Breda 30, in most occasions, was the fastest and most helpful weapon available. The Italian army attempted to counter the Breda's defects by stressing the importance of the loader's role: every soldier was trained to eventually be a Breda 30 loader and taught how to rapidly feed one ammunition strip after another (this was not always possible, as with Breda 30s mounted on motorcycles). Careful polishing was also carried out frequently with extra attention being paid to Breda's lubricantion system and ammunition availability.