Italian Resistance Movement - Weaponry

Weaponry

Just like their European counterparts, Italian partisans seized whatever gun they could find. The first weapons were brought by ex-soldiers willing to carry on the fight against Germans and fascists, and came from the Regio Esercito inventory: Carcano rifles, Beretta M 1934 and M1935 pistols, Bodeo M1889 revolvers, SRCM and OTO hand grenades, Fiat-Revelli Modello 1935, Breda 30 and Breda M37 machine guns. As time went by, captured K98ks, MG34s, MG42s and of course the iconic potato mashers, Lugers and Walther P38s were added to partisan kits. Submachine guns such as the MP 40 were initially scarce and, usually, reserved to squad leaders. Automatic weapons became more common as they were captured in combat, or RSI soldiers started to defect to the underground bringing in their own gear. The much beloved Beretta MABs started to appear in larger numbers since October 1943, when they were spirited away en masse from the Beretta factory which was producing them for the Wehrmacht.
Additional weapons, chiefly of British origin, were airdropped by the Allies: PIATs, Lee-Enfield rifles, Bren light machine guns, and above all Sten guns. US-made weapons were provided in a smaller scale courtesy of the OSS: mostly Thompson submachine guns (both M1928 and M1), M3 Grease Guns, United Defense M42s, and some scarce examples of folding stock M1 Carbines. Besides this, supplies included explosives, clothing, boots, food rations and even cash that the partisans would use to pay for their weapons or hand over to civilians as a compensation for the confiscations they had made for their survival.