Villar-Perosa aircraft submachine gun

Villar-Perosa
Type Submachine gun
Place of origin  Kingdom of Italy
Service history
Used by See users
Wars World War I
Production history
Designed 1914
Specifications
Weight 6.5 kg (14 lb)
Length 90 cm (35 in)
Cartridge 9 mm Glisenti
Barrels 2 side by side
Action blowback
Rate of fire 3,000 round/min
Muzzle velocity 1,050 ft/s (320 m/s)
Effective firing range 1,800 m (2,000 yd)
Feed system Box Magazine

The Villar Perosa M15 was an Italian portable automatic firearm developed during the World War I by the Officine di Villar Perosa.

Originally designed to be used by the second crew member/observer of military aeroplanes, it was later issued to ground troops. Between May and November 1916 a section was assigned to each infantry battalion of the Italian army and from May 1917 the number of sections was increased to 3 per battalion. The weapon was first used at the 12th Battle of Isonzo.

While it was designed to use 9mm pistol ammunition, it is not a 'true' submachine gun because of its intention to be used as a mounted weapon.

Design

The Villar Perosa was designed as a portable double barrel machine gun firing a 9mm round. It consisted of two independent coupled weapons, each with its own barrel firing mechanism and separate 25-round magazine.

As it was originally designed to be operated from airplanes it had a high rate of fire of over 1,500 rounds per minute. However, in practice the 9mm munition was not sufficiently powerful to shoot down aircraft, which had become ever more resistant over the course of the war, and in addition the range was inadequate.

Legacy

The mechanism of the VP was a sound design, and shortly after the end of the war was used as the basis of a more practical weapon, the Beretta OVP.

See also

Users

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Villar Perosa". Retrieved December 6, 2015.
  2. ↑ Anthony G. Williams (2012). Sub-Machine Gun: The Development of Sub-Machine Guns and their Ammunition from World War 1 to the Present Day. The Crowood Press UK. p. 260. ISBN 1847972934.

Bibliography

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