Uno dei fucili mitragliatori.mai costruiti ,la parte in acciaio fatta a mano ne tornio e il manicotto in nove tirato a mano ,molto preciso a colpo singolo e altrettanto arafgiche da tre
_Beretta was founded just 7 years after the death of Leonardo Da Vinci_ Definitely puts time into perspective. I do hope they have something grand prepared for their 500th anniversary.
@@Tonyx.yt. Well, I have heard lots of italian soldiers who used it in albania and russia. They all said that it kept jamming and blocking, in fact there were around a lot of military jokes about it in the italian army.
My Father (ex-British 8th Army, in North Africa from the early years) said there was great respect for Beretta 38A. His favourite pistol from that campaign was also a Beretta. He also had very nice things to say about Italian officers, who he said were the most fashionably and smartest dressed of all sides in the Desert Campaign!!! :D
The were individual units and individual troops who distinguished themselves. They also had some excellent pilots and some very good aircraft (particularly fighters). On top of that the Italian Navy led the world in special naval operations, their frogmen and miniature submarine forces were THE best. ...Also, they were nice people (even my dad said that of the prisoners). Many of the Italian POWs were held in my native Scotland through the war and were liked - many settled in Scotland after the war, which is where Scotland got many of it's ice-cream parlours and fish and chip shops.
Its by far the best SMG of WW2 and is greatly underappreciated because its Italian. The magazine is still used with the P12S and is excellent. Many Germans in WW2 prefered it to their MP40s.
True but what I like about it is that the rate of fire is actually higher than some of the other sub guns from the time like the grease gun for instance yet is still rock solid steady.
My favorite plane from WW2 has to be the Reggiane Re.2005 Sagittario, it’s a very beautifully designed plane, high performance, and looks great in black, reminds me of a Ferrari.
Thank you Ian for this review. I'm Italian and I'm sure some of my relatives back in the day had to deal with some variants of that gun. It is a motive of pride when foreigners acknowledge the quality of our designs and manufacturing capabilities to me, even though I'm well aware that throughout the years we as a nation have been guilty of some pretty devastating shabby manufacturing and borderline shady products. We are well known in the world for our flamboyancy and pizza and pasta and be nothing good but sitting on our asses all day and elect Popes and corrupt governments, but the streets are filled with hard working individuals and passionate and dedicated professionals. One day we will manage to free ourselves from this aura of mediocrity and pity, till that day, I will always value the work of people who can go beyond the stereotypes and see what we can sometimes pull together. Keep up the excellent work
I'm Italian, and I really liked this video, because in the Second World War, we didn't have a good reputation, and in this video, you rate an Italian machine gun, with the right respect, thanks for the nice words. Greetings from Italy
Well , let’s be honest with ourselves. For the most part , most of our hardware was obsolete and inferior to our contemporaries . This particular piece stands out and so did our series 3 fighter planes. They were able to compete on equal terms with the best allied aircraft, but even then we only built a total of around 248. Re. 2005 mc 205 Fiat g55 & 56 Too little , too late. And furthermore , we had no business being in the war. We should have remained neutral like Franco in Spain. My father who served in North Africa recounted the story that when Mussolini was about to give a speech broadcast live , the whole town went to the piazza to hear it and all cheered and were in a festive mood. When he exclaimed that Italy was entering the war , the entire piazza fell silent. A feeling of collective despair and hopelessness overcame everyone . It was a sad time my father said. All were in disbelief and powerless to stop it.
"Not a gun that comes to mind" is right. I remember going to rent 'n shoot this thing in Vegas and when asking at the desk I literally had to point it out to a range-officer who then spent 15 minutes in the back digging it up. Brought out with the words "none of us have ever shot this thing before". It was surprisingly nice to shoot: good balance and very controllable. If only I had 10k in my back pocket...
My Father used this Beretta 38A when he was in the french army in 1951 at the Vietnam war(1945-1954) near Thompson, MP40, MAT 49, Madsen 50, grease gun, …………… And his pistol was the Radom vis 35
@@amafirenze-vi1uh His father wouldn't have conceded anything on the matter of whose cuisine is better, but when it comes to guns, he was fine with using an Italian weapon. 😂
I never got the hate on Italian engineering as a whole. Generally, they've always seemed to have very ingenious designs, whether motorcycles, cars, or guns. They just never seemed to have the industry historically to make the ideas come to fruition.
Well some of the stuff they made were crap... But in general you are right! What seems to have made the myth, was the poor performance of the Italian armed forces during WW2, however fair or unfair that might be. One area where they most definitely did underperform was in tanks designs... Those might even be the worst tanks build during the war, and that is saying something.
@@MrBandholm Italy's industry was still underdeveloped and we were not prepared for war. We hardly had any armored cars, let alone tanks. Not to mention clothing, you have no idea of what fucking tons of money the military providers made by freezing to death hundreds of thousands of italian soldiers by giving them poor equipment and cardboard boots. Also in WWI. Those filthy bastards doomed an entire army to death by freezing or limbs amputation. The real reason why italy was destroyed in WWII was because of the small industry and the providers. If you go and see what the alpini corp were able to do at nikolajewka and in russia you'd truly be touched. That battle was hell on earth, even worse than iwo jima. People were literally building fortifications with dead bodies. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Nikolayevka
purtroppo i problemi di industri li portiamo appresso ancora oggi, nei due periodi i problemi derivano da cause diverse, per il problema delle industrie alla prima e la seconda guerra diciamo che è l'unione di più problemi :arretratezza generale dell'impianto industriale, mancanza di materiali per la seconda, impreparazione generale del sistema stato alla guerra ed una situazione politica instabile nella prima .
bandholm their tanks designs were perfectly fine for their doctrine it wasn't until 1941-42 that they started falling behind the m series were even more reliable than the British tanks. Look up the m16 veloce or the p43 and p43 bis their designs were good they just lacked the industry.
Wow that really looks & shoots fantastically , it doesn’t move and that is a LOT for a serious SMG. Beretta is a fine manufacturer with an astonishing history in firearms. Nice vid Ian.
We had one in the gun vault of a police department I used to work for; had been seized after a bank robbery decades before. We fired it in an old indoor range we had. What an incredible weapon. I had been in the Canadian Army previously and used our C1 SMG, essentially the Stirling SMG, (a fine wpn. itself) and the Beretta was much nicer to shoot. The weight helped, plus the nice wood furniture. The double triggers actually makes a lot of sense, although a more complex mechanism. Sadly the Beretta was later sent out by a new administration and crushed without even any effort to render it deactivated or donate to a museum. Something I witnessed with countless other firearms of historical significance. Great video.
I've held and fired one with blanks at a WW2 reenactment carried by a guy doing an impression of WaffenSS. I can tell you these things are very well made and have terrific fit and finish. Very ergonomic for its time. It was a semi-auto brought over as a kit in the 90s, demilled, converted to fire blanks only. It was great. And firing blanks it was really fun, you just couldn't see impacts or feel quite as much recoil. In my opinion the Beretta 38 is the best damned SMG ever made.
My dad actually used one of these weapons in 1986-87 when he served as a conscript for surveillance services here in Italy. The Italian Army use to keep the more recent weapons like the AR70.90 to professional soldiers and officers.
The Serenissimo Doge Andrea Gritti with dogale edict orders the payment of 296 Golden Ducati to Mastro Bartolomeo Beretta da Gardone for the supply of 185 archbugio reeds to be delivered to the Arsenal of Venice.This is how the Beretta was born in 1526.
nice video.I write from Italy, and of course, the positive judgment on the MAB38, makes me proud.I remember the photos of my FATHER, during his Military service in the sixties, with one of the latest versions of this submachine gun. , in the early 90s, I had the BERETTA BM-59 in use. This is another story. A greeting.
A special version of the 9mm Luger was specifically made for this gun, the 9M38. It was a sort of 9 +P+ forerunner. If fired in a 9mm pistol, due to its pressure, it could damage it.
before the Calfiornia Gunpocalypse, I rented one of these for a re-enactment, and it was the best SMG I've ever used with blanks. Reliable as all get out.
Mr. Ian maybe do not know the M38A it used a special 9mmPb cartridge 25% more energy(mkd: M38) for this reason i has a 32Cm barrel decisively important in semiautom/fire for targeting at medium distance: also for this reason it was so loved by German Paratroops in MonteCassino, having an effective double role, in some way a kind of "antelitteram" German MP44.....
I remember handling one of these when I was a kid back in Argentina. We were visiting a relative who was in the reserves and he kept it at home. I was seven and I remember it was HUGE =)
Very nice. Didn't know a lot about these. Looks solid. Good barrel cooling, effective compensator, and the rate of fire looks just right. The two triggers even make sense. I wonder if that simplifies the sear mechanism in some ways? Beretta definitely knows their stuff. Great video as always. Thank you
Ma pure qui la merda fascista arriva, comunque l'arma è del 38 quindi non è RSI (per quanto come qualsiasi altra arma italiana della WW2 è stata prodotta durante il ventennio).
I have always liked the wooden furniture type SMGs, the Suomi, the Thompson, Vk-383, the Lanchester, MP-18, MP-28, the various Soviet designs, etc. Especially compared to guns like the Sten, MP-38/40, the M-3 Grease Gun, etc.
Its Italian ... that says it all lol. The masters of forging architecture and weapons of war since the taking of the spanish sword and turning it into the Gladius that conquered the known world, to crafting the best armors of medieval age... Props all go to Italy. Roma Invicta
Had no idea this gun existed in WW2 until I saw it in a small US war museum in Florida 2 days ago. About the only one I didn’t recognize... now a FW video, perfect!
The German paratroopers preferred it to the MP40 for various reasons, one of the veterans told me: SELECTIVE BURST / SINGLE SHOT - STABILITY IN BURST SHOOTING WITH BETTER SIGHT CONTROL - BETTER SAFE AND POSSIBILITY TO SHOOT WITH A WOOL GLOVE etc.
Ian i have to thank you a lot for showing me that italian guns are great, before finding this channel i thought we was always 20 years behind the americans, but now i see we have always been ahead, at least in firearms
Berettas were good, so were some other weapons. Other italian stuff not so much. WW2 italian firearms get a generally horrendous rep because some of their worst firearms were amongst the worst of the whole conflict (the Breda LMG comes to mind) and because, quite frankly, the italian military of the time was (with notable, but rather scarce, exceptions) a dunghole of incompetent officers and generals under a dictatorial regime which was incredibly corrupt and incompetent on itself. The italian soldier was brave indeed...but the officers were for the most part incompetent, the high ranking ones were even worse to the point of being even funny. Ciano mentioned in his memoires that when Rommel was made a Marshall after taking Tobruk, Mussolini wanted to promote an italian general to the same rank (nominally Rommel and the DAK were under overall italian command even while in practice it was all the other way around, so having a Marshall under the command of a General...well kinda didn't work), and they were having trouble choosing who, because depending on whom they'd promote the reaction would've been hillarity or embarrasment. That's how BAD they were. And it's natural they were bad. As in most extreme ideology dictatorships in the Italian military promotions were based on loyalty to the regime and fascist ideals, not because competence and real worth as an officer. Bootlickers were promoted while competent officers were not. By 1940 fascists had ruled over Italy for 17 years (since 1923), so you can guess that with those promotion standards most of the high ranking officers couldnt' find their own ass without both hands, a map, written instructions and a pictorial manual...and even then they needed a personal assistant to find it. when those high ranking officers had to deal with real combat duties...well, it's quite plain to see the results. Some people will say that the rep attached to WW2 italian stuff is underserved and I'd agree that generalizing isn't good, but said that and in general, the italian war effort of WW2 was an astonishing epic fail. So it's only natural that the (Rather scarce but still existing) good stuff they had gets lost in the very strong background noise of the general mess the whole italian military was during WWII.
It seems they never had a large enough market to give them a reliable feedback loop to get them to perfect many weapons. It was kind of home run or strike out!
I have watched almost ALL of Ian's videos, but this is the first video I have ever seen where I fully understood how a compensator worked. Mainly due to the design.
or (just as fictional,) use 'Ork' weapon magazines' from the Warhammer 40,000 universe - they never run out, ..t'is an quirk of Orkish dogmatic belief manifesting ammo thing.
Ian as the many out there misunderstood the MAB38.. Moschetto (= carbine) Automatico Beretta. It is not meant to be a sub machine gun even if it definitely does the trick... it doesn't even have a pistol grip handle. It is a compact light rifle with automatic fire option and correct sites to 500m . It is more or less a correspondent to an M1 carbine in US Army. It was developed during colonial war to defend troops by close distance assaults with a more sustained rate of fire. Take note that this weapon were issued with its proper specific cartridges called "9mm M1938" virtually in the same format of regular 9x19 parabellum for pistols but 15% more powerful in the propellent. So the MAB38A can shoot regular pistol bullets and its proper overpowered bullets while the same is not possible with pistols.
the berettas where highly sought after in ww2 when it came to german troops. especially elite units like the "Brandenburger" Regiments who specialized in Kommando-Raids behind the eastern front and paratroopers where equipped with them
There's a reason why Baretta has long been a staple everyday carry for LE and military. They are just well built thought out and reliable firearms. And that 38A is a textbook example of that.
First firearm I ever shot. During bootcamp in Italy in the 1980s. Mine didn't have the barrel shroud though (slightly later model). We also had a more modern SMG, I think it was called the Beretta M-12.
What planes did you see the most of back then? I'm born right after the cold war and I find it crazy people being in the military back then with the thought of ww3 looming.
Mp40 is a mass produced, cheap SMG after all. It's amazing for its production cost but obviously something like this, costing more to make, would be the better gun.
My father was a tank commander in the New Zealand Division in the Italian Campaign and picked up a Beretta 38 one day - he liked it so much that he made it his personal weapon. The Allied armies in Italy didn't have much that used 9 mm Parabellum rounds, but he said that he had no trouble finding ammunition for his Beretta.
A while ago I owned one in mint condition 100% bleued, with the original vest in canvas containing the six (or eight?) 40 shots magazines in mint condition too. There was no dings, no bumps, and no grease where right hand takes place. It was so well adjusted that its after reading an article on it, that I discovered there was a door in the buttplate, so well adjusted I had not noticed it. Inside I found the whole cleaning kit still wraped. Regrets..++++.. I used it once. Same conclusion as Ians' one.
As much as I loved my Beretta 38/42 that you fired, I must admit that the 38a were superior. I love the ventilated jacket and the compensator. It is just more iconic as well as running like a clock as mine did. The only failures mine ever suffered were due to a dodgy magazine which, thankfully were cheap.
For this weapon a dedicated cartridge called 9m38 was produced. It was a spicy Italian 9mm fmj load (now it would be called + p +?) Which ensured perfect operation and extended the operating range. If used in handguns they would break. Greetings from Italy
A specific ammo was issued for the 38A. Another interesting fact was a issued 10 round mag. My father was issued all Italian guns during his 30years of mil service from the Garand to the early AR70.
In Italy you can get one for about 2000€, this willbe the first weapon I'll buy when I get my license (and in Italy is not so easy to get it as in the States) . After that I'll try to find an Arx200 or an Arx 160. Damn I love Beretta
I once spent all day on the range in Iraq with one of these because I fell in love with shooting it!!.. it never moved off its target, and felt more like shooting a rimfire!..great memories
I use this during my service in italian air forse, produce in 1952 used in 1983, was very strong! Is The mother of m12, excellent combat mano to man, like a pistol. 500mts are so much for a good center, but realistic like range. Was usuall combined m12+mai in action.
The only cons of these weapons could be the weight, the possible confusion between triggers (I heard soldiers mistakenly pulling the full auto gun in place of the semiauto one), and the fact that it was better not to slam the butt on the ground, to avoid setting off a round. Other than that, great stability, precision, great rate of fire, powerful round, and a semplicity and reliability that became a proverb in Italy. It was said that you could get a truck over one of these, and then you could pick it up and would fire as well as before.
There's a story from right towards the end of WW2 where some Italian paras were going on a special operation behind enemy lines, and were offered their choice of SMG's for it. Out of all the ones they could have picked, they went for these. Says it all really.
Beretta is, as a matter of fact, the oldest active firearm manufacturer in the world. Founded in 1526.
492 years ago.
Wonder if they'll do anything for their 500th?
+SWITS Feral Probably some fancy smoothbore muzzeleloader in limited edition.
@_jeff _ Yeah, but REALLY primitive. Some were just muzzle-loaded barrels on the end of poles, so depends on if you consider it a proper gun or not.
@_jeff _ archibus
Uno dei fucili mitragliatori.mai costruiti ,la parte in acciaio fatta a mano ne tornio e il manicotto in nove tirato a mano ,molto preciso a colpo singolo e altrettanto arafgiche da tre
You're right Ian, Beretta is 492 years old. that makes them the oldest Gun manufacturer in the world. Crazy
Just to give you an idea how long this is past... in the same year they founded, the Mughal Empire was founded too... yeah. that Mughal Empire.
Beretta was founded just 7 years after the death of Leonardo Da Vinci. That's mindblowing
Wow, thanks a lot for the information!
_Beretta was founded just 7 years after the death of Leonardo Da Vinci_
Definitely puts time into perspective. I do hope they have something grand prepared for their 500th anniversary.
That's incredibly old, I wonder what their first product was.
*404 Error: Recoil not found*
That is an excellent SMG, crazy how I've only known about this right now.
Lol
Skygrasper_550 Lol
In italy we dont know what recoils means xD
Fired one years ago with a custom made stock (the original needed an overhaul) with just a pistol grip. No recoil, no muzzle climb, awesome!
@@davinci9718 beh per la verità usiamo versioni della mg3 con molto rinculo ma l'arx' data la sua cadenza di fuoco, è stabile e leggero
Best submachine gun in WWII: Italian Beretta 38.
Worst light machine gun in WWII: Italian Breda Modello 30.
Type 11.
mod 30 was very bad only with desert climate (sand), otherwise was decent, just too slow for recharge...
@@Tonyx.yt.
Well, I have heard lots of italian soldiers who used it in albania and russia. They all said that it kept jamming and blocking, in fact there were around a lot of military jokes about it in the italian army.
@@pietrotettamanti7239 they call It the giuda. The Judas.
@@massimilianomencacci2510 dato che siete tutti e due italiani parlate in italiano ahahahaha
My Father (ex-British 8th Army, in North Africa from the early years) said there was great respect for Beretta 38A. His favourite pistol from that campaign was also a Beretta. He also had very nice things to say about Italian officers, who he said were the most fashionably and smartest dressed of all sides in the Desert Campaign!!! :D
Lack of armour, Artillery, Transport and Planes killed them. Nothing wrong with the tactics.
Mancò la fortuna, non il valore
The were individual units and individual troops who distinguished themselves. They also had some excellent pilots and some very good aircraft (particularly fighters). On top of that the Italian Navy led the world in special naval operations, their frogmen and miniature submarine forces were THE best. ...Also, they were nice people (even my dad said that of the prisoners). Many of the Italian POWs were held in my native Scotland through the war and were liked - many settled in Scotland after the war, which is where Scotland got many of it's ice-cream parlours and fish and chip shops.
Stephen Beat So true. The Scottish-Italian community has made an enormous contribution to Scottish society and is still highly respected.
Rommel said that the Italian trooper was a good, brave fighter, but their officers were beyond useless.
Italians never joked with weapons, still selling best quality tools since the Roman Empire.
It's interesting how in the slo-mo footage the parts barely wobble - most of the other SMGs on this channel wobble like crazy when they fire.
You say that like the Breda 30 doesn't exist...
@@Kesslerification the breda is criminally underrated and its bad reputation its mostly, infunded
Hey
Breda 30
@S&W M&P15 AKA Riley the Onni fan ...😮😮.....Carcano M18/91....??.....What are you writing?
Its by far the best SMG of WW2 and is greatly underappreciated because its Italian. The magazine is still used with the P12S and is excellent. Many Germans in WW2 prefered it to their MP40s.
Italian stuff (ww2 stuff especially) gets a bad reputation, some deserved, others not so much
Mongo63a
This SMG is one of the few Italian WW2 weapons that are actually good imo.
Yes. Good enough. All they needed.
Mongo63a its still very much a 1st generation smg, heavy, made of wood and machined metal, and expensive
but it's pretty huge. that's a disadvantage for an smg
Just by watching it, I can tell that's really a good gun. Muzzle just doesn't move.
The stability from the shooting is impressive. You can tell right off the bat.
True but what I like about it is that the rate of fire is actually higher than some of the other sub guns from the time like the grease gun for instance yet is still rock solid steady.
I have only fired the suomi but that beretta sure does seem stable when firing.
I've never seen such a beautiful machine-gun. It's literally a stylish one. Even the sound is so smooth and clean, like the mechanisms!
And to field strip is two parts!
Widely used by Luftwaffe paratroopers. There must be hundreds of photos of them carrying these.
Fallschirmjaegers used them a lot, youre right!
Along with mp-41 too
Italy had some great planes during WWII as well, check out their top fighters. I love my Beretta 92 BTW.
The Macchi Veltro 😎👍
@@teop7887 G55 😼
True. Especially the Fiat g 55 and the Macchi MC 202
My favorite plane from WW2 has to be the
Reggiane Re.2005 Sagittario, it’s a very beautifully designed plane, high performance, and looks great in black, reminds me of a Ferrari.
Thank you Ian for this review. I'm Italian and I'm sure some of my relatives back in the day had to deal with some variants of that gun. It is a motive of pride when foreigners acknowledge the quality of our designs and manufacturing capabilities to me, even though I'm well aware that throughout the years we as a nation have been guilty of some pretty devastating shabby manufacturing and borderline shady products. We are well known in the world for our flamboyancy and pizza and pasta and be nothing good but sitting on our asses all day and elect Popes and corrupt governments, but the streets are filled with hard working individuals and passionate and dedicated professionals. One day we will manage to free ourselves from this aura of mediocrity and pity, till that day, I will always value the work of people who can go beyond the stereotypes and see what we can sometimes pull together. Keep up the excellent work
I'm Italian, and I really liked this video, because in the Second World War, we didn't have a good reputation, and in this video, you rate an Italian machine gun, with the right respect, thanks for the nice words. Greetings from Italy
Well , let’s be honest with ourselves.
For the most part , most of our hardware was obsolete and inferior to our contemporaries .
This particular piece stands out and so did our series 3 fighter planes.
They were able to compete on equal terms with the best allied aircraft, but even then we only built a total of around 248.
Re. 2005
mc 205
Fiat g55 & 56
Too little , too late.
And furthermore , we had no business being in the war. We should have remained neutral like Franco in Spain.
My father who served in North Africa recounted the story that when Mussolini was about to give a speech broadcast live , the whole town went to the piazza to hear it and all cheered and were in a festive mood.
When he exclaimed that Italy was entering the war , the entire piazza fell silent. A feeling of collective despair and hopelessness overcame everyone .
It was a sad time my father said. All were in disbelief and powerless to stop it.
"Not a gun that comes to mind" is right. I remember going to rent 'n shoot this thing in Vegas and when asking at the desk I literally had to point it out to a range-officer who then spent 15 minutes in the back digging it up. Brought out with the words "none of us have ever shot this thing before". It was surprisingly nice to shoot: good balance and very controllable. If only I had 10k in my back pocket...
My Father used this Beretta 38A when he was in the french army in 1951 at the Vietnam war(1945-1954) near Thompson, MP40, MAT 49, Madsen 50, grease gun, …………… And his pistol was the Radom vis 35
Alain Charles LEROY . No wonder they lost...
@@wernesgruder1 well you shoulda seen the mish mash the viet minh had
One Italian thing that french liked??? Unbelievable 😂
@@amafirenze-vi1uh His father wouldn't have conceded anything on the matter of whose cuisine is better, but when it comes to guns, he was fine with using an Italian weapon. 😂
With the left side ejection that thing is made for Ian
Lefties of the world untie!
I'm also a leftie but I hold two handed weapons the rightie way.
I knew Gun Jesus will pick this gun!
My favourite Italian SMG!
LMAOOOO “gun jesus”
I subbed to read this comment
yes, because if Jesus came back he would be pissed off
I never got the hate on Italian engineering as a whole. Generally, they've always seemed to have very ingenious designs, whether motorcycles, cars, or guns. They just never seemed to have the industry historically to make the ideas come to fruition.
Well some of the stuff they made were crap... But in general you are right!
What seems to have made the myth, was the poor performance of the Italian armed forces during WW2, however fair or unfair that might be.
One area where they most definitely did underperform was in tanks designs... Those might even be the worst tanks build during the war, and that is saying something.
Fiat just bought half of us car production... Just saying....beretta sold guns to all us armed forces, police ecc. Just saying
@@MrBandholm
Italy's industry was still underdeveloped and we were not prepared for war. We hardly had any armored cars, let alone tanks. Not to mention clothing, you have no idea of what fucking tons of money the military providers made by freezing to death hundreds of thousands of italian soldiers by giving them poor equipment and cardboard boots. Also in WWI.
Those filthy bastards doomed an entire army to death by freezing or limbs amputation. The real reason why italy was destroyed in WWII was because of the small industry and the providers.
If you go and see what the alpini corp were able to do at nikolajewka and in russia you'd truly be touched. That battle was hell on earth, even worse than iwo jima. People were literally building fortifications with dead bodies.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Nikolayevka
purtroppo i problemi di industri li portiamo appresso ancora oggi, nei due periodi i problemi derivano da cause diverse, per il problema delle industrie alla prima e la seconda guerra diciamo che è l'unione di più problemi :arretratezza generale dell'impianto industriale, mancanza di materiali per la seconda, impreparazione generale del sistema stato alla guerra ed una situazione politica instabile nella prima .
bandholm their tanks designs were perfectly fine for their doctrine it wasn't until 1941-42 that they started falling behind the m series were even more reliable than the British tanks. Look up the m16 veloce or the p43 and p43 bis their designs were good they just lacked the industry.
The action in that gun genuinely didn’t even look real in slow motion! That’s gorgeous!!
That slow motion of the cases ejecting is beautiful.
Wow that really looks & shoots fantastically , it doesn’t move and that is a LOT for a serious SMG. Beretta is a fine manufacturer with an astonishing history in firearms. Nice vid Ian.
We had one in the gun vault of a police department I used to work for; had been seized after a bank robbery decades before. We fired it in an old indoor range we had. What an incredible weapon. I had been in the Canadian Army previously and used our C1 SMG, essentially the Stirling SMG, (a fine wpn. itself) and the Beretta was much nicer to shoot. The weight helped, plus the nice wood furniture. The double triggers actually makes a lot of sense, although a more complex mechanism.
Sadly the Beretta was later sent out by a new administration and crushed without even any effort to render it deactivated or donate to a museum. Something I witnessed with countless other firearms of historical significance.
Great video.
I am amazed at the lack of recoil this thing has.
I've held and fired one with blanks at a WW2 reenactment carried by a guy doing an impression of WaffenSS. I can tell you these things are very well made and have terrific fit and finish. Very ergonomic for its time. It was a semi-auto brought over as a kit in the 90s, demilled, converted to fire blanks only. It was great. And firing blanks it was really fun, you just couldn't see impacts or feel quite as much recoil. In my opinion the Beretta 38 is the best damned SMG ever made.
My dad actually used one of these weapons in 1986-87 when he served as a conscript for surveillance services here in Italy. The Italian Army use to keep the more recent weapons like the AR70.90 to professional soldiers and officers.
che arma fantastica.... la adoro, nice video !!
Eh beh, la Beretta è sempre stata simbolo di alta qualità e funzionalità.
@Lucas Kurtz vero, saluti !
L unica cosa buona volume di fuoco per il resto poca portata di tiro poca precisione e notevole spreco di munizioni
@@pieromarongiu3905 certo che ha "poca portata" è una smg ahahahahah
The Serenissimo Doge Andrea Gritti with dogale edict orders the payment of 296 Golden Ducati to Mastro Bartolomeo Beretta da Gardone for the supply of 185 archbugio reeds to be delivered to the Arsenal of Venice.This is how the Beretta was born in 1526.
Fun facts :
The MAB can use MP40 and Sten magazine as they fit perfectly in the gun.
And also the MAB was very well appreciated among allied troops.
No it can't.
Best SMG of the WAR by far! My grandfather was wounded by one of these fighting RSI Italian Forces on the Gothic Line in December of 1944.
Every one of my firearms suffers from the same flaw as the Beretta 38A, the failure to fire when the magazine's empty.😎
this italian weapon in ww2 was loved even by the germans, who had the pretty good mp40 and the awesome stg44
The Romanian Armies used Berretta M38's,MP-40's and STG-44 ,those 3 are the best of WW2
I love Beretta weapons, they have always been a great symbol of my country!
nice video.I write from Italy, and of course, the positive judgment on the MAB38, makes me proud.I remember the photos of my FATHER, during his Military service in the sixties, with one of the latest versions of this submachine gun. , in the early 90s, I had the BERETTA BM-59 in use. This is another story. A greeting.
I understand that aesthetics are one of the last things one should consider when it comes to firearms but I must say, this thing is gorgeous!
"Sold for $14,950"
"Undervalued" indeed...
@Vicious Unpolite Games solo per 1200?
@Vicious Unpolite Games you're not italian? I mean you translated my comment or how you understood what i wrote
@Vicious Unpolite Games lol nelle notifiche ho letto il tuo commento non modificato xD
Comunque sì dai se vuoi possiamo parlare in inglese
si ma a 1200 trovi una castrata a semiautomatica.... sai che gusto.
@Vicious Unpolite Games ma dove ? Ciao
A special version of the 9mm Luger was specifically made for
this gun, the 9M38. It was a sort of 9 +P+
forerunner. If fired in a 9mm pistol, due to its pressure, it could damage it.
'Axis had access'...Did Ian just try to pun??? :p ETA: Julia needs to set up a spinner for Ian!!
Hahaha. That was exactly my reaction
I'm glad I'm not the only one that noticed!
"spinner"? As in short and petite stripper type ladyfriend??
No the dreaded MGM spinner
Undervalued!! Not after this video....the seller must so happy Ian chose to feature this lovely piece of history.
That has got to be the most controllable smg I've ever watched being fired.
before the Calfiornia Gunpocalypse, I rented one of these for a re-enactment, and it was the best SMG I've ever used with blanks. Reliable as all get out.
Mr. Ian maybe do not know the M38A it used a special 9mmPb cartridge 25% more energy(mkd: M38) for this reason i has a 32Cm barrel decisively important in semiautom/fire for targeting at medium distance: also for this reason it was so loved by German Paratroops in MonteCassino, having an effective double role, in some way a kind of "antelitteram" German MP44.....
I remember handling one of these when I was a kid back in Argentina. We were visiting a relative who was in the reserves and he kept it at home. I was seven and I remember it was HUGE =)
Very nice. Didn't know a lot about these. Looks solid. Good barrel cooling, effective compensator, and the rate of fire looks just right. The two triggers even make sense. I wonder if that simplifies the sear mechanism in some ways? Beretta definitely knows their stuff. Great video as always. Thank you
Italian engineery :)
Viva l'Italia camerato
@@emiliodp103 No il mab 38 è stato prodotto non solo durante il periodo della rsi
Bro che ci fai qui
@@lapaperadeltubo3200 dici a me?
Ma pure qui la merda fascista arriva, comunque l'arma è del 38 quindi non è RSI (per quanto come qualsiasi altra arma italiana della WW2 è stata prodotta durante il ventennio).
This is my favorite sub gun from WWII, thanks Ian.
Ian's can hardly hide his emotions when firing this great weapon.
I have always liked the wooden furniture type SMGs, the Suomi, the Thompson, Vk-383, the Lanchester, MP-18, MP-28, the various Soviet designs, etc. Especially compared to guns like the Sten, MP-38/40, the M-3 Grease Gun, etc.
Beretta has been in business for 496 years.
Thanks for your videos
@ 2:35 & 4:08, I love watching that Brass slow-mo dance out of the ejection port !
Wow a great smg...it's a pleasure to see this shooting. I'm watching from Italy, another great video.
Its Italian ... that says it all lol.
The masters of forging architecture and weapons of war since the taking of the spanish sword and turning it into the Gladius that conquered the known world, to crafting the best armors of medieval age...
Props all go to Italy.
Roma Invicta
Goddamn right fratello
ROMA INVICTA PARA BELLUM INVICTA!
@@parabelluminvicta8380 para bellum Invicta?
Had no idea this gun existed in WW2 until I saw it in a small US war museum in Florida 2 days ago. About the only one I didn’t recognize... now a FW video, perfect!
The German paratroopers preferred it to the MP40 for various reasons, one of the veterans told me: SELECTIVE BURST / SINGLE SHOT - STABILITY IN BURST SHOOTING WITH BETTER SIGHT CONTROL - BETTER SAFE AND POSSIBILITY TO SHOOT WITH A WOOL GLOVE etc.
Damn no recoil and with a grip like that? Wtf that gun is perfection!
Ian i have to thank you a lot for showing me that italian guns are great, before finding this channel i thought we was always 20 years behind the americans, but now i see we have always been ahead, at least in firearms
Andrethekid97 beretta was making firearms 200 years before Americas were colonies
Andrethekid97 if you ever need a boost to your national pride, compare a Ducati to a Harley Davidson 😂
Andrethekid97 dbmail545
Not to mention the Roman empire...
Berettas were good, so were some other weapons. Other italian stuff not so much. WW2 italian firearms get a generally horrendous rep because some of their worst firearms were amongst the worst of the whole conflict (the Breda LMG comes to mind) and because, quite frankly, the italian military of the time was (with notable, but rather scarce, exceptions) a dunghole of incompetent officers and generals under a dictatorial regime which was incredibly corrupt and incompetent on itself.
The italian soldier was brave indeed...but the officers were for the most part incompetent, the high ranking ones were even worse to the point of being even funny. Ciano mentioned in his memoires that when Rommel was made a Marshall after taking Tobruk, Mussolini wanted to promote an italian general to the same rank (nominally Rommel and the DAK were under overall italian command even while in practice it was all the other way around, so having a Marshall under the command of a General...well kinda didn't work), and they were having trouble choosing who, because depending on whom they'd promote the reaction would've been hillarity or embarrasment. That's how BAD they were.
And it's natural they were bad. As in most extreme ideology dictatorships in the Italian military promotions were based on loyalty to the regime and fascist ideals, not because competence and real worth as an officer. Bootlickers were promoted while competent officers were not. By 1940 fascists had ruled over Italy for 17 years (since 1923), so you can guess that with those promotion standards most of the high ranking officers couldnt' find their own ass without both hands, a map, written instructions and a pictorial manual...and even then they needed a personal assistant to find it. when those high ranking officers had to deal with real combat duties...well, it's quite plain to see the results.
Some people will say that the rep attached to WW2 italian stuff is underserved and I'd agree that generalizing isn't good, but said that and in general, the italian war effort of WW2 was an astonishing epic fail. So it's only natural that the (Rather scarce but still existing) good stuff they had gets lost in the very strong background noise of the general mess the whole italian military was during WWII.
It seems they never had a large enough market to give them a reliable feedback loop to get them to perfect many weapons. It was kind of home run or strike out!
That shell extraction is on another level.
I have watched almost ALL of Ian's videos, but this is the first video I have ever seen where I fully understood how a compensator worked. Mainly due to the design.
The ammunition runs out? What a piece of junk!
Should have used Hollywood magazines they can fire 500 rounds
Hollywood mags also come with hypocrisy.
What's in the bottom of the magazine, more disappointment.
or (just as fictional,) use 'Ork' weapon magazines' from the Warhammer 40,000 universe - they never run out, ..t'is an quirk of Orkish dogmatic belief manifesting ammo thing.
fastmongrel pff, some hollywood mags come with a wormhole linked to an ammunition factory, 500rds ones are trash
Ian as the many out there misunderstood the MAB38.. Moschetto (= carbine) Automatico Beretta.
It is not meant to be a sub machine gun even if it definitely does the trick... it doesn't even have a pistol grip handle.
It is a compact light rifle with automatic fire option and correct sites to 500m .
It is more or less a correspondent to an M1 carbine in US Army.
It was developed during colonial war to defend troops by close distance assaults with a more sustained rate of fire.
Take note that this weapon were issued with its proper specific cartridges called "9mm M1938" virtually in the same format of regular 9x19 parabellum for pistols but 15% more powerful in the propellent.
So the MAB38A can shoot regular pistol bullets and its proper overpowered bullets while the same is not possible with pistols.
the berettas where highly sought after in ww2 when it came to german troops. especially elite units like the "Brandenburger" Regiments who specialized in Kommando-Raids behind the eastern front and paratroopers where equipped with them
It's amazing how Italy went from the Automatico and its high rpm to this. Great SMGs either way.
There's a reason why Baretta has long been a staple everyday carry for LE and military. They are just well built thought out and reliable firearms. And that 38A is a textbook example of that.
First firearm I ever shot. During bootcamp in Italy in the 1980s. Mine didn't have the barrel shroud though (slightly later model). We also had a more modern SMG, I think it was called the Beretta M-12.
Love that model . Few German airborne used them also.
I used last model (MAB 38/49) during my service in Italian Air Force in 1978. It was a great weapon.....
What planes did you see the most of back then? I'm born right after the cold war and I find it crazy people being in the military back then with the thought of ww3 looming.
@@kstreet7438 , F104 Starfighter, Fiat G91, Fairchild C119, and some others....
The German troops in the WW2, loved this gun, they said it shooting much better than their MP40
Mp40 is a mass produced, cheap SMG after all. It's amazing for its production cost but obviously something like this, costing more to make, would be the better gun.
And in the beginning of the Bunderwehr in 1954, german's troops used the Beretta 38 near US Carbine M1
@@onii-chandaisuki5710 true.
Wow, an awesome submachine gun! Very under rated and well made. Ian’s smile says it all.
My father was a tank commander in the New Zealand Division in the Italian Campaign and picked up a Beretta 38 one day - he liked it so much that he made it his personal weapon. The Allied armies in Italy didn't have much that used 9 mm Parabellum rounds, but he said that he had no trouble finding ammunition for his Beretta.
? Everybody used 9 mm. Except for USA. As your relative was Commonwealth forces, where's the problem?
@@floydvaughn9666 Which weapons issued to the New Zealand Division used 9 mm?
@@MarsFKA oopsie. No stens? I did forget that in WW2 the Brits used .38 revolvers. Still, where there are Sten guns, there's 9mm...
@@floydvaughn9666 2NZEF were not issued with Stens. They had nothing that fired 9 mm - until they picked up captured German and Italian weapons.
Okie Dokie then. Have a nice day.
The sound is so good
IMO, Beretta makes the finest handguns in the world. So I would guess their sub-machine guns are excellent weapons as well.
Joseph Van . Apart from Sig Sauer you mean
Some of the finest, yes.
A while ago I owned one in mint condition 100% bleued, with the original vest in canvas containing the six (or eight?) 40 shots magazines in mint condition too. There was no dings, no bumps, and no grease where right hand takes place. It was so well adjusted that its after reading an article on it, that I discovered there was a door in the buttplate, so well adjusted I had not noticed it. Inside I found the whole cleaning kit still wraped. Regrets..++++.. I used it once. Same conclusion as Ians' one.
My granddad fought with this weapon in El Alamein ❤️🇮🇹
Fought frate
@@dyhockane7506 scusa fra
unlucky
My father did the military service in 1975 and the MAB was still in service at that time in some units of the Italian armed forces.
Per i VAM fino agli anni 80.
I saw this weapon in a magazine in Walmart. It was an article about the Romanian Army campaign in the Soviet Union.
It's always funny when Gun Jesus gets all geeked out and excited about something.
As much as I loved my Beretta 38/42 that you fired, I must admit that the 38a were superior. I love the ventilated jacket and the compensator. It is just more iconic as well as running like a clock as mine did. The only failures mine ever suffered were due to a dodgy magazine which, thankfully were cheap.
For this weapon a dedicated cartridge called 9m38 was produced. It was a spicy Italian 9mm fmj load (now it would be called + p +?) Which ensured perfect operation and extended the operating range. If used in handguns they would break. Greetings from Italy
Finland: Suomi KP-31
Italy: Beretta 38A
Finland: Weirdest memes in the world!
Italy: GREZZO 2
Everyone else: Yeah, they'll get along just fine...
Love that slow shot of the cases arching away.
THX 👍 greetings from ITA 😜
Cool to see this shoot after I saw how it works. Very smooth shooter. You can actually watch the comp working in the slow footage. Totally cool.
Mio nonno ha combattuto in Africa El Alamein ed era uno dei 19 sopravvissuti e aveva portato quest arma a casa
A specific ammo was issued for the 38A. Another interesting fact was a issued 10 round mag. My father was issued all Italian guns during his 30years of mil service from the Garand to the early AR70.
In Italy you can get one for about 2000€, this willbe the first weapon I'll buy when I get my license (and in Italy is not so easy to get it as in the States) . After that I'll try to find an Arx200 or an Arx 160. Damn I love Beretta
Thank you to post this video👍🏻
Top quality SMG based off old world craftsmanship. Thanks for sharing.
Read about this one ages ago, neat to see it really does handle as well as described.
I once spent all day on the range in Iraq with one of these because I fell in love with shooting it!!.. it never moved off its target, and felt more like shooting a rimfire!..great memories
409 years of firearms manufacturing can explain why this gun is so good.
Gotta love how Ian was skeptical about the gun at first, then he shooted it and suddenly fell in love.
Love your vidios mate, so informative in a non biased way
I use this during my service in italian air forse, produce in 1952 used in 1983, was very strong! Is The mother of m12, excellent combat mano to man, like a pistol. 500mts are so much for a good center, but realistic like range. Was usuall combined m12+mai in action.
The only cons of these weapons could be the weight, the possible confusion between triggers (I heard soldiers mistakenly pulling the full auto gun in place of the semiauto one), and the fact that it was better not to slam the butt on the ground, to avoid setting off a round.
Other than that, great stability, precision, great rate of fire, powerful round, and a semplicity and reliability that became a proverb in Italy. It was said that you could get a truck over one of these, and then you could pick it up and would fire as well as before.
Wow, visibly stable compared to any other gun of the era and some after.
Awesome to see a person get really excited about a gun.
2:03 I think you mean barrel shroud
Hugo van de maat It's the shoulder thing that goes up lol.
TreeWizard648 ?
Hugo van de maat It's a long running joke coming from an ignorant anti gun politician's remarks.
TreeWizard648 oh lol, I thought Ian ment the barrel shroud whitch get's scrapped in later versions
If you want to look it up, it's part of an interview Tucker Carlson did with Carolin McArthy
He looks so happy!
A nice piece made by Beretta in that time. I would like to have one of those :D
Beretta is not just the longest existing gun manufacturing company in the world, Beretta is the longest existing company in the world!
This baby continued to serve the italian armed forces even after the war. My father got it in the late fifties.
There's a story from right towards the end of WW2 where some Italian paras were going on a special operation behind enemy lines, and were offered their choice of SMG's for it.
Out of all the ones they could have picked, they went for these. Says it all really.