BOOK REVIEWS

This is a really good book to start looking into Carcano History, with plenty of wonderful pics and detailed technical infos.

I really love the passion that drove the creation of the book, the authors are indeed some Italian militaria aficionados and did their fair share of research before publishing, updating the book with brand new discoveries available.
On the other hand tho, not being professional writers, sentences can be a bit clumsy and “Telegraphed”, If you know what I mean, which could create some confusion and surely could create some focus issues on the topics.
Contrary to Chegia & Simonelli, Arendell & Woodrum try to explain the “why” of things, not always succeeding for lack of sources.
Their dependency from Richard Hobbs pamphlet on the topic results quite detrimental in some historiographic choices, but to each his own!
One of the really Astounding perks of this book is that only half is dedicated to Carcanos (tho with details and nice pics) while the other half is essentially dedicated to Italian Militaria, truly showing how passionate the authors are for these topics.


UPDATES
In the following list of updates I focused only on the biggest issues, while the small, overlookable details for ultra pedantic people (dates, misspellings and specific numbers) are not in this list. Also, this time I didn’t differentiate in “Should have known better/new discoveries” because I give Authors the benefit of the doubt, not having direct access to Italian publications on the topic.
 

• Page 8 – Mod.91 stocks were made with Walnut during peacetime and Beech during wartime-cheap requirements, not Maple. Ash is talked about in some manuals but arsenal archives didn’t really offer anything consistent about this, allegedly we found some specimen.
  - ​“Officine Romane” (Officina costruzioni d’Artiglieria – Roma) built for sure receivers, barrels and some of the parts they used to assemble mod.91 rifles, probably subcontracting small parts to workshops and private industries. They also converted most  Vetterlis to the /16 configuration, not only their bayonets
  - ​MIDA is not a conglomerate of private gun makers, it was the new name that the Toschi&Castelli firm undertook in 1915 to get government contracts.

• Page 9 – Glisenti wasn’t in the gun Business anymore when MIDA started the mod.91 production, and Tettoni wasn’t really in relations with MIDA, let alone being its ”main source of weapons”.
  - Terni didn’t have any kind of financial assistance from private industries, they were a state-runned arsenal. Techincal help came in form of machineries bought with tax money, not really anything else.
  - Mod.91 bolts were numbered up until the end of WW1 for sure, not a few years.
  - Mod.91 rifles (more accurately, barrels) produced in 1941 are far more than 16, this is a wrong assumption based on a quite dated serial range research.
  ​- The Re-chambered 70/87/16 vetterli cut down to carbine length is just… wrong.

• Page 10 – Carbine rear sight have an adjustable elevation from 450 to 1500m with a 300m battle sight. The “nine different types of mounting systems” are mostly a misunderstanding sparked by Richard Hobbs. There are two main mounts, two front sights used and 3 bayonet latches, plus some field modifications.
  Again, TS carbine sights started at 450m (300m battle sight)
  - "The highest noted S.N. is A7611". What does it mean? We don’t really know.
  - The “Riparazione” cartouche is anything but related to former Austrian captures. It just indicate generic repairs or refurbishments.

• Page 11 – Mod.91/24 didn’t had their front part of the barrel cut off and scrapped, but it was inlet into the breech part of the barrel, shortening a rifle barrel to carbine length and maintaining the gaining twist.
  - The “91/28” is not a model, it’s a colloquial designation used by collectors. The only time you’ll see Mod.91/28 is as cartouche on TS converted to host the Mod.28 Tromboncino, given they’re mod.91 TS with Tromboncino mod.28 (hence mod.91 / with mod. 28, shortened for cartouche practical space)
  - The tromboncino didn’t start its life launching SR2 grenades, but went about 2 years with experimental handgrenades, then the SR1 and then the definitive SR2 in 1931.
  - The taking out of service of the Tromboncino mod.28 wasn’t just an economical issue (since 23k had already been produced and issued) but a practical and tactical one. The Tromboncinos got immediately melted to recycle steel, so again not really (only) a manufacture cost issue.

• Page 12 – The issue of 6,5x52 were many, but none of them were related to the non-flat enough trajectory, quite the opposite. 6.5 lacked wounding capabilities, not trajectory, nor precision, nor penetration.
  ​The mod.38 rifle wasn’t used only by anti aircraft crews and behind the lines guerrillas, there are tons of pics of Finnish Cavalry, Infantry and artillery crews using the gun. Not enthusiastically tho.

• Page 13 – Barrel shanks have been rounded in cav carbines since 1935, it’s not a post 1940 thing
  - Cavalry carbines (and all Carcanos) produced after April 1943 lack factory markings and date. If they have a savoy Crowned shield crest as proofmark, they were made and prooftested before September 8th 1943.
  - Mod.91/38 guns’ fixed sights have a 300m zero, not 200m like 7.35 guns.

• Page 14 – Again, the date and manufacturer stayed on the guns until April 1943, 3-4 months before Mussolini’s ousting.

• Page 19 – there was a very limited production of barrels throughout the 1920s, mostly as spare parts for repair. These barrels carry mostly 1* or 2* as serial prefix, indicating late assemblies.

• Page 25 – the E indicates Greek government ownership *after* WW2, so these are more leftovers than captured guns.

• Page 26 – The 1941 Terni produced barrels have usually a single letter prefix when assembled. This was most likely due to these barrels, in a blank, unserialised state being used as artillery exercise barrels after WW2(put inside a AT cannon barrel to simulate shooting while going cheap on ammo and field exercises) and only after that reassembled into complete guns and serialised. Again, far more than 15 are known, and not only with the O prefix.

• Page 29 – It’s Moschetto mod.91, AKA “Da cavalleria”.
  M91 Moschetto “for cavalry” if you wish to use the Army colloquial term, Cavalry Carbine if you want to use the colloquial collector term.
  ​Recent 1893 moschettos found on Police warehouses, all matching and with og 1893 factory cartouches, clearly indicate that the carbines started their production life without recoil lugs, only a pre production run shows the transversal recoil lug. For Long rifles recoil lugs weren’t used anymore since 1895.
  Pedantic note since it isn’t clear: Army Paratroopers used the Moschetto mod.91/38 with fixed sights, not the mod.91.

• Page 32 – the need to mark R.E on the stock was apparently an Ethiopian war (1935-36) necessity to easily tell apart regular Army and Colonial troops guns.

• Page 33- again, the earliest examples of Moschettos didn’t have a recoil/reinforcement lug through the stock (except the pre-production examples).

• Page 38 – the drawing is basically a work of imagination by its author, and sparked quite some long-lasting fuddlores. He probably just got told “The TS is just a hortened rifle with no front end, and so he designed it as it was told. We obtained all original 1897 guns, they are almost exactly as 1914 productions.

• Page 46 – The most common method to convert mod.91/24 was to cut the middle part of the barrels, toss it away, and reattach it to the barrel’s breech. 
  It’s still unclear what the star indicate, but sure on mod.91/24 guns it doesn’t indicate that the barrel had beem set back a thread and rechambered, since all star bearing barrels examinated till now don’t show that. Probably the star indicate a generic chamber rework on regular guns, and since mod.91/24 had their chamber made anew anyway, received the star as praxis.

• Page 53 - All the guns made by Napoleone and Vittorio Castelli were for the civilian market, and all were obtained by Brescia Arsenal surplus. Numbers are around 3,000 guns.

• Page 56 – MBT made about 6,500 TS for the Italian Navy, and most survived because they were in Navy warehouses.

• Page 59 – the Circled star appear mostly on 1936-37 TS, indicating a Navy approval stamp, not a Repubblica italiana stamp.

• Page 63 – It’s not PG nor Prova Gardone, it’s FG for Falcone Giovanni, Navy inspector in Brescia 1929-1931

• Page 77 – M38 cavalry carbines in 7.35 didn’t saw service an all fronts, they basically followed the Fucile destiny to arm paramilitary orgs, as far away from the frontlines as possible.
  - FNA didn’t really make mod.91/38 carbines, collectors are settling in defining them Mod.91, with late features. This because FNA produced Carbines with the same specs issued by Terni in 1935-36.

• Page 89 and page 92 - This is not a former mod.38 (and hence mod.91) rifle barrel, this was in fact a former mod.91 Carbine barrel since it has two notches, where the two former rear sight bases were positioned.

• Page 94 the Greek E is most likely a sign to indicate Ellinikós Stratós, the standard Greek Army.

• Page 95 – The need of the Army staff for the M40 and Mod41 rifles wasn’t just to “go back to adjustable rear sights”, it was because they needed a gun capable of exploiting 6,5x52 in a way a mod.91/38 short barrel couldn’t do, especially in a sharpshooter role.

• Page 107 – The Krieghoff plant wasn’t at Sterzing, the Armaguerra relocated machineries were. Maybe there could have been Krieghoff technicians to supervise, but we don't have any document indicating that it wasa a krieghoff related facility

• Page 134 – The Type I wasn’t made for the Japanese Navy, but for the Japanese ministry of defense, formally to “training Manchukuo units”
  - Bombardamento Rosatelli is the generic designation for all bombers designed by FIAT projectist Celestino Rosatelli, Japanese bought about 80 B.R. 20 airplanes.

• Page 136 - The initial Japanese contract was finalized or 120k rifles, after 130k got proposed in the initial deal.

• Page 139 – Oswald didn’t use a surplus air force holster, more like a Camera case leather sling.

• Page 175 – The Trombocino mod. 43 was kept in production at Gardone V.T. and F.N.A. under german occupation.

• Page 196 – crowned FB in an oval Is present on all receivers produced by Brescia 1892-1919, not just on early long rifles.
  - SMIG isn’t SMI, it’s a Toy producer.
  - FIVM is Fabbrica Italiana Viti e Minuterie metalliche

• Page 198 - The crowned RE terni marking start in 1935 on Moschettos

• Page 201 – PG is not Prova Gardone, it’s most likely Patrone Giovanni, Terni inspector
  - Luigi Franchi is not an FNA inspector, is a proper subcontractor. SPAS 12 isn’t an FNA product.

• age 207 – FALC is Fabbrica d’Armi Lario Como (Cavagna, small village next to Como)

• Page 210 – the circled star mark is a Navy approval marking. Also, the Italian republic started in 1946 and is still operative today, in 1948 we just approved its constitution.

• Page 211 - again, Franchi wasn’t a FNA inspector.

• Page 213 – PG is never Prova Gardone, in this case is Pautassi Giovan battista
  - SG is not Sergio Galassi. Surname always goes before the name in Italian formalities, especially in the past. Being a march 1917 receiver that’s Salerno Giuseppe, Terni inspector.

• Page 220 – BL is not an identifier of the Brescia Arsenal *per se*. It’s the main inspector marking found on Brescia guns 1915-1919.

• Page 231 – CdeC and CA are both Army inspectors, Corrado de Candia and Camminata Armando

• Page 237 – The moschetto is a Police (Polizia di Stato) property, the tag is for the man in charge of the gun.

• Page 305 – The lever latch was introduced in 1916 and discontinued by 1937. The button push was introduced in 1936 and used throughout WW2.
   

For the militaria part I will refrain my opinions, I’ll just tell that mannequins are overall pretty bad. Again, bad resources faults’ of course.