The Musings Of The Consensus

  Some weapons are truly terrible and badly designed from the start, and doomed to incur the historical derision of anyone competent to appreciate firearms. Some are well-designed masterpieces that continue to hold honor and esteem as they did when first used by soldiers in combat, and some are not overly elegant yet reasonably functional. And then we have the Breda 30, a light machine gun that escapes being completely terrible, but sadly does not rise to the level of being of average performance, having to settle for being highly underwhelming. As the name implies, the Breda 30 (Fucile Mitragliatore Breda Modello 30) was officially issued for service for the Kingdom of Italy in 1930. It was the standard light machine gun of Italy until the end of World War 2, and while it did prove an effective enough weapon to be combat-worthy, it was a mix of odd design decisions that made it rather poor in terms of performance and ergonomics. * The magazine feed system was a fixed design, loadi...

 Now, I reviewed two weapons prior that were pretty terrible, the Chauchat and the Type 94 pistol. Both of these weapons had so many flaws I was forced to give them bad reviews. The Type 100 SMG of Japanese WW2 fame was far from the best gun deployed, but on the whole, it was quite good for what it was made for and the limitations its sponsor nation had. First, a little background. Japan was oddly late to the idea of incorporating SMGs into their arsenal during World War II. Despite having battlefields ideal for their deployment and being well suited for the mission they needed them for, they showed oddly little interest until very late into the war, and they never deployed the gun in question in very large numbers even after they proved their worth, likely due to shortage of materials over any other reason. Like many Japanese weapons of the period, it is a product of Kirijo Nambu, who made and/or refined practically every weapon the Japanese would carry as small arms. While some o...

 Now, when reviewing this gun, I had to separate a lot of fact from fiction. One of its most notorious features has a lot of contention, with some claiming it was more deadly to the user than the intended target, and others claiming this is overblown nonsense. On the whole, however, this is a pretty disappointing gun for many other reasons. Shown above is the Type 94 handgun (in the original Japanese,    Kyūyon-Shiki Kenjū). Now, many respected military historians such as the late Ian V. Hogg have given this gun bad reviews. More contemporary military weapons aficionados generally agree though Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons contends it wasn't great, but not as bad as it's believed to be. The gun itself was designed by Kijirō Nambu, the Japanese version of John Moses Browning. The Type 94 was issued for service in 1934 (despite it being a commercial flop in non-military markets). Its designation comes from the Japanese historical tradition of their origins, meaning...

 As many who read this blog or who know my tastes may be aware I adore reading about history. Wars are particularly interesting to read about, but honestly, they suck because wars kill people. And people die when they are killed. And, now that I made a lame Fate/Stay Night meme reference, bear with me (and for the gun nuts among you, get the antacids) as we take a trip down the snark-laden road that was the history of the Chauchat, long considered to be one of the worst weapons to ever be given to soldiers to kill people with. First off, the name, being French, is pronounced "show-sha". Also, that's merely the informal name. The actual official military designation is  Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG (French for "Machine Rifle Model 1915 CSRG"). The more informal name comes from its chief designer contributor, Colonel Louis Chauchat. Before we continue, some argue this gun is unfairly maligned, and while it was a piece of garbage that had better use as a pap...