SERVICE – Italian military from late WWI into WWII
This was the first conversion of the Villar Perosa into a shoulder-fired submachinegun at the request of the Italian Government. The design work was conducted by Tullio Marengoni of Beretta who continued to work for the company from 1918 to 1960. The design problem was to convert the Villar Perosa weapons into a quicker to handle shoulder weapon that would retain the lightness of the original. A new firing mechanism was devised that moved the trigger from the back of the receiver to underneath the weapon. The vertical magazine and bottom ejection were both retained from the original design. For very close-in fighting, the folding bayonet from the bolt-action Carcano carbine was secured underneath the barrel of the submachinegun. Most of the existing Villar Perosa weapons were converted to the Beretta design during WWI.
