Autocannone Breda 52 da 90/53 first ver
| Autocannone Breda 52 da 90/53 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Anti Air Truck |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1941-1970 |
| Used by | Italian Army |
| Wars | Second World War |
| Production history | |
| Manufacturer | Ansaldo |
| Unit cost | 513400 Lira (~$75,000 USD) (1939) |
| Produced | 1941-1943 |
| No. built | 96 units |
| Specifications | |
| Caliber | 90mm |
The 90/53 da Breda 52 was a truck used by the Royal Army in the Second World War. Similar to German high caliber anti air trucks, it also had anti tank capabilities.[1]
Development and employment[edit]
The genesis of the medium follows that of 90/53 on Lancia 3Ro. These two vehicles are born from the need of the Royal Army to provide anti-tank protection to the motorized columns with a mobile platform for the cannon 90/53 Mod. 1939[2], born as anti-aircraft weapon heavy and proved to be excellent for the fight anti-tank. The Breda truck, presented in March 1941, incorporates the solutions from Lancia, which had been adopted in January of the same year. From 1941 to 1943, 96 units were produced.
In total, about 120 90mm autocannons were built on the hull Breda 52 and Lancia 3Ro, to arm, according to the intentions of the General Staff, 12 Groups, each on two batteries. The equipment was established in:[3]
- Group: 1 Lancia 3Ro Mobile Office as command post.
- Battery:
- 4 trucks on Lancia 3Ro or Breda 52,
- 4 Lancia 3Ro Ammunition holder , each with 210 rounds on board,
- 1 Lancia 3Ro Mobile workshop .
The Breda 52 assigned in 4 pieces for battery to the DIV Group of the 3rd Anti-aircraft Artillery Group which fought in Tunisia in January 1943; equipped the DV Group stationed in Sicily at the time of the landing and the DLVII Group of the 20th Artillery Regiment of the 10th "Piave" Infantry Division who defended Rome in 1943.
Features[edit]
The weapon[edit]
It consisted of the anti-tank / anti-aircraft gun Ansaldo 90/53 Mod 39.[4] The special steel barrel (Ni-Cr-Mo) was single-walled with a right-handed 28-row helical groove. The breech was cold screwed and could be separated to replace the worn core, the breech block carried at the top a bracket for connection to the recuperator rods and at the bottom an appendix for joining the recoil brake cylinder. The wedge shutter was horizontal sliding, with opening and closing by hand. In automatic mode, the shutter was held in the open position after removing the cartridge case.
The fork carriage was shielded (12mm thick) to protect the servants and was supported by a truncated cone-shaped pedestal under carriage, resting on the truck bed. It was swiveling 360 ° with a rise from 0 ° to 80 °. The cradle was a sleeve and the oscillating mass and the tappet devices flowed within the cradle.
The complex was equipped with hydraulic brake, rod and counter-rod, positioned below the barrel, with variable recoil according to the angle of the mouth. In addition to the hydraulic brake, the piece had two hydropneumatic recuperators, applied externally to the cradle and arranged above the barrel. A balancer was also provided, acting on the breech, since the rear mumps caused a strong preponderant flying.
The direction device (on 360º) was crown gear, while the elevation devices were helical toothed sectors and worm gear. The aiming took place with independent line of sight and raising devices, however the aiming of the piece was foreseen through the firing station. A Borletti spool graduator was also provided.
The anti-aircraft shooting was directed by the shooting center Borletti-Galileo-San Giorgio, also indicated as BGS, of national production. The BGS control unit used a stereoscopic rangefinder with a base of 4 m as the pointing system, and used a crew of only 6 men, who worked directly on the platform of the trailer truck on which the control unit was fixed. The data (distance, direction and site), measured through the rangefinder, were entered manually in the electromagnetic calculator, which could be managed (linear extrapolation or not of the future point) by the staff (2 specialized). The data was raised, tilt and graduation of the spool were electrically transmitted to the piece. The pieces could be totally enslaved to the power plant or could be used manually through coincidence indices that appeared on the targeting devices. In 1942 BGS plants were enslaved to the Wūrzburg Ausf D (German) radio detector, indicated in the Royal Army as "Fox", with this method the plant could manage the shooting of a battery on targets at a distance not exceeding 12 km and a speed not exceeding 720 km / h.
The truck[edit]
The truck chosen by the Royal Army was the Breda 52. This was a version with a reinforced frame (to better withstand the stress of the shot) of the heavy artillery tractor Breda 51 Coloniale . The vehicle with the piece installed reached a weight of 11.5 tons and a maximum speed of 30 km per hour (Power weight ratio = 10.87 hp / t). The truncated cone-shaped carriage, bolted to the center of the platform, had 360 ° swing and from -2 ° to 85 ° elevation. For the battery start, 6 large manually operated jacks were lowered. Then the 4-piece sides of the box were opened, which thus formed the circular platform for the servants. Six crewmen took place on the vehicle, in addition to a 12-stroke reserve reserve.
Related[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ Finazzer, Enrico; Carretta, Luigi (2017). Light Trucks of the Italian Army in WWII (1st ed.). MMPBooks. ISBN 8365281228. Search this book on
- ↑ Finazzer, Enrico; Riccio, Ralph A. (2015). Italian artillery of WWII. MMP Books. Search this book on
- ↑ Italian truck-mounted artillery in action , Ralph Riccio and Nicola Pignato, p. 15.
- ↑ Chamberlain, Peter (1975). Anti-aircraft guns. New York : Arco Pub. Co. p. 31. ISBN 0668038187. Search this book on
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