20mm Breda ?

[last round]

greetings,

if it does not have a Waffenampt on it I'm buggered. Is this an Italian specimen ? The projectile has an impressed 3 and what looks like a stylised crown above AP. The base stamp is H and 38. Thanking contributor (s) in anticipation

 

[Hoeksel]

It is a not so common Hirtenberger (H) made case, I have 1938 and 1939 in my collection and I have seen a 1937 example. Most likely for Italy, although I have reasons to believe they could also be for Spain.

 

[MGARENA]

Most likely and consider the letter type these cases were made by BPD ( Italian factory) for Yougoslavia which used the 2cm Breda Gun during the war.

 

[last round]

thanks U2, my assumption of it being Italian origin is that it came with other items from a chap who served in Italy during the war. being an unfired example the head had been pulled pretty roughly and I have had to do a bit of annealing and tapping of the case to make it look reasonable. there is a bit of a ding on the other side of the moon !

 

[Hoeksel]

Hi MGARENA, based on your remarks I checked "Die Patrone 20 x 138 B" from Anderhub. The cases marked "H" are described on page 800/801 (I missed this!) and they indeed mention possible BPD manufacture, for Yugoslavia. Interesting!

 

[fert]

from what I know Jugo Army in 1941 had 360 guns between 15mm ZB60, and 20mm breda mod 35. The cases "H" marked still recovered are really too much for so few weapons....
We have 2 possible manufacturers, BPD and Hirtemberger. No one confirmed.
regards

 

[last round]

all interesting stuff, thanks

 

[kahu1]

For some reason ,until i found the 'H' was Hirtenberger, I always thought the 'H' headstamp was Greek(Hellenic?),as these aren't uncommon over here, along with the BPD and SMI Italian ones.Probably 'Desert Rat/Rampant Dragon' type souvenirs.
So if the 'H' isn't Greek,and apparently the Greeks made the full range of 20 x 138B rounds, what does the Greek headstamp look like?

 

[greif]

Most likely and consider the letter type these cases were made by BPD ( Italian factory) for Yougoslavia which used the 2cm Breda Gun during the war.

Could be, but still hard to say.

 

[last round]

the downward sweep of the upper part of the numeral 3 matches