Archive Footage of Italian Light Arms, MG, Brixia, Heavy Mortar, 47mm

[Gamer58]

You can see an interesting video here of these Italian weapons. The Brixia looks like a handful to operate. The 47mm reminds me of some of the Japanese light guns they used - it looks like it would be quite stealthy to operate. The way the weapons break down to be carried on the back is interesting too.

[Hister]

Nice overview.

[John Kettler]

Gamer58,

Information content and visual clarity are very good, but in terms of holding my interest, this doc seems interminable, and this from someone who earlier slogged through an hour plus of a Vietnamese (no English subtitles) Dien Bien Phu doc!

This Brixia clip, featuring Guastatori in action at El Alamein, is far more illustrative of the Brixia in action.

Regards,

John Kettler

[nachinus]

Excellent doc! Thanks for sharing.

The Brixia fascinates me...

[DavidFields]

Superb clip, John Kettler.

But I am perplexed. Surely that is a staged propoganda piece? Maybe that is obvious.

It is great in showing how incredibly vulnerable the infantry were in that type of terrain in N. Africa.

The Brixia, to me, looks like not much more effective/accurate in this clip than a grenade launcher. The short distance rounds, just in front of the advancing infantry, were done just to keep the action in the cinema screen?

Does it look like that weapon, used with those soldiers, could reliably put a round into a pickle jar at even 100m?

[Erwin]

Lovely clip. However, it shows shells exploding very close to troops with no ill-effect on them, so looks very staged Hollywood-like. But, at least they also had flamethrowers.

[John Kettler]

Erwin,

I see men going down and not getting back up, most particularly the first Brixia gunner in that crater. It's quite apparent that getting him off and untangled from the Brixia isn't easy. He is, you'll forgive the expression, dead weight. The men, by and large, advance by rushes, and the terrain, seen up close, has microrelief of as much as a foot plus. Thus, a prone man has at least the protection of a field scrape. Whatever's going off is HE, and there's no Hollywood style qua napalm nonsense going on. I think the shellbursts are about right for 25 pr fire, but I've had no luck finding a photo to which to compare the ones in the clip.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Erwin]

The giveaway is that the cameraman is often shooting from a higher position than the prone soldiers who are "sheltering from explosions" just a few feet away from the cameraman and the cameraman never flinches. We see no camera jerkiness/shakiness whatsoever. It's always possible there is some actuality footage edited in, but this sequence is, at least mostly, staged.

[John Kettler]

Erwin,

Not necessarily. Suggest you watch this free doc "Shooting War," a full length look at America's combat cameramen of WW II. There, you will see people doing exactly the insane things I said were done by their British counterparts at El Alamein. These include standing high in the landing craft, under fire, to photograph the hunkered down Marines; being first on the beach, walking backwards, to film the emerging assault troops; keeping the cameras rolling--no matter what, to include filming vs rescuing drowning men, or keeping the camera steady as shells land close by. Absence of shaking may not be anything more than evidence of coolness under fire, nor does a higher POV automatically preclude footage or stills from being real. I saw PTO combat footage in which you can actually see bullets tearing up the foliage all around the infantry being filmed during a hot firefight. These guys are filming away even as Me-109s and Focke Wulf 190s slice up the bomber box over Europe, there as the kamikazes crash, the bombs go off in Normandy orchards, at the Bulge, on the Enterprise as the bombs hit the fantail and detonate. You won't find much camera jerk, either.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/shooting-war/

Regards,

John Kettler

[Erwin]

If some of the Italian footage of very close explosions were real (vs demo explosions just to make a lot of smoke) the cameraman would amost certainly be hit. In addition, there is an autonomic/physiological reaction that causes flinch and it's uncontrollable. All you have to do is look at modern combat video from more modern conflicts to see what combat photography looks like.

Re-enacting beach landings was de rigeur. But it all cuts nicely together with RL footage.

[Gamer58]

Their weapons look antiquated like the Japanese ones.

[cool breeze]

That seems very real to me, I think the camera men just have balls of steel, steady hands or a tripod, and or maybe a little zoom. I think I saw at least 2 men killed or wounded by the shells, the one on the Brixia and the one who got pulled down the slope. I also reference minute 5, where we have the flamethrowers and a lot of shooting. I see people in the dusts, Americans judging by the rate of fire, they seemed to be shooting at the Italians. The Italians also shot flamethrowers at them, I don't think they would shoot flamethrowers at actors.

[cool breeze]

Oh and its JKs video Im talking about, I didn't watch the other.