Giandoso TZ-45

History of Giandoso TZ-45

The Italians were the first to introduce machine guns, and that was in 1915, in the middle of the First World War, with their Villa Perosa system. However, despite the system's overall portability and pistol caliber, this weapon is not a proper submachine gun design as it has two barrels side by side - it's used more as a squad support solution or on an aircraft as a Install weapons.

The first true submachine gun form was the 1918 German Bergmann Model (MP18), which entered service before the end of the war.

Italian work on submachine guns continued during the interwar period until World War II (1939-1945). When the war began in September 1939, Italy, allied with the Germans, became one of the main components of the Axis powers (although it played a more active role after May 1940). However, Italy's participation as a member of the Axis powers ended with Italy's surrender in September 1943.

The turbulent period that followed was the Italian Civil War (1943-1945), with the German-backed Army of the Italian Social Republic versus the US-backed Italian resistance states, Britain and others.

Between 1944 and 1945, Fabbrica Fratelli Giandoso manufactured about 600 new Italian submachine guns "TZ-45". The gun was designed by brothers Tono and Zorzoli Giandoso in 1944 and supplied to the Italian Socialist Armed Forces.

Other enterprises at the time attempted to supply the Socialist Armed Forces with similar tools - the Brescia FNAB-43 submachine gun is another example (7,000 produced).

The TZ-45 is loaded with off-the-shelf and proven German 9x19mm Parabellum pistol cartridges fed from a 40-round detachable magazine. The operation relies on a recoil system with possible selective fire. The rate of fire reached 800 rounds per minute and the muzzle velocity was 1,200 feet per second.

Effective range of up to 500 feet - suitable for close and mid-range engagements. Aiming is via front/rear iron pairing.

Externally, the submachine gun has a traditional layout, with the pistol grip/trigger unit located at the rear end of the metal fuselage. A retractable wire butt is attached for support and portability. The receiver is mostly round, with most of the length of the barrel exposed forward.

As usual, the magazine feed is under the casing, but clearly in front of the trigger area. The ejection port was cut into the top of the receiver, just in front of the shooter.

Due to the rush in design and production, the TZ-45 was not a popular automatic weapon system. In any case, it was available during the uprising of 1943-1945, and was needed and used until the end of the war. Some weapons fell into the hands of the German army and were used against all their enemies until the last days. At the end of the war, these guns were tested by the Allied forces (i.e.

Britain and the United States) and found to be rather substandard compared to their contemporaries. They were quickly discarded and regarded as largely unreliable and poorly made weapons.

The end of the war did not end the history of the TZ-45, as its rights were sold to the Burmese military, where the gun was mass-produced under the name "BA-42". Problems with the weapons continued to plague them in service, but these were in service in the early 1990salbeit in a secondary role at the time.

Production in Burma continued from 1952 to 1955, and total production increased by another 5,400.

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