As an example, the Breda M37 HMG has numerous problems, some of which completely baffle me. Quite aside from more explicable issues with oiling and picking up dirt, having a twenty round magazine for a HMG seems like an indefensible idea, and having an HMG that ejects spent cartridges back into the clip seems insane - creating multiple points of failure, limiting rate of fire, and making reuse of the clip a laborious process, since you first have to strip the casings out!

These problems seem like they weren't limited to their machine guns - aside from their SMG's, which were apparently quite sophisticated (although fragile), Italian small arms all seem to have drawbacks that are hard to understand in context, even with the general lack of readiness for a world war.