The Beretta M1934 is an iconic sidearm of the Second World War, seeing service on all fronts of the European Theater with the Italians, Germans, Romanians and others. It is retained by a heel catch and has a prominent finger rest attached. The magazine itself holds seven cartridges, and has large openings in the sides to view the cartridges loaded within. When the magazine is removed, the slide will be released, and thus must be manually cycled upon reloading. The pistol does not have an integral slide stop, although the slide will lock open on the magazine follower after the last cartridge is expended. The pistol’s grips are made of hardened rubber and embossed with the Beretta logo, and notably have thin metal plates beneath them to provide extra strength. The hammer also features a half cock notch. The safety is also extrememly simple, being a small switch on the frame above the trigger on the left hand side, rotating 180 degrees forward for fire and rearward for safe, with the safety preventing the trigger from functioning but not impeding slide operations. The weapon features the open top slide that has remained a trademark of Beretta pistols to this day, serving both to lighten the weapon and functioning as an ejection port.
The M1934 is an extremely simple single action automatic handgun, using a direct blowback mechanism. The pistol would be purchased and issued by the Romanians as well, and would become popular with German officers during the war. The pistol would gain a reputation for being robust and reliable in service, and later a variant in 7.65mm (.32 ACP) would enter service with the Regia Marina as the M1935. The first contracts were almost exclusively issued to the Regio Esercito (Royal Army), with only small numbers being issued to the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Air Force) and Regia Marina (Royal Navy).
After an abortive attempt to integrate the Walther’s slide mounted safety and decocker the Beretta was selected for issue, with deliveries to the Royal Italian Army beginning in 1936. 380 ACP, with the final contest within Italian military trials coming down to the Beretta and the Walther PP from Germany. Beretta would submit a new design in the 9mm short (corto) cartridge, also known as 9x17mm or. The market for military handguns was crowded in the late 1930s, with various types coming out of Germany, Czechoslovakia and Belgium, among others.
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