The Beretta Model 1918 was a submachine gun that entered service in 1918 with the Italian armed forces. Designed initially as a semi-automatic rifle, the weapon came with an overhead inserted magazine, an unconventional design based on the simplicity of allowing a spent round to be replaced using only gravity. The gun was made from half of a Villar-Perosa aircraft submachine gun, and as such it can be considered the first submachine gun issued to and used by the Italian armed forces, and is possibly the first SMG used as a general-issue combat weapon.