Beretta: The 500 Year Old Family Company That Armed Both Sides of Every European War

In 1526, a barrel maker named Bartolomeo Beretta delivered 185 arquebus barrels to the Arsenal of Venice. The invoice still exists. So does the company. Same family. Same valley. Fifteen generations later, Beretta is the oldest continuously operating manufacturer of anything on Earth. This is the story of how a single family in a tiny Italian valley armed the Venetian Republic, Napoleon's Grande Armée, the Italian Royal Army, the German Wehrmacht, the Italian partisans who fought them, and the United States military — all from the same forge in Gardone Val Trompia. From a barrel-making guild in the 1400s to a $1.7 billion global holding company owning Benelli, Sako, Holland & Holland, Steiner, and 20 other brands. From secretly supplying weapons to resistance fighters while the Nazis occupied their factory, to winning the most controversial military sidearm contract in American history. From being rescued by partisans carrying their own guns, to buying a 10% stake in one of America's last independent gun makers. 500 years. Every European war. One family. One valley. One product. — CHAPTERS: – The Invoice From 1526 – The Valley of Iron – 270 Years of Barrels – Pietro Beretta Builds the Modern Company – World War I and the First Beretta Pistol – The Interwar Years – World War II: Occupation, Resistance, and Rescue – Olympic Gold and James Bond – The Model 92 and the M9 Contract – Maryland to Tennessee – Beretta Holding: Building an Empire – The Ruger Stake – 500 Years of Iron, Fire, and Family — Sources and further reading linked in the pinned comment. #Beretta #Firearms #History #Manufacturing #Italy #M9 #FamilyBusiness #Documentary