Rifles and Pistols:
How Many Different Types of
Rifles Were There?
One
certain type of rifle was the Bolt Actions, which were the ones mainly used by
the infantry in the trenches and battlefields. These bolt actions could fire
around 10-15 rounds per minute with an experienced shooter at the trigger. The
main rifles that the German infantry would use were the Mauser Rifles, which
were very good for armor penetration and packed a great punch, (the one
downside it had was that it couldn’t fire very quickly). On the other side the
British had the widely famous Lee Enfield, the Canadians the Ross Rifle, (which
they later replaced with the Lee Enfield due to the very poor make of the
rifle). The French had in their arsenal was the Lebel, (which would sometimes
fire smokeless cartridges), the French later switched to the Berthier which was
a lot more reliable than the Lebel but only had three rounds, which was later
increased to five.
German Mauser Rifle
The
longer on the was went there was more development put into rifles which finally
came up with the carbine, which is a smaller size than the longer rifles being
used and hence had a little less range, but the weapon was a lot less unwieldy
than the longer barreled weapons. One such carbine was used by the Americans
called the U.S. Springfield, (received the name from where it was developed at
Springfield, Massachusetts). This rifle was the standard issue weapon of the
U.S. army during the time, but due to short supply around half of the U.S.
soldiers overseas were given the M1917 “American Enfield”. The
Austro-Hungarians also had a carbine called the Steyr-Mannlicher, this weapon
was produced in Budapest and Steyr and was the standard issue rifle in the
Austro-Hungarian army, its production started in 1895. This weapon was of a
very strong design, it could withstand firing 50,000 rounds from the same rifle
without any lubrication.
Who Invented the Rifles and
Pistols We Know From WW1?
The rifles we know from the war
were not invented by a single person, but by a company name Winchester in 1873,
rifles were very basic but were very reliable and were used by many countries,
the rifles were very common and extremely affordable, which meant that it was a
very generic rifle used in the late 1800’s and first years of the 1900’s.
The invention of the semi-automatic
pistols was credited to a man name Joseph Laumann in 1892, they were loaded
into a clip underneath the weapon.
Pistols of WW1:
Pistols and revolvers of the like
were originally supposed to cavalry exclusive weapons, but were then issued to
infantry, officers, tank crews, airmen, and military police. Some common
pistols/handguns were the British Bull Dog, Colt M1903 Pocket Hammerless, Colt
M1909, Colt M1911, Enfield Mk 1 & Mk 2, Lancaster, Mauser C96, and Smith
& Wesson M1899.There were three kinds of pistols that were used, revolvers,
clip-load automatics, (were normally loaded through the handle of the weapon),
and the “blow-backs”, they were called this because of the expanding propellant
gas put in them caused the gun to reload by forcing the bolt back when fired). .People
such as tank crews and airmen used pistols and revolvers were because
conditions were normally very cramped without much room to properly move
around, which tended to make having something such as a rifle rather unwieldy.
Military Police weren’t given rifles for the simple reason of shortages and
high demand, so they were given pistols and revolvers which were more accessible
and easier to come by.
The German army had the Luger,
this weapon was mainly used by the officers but were given to soldiers who were
given a wide variety of tasks, (close-quarter jobs).
German Luger
The British army had the Webley
Mk IV revolver, this pistol was standard issue and was very reliable in every
condition, but the weapon needed much training to fire accurately since it
jumped a lot while firing.
Webley MK IV Revolver
The
French’s standard issue weapon was the Pistole Revolveur Modele 1892, which was
manufactured in the areas of Belgium and Spain. The weapon is very accurate and
well-made but the only downside was that it didn’t pack much of a punch
How
Much of a Difference Did These Weapons Make?
These weapons made a huge impact
on the war; they were much more effective at killing and maiming people than
every other weapon that was ever made. They were a huge breakthrough and led to
even more developments in weaponry and sciences, these weapons also had an
indirect impact on all technologies that would soon be developed later on in
time because of all the new technology that made construction and the
performance of these weapons better.
