#WorldWarI

Arcane Teutonic space magicks gave Imperial German assault troops the advantage in trench warfare during the first Great War, as the Kaiser’s sturmtruppen made deadly use of Arch-Industriemage Georg Luger’s fearsome Lange Pistole 08 “long Luger” semiautomatic handheld transforming death machines – err, I mean stocked pistols.

One of several interesting automatic individual weapon designs from World War I, the Winchester Machine Rifle was a concept for a dual-purpose anti-observation-balloon/ground weapon that featured several concepts that, for better or worse, were definitely ahead of their time. Matthew Moss of the Historical Firearms Blog posted an excellent overview of the Winchester Machine Rifle, both there and on WarIsBoring:

This week, C&Rsenal takes a look at the Italian Bodeo revolver, an interesting transitional type that served all the way through the 1960s.

The Fedorov Avtomat is an important milestone in the history of modern small arms. With the Federov, for the first time, an individual soldier could possess automatic firepower in a package small enough to move and fight with, while at the same time not significantly compromising the range or effectiveness of the bolt-action rifle. However, the weapon fell out of favor during the Soviet era, and was never produced in large numbers. By way of WeaponsMan.com (H/T to Hognose), we are brought yet more details of the Fedorov’s story, written by Alexander Vershinin for Russia Beyond The Headlines:

The title of this article is an Anglicized version of the title of the article linked below.

As a history buff it’s easy to find numerous interesting tidbits by studying World War I, but what’s really fascinating is the firearms. World War I may have run its course between 1914 and 1918 but that doesn’t mean there weren’t advances in firearms technology going on. For example, the French took it upon themselves to a semi-automatic rifle for their infantry. That rifle was the Fusil Automatique Modele 1917, more commonly known as the RSC 1917, and although it didn’t see use until the tail end of the war it was a fantastic weapon.

The Mauser 1914 is not a well-known firearm today, but during the First World War, it became one of the most important small semiautomatic handguns of the early 20th Century.

I am partnering with C&Rsenal’s Othais to bring you companion articles to his Primer series of videos looking at some of the most important firearms in history. First, Othais tackles the iconic Mauser C96 pistol, used by diverse characters from Chinese resistance fighters in WWII, to fictional rogue smugglers from a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Keep a look out for further articles in this set as they come out!

It’s a good time to be into firearms history. Between Forgotten Weapons, Vickers Tactical, and other great series, what more could the gun history nerd ask for? Well, Othais of CandRsenal has started a YouTube channel that answers that question, covering in medium-length videos individual rifles and other arms of the period from 1870-1960. The first two episodes, covering the 1886 Lebel and the Berthier, are delivered in a format very well-suited to viewers just getting into firearms, but I still learned quite a bit:

One of the (many) reasons to follow the WeaponsMan blog is that he keeps an eye out for neat auctions that, even if they cost the same as a new luxury sedan, provide great photos of rare or unique firearms. Most recently, Hognose has linked to an auction for a very rare MP.18-I, the first variant of the famous German MP.18 submachine gun (which, arguably, was the progenitor of the type):

As our regular readers have by now guessed, early selfloading rifle design is a major point of interest for me. It’s not well-known, but before the US entrance into World War I, Ordnance was extremely interested in procuring a self-loading rifle design to arm US troops in combat. A significant round of tests followed as a result, and between 1910 and 1917, the US government tested designs from Standard Arms Co, Dreyse, Kjellman, Benet-Mercie, Rock Island Arsenal, Bang, Mauser, Mondragon, Rychiger, St. Etienne (what would become the RSC 1917), Stergian, and Liu, at least. One other rifle tested during this period was the Bommarito rifle, on which Forgotten Weapons has posted an article with description and photos.

Rock Island Auction time means we get to look at a bunch of really neat guns, thanks to Forgotten Weapons’ Ian. Today he examines one of the most important early selfloading rifles, the model 1908 Mondragon: