Small Arms - TheHistoryFiles.com

Early WWII German Semi-Automatic Rifles

Gewehr 41 The Gewehr 41 was Germany’s first attempt at a semi-automatic rifle in the class of the American M1 Garand. The designation Gewehr 41 was given to two different weapons (although they look rather identical, they differ a lot and are not based on each other). A first weapon made by Mauser, the Gewehr […]

Small Arms

Mid-Nineteenth Century Firearms and Artillery

The Enfield ‘rifled musket’ Minie ball The Whitworth experimental 3-pounder during test firing at Liverpool. The breech and breech-screw can be seen. A quarter of a century after Waterloo the flintlock was in process of ending more than a hundred years of supremacy on the battlefield as it was replaced by the percussion cap. Smooth […]

Small Arms

Colt US – small arms manufacturer

Some further small modifications were made as a result of First World War experience, and it became the M1911A1 in 1926. It has served without alteration ever since, as well as being widely sold commercially. It is without doubt the finest combat pistol ever made. Colt’s Patent Firearms Company was founded in Hartford, Connecticut, in […]

Small Arms

Flammenwerfer

As World War I bogged down in the trenches, each side sought a means of breaking the stalemate. Germany’s first attempt was a weapon developed in secret more than a decade earlier. In 1901 Richard Fiedler rolled out a prototype of what he called a Flammenwerfer (“flamethrower”). Fiedler’s early design centered on a vertical tank […]

Germany, Small Arms

GERMAN SLR DEVELOPMENT DURING WORLD WAR II

Gewehr 41 (Walther version) The ammunition question refused to die, however, and the lead in ammunition technology the Germans established during World War II brought the matter to the fore after the end of that war. The Germans began the war with the Mauser Gew 98k in 7.92mm caliber. This was a shortened version of […]

Small Arms

Lightning Slide-Action Rifle

Colt Lightning round barrel with slide racked back. William H. Elliot, a dentist and aspiring inventor living in Ilion NY designed the Lightning Rifle. Working in his small shop Elliot is accredited with over one hundred and thirty inventions, sixty or so of which are directly related to firearms but some also as widely diversified […]

Small Arms

M14 Combat Rifle

The story of the M14 is not a happy one. Perhaps the best way of detailing its truly checkered history is to look initially at the way manufacture got under way, or rather did not. John Stennis of the Preparedness Investigating Committee of the U.S. Senate wrote a paper in which he reported his findings […]

Small Arms

Colt Single Action Army

Photographs of cowboys from the Old West proudly showing off their Colt hardware. Colt Single Action Army, serial No 5773 7th Cavalry issued. The Peacemaker Produced: 1873–1941 (Gen 1), 1956–1974 (Gen 2), 1976–present (Gen 3) The gunfight at the O.K. Corral never actually occurred at the Old Kindersley Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. It really […]

Small Arms

Machine Guns WWI: Issue, organization and doctrine

The German MG08, fitted with an optical sight and an armoured cover for its water-jacket. A graphic representation of machine gun cones of fire and beaten zones. Taken from British machine gun training notes. The level of machine gun issue in the armies of the major powers in 1914 was roughly equivalent. The Russians were […]

Germany, Small Arms

LUFTFAUST

‘Lufthaus B’ The Luftfaus in a transport case with preloaded ammunition cartridges. ‘Lufthaus B’ The rounds were fired in two stages with a 0.2 second gap between salvos. ‘Lufthaus B’ In 1945 the Luftfaust was designed by ‘Hugo Schneider’ of Leipzig and by the end of that year the German army were ready to field […]