How often in the history of weapons do we find examples of an exclusively subjective assessment of one or another of its samples? And if objective factors were also superimposed on them, then this led to the most real "adventures of inventions".
Here it is - the Enfield Revolver No. 2 Mk I. It is even outwardly visible that this is a very technological product, in which the barrel is milled together with the upper part of the frame.
For example, the same Samuel Colt created a breakthrough sample, and he carved the very first model with his own hand from wood. He set up production, stubbornly went to the goal, built the city-plant "Coltsville", which became the prototype of the "city of the future" in the novel by Jules Verne "500 million begums" and … that's it! Further, it seemed to close, and when the inventor of a drilled through drum for cartridges with a metal sleeve came to him, he drove him away! He went to Smith and Wesson, and so there was Smith and Wesson # 1, and then all the other revolvers. And then Colt's widow had to hire engineers to bypass the Smith and Wesson patents, which is why the famous Peacemaker Colt appeared so late.
And so he broke. The extractor is pulled out of the drum.
The same story was repeated later in Russia. The "Smith and Wesson" revolver adopted by the Russian army showed excellent destructive power of a bullet, surpassing, surprisingly, the destructive power of a bullet from a Berdan rifle of the same caliber. What did you dislike? And the belt on which the holster hung was twisted because of its weight! So what? They would have come up with shoulder straps for him and … that's it! But no, they decided to adopt the Nagant revolver, in fact, a disposable weapon, since in terms of the speed of unloading and loading it could not be compared with the "American". It was discharged in just one movement. The revolver had to be "cleaned" seven times in a row with an extractor, then the cartridges also had to be inserted seven times. Were there any objective reasons for replacing one sample with another? Only one - both revolvers and pistols became more and more status weapons, and in real combat they were used less and less. But the rearmament cost a lot of money. It was easier to replace the black powder in the Smith and Wesson cartridges with smokeless, and introduce shoulder straps (by the way, they were introduced later!) To solve the problems of "warping" and "smoke". But what a destructive force! After all, with the "Smithwessons" they hunted bison …
But now the extractor is hidden, and the revolver can be loaded.
So progress in military affairs is by no means always absolute, sometimes very relative.
We have a similar example in England, where in the 1870s of the 19th century the English company Vebley and Son (since 1897 it is called Vebley-Scott) began production of its revolvers. In 1887, the Vebley Green revolver was released, which entered service with the British army and was used … until 1963. Why so long? The fact is that the company offered the army a revolver with a breaking frame, which, firstly, was easy to fabricate, and secondly, it made it possible to provide a very high reloading speed, comparable to the reloading speed of revolvers with a drum that folds out to the side.
Revolvers "Vebley" had an opening body, consisting of two parts connected by a hinge. To reload it, the barrel had to be thrown down (just like in the Smith and Wesson system), while the body “broke”, and the extractor was automatically triggered, simultaneously throwing all six spent cartridges out of the drum slots. After that, all the chambers of the drum had to be filled manually, but, nevertheless, the time savings were very significant.
Above is a revolver of.455 Mk I arr. 1915, below.388 Mk IV.
The firm chose a truly impressive caliber for its revolver: O, 455 or.455 (11.6 mm), but in reality it was slightly smaller -.441 inches or 11.2 mm. Model Mk I arr. 1887 had this caliber, but all subsequent models, for example, the Mk IV arr. 1913 model, had this caliber.
The original barrel length was 102 mm (4 inches), but was then increased to 152 mm (6 inches). Together with a powerful powder charge and a blunt heavy bullet, the speed of which was 189 m / s, the revolver ensured the defeat of any live target, be it the most bloodthirsty and strong "savage", but it was not easy to shoot from such a revolver, despite the convenient head". Revolvers "Webley" at that time surpassed their counterparts of their time in shooting accuracy, but, again, there was only one reason for this - a very soft descent. But the recoil when fired was very significant. As, however, the weight of the same Mk IV, which was 1.09 kg without cartridges.
The Webley Scott Mk IV is a military model.
In 1915, the Mk IV received a different grip, sights, but that was the end of the changes, although a convenient six-shot clip was also invented for it, which accelerated the reloading process even more. The revolver showed itself well in battle: it was not afraid of dirt, dust, moisture, but even if the cartridges ran out or it misfired, it could be used without fear of anything as a club. It was simply impossible to break anything in it! Moreover, especially for trench warfare, it was equipped with … a Pritchard-Greener bayonet, which was attached to the barrel over the front sight with an emphasis on the frame.
The Pritchard-Greener's bayonet was an utterly monstrous weapon.
To fire this revolver even faster, Colonel G. V. Fosbury in 1896 patented its original modification - the Vebley-Fosbury self-loading revolver, perhaps the most original revolver in the world.
It also had two parts, but only when fired, the upper part of the frame, including the barrel, drum and trigger, rolled back along the guides of the lower part of the frame. The returnable coil spring was in the handle and acted on a special lever, with which the movable part returned back. During this "ride" back and forth, the drum was rotated to supply the next cartridge to the line of fire and the hammer was cocked. Again, this provided a very soft descent, simply incomparable with the Naganov one, and made it possible to shoot very accurately, if not for one circumstance. The strong recoil was enhanced by the movement of the massive parts of the revolver, which made firing it not a very comfortable experience. At one time it was fashionable to buy it for pilots of the then airplanes, who hoped that with the help of an "automatic revolver" they would be more likely to hit the enemy in the air. But then it turned out that the machine gun is still more reliable in air combat, but the weight of 1.25 kg is too great. In addition, this sample was useless in the trenches, as it was sensitive to pollution. But nevertheless, he managed to enter both history and literature (although he was not officially in service!), So if in any book you read that someone there was armed with an automatic revolver, this is not a fiction, it meant Vebley-Fosbury.
Diagram of the Vebley-Fosbury revolver.
However, immediately after the end of the First World War, it became clear that it was simply unreasonable to spend a lot of time and energy on training the servicemen of the British crown to shoot such a heavy revolver. This is both time and ammunition consumption - that is, money. And all this for what? So that in a critical situation someone killed a couple of opponents? Yes, they (in this situation) are not worth the metal that was spent on the manufacture of this weapon. Therefore, it was decided that now the army needs a small, and most importantly, a light and convenient revolver that shoots smaller caliber cartridges. The caliber.38 was chosen - that is, 9, 65 mm. The military decided that it will be easier to shoot, which means that the time for training in shooting and, accordingly, the consumption of ammunition will be reduced.
Mk IV - the end of the handle.
The company "Vebley-Scott" then did not hesitate for a long time, but simply reduced the.455 revolver, and in this form offered it to the army. It just happened that they approved the design, but they did not give the company an order for a new revolver, but placed it at the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield. And so in 1926 the revolver went into production, but not under the Webley brand, but under the Enfield brand, Revolver No. 2 Mk I. It weighed 767 g, had a barrel length of 127 mm and a bullet speed of 183 m / s. It was believed that the shooter armed with him should hit the target from him at a distance of 23 meters, no further. And at this distance, the new revolver worked very well.
Mk IV - the frame clasp lever is clearly visible. He had to be pressed with his thumb, after which the revolver would open.
Since every weapon depends on the cartridge, it must be said about what kind of cartridge was used in this revolver. And it was significantly different from the German 9-mm cartridge "Parabellum". With a caliber of.38, weighing 200 grains, the bullet of the British cartridge was twice as large and heavier, but it flew twice as slow as the German one.
In any case, Webley & Scott was discouraged by this turn of affairs, but … decided to start producing its own.38 caliber revolver and named it Mk IV, although the only difference between it and its army brother was only in the grip marking. However, inside they also had certain differences, so they were not interchangeable.
Mk IV - the U-shaped clasp of the upper part of the frame and the hammer head are clearly visible, short and durable.
The rapid motorization of the British army and the creation of large armored forces led to the fact that the new revolver also entered service with tank crews, and it was then that it turned out that it was not very convenient for tankers, since the trigger pin in a cramped tank was obligatory for something yes it clung. The solution was found quickly - it was simply removed, so that it became possible to shoot from a new revolver, designated No. 2 Mk I * ("with a star *"), only by self-cocking. As always, this reduced the accuracy of shooting, but insignificantly, and they decided to neglect this drawback.
Revolver with retracted trigger needle, model 1942.
Well, by 1942, the British army needed mass character, not the quality of weapons, so any simplification by the military was perceived favorably, if only it would increase the production of weapons. Therefore, the design of the revolver was simplified even more, in particular, the fuse was removed. The new sample No. 2 Mk I ** ("with two stars") became even cheaper to manufacture, but only if it fell on a hard surface, an accidental shot could occur. Moreover, now commercial Mk IV revolvers were also used, so the Vebley-Scott company still received its share of the profits from the war. Interestingly, immediately after the end of the war, all Mk I ** revolvers were withdrawn from the troops, but then they were returned back with the fuse installed.
And this is how this revolver (meaning the Enfield model) lies in the left hand. The shape of the handle is comfortable to grip, the revolver does not seem heavy, the trigger is very light compared to the Nagant revolver. Large sights are easy to see and make aiming easier.
Both of these revolvers were widely used not only during the Second World War, but were also in service with the British army until the 60s of the twentieth century. They were then handed over to the police, where they could be seen even in the late 1980s.
