"You have sails, and you grabbed the anchor …"
(Confucius)
The Kingdom of Belgium has always been small in size and did not seem to stand out in anything special. Well, except that the great detective Hercule Poirot was born there, began his career there, but was forced to emigrate from there at the beginning of the First World War, since his country was occupied by the Germans. But experts in the field of weapons know that it is in Belgium that the famous FN enterprise - "Fabrique Natonale" is located, where first-class weapons were produced already at the end of the 19th century. And since Belgium is a small country, the bulk of it was exported to other countries. It was led by Ludwig Loewe at that time and, of course, his dream was to get a military contract. And then, luckily for him, the Belgian government decided to abandon the Hubert Joseph Comblem single-shot rifle, which was put into service in 1868, and replace it with a magazine rifle. It should be noted that at first it was adopted by the National Guard, and only after some improvements in 1871, the army men changed their anger to mercy and made it the standard rifle of the Belgian army. At the same time, it was actively exported to Brazil, Peru and Chile.
Mauser M1889 rifle. (Army Museum, Stockholm)
But, as already noted, in the same 1871 in Prussia, the Mauser magazine rifle entered service, and the Belgians had to do something in response. And they did, however, only in 1889, adopting again the Mauser M1889 rifle chambered for 7, 65x53 smokeless powder. Interestingly, this rifle was never produced in Germany itself. But on the other hand, being approved in Belgium, it immediately entered service with Turkey (1890) and Argentina (1891), where the rifles of this sample were named "Belgian Mauser".
No matter how simple the shutter of the Comblin rifle was, it did not work to connect it to the magazine!
It is interesting to note that Argentina in 1879 adopted the Remington rifle with a crane valve, but progress in the military field in those years was so rapid that by 1890 it was godlessly outdated. On the bolt box of the Argentine rifle on the left it was written: "Mauser Argentine model 1891. Manufactured by Loewe Berlin" - and that's why this is so is not entirely clear. In total, Argentina received neither more nor less from the Belgian manufacturer … but 230400 rifles and 33500 carbines! The latter differed from the Belgian ones in that they had a muzzle covering both the end of the stock and the barrel, which was typical of cavalry carbines in many countries. In 1931, the Argentines redesigned 5,043 carbines so that it became possible to attach a bayonet to them and handed them over to the corps of engineers. Moreover, bayonets were used from Remington M1879 rifles with a bronze handle and a steel guard-hook.
Belgian Guardsman with Comblen rifle.
Then the M1909 rifle (Mauser M1898) and the carbine came to replace these samples. Interestingly, the first 3000 rifles came to the Argentines with the original German bayonets. But then the thrifty Argentines also adapted the old bayonet to the new rifle - an analogue of the bayonet to the Gra rifle.
As for Belgium, FN received a tasty jackpot - an order for 150,000 rifles for the army, and this, not counting orders for these rifles from abroad! Production began in 1890, and until 1927, 180,000 M1889 rifles were produced. During the First World War, which Hercule Poirot safely waited out in England, the production of these rifles continued in the United States at the Hopkins and Allen factories in Norwich, Connecticut, where 140,000 rifles and 10,000 carbines were to be produced under the contract. But the company managed to fulfill the order only by 8% and … went bankrupt in 1917! The remaining 92% of the 1,500,000th order was therefore carried out by the Marlene Rockwell Firems Co., although the marking of the new rifles remained the same. Thus, from 1916 to 1918, 150,000 M1889 rifles and carbines were produced in the United States. A group of Belgian emigrants in England also set up its production at a plant in Birmingham, moreover, in the same Birmingham, it was produced by V. V. Greener. Thus, this "Mauser" shot at the Germans during the First World War and was in service with the Belgian army until … 1935, that is, 46 years - almost half a century!
Swedish Mauser mod. 1896 chambered for 6, 5x55. (Army Museum, Stockholm)
Rifles were produced in Belgium (before the First World War) and on orders from other countries: for example, in 1894, an order for 20,000 rifles and 14,000 carbines from Brazil followed. True, the order was not for the M1889 model, but for the M1893 model - or the Spanish Mauser with a staggered 7mm round magazine. In 1896, an order for 14,000 rifles from Spain of the same model and also a 7-mm caliber followed. Well, the Mauser 7-mm rifle was adopted for service both in Spain and in Chile (1893), then it was adopted by Brazil and the Transvaal (1894), Mexico (1895) and Serbia (1899)..). Well, and even later, 7-mm Mauser rifles entered the armies of Colombia, Ecuador and Uruguay. Among the Transvaal Boers, in addition to the 7-mm infantry rifle, the carbine of the same 1894 model was very much appreciated. The armies of Turkey (1893, caliber 7, 65 mm), Sweden (1894, caliber 6, 5 mm) of Paraguay and Bolivia (М1907, caliber 7, 65 mm) were armed with rifles of the same model, but in different calibers. …
Shutter and magazine М1889.
As for the features of the M1889 rifle, they should include the metal tubular barrel casing, which was supposed to protect the soldiers' hands from burns, a short extractor located in the upper part of the bolt and a large flat magazine protruding from the box, in which the cartridges were placed in one row. The clip is flat, spring. The reloading handle is at the back, almost at the level of the trigger. The sight was graduated to 1900 m. Even outwardly, the rifle looked complete and looked very elegant, even with a large magazine attached to the trigger guard.
Diagram of the bolt device of the M1889 rifle.
Simultaneously with the rifle, a carbine with a long dagger bayonet with a flat blade and a guard with a hook for mounted gendarmes was adopted. A long bayonet from the French Gras rifle and a T-shaped blade profile was adapted to this carbine, since the handles of both models were the same. The carbine was distinguished from the rifle by the bent down bolt handle. Known model "lightweight" carbine, practically does not differ from this sample. They also differed from the rifle in the graduation of the sight up to 1800 m. Another model of the carbine was designed in 1916, produced by the decision of the Belgian government in exile and was used by soldiers of the fortress artillery.
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Argentine Mauser 1891.
In 1935, the Belgians finally decided to replace their old "Mauser" with a new one - the M1898 rifle. It received the name of the short rifle and was produced at the FN factories until 1940. A total of 80,000 rifles of this type were produced, very similar to the standard Mauser rifle. But what was to be done with the old stock of M1889 rifles? The Belgians converted them, calling the new sample М1889 / 36. The main thing that distinguished the new rifle from the old one was the barrel without a tubular cover, covered with wooden plates. At the end of the barrel there is a muffler similar to the M1898. The sight was located in the same place where it was located on rifles of the German model. The Belgians did not clean up the characteristic flat store, and why, if it worked just as well as the new built-in one. They did not bend down the handle on the bolt either, so it is straight on the М1889 / 36. The bayonet-epee with a T-shaped blade of the sample of 1916 was replaced by the sample 1916/35 and 1924 - which had the same handle and guard with a ring for the barrel, but the blade itself became double-edged. At the same time, a rare version of the M1889 rifle with a heavy barrel appeared. It was the same diameter as a barrel in a case, but it was actually made entirely of metal, so a rifle with such a barrel was 3 pounds heavier than the usual one. But the conversion, as they say, “didn’t work.”
Boers with Mauser rifles.
As for the Boer republics - the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, they adopted the M1893 Mauser rifle. The rifles fired 7x57 cartridges and had a five-round chess magazine. There were two deliveries of rifles and carbines, 10,000 each, until the end of 1897, and they all took part in the Boer War. The Orange state ordered 7,900 Mauser, but could not get 1,000 of them due to the outbreak of the war, and Ludwig Loewe sold them to Chile.
Previous materials on this topic:
1 bolt action rifles: by country and continent (part 1)
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2. Rifles with bolt action: by country and continent (part 2)
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3. Rifles with bolt action: by country and continent (part 3)
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