During the First World War, it was the hand-reloading rifle that was the most important weapon of the infantry. The volume of production of this type of weapon by enterprises of the belligerent countries, as well as the losses that were inflicted on the enemy's infantry, depended primarily on the quality, reliability and manufacturability of these weapons.
Mannlicher rifle mod. 1895 g.
Austro-hungary
She was Germany's main ally against the Entente, and was armed with a rifle designed by Ferdinand von Mannlicher, model 1895, caliber 8-mm (cartridge 8 × 50 mm M93 (M95). Its main feature was a longitudinally sliding bolt, which closed and opened without turning the handle. Such a device increased its rate of fire, but it also had the disadvantage that it was more sensitive to dirt. Thanks to these design features, it was ahead of all other rifles of the participants in the "Great War" in its rate of fire. In addition, its bullet also had a good stopping effect. Not very long and not too short, this rifle was among all other rifles also the lightest and therefore less tired of the shooter. The same system was adopted by the army of Bulgaria, and after it in Greece and Yugoslavia. Even the army of Qing China was armed with rifles of the Mannlicher design, albeit an earlier model of 1886, which fired cartridges filled with black powder! The Czechoslovak Corps on the territory of Russia, which consisted of prisoners of war who expressed a desire to fight as part of the Russian army against the Austro-German troops, also had them in its armament.
The main thing that the military specialists of the Russian imperial army did not like about this rifle was a rather large window, which was in the receiver in the lower plate of the store, through which, as they believed, dust should have been crammed into it. In fact, thanks to him, both the garbage and dirt that got inside the store also easily fell out of it, which was not observed in our same "three-line", in the store of which so much dirt often accumulated that it ceased to function. Of course, if the weapon was regularly cleaned, then this would not have happened, however, in combat conditions, it was not always possible to take care of the weapon as prescribed by the charter.
In 1916, with all the above advantages, the troops of Austria-Hungary nevertheless abandoned the Mannlicher rifle in favor of the German Mauser rifle, more convenient for production in difficult wartime conditions. It is believed that such a circumstance as the possibility of unifying the weapons of these two belligerent countries played an important role in this decision.
The Mannlicher rifle, due to its high fighting qualities, was considered a valuable and highly prestigious trophy. Ammunition for captured Mannlicherovka was mass-produced by the cartridge plant in Petrograd, as well as ammunition for many other captured, as well as foreign systems, such as the Mauser and the Japanese Arisaka rifles supplied to Russia. During the Second World War, during the Battle of Moscow, this rifle was used by both the warring parties: they were owned by the Wehrmacht troops of the second echelon and parts of the Moscow militia, which were armed with obsolete weapons of various foreign brands.
United Kingdom
In Great Britain, during the First World War, the army was armed with a magazine rifle of the Scotsman James Lee, produced by an arms factory in the city of Enfield, which is why it was named "Lee-Enfield". Its full name is №1. MK. I or SMLE - "Lee-Enfield short magazine rifle" and it really was shorter than all other rifles of the countries participating in the First World War, so much so that it occupied an intermediate position between the rifle and the carbine. Therefore, she was also not heavy and easy to carry, which was also helped by the following feature of her design: the forend and the barrel pad made of wood covered her entire barrel up to the muzzle. The shutter of the Lee design was opened by turning the handle, while it was at his rear, which was the most convenient for the shooter. In addition, it had a smooth ride, which is why trained soldiers could fire 30 rounds per minute from it, although 15 were still considered the standard rate of fire. capacity than the rest of the then rifles and carbines. Interestingly, the magazine for this rifle could only be equipped with weapons attached to it, and it should have been disconnected only for cleaning, maintenance and repair. However, you could have with you not one, but several pre-loaded magazines at once and, if necessary, quickly change them!
In early Lee Enfields, the store was even attached to the stock with a short chain so that it would not be removed or lost. And they equipped them with an open bolt through the upper window in the receiver, one cartridge or two clips for 5 rounds in each. The only, one might say, noticeable drawback of the SMLE of the first modifications was the too high labor intensity of manufacture. In order to simplify production, in 1916, a simpler version of the SMLE Mk. III * rifle was adopted, in which from such obviously superfluous and outdated parts as a magazine cut-off (which made it possible to shoot from it as from a single-shot, loading cartridges one at a time) and a separate sight for tracking volley fire, refused. The SMLE Mk. III rifle remained the main weapon of the British army and the armies of the countries - members of the British Commonwealth (Australia, India, Canada) until the very beginning of the Second World War. The cartridge 7, 71x56 mm accepted for it also had good fighting qualities, so it is hardly surprising that it successfully passed both world wars and was also produced in the post-war years, in particular, until 1955 in Australia! In general, we can say about it that this rifle was successfully executed both in technical terms and in terms of ergonomic requirements. It is believed that it was released in the amount of 17 million copies and this is a very eloquent figure!
Rifle Lee-Enfield SMLE Mk. III
Germany
As the main enemy of the Entente, Germany not only prepared for war for a long time, but also tried to equip its army with first-class small arms, and it succeeded in full measure.
Sliding bolt of the Mauser rifle.
Consistently improving the rifle designed by the Mauser brothers, adopted by the German army back in 1888, the designers eventually received a sample of 1898 "Gewehr 1898" chambered for a 7.92 mm wafer cartridge. She had a pistol butt neck, very convenient for marksmanship, a magazine for five rounds, which did not protrude beyond the size of the stock (which also made it easy to carry) and a bolt with a reloading handle in the rear, which made it possible for the shooter not to tear it off. from the shoulder. It was characterized as a reliable and unpretentious weapon with good accuracy. Therefore, it was preferred by many armies of the world, and in Spain it was mass-produced. As a result, the production volumes of rifles of this system turned out to be so great that it sold very widely, and ended up in China and even in Costa Rica.
The German army also used in limited numbers the automatic rifles of the Mexican General Manuel Mondragon, produced for the Mexican army in Switzerland, but ended up in Germany, where they were mainly used by aviators.
Italy
The Italian infantry of the First World War was armed with Mannlicher-Carcano rifles, which was officially called the Fucile modello 91. This rifle was created at the same time as the Russian three-line rifle from 1890 to 1891. It is interesting that it would be much more correct to call it the Paravicchini-Carcano rifle, since it was designed by the engineer Carcano from the state arsenal in the city of Ternia, and it was adopted by a commission headed by General Paravicchini. Along with it, new cartridges that had a caliber of 6, 5 mm (6.5x52), with a sleeve without a rim and a rather long and relatively blunt-pointed bullet in a shell, entered service. But the name of the famous Austrian weapons designer Ferdinand von Mannlicher with this rifle is associated only with the fact that it used a batch loading store, similar to Mannlicher's, but heavily modified. In all other respects, the Carcano rifle has very little in common with the Mannlicher rifle. Box magazine, integral for six rounds in a pack, which remains in the magazine until all cartridges are used up. As soon as the last cartridge is fired, the pack falls through a special window down from it due to the force of gravity.
It is interesting that the pack of the Carcano system, unlike the pack of Mannlicher, does not have either a "top" or a "bottom" and therefore it can be inserted into the store from either side. The Italians liked the rifle, and they went through both world wars with it, as we did with our three-line. The caliber of the rifle was smaller compared to other rifles, so the Italian soldier was able to carry more cartridges and fire more shots. Its store also contained not five, but six cartridges, which again was an advantage for the Italian shooters. True, its bolt, which had a direct stroke without turning the handle, had the same drawback as the Mannlicher bolt - that is, it had a high sensitivity to pollution and therefore required constant maintenance. The bayonet relied on a bladed bayonet, however, in the Italian army, carbines with a folding, integral needle bayonet, fixed at the muzzle of the barrel, became widespread. Experts believe that the Italian 6, 5 mm cartridge turned out to be too weak, and the rifle was too complex, but not very effective. In general, she is ranked among the rather mediocre samples, although the Italians themselves liked her.
Russia
Since a lot has been said here about the three-line rifle, it makes sense to talk about those samples that were in service besides her. Since during the First World War, the Russian industry could not cope with the production of three-line rifles in the required quantity, the army used numerous captured samples, as well as Berdan rifles No. 2 of the 1870 model, taken from warehouses and firing black powder cartridges. The shortage of rifles was made up for by foreign orders. So, Arisaka rifles of 1897 and 1905 were purchased from Japan, and three-line rifles were purchased from the American firms Westinghouse and Remington. But from the Winchester firm, rifles of their own design of the 1895 model were received for the Russian 7, 62-mm cartridge, with a sliding bolt, which opened and closed using a lever that was one part with a trigger guard - that is, the famous "bracket Henry". The main drawback was the long downward stroke of the lever, which made it very inconvenient to reload the rifle in the supine position. For example, having thrown the lever down, it was necessary to insert a clip into the grooves of the bolt and load the magazine, but all this time the lever was in the lower position!
Winchester arr. 1895 in the process of loading.
It should be noted here that in a weapon, every little thing matters. So, for example, the mass of a pack for cartridges is 17.5 grams, but the mass of a plate holder for our rifle is only 6.5 grams. But this means that every hundred cartridges in batch loading during production has an extra weight of 220 grams. But a thousand packs will already be more than two kilograms of high-quality steel, which needs to be smelted, then processed and then delivered to the position. That is, on the scale of the army, this is already whole tons of steel!
Winchester arr. 1895 in the process of loading while standing. As you can see, it took quite a lot of space to move the lever down!
Romania
Romania was an ally of Russia, but its infantry was armed with the Austro-Hungarian Mannlicher rifles of the 1892 and 1893 models. They had a bolt with a turn of the handle and two calibers: first 6, 5-mm, and later 8-mm.
USA
Having remade the German Mauser under the caliber 7, 62-mm, it was also produced in the USA under the designation "Springfield" М1903, and the bladed bayonet was taken from the earlier American Krag-Jorgensen rifle М1896. It is noted that this rifle is in the hands of a trained shooter were distinguished by high rates of marksmanship. Its own model, which entered service in 1918, was the automatic rifle designed by John Moses Browning BAR, produced in more than 100 thousand copies. It was a heavy automatic rifle with a removable magazine with a capacity of 20 rounds, later converted into a light machine gun.
Turkey
Turkey was a member of the Quadruple Alliance and it is not surprising that the German Mauser M1890 was in service, only the caliber of this rifle was different, namely 7, 65 mm, and the cartridge itself was 6 mm shorter than the German one. The 1893 Mauser was no different from the Spanish model except the caliber. Finally, the M1903 Mauser rifle model differed from the base sample only in certain details.
France
As for France, it is she who owns the primacy in the field of armament with a rifle chambered for cartridges equipped with smokeless powder - the Lebel rifle arr. 1886 year. The cartridge of a new 8-mm caliber for this fundamentally new gunpowder was created, taking as a basis the sleeve of the 11-mm cartridge for the Gra rifle, and the solid-compact bullet was developed by Colonel Nicolas Lebel, who was then the head of the French rifle school. Well, the rifle itself was developed by a commission under the leadership of General Tramon, while Colonels Bonnet, Gras and the gunsmith Verdin played a decisive role in its creation. But all the same, being a collective brainchild, the new rifle received its unofficial name "Fusil Lebel" after the name of the same Colonel Lebel, who invented a bullet for it and directed its tests in the army.
The first "smokeless" rifle "Fusil Lebel".
The main feature of the new rifle was a tubular under-barrel magazine, activated when the shutter was moving, but it only had to be charged one cartridge at a time, so its rate of fire was lower than that of rifles from other countries participating in the First World War. The rifle was also very long and therefore long-range, and it was also equipped with a very long bayonet with a T-shaped blade profile and a brass handle, which made it very inconvenient for soldiers in the trenches. In 1889 it was modernized, but overall it did not get any better after that. True, in some cases, targets from it could be hit at a distance of 2000 m, so that the Kurds - who in mountain conditions were forced to shoot from afar (especially at mountain sheep!), Gave several English ten-shot rifles for one lebel! But the outdated store, inconvenient loading and the danger of primers being pierced by the bullet points located in this store, one after another, became the reason why the French were simply forced to look for a replacement during the war. And they found, although many of these rifles remained in their army even during the Second World War!
A new rifle known as the Berthier rifle arr.1907, initially ended up in the colonies and, first of all, in Indochina, where it was tested in battle. Its main difference from the Lebel rifle, despite the fact that both their cartridges and the caliber were the same, was the presence of a box magazine for only three rounds. In 1915, when the old rifles in the army were not enough, the production of Berthier rifles was significantly increased, and she herself was somewhat improved, although she retained the old three-shot magazine. The new weapon was named rifle arr. 1907/15, and in the French army it was used until 1940. But she received only a five-round magazine only in 1916. Therefore, the French military can rightfully claim the title of "the most conservative", although it was the French army in the First World War that, again, was the first to adopt a self-loading automatic rifle designed by Ribeirol, Sutte and Shosh under the designation RSC Mle. 1917, and their troops were supplied with more than 80 thousand pieces. As for the Berthier rifle, it was also produced in the USA by the Remington company, but it was supplied only to France.
Japan
In Japan, the rifle of Colonel Arisaka of the 1905 model or "Type 38" was in service. By design, it was a kind of hybrid of a Mauser rifle with a Mannlicher rifle, which used a cartridge of 6, 5-mm caliber. Its recoil because of this was insignificant, which facilitated the use of the rifle by undersized Japanese soldiers. And, by the way, it was under the Japanese cartridge in Russia that the first automatic rifle and the first machine gun were created, since the power of the 7.62-mm domestic cartridge turned out to be excessive for this weapon!
Arisaka rifle mod. 1905 g.
But with an attached bladed bayonet, the Arisaka rifle weighed about the same weight as our three-line. But the blade bayonet was more useful than the needle bayonet, although it is true that puncture wounds are more dangerous. But without a bayonet, she weighed only three and a half kilograms, while the Russian one was somewhat heavier, which means that the shooter was more tired. You can also take more cartridges for the Japanese rifle, but, most importantly, what was found out immediately after the Russian-Japanese war, the bullets of the Japanese 6, 5-mm rifle cartridges, all other things being equal, inflicted more severe wounds than the Russian 7, 62-mm … Since the center of gravity of the Japanese bullet is shifted to the butt end, falling into the living tissue, it began to tumble and inflict severe lacerations.
Thus, all rifles of the First World War can be divided into two parts: those that were mainly intended for a bayonet strike - the French Lebel and the Russian "three-line" (which even had a straight butt neck for this, which was more convenient in bayonet combat), and those for which firefight was preferable - rifles of the Germans, Austrians, British and Japanese (with a semi-pistol shape of the butt neck and a reloading handle in the rear). As a result, the latter had a certain advantage in the rate of fire, and the soldiers armed with them fired more bullets per minute than their opponents, and, as a result, could inflict great losses on them, although, on the other hand, they were less convenient in bayonet combat, in features, short rifles of the British!
