![]() ![]() For those who want to understand the History, not just to read it. It is currently in the Yekaterinburg museum, donated by the owner who used it that night. 167177) was present at the infamous execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family in Yekaterinburg. At least one of these weapons (serial no. Mausers were purchased through Bolshevik agents operating out of Sweden in 1917 and supplied to many officers of the Cheka and Red Army. Even with all of this use, this arm was never adopted as the primary handgun of any armed force, always being relegated to special units or selected officers. Later these weapons found limited use by the armies of Norway, Bolivia, China, Indonesia, Persia, and Turkey at one time or another. ![]() ![]() After the outbreak of war in 1914, with a general rush to arm new troops, Mausers found use with the German Army who purchased some 150,000 to supplement their standard issue Luger P08 pistols. Freethinking officers in most modern armies often had one of these large semiautomatics at one time or another. A young Winston Churchill, while serving with the 4th Hussars purchased and maintained one of these German made pistols, which he later carried as a war correspondent. Eventually a following of young officers of several countries bought the weapon for personal use, eschewing the handgun issued by their country. The gun was considered by many to be almost ‘too modern’. In the early years of production the big relatively expensive Mauser pistol was not especially popular, and sales were poor. With a muzzle velocity of nearly 1500~ feet per second and firing either a 7.63 x 25 mm or 9mm Parabellum round it was effective to fifty meters and was still dangerous up to a thousand.īefore World War one the handgun was sold via catalog mail order. ![]() The Mauser was designed to have its wooden holster clipped to the back of the handle to turn it from a handgun into a small rifle. It was also the first firearm to successfully use a rimless cartridge. One of the most noteworthy aspects of this weapon is that it was the first successful automatic pistol to be put into production. However unlicensed copies are still produced to this day. Invented by the three Feederle brothers in the factory workshop and placed into production in 1896, over one million of these weapons were made by the time the production ended in 1936. One of the more interesting weapons of that period was the C96 ‘broomhandle’ military pistol produced by Mauser of Germany. These weapons owe direct lineage to the revolutionary designs that appeared in the 1890’s. Semi automatics on today’s battlefield are typified by the Beretta 92, Colt 1911 variants and Sig Sauer p226. These pistols were fed via a magazine that could be reloaded rapidly and fired at a very high rate. At the end of the century, with the stream era ushering in thoroughly modern way of thinking, ‘automatic’ pistols became fashionable. Revolvers came on the scene at the time of the Mexican- American war and were considered cutting edge, replacing single shot weapons for military service everywhere within twenty years. The first handguns were carried as early as the renaissance era and remained single shot weapons until the 19th century. In the history of modern weapons, the handgun is revered as both a badge of authority, replacing the sword officers carried for centuries, and as a close combat arm. In military service for more than fifty years, the C96 Mauser Military Pistol ushered in the era of semi-automatic weapons on the modern battlefield. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |