Small Arms
The Industrial Revolution and Machine-Gun Prototypes
The fundamental changes, including manufacturing and financial practices, that came about during the Industrial Revolution greatly speeded machine-gun development. The first patent using the term “machine gun” was issued in the United States in 1829 to Samuel L. Farries of Middletown, Ohio. This grant seems to imply that the term was to be assigned to any mechanically operated weapon of…
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THE MG-42: The German infantry never left home without one or more!
The MG-42 (a) was the replacement for the earlier MG34 machine gun of the German army. The MG-34 is described in detail in Warrior 59: The German Infantryman (1) 1933-1940. The weapon was in design before the start of the war, but experiences in Poland and France made it quite…
Macarthur and the M1 Garand
In the Postwar analysis of battle experience at the end of World War I, when the Germans collapsed and the front opened up, the US Army Ordnance Department became concerned over the weight of ammunition carried as part of the soldier’s basic load. They began to conduct a series of…
DShK 1938, SG43 and other Soviet machine-guns
The SG43 was designed by P.M. Goryunovin 1942 to provide a wartime replacement for the elderly Maxim Model 1910, and even used the old Maxim’s wheeled carriage. The Degtyerev DP Model 1928 was a major Soviet light machine-gun during World War II. Simple and robust, the DP could stand rough…
The hand-held crossbow
Above is medieval trigger, below is Han trigger The hand-held crossbow, a mainstay of Chinese armies from the fourth century BCE onward, was also known and used in Japan, but neither the ritsuryo armies nor the bushi appear to have developed much interest in it, preferring to rely instead on…
NORDENFELT 5-BARREL MACHINE GUN (EARLY MG)
The Nordenfelt machine-gun was designed by H Heldge Palmcrantz. However, Thorsten Nordenfelt, who had provided the financial and marketing assistance, demanded that the gun bear his name. It did, but this did not help sales of the ‘organ gun’ and even though the team built versions in a wide range…
THE MAUSER RIFLE
The Mauser Rifle, 1895. Enhanced illustration from an original series of catalogues, 1898. Peter Paul Mauser must stand by the side of Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov in the annals of rifle designers. Just as Kalashnikov and his famous rifle are known to everyone today, so, too, was Mauser in the period…