World War I History: Trench Warfare Notes, 1915

I have a really neat document to share today, generously sent to me by a reader named Chris in the United Kingdom. These are the notes from a 1915 course on trench warfare as recorded by his grandfather, one Harold Rayner. Harold was born in 1885 in Surrey, and survived the war to live until 1973 (although his brother died on the Western Front). Corporal Rayner (of the 2/5 Queen’s) attended a training class on trench warfare from January 10th to the 22nd of 1915, to help prepare him for combat, and he took about 60 pages of handwritten notes on a variety of topics including:

• Fuses
• Detonators
• Service Grenades
• Trench Engines
• Barricades
• Trench Fighting
• Explosives
• the Stokes Gun
• Open Warfare

The notebook included several mimeographed diagrams of grenades, mortars, and other pieces of equipment. Several of those have faded quite badly, and I did my best to bring up the images in the scanned copy below. Apparently Chris offered this notebook to several museums, and none were interested.

Well, I am happy to be able to scan it and make it public for anyone to see – thanks for thinking of me, Chris!

If you are interested in this aspect of World War One, take a look at the pdf document below – I think you will find lots of interesting details.

Read the Original Article and Download the pdf at Forgotten Weapons

Military Weapons From the Past: Mauser 712 Machine Pistol aka the “Schnellfeuer”

The Schnellfeuer, or Model 712, was Mauser’s answer to the Spanish production of selective fire C96 lookalikes. Just over 100,000 of these pistols were made by Mauser in the 1930s, mostly going to China (although some did see use in other countries, and also with the SS). They use 10- and 20-round detachable magazines, and are almost all chambered for the 7.63mm Mauser cartridge. Rate of fire is about 900-1000 rounds per minute.

One of the urban legends that has grown up around these guns is that Chinese soldiers would hold them sideways, and use the recoil to fire in a horizontal arc. This does work, but is a pretty crude way to use the gun. Without the attached shoulder stock, it is much better left on semiauto. With the stock, it makes a surprisingly effective and controllable submachine gun.

Thanks to TFBTV for the opportunity to shoot and film this very cool gun!

Read the Original Article at Forgotten Weapons

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Obscure Weapons: The Standschultze-Hellreigel Submachine Gun

The Austro-Hungarian Standschutze Hellriegel debuted in 1915. Today the automatic, light firearm is something of a mystery.

The prototype blended pistol-caliber ammunition with the firepower of a machine gun, making it one of the first weapons which could be considered a “submachine gun.”

That much, we know. The rest is … conjecture.

The images in this story come from an Austrian archive, where they all fall under the title “Maschinengewehr des Standschützen Hellriegel.” The photos are dated 10.1915 — presumably meaning October 1915 — and show what appears to be a test-firing of the weapon at a shooting range.

The archival entry indicates that the weapon was named after someone with the second name “Hellriegel.”

“Standschützen” may refer to the designer being a member of the Austro-Hungarian reserve force, the Standschützen, whose mission was to defend the Austrian states of Tyrol and Vorarlberg.

The Standschutze Hellriegel may have been developed for this corps or by a member of it.

Read the Remainder at War is Boring