The World's Greatest Small Arms: An Illustrated History

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A Soviet soldier armed with a PPS-43 submachine gun. The PPS-43 was chambered in 7.62 x 25mm Tokarev and fired at 600rpm. A cheaper version of the PPSh-41, some two million were produced to equip the Red Army in the late-war years.

World War I and World War II

Between 1914 and 1945, the world experienced global conflict on a scale never previously witnessed. Armies of millions were formed and mobilized in a matter of weeks, and all personnel had to be armed with equal emergency. Many of the firearms used in the world wars therefore had little sophistication about them, designed as they were for mass production. Some of the weapons developed were, however, superb firepower technologies, and they established models that still influence firearms design to this day.

  Gatling Gun (1878)

The Gatling Gun was a genuine revolution in firepower. It was the most successful of the hand-cranked machine guns to enter service in the nineteenth century, and the Gatling principles are still in operation in electrically powered variants.

The Model 1878 Gatling could fire 300 rounds per minute from its 10 barrel set.

The development of the metallic unitary cartridge during the nineteenth century was a game-changer in many ways. Steadily, the old days of muzzle-loading a separate cap, powder and ball disappeared as firearms switched to breech-loading cartridges that held all the ammunition components in one convenient unit. Cartridge weapons offered new levels of power, reliability and range, but they also promised to increase rates of fire dramatically. One man who fully realized the potential of the unitary cartridge was Richard Jordan Gatling (1818–1903), an American inventor who garnered a broad range of innovations to his credit, particularly in agriculture. In 1861, however, he turned his hand to firearms design, just as civil war began to engulf the United States.

Here we see a Model 1878 Gatling mounted atop a camel for use in tribal conflicts in Africa. The Broadfield drum magazine held 400 rounds of .45-70 ammunition, and the 10-barrel weapon had an overall weight of 34kg (75lb).

Gatling’s aim was to develop a rapid-fire weapon capable of being operated by one man. He was not working in a vacuum. In one form or another, multi-shot guns had been around since the eighteenth century, typically either as awkward single-barrel revolver-type weapons or as multi-barrel ‘volley guns’. As it emerged in U.S. Patent No. 36,836 in November 1862, however, the Gatling was radically different. It used six barrels rotating around a central rod, the rotational force supplied by a hand crank turned by a single operator. Corresponding with the barrels was a lock cylinder, which contained six locks, each holding a spring-loaded hammer. Ammunition in this early model was in the form of .58-calibre paper cartridges, each cartridge held in a steel tube that acted as a chamber. Multiple cartridges were held in a hopper magazine mounted on the left side of the gun. When the handle of the Model 1862 was turned, a carrier mechanism picked up a cartridge chamber from the hopper and aligned it between a barrel and the corresponding lock mechanism. As the rotation of the barrels continued, the hammer was cocked by virtue of a tenon running through each lock; the tenon was drawn backwards as it ran around an inclined plane, placing the spring under tension. When the barrel and lock approached the 12 o’clock position, a wedge in the recoil-absorbing bulkhead behind the lock cylinder pushed the individual lock tight up against the barrel to form something approaching a gas-tight seal. Then the hammer was released, firing the cartridge, and the empty cartridge fell out to the side as its journey continued.

The Gatling Model 1893 Bulldog. This later version of the Gatling was a compact model in .40in or .44in calibres. It weighed only 20kg (44lb) and featured 457mm (18in) barrels.

Although the principle sounds cumbersome in description, remember that the operation was performed sequentially by six barrels, resulting in a rate of fire of 200rpm. As firing only took place at a fixed point in the cycle, each barrel had a little time to cool down before it was required to fire again, reducing the chance of a ‘cook off’. In theory, therefore, a single operator could produce a volume of fire equal to about 60 men armed with muzzle-loading rifles.

Gatling had begun a revolution, but the Model 1862 had its fair share of imperfections. Although the performance of the gun was improved when .58in steel rimfire cartridges were introduced, the cartridge-cylinder arrangement resulted in significant gas leakage. A major, and significant, improvement was the Model 1865. This version used centrefire cartridges, and the lock cylinder was modified to push the cartridges into chambers at the rear of the barrels, and fire them individually at the 6 o’clock position of the rotation. The system was more reliable than its predecessors and the use of brass cartridges delivered directly into the chambers solved the obturation problem. Another leap forward came with the 10-barrel Model 1874, also known as the Camel Gun because it was light enough to be mounted (and fired) from a camel or transported on a horse. In the 1872 patent that supported this weapon, the lock cylinder was shortened significantly by incorporating spring-loaded firing pins, thereby reducing the weight of the gun. It was fed via a large Broadwell drum magazine mounted on the centreline, and it was robustly reliable in action, delivering heavy 300rpm firepower over ranges of more than 600m (1970ft).

Specification (Model 1878)

The list of Gatling variants here is not exhaustive, and Gatling versions progressively made their way into active service in the militaries of the United States, Great Britain, Russia, Japan, Turkey and Spain in calibres ranging from .45in to a thunderous 1in. (The 1in U.S. versions could even fire shot shells that each contained 15 .25in balls.) Although the Gatling’s reputation was initially low, mostly owing to reliability issues caused by poor ammunition, as the ammunition and design was improved, the gun proved itself a battle winner in Africa, Asia and the Americas.

British troops proudly stand by their Gatling Guns in Afghanistan in the 1880s. The high rate of fire provided by the Gatling was much valued in warfare against mass tribal enemies.

Ship-Mounted Gatling Guns

For much of the early history of machine guns, these weapons were more regarded as forms of artillery than extensions of the small-arms family. In both the Royal Navy and the U.S. Navy, therefore, Gatlings were given shipboard mounts to enhance naval firepower at targets under ranges of 1000m (3280ft).

During the American Civil War (1861–65), for example, eight Gatlings were fitted to Union river gunboats to deliver ship-to-shore fire, or to pepper the decks of Confederate rivals. The Royal Navy mounted .65in Gatlings to their warship decks, principally as a means of repelling boarders, but they were also used in combat in 1882 to pepper heavy fire upon Egyptian forts during the bombardment of Alexandria. Note that the Naval Brigades and Royal Marines also used the Gatling on wheeled mounts to provide heavier firepower options for on-shore actions.

  Mauser C/96 (1895)

Looking somewhat ungainly to the untrained eye, the Mauser C/96 was actually a powerful, well-balanced and accurate weapon. Only the success of other handguns and calibres prevented it from achieving greater historical prominence.

Here we see the Mauser C/96 with its bolt in the rearmost position (note the cocking action on the hammer) and a stripper clip positioned for loading the magazine.

As experimentation with automatic pistol design gathered pace in the 1890s, three brothers began work on a significant new design. The men were Fidel, Fritz and Josef Feederle, employees of the Mauser works in Oberndorf. In 1894–95, they created a distinctive handgun format, chambered on the 7.65mm Borchardt cartridge. It was a short-recoil weapon with an integral 10-round box magazine located just in front of the guard. This was loaded with six- or ten-round stripper clips, inserted into the magazine through the loading/ejection aperture on top of the receiver, opened when the bolt was pulled to the rear. It had a large spur hammer at the rear of the gun and an unusual lobe-shaped pistol grip that would give the gun the nickname ‘Broomhandle’.

At 1.25kg (2.75lb) empty, the C/96 was not the lightest handgun by any means, although the weight did help it to absorb recoil from the 7.63mm and 9mm rounds.

The Feederle brothers’ boss, Peter Paul Mauser, was sufficiently impressed by the new weapon that he put it into manufacture in 1896 under the Mauser name as the C/96. By this time, the 7.62mm Borchardt cartridge had been replaced by the 7.63 x 25mm Mauser round.

Selling the C/96

Designing a firearm is one matter, selling it in commercially viable quantities is another concern entirely. Naturally, Mauser attempted to sell the C/96 to the German military, but it was overlooked in favour of the Luger Parabellum weapons. Export markets therefore provided the most fruitful initial line of sales. Britain bought respectable quantities as private purchases; the C/96 was most famously carried by none other than a young Winston Churchill during the invasion of Sudan in 1898. Italy, Persia, Turkey and Russia also provided markets. What they discovered was a solid weapon with excellent firing characteristics. It 139mm (5.5in) barrel, allied to a powerful round, gave a muzzle velocity of 434m/sec (1425ft/sec). When fitted with the wooden shoulder stock with which the C/96 was supplied from 1903, the operator could expect an effective range of 100m (330ft), more than double that offered by most handguns. The C/96’s rear sight was adjustable from 500 or 1000m (1640 or 3280ft), but actually both these ranges were largely unrealistic. The 10-round magazine – four rounds more than a typical revolver of the day and two rounds more than the Luger – was also a bonus in close-quarters combat. A 20-round extended magazine was also offered, but this affected the gun’s reliability and centre of balance, so was little used.

The C/96’s shoulder stock was an ingenious design. When not fitted to the pistol grip as a stock, the wooden case could also serve as a holster or carrying case for the gun.

New Fortunes

Between 1896 and the onset of war in 1914, the C/96 received several modifications and improvements. Its locking system was improved with the addition of an extra locking lug on the bolt and safety features were enhanced. None of these adjustments bolstered the C/96’s sales hugely, but World War I changed the gun’s fortunes radically.

Specification

The German authorities soon faced an inexhaustible demand for small arms on the battlefield. Not only did it purchase every C/96 it could lay its hands on, it also highlighted the need for the gun to be produced in the easily available 9mm Parabellum. Mauser did the necessary redesign work, and in 1915 Mauser began production of 150,000 9mm guns, visually marked by a large red ‘9’ stamped into the pistol grip. This modification meant that the C/96 served the German forces well throughout the conflict, and large stocks remained at the end of the war.

American film producer Carl Foreman is pictured with the C/96 Mauser pistol carried by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the Boer War.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the C/96 was the subject of some significant revision. To evade the Versailles Treaty restrictions on pistol barrel length and calibre, the ‘Bolo’ model was calibrated again for 7.63mm and its barrel length reduced to 99mm (3.38in). During the 1930s, Mauser also noted that some Spanish gunmakers had produced full-auto copies of the C/96. In response, Mauser officially produced the M712 model, which featured 10- or 20-round detachable magazines and a selective-fire capability via a simple bar level selector on the left-hand side of the frame. The cycle rate of fire on full-auto was an impressive 850rpm. An improved version, with a more convenient selector switch, was produced in 1936. The 712 guns were sold to both China and Yugoslavia, and were also used by the Waffen-SS in World War II. China produced its own copies of the C/96, and the Type 80 machine pistol, produced from the late 1970s, retains a clear design connection with the C/96.

Handgun Accuracy

Although Hollywood movies show film stars taking handgun shots out to 100m (330ft) and beyond, in reality these type of guns offer extremely limited accuracy at ranges of anything beyond 25m (80ft). The reasons for this are multiple. Low-powered but large-calibre ammunition results in a low muzzle velocity, with a consequent quick drop-off in the bullet’s flat trajectory. A very short barrel, typically in the region of 100–127mm (4–5in), means that the slightest inaccuracy in aim produces wide shot distribution against the target, which is not helped by the fundamentally unstable hand-held grip. Add a moving target to the equation and accurate shot delivery with a handgun can be as much a matter of luck as judgement. Competent handlers improve handgun accuracy through more stable two-handed grip and frequent training. The Mauser C/96, by contrast, offered a shoulder stock as an immediately practical way of stabilizing the fire.

The Mauser C/96 was, and remains, a fascinating gun to fire. Like the Luger, however, it had to be kept clean and well-maintained if it was to keep working reliably.

  SMLE (1903)

The Short, Magazine, Lee Enfield (SMLE) was the quintessential combat bolt-action rifle. Introduced in 1903, it initially met with scepticism from much of the military community, although its performance in World War I silenced its detractors.

Lee-Enfield remains one of the most famous names in British firearms manufacture. The name was the fusion of James Paris Lee, an inventor who developed a robust and practical bolt-action rifle mechanism allied to magazine feed, and the Enfield Lock site of the Royal Small Arms Factory. The first Lee-Enfield rifle was introduced on 11 November 1895, and was essentially the earlier Lee-Metford Mk II* rifle but with Enfield rifling better adapted to the new cordite propellant that was reshaping ammunition performance in the 1890s. Thus began the family of Lee-Enfield rifles, which would in various stoic forms equip the British Army through two World Wars.

The SMLE had a stubby muzzle that made it instantly recognizable.

A cutaway image of the SMLE’s bolt action, trigger group and magazine. When the rifle was cocked, the cocking piece at the rear of the bolt remained held to the rear, a visible indicator that the rifle was ready to fire.

The SMLE was a landmark weapon in the Lee-Enfield series. Looking at the rifle from modern times, there is little to hint at the radical nature of its design. Prior to the SMLE, British military rifles were usually conceived in two formats – a long infantry rifle intended for very distant sharpshooting, and a short carbine variant for use by cavalrymen and other soldiers requiring a compact weapon. The SMLE, however, attempted to give all soldiers a common rifle, the ‘Short’ part of its title referring to its placement between full-length rifle and carbine. To give a frame of comparison, the Mk I Lee-Metford rifle of 1888 was 1257mm (49.5in) long, while the Mk I Carbine version was 1014mm (39.94). The SMLE, however, was 1132mm (44.57in) long. The cartridge the weapon fired, however, remained the powerful rimmed British .303in, 10 of which were held in the rifle’s box magazine.

Smooth Performer

When the SMLE was first introduced it caused no small measure of controversy among small-arms experts. Many argued that on account of its being neither a full-length rifle nor a carbine, it could perform the roles of neither. In reality, however, the SMLE steadily demonstrated its battlefield utility, first through trials and subsequently during World War I. The rifle was extremely robust, not least by virtue of the wooden furniture that ran all the way to the muzzle, giving the weapon its distinctive snub-nosed appearance. The intermediate dimensions of the gun were eventually acknowledged as a definite bonus in the context of trench warfare, where its more manageable length made it better for combat in confined terrain. Its bolt action was fluidly smooth to operate; in the hands of a well-trained infantryman, the SMLE could run through 15 rounds per minute.

Two World War I SMLEs. The rifle at the top has a grenade launcher cup, and the bindings around the bodywork were there to stop the rifle splitting open from the increased pressure.

Specification (SMLE Mk III)

Nor was it a slouch when it came to power and accuracy. The .303in round, fired from the SMLE’s 640mm (25.19in) barrel, delivered a muzzle velocity of 617m/sec (2025ft/sec). This is not high when compared to a modern assault rifle velocity, but the heavier bullet (11.27g/174 grains) gave it good range, enabling the soldier to engage targets out to 600m (1968ft) if necessary. In terms of practical warfare, that was all the distance required. The SMLE also had a magazine capacity of 10 rounds, five more than the German Gewehr 98. Filling the magazine was performed by pushing two five-round