The full title is actually (deep breath) M91/30 Rifles and M38/M44 Carbines in 1941-1945: Accessories and Devices – History of Production, Development, and Maintenance, by Alexander Yuschenko and translated into English by Ryan Elliot. I saw this book mentioned a few weeks ago on a firearms discussion board, and figured I ought to get a copy,…
Category: Military Weapons from the Past
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…
Military Weapons From The Past: The Thompson SMG T2
Introducing the “Cheap and Ugly as Hell” Version of one of the Baddest Ass SMG’s in History The U.S. Army had initially been uninterested in submachine guns, and it was only in the late 1930s that the Ordnance Department placed Auto-Ordnance’s Thompson SMG on its “limited procurement list.” In September 1938, officials green-lit procurement of…
Military Weapons From The Past: The British Besal Machine Gun
The Besal Was Wartime Great Britain’s Desperate, Last-Ditch Machine Gun Cheap and easy to make, the weapon was for fighting a German invasion In the autumn of 1940, Nazi Germany controlled most of mainland Europe, France had surrendered and the British Army had evacuated the continent — in the process, leaving behind much of its arms and…
Military Weapons From The Past: The WWI Flammenwerfer
Note how this, like many early flamethrowers, The WWI German Flammenwerfer was a two-man affair. One carried the tanks and the other aimed and fired the projector. Read the Original Article at Forgotten Weapons
Military History: The Saga of the Six-Legged Soldiers
The U.S. Army Wanted to Conscript Insects to Fight the Viet-Cong But the six-legged soldiers weren’t terribly reliable! Mao Tse-Tung famously wrote in On Guerrilla Warfare that guerrillas are proverbial fish who have to swim in the water of the people in order to win their struggle against powerful governments. “It is only undisciplined troops who…
Military Weapons From The Past: The Australian F1 Sub-Machine Gun
The weapon with the weird magazine-position lasted 30 years in service The Australian Army first issued the F1 submachine gun to its soldiers in April 1963 to replace the World War II-vintage Owen Gun. Like the earlier Owen, the F1 had a top-mounted magazine — which lent itself to prone-firing and was more comfortable than more-conventional weapons…
Military Weapons From the Past: The M3 “Grease Gun” v2.0
The Philippine Marines Teach a SMG that dates back to WW2 some New Tricks War Is Boring and Historical Firearms recently posted a story about the use of suppressed M3 “Grease Gun” from World War II onward to Vietnam. U.S. forces stopped issuing the guns to troops in 1992, but at least one unit in…
Obscure Weapons: 1929 Simson Prototype 9mm
In the late 1920s, German Ordnance hinted at an interest in replacing the P.08 Luger pistols with a less expensive handgun design. This prompted a number of submissions from hopeful companies, including this design from the Simson company of Suhl. It is chambered for the 9×19 Parabellum cartridge (as requested by Ordnance) but is a…
Know Your Weapons: The Adams Revolver
Robert Adams and Samuel Colt Waged a Vicious, but Largely Unknown War over the 19th Century Pistol market By 1850, Samuel Colt had come to dominate the American revolver market, aggressively defending his patents and using advanced manufacturing processes to out-produce rivals. Meanwhile in February 1851, British gunsmith Robert Adams patented his double-action revolver design….