Bolt-Action to Machine Guns: Firearms of World War I

The major players all entered World War I expecting a quick, mobile conflict in the tradition of the Franco-Prussian conflict. Small arms with which they began the war were still dominant four years later, despite a handful of innovations implemented during the fighting. While artillery accounted for 60% of the casualties, small arms — mainly machine guns — were a strong second with over 30%. 

The Allies

The Allies (mainly France, Russia, the British Empire, and the US) all began with .30 caliber bolt actions as the standard arm. Russia had 1891 Mosin-Nagant rifles and carbines, mostly updated to use spitzer bullets. While the guns had not changed in four years, they ended up being heavily supplemented by purchased and captured rifles, mainly Winchester 1895, 6.5mm Arisaka, and a wide variety of others. The UK started and ended with SMLE (Short Magazine Lee Enfield), gradually refined towards simplification. Volley sights and magazine cut-off got removed for lack of utility. France, the first nation to adopt a small caliber smokeless cartridge, was stuck with the obsolescent 1886 tube-fed Lebel and a 3-shot clip-fed Berthier, both available in short and long forms. Berthier was revised into a 5-shot form during the war. Smaller countries in the block used a mix of handed-down guns, mostly older single-shot Berdans. Greece, a latecomer to the Allies, had both French and Austro-Hungarian weapons. Italy, another latecomer, did with a natively made 6.5mm Carcano. Smaller caliber bullets were usually round-nose designs, heavy for the caliber. They gave good penetration but reduced stopping power and less impressive range. In practice, the range limitation and reduced bullet construction options only mattered for machine guns. United States used Springfield M1903 as the standard, and M1917 (derived from the British Mauser-like P14) as the substitute standard: both were 30-06 bolt actions.

The Axis

The Axis used either .30 caliber long Mausers (German, Turkey) or 6.5mm straight pull clip-fed Mannlichers (Austria-Hungary). More complicated straight bull mechanism and open-bottom magazines of the Mannlichers did less well in the trench mud than stripper clip-fed turn bolt Mausers. Germany used 1888 Commission rifles for the second-line troops, but rust and reduced reliability made them less desirable.  

The Neutrals, such as Belgium, had their own variety of .30 caliber Mauser rifles. In their circumstances, with less room for maneuver, artillery proved dominant over all other means of warfare. 

In all Armies, carbines were found superior to rifles in handling, the loss of theoretical range less important. With most combatants also scraping the bottom of the manpower barrel, lighter guns worked better for the younger, underfed recruits.   

Handguns

All sides issued handguns. Russia let their officers buy whichever handguns they liked, while issuing double-action and single-action versions of 1895 Nagant to officers and noncoms. Germany issues mostly P08 Luger, France a mix of 8mm revolvers and 7.65mm Ruby pistols, actually a hodgepodge of simple blowback models built in France and Spain. The UK stayed with .455 Webley revolvers, only issuing the bulky and questionably effective Webley automatic pistol to the Navy personnel. Austria-Hungary had several models, but mainly 8mm rotary breech slip-loaded Steyr-Roth pistols. The United States ran short of Colt M1911s, so they issued Colt and Smith & Wesson M1917 revolvers (dissimilar models under the same designation), mostly in 45LC, sometimes adapted to fire 45ACP on half-moon clips. While handguns never amounted to much as a casualty producer, they were important tools for CQB. Although never officially issued by anybody, 1896 Mauser pistols, prized for high velocity bullets, were in wide use by several countries, especially as aircraft observers’ sidearms until machine guns became more common on board. 

Pump Shotguns

Uniquely among the combatants, the US Army brought pump shotguns (Winchester 1897 and 1912, bottom-ejecting Remington 10) to the trench fights. For the same reason, the greatest utility in the trenches, Germany and Italy developed submachine guns, the MP18 (9mm Luger). Italian Villar Perosa (9mm Glisenti) twin submachine gun mount was originally meant for vehicles and aircraft, only later adapted as a single-gun shoulder-fired weapon.  

The rest of the countries favored automatic rifles. Russia’s 1916 Avtomat used short recoil action with a lighter 6.5 Arisaka cartridge, creating a controllable automatic weapon with decent range. Unfortunately, they could produce few, and the gun wasn’t fully reliable. Much the same was true of the Mexican Mondragon 1910 semiauto rifle used by several sides. The French RSC1917 was more advanced, with a short-stroke rotating gas-operated bolt. None were widely adopted due to complexity and teething troubles. The American Browning Automatic Rifle, a formidable 30-06 gun, was halfway between a rifle and a light machine gun…and mostly late for the war. 

Machine Guns

Despite the massive effort by all combatants to improve rifles, the bulk of the slaughter was inflicted by machine guns. The UK, Germany, Turkey, and Russia all had water-cooled Maxim derivatives. Germany had them in greater numbers; the UK had the most advanced use doctrines. Austria-Hungary has a simpler, more primitive delayed blowback Schwarzlose, effective enough but requiring cartridge lubrications and thus suffering position-revealing oil burnoff clouds. Italy had the abominable clip-fed Fiat-Revelli. France started with a strip-fed air-cooled gas-operated Hotchkiss, a competent enough design despite the Belle Époque look with brass fittings.  St. Étienne machine gun was also used, with less success, but it was at least redesigned for belt feed by 1916. United States relied on Browning 1917 water-cooled belt-fed, though some 1895 Colt “Potato-digger” guns were used to make up the numbers. None of those guns, not even the lightened German attempt at a portable machine gun in the form of a Maxim with a slimmer water jacket, was easy to move. For immediate infantry support in attacks, dedicated light machine guns were needed. 

Conclusion

American-designed Lewis light MG is iconic, thanks to its top-mounted pan magazine rotated by the gun’s action and the distinctive aluminum shroud intended to facilitate forced air cooling: it was used by the UK and the US, and Russia. The French had the Hotchkiss M1909, known by several other names, a very good gas-operated LMG used also by the UK. They also had a particularly ill-designed long recoil Chautchaut LMG, plagued by bad ergonomics, poor reliability, partly due to oddly shaped skeletonized magazines which attracted mud. The 30-06 version made for the US used a more conventional enclosed box magazine, but worked even less well due to errors in manufacturing. The top-mounted box-fed Madsen LMG from neutral Denmark was used by several countries, but chiefly Russia and Belgium. In terms of design, it was probably the most unconventional action, but, surprisingly, one of the most reliable. 

Unlike WW2, the Great War didn’t produce as much innovation in small arms manufacturing as it did in the aircraft, tank, and submarine industries. In addition to slight simplification of designs, some countries placed large orders with allies. The US made over a million Mosin rifles for Russia, for example. Obsolete rifles, like Vetterli, had their barrels lined to use smaller calibers (6.5mm instead of 11mm).

Written by: Oleg Volk, Firearms Photographer