Germany - Forgotten Weapons

Mannlicher 1901/04 Carbine at James D Julia

September 29, 2015 Ian McCollum 13

Ferdinand von Mannlicher was a brilliant and prolific European gun designer with more than a few widely-adopted military arms to his name. One of his very last guns was this carbine, which was also one […]

Mauser 1902 Prototype Long Recoil Rifle at James D Julia

September 27, 2015 Ian McCollum 14

Paul Mauser was very persistent – if ultimately unsuccessful – in his long-tim goal to create a practical semiautomatic rifle using a full-power cartridge. In total he tried some 17 different designs, including one in […]

MGK-1000 Gunnery Camera at James D Julia

September 25, 2015 Ian McCollum 5

With the advent of aircraft, marksmanship instruction gained a huge new element of complexity. Now there were gunners firing at rapidly moving aerial targets from the ground and worse, gunners in moving aircraft shooting at […]

Adler Pistol at James D Julia

September 20, 2015 Ian McCollum 29

The Adler is a unique little pocket pistol built in pre-WWI Germany.Not much is known about it, as only about a hundred were manufactured and they failed to be a commercial success. The design is […]

WWI Trench Mauser at James D Julia

September 19, 2015 Ian McCollum 29

As World War One stagnated into trench warfare, snipers and machine guns quickly proliferated, and exposure above the parapet of one’s trench could be extremely hazardous. This leaves one with the question of, how to […]

Steyr VG5/VK98 at James D Julia

September 16, 2015 Ian McCollum 19

SCARCE ORIGINAL GERMAN WW II STEYR VG-5 BOLT ACTION RIFLE. By the beginning of 1945, the Nazi government in Germany was looking to find cheaper ways to equip the Volksturm, and solicited bids and designs […]

RIA: Bergmann 1896 / No.3 Pistol

September 7, 2015 Ian McCollum 8

Bergmann was one of the reasonably successful yet relatively unknown manufacturers of early automatic pistols. Originally a delayed blowback patent purchased by Bergmann, the design was refined and simplified by none other than Louis Schmeisser […]

RIA: Menz Liliput 4.25mm

August 30, 2015 Ian McCollum 28

The Menz Liliput is one of the smallest functional firearms ever put into mass production. It was offered in 4.25mm (.17 caliber) in addition to the more popular .25ACP and .32ACP. The 4.25mm cartridge is […]

RIA: Granatbuchse GrB-39 Antitank Rifle

August 29, 2015 Ian McCollum 25

Like most countries, Germany had a standard-issue antitank rifle when World War II began – the Panzerbuchse 39. It fired an 8x94mm cartridge with a small very high velocity armor-piercing bullet. And like the other […]

RIA: 1918 German Tank Gewehr

August 23, 2015 Ian McCollum 36

Germany was the first country to produce a purpose-built antitank rifle, in response to the major Entente tank attack at Cambrai. The design was pretty simple, basically a scaled-up Mauser 98 with 4 locking lugs […]