#gewehr 88

[married-to-a-redhead]

The latest addition to my WW1 collection. This is a German Gewehr 88/05 S Commission Rifle by Danzig Arsenal manufactured in 1896 and later converted to fire 7.62mm Mauser ammunition.

[namelessgoat96]

Finally found some 7.92x57mm for my Gew 88 I can shoot!!

[gun-gallery]

Karabiner M1888 - 7.92x57mm

[peashooter85]

The Commission Rifle Part VI --- The Gewehr 88/05

In case you missed Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V

In previous parts of this series I mentioned how the jilted firearms designer Paul Mauser dejectedly skulked off to create his own designs after being refused a seat at the table of the German Rifle Commission. Basically the Commission told Mauser, “hey, were gonna be creating this new design for a bolt action rifle. We’re gonna use your action for the design, but you will have no say in what we are gonna create.”  As the German Rifle Commission designed the Gewehr 88, Paul Mauser designed and entered into production a number of bolt action models that were far superior to the Gewehr 88.  In fact, by the time it was adopted by the German military, it had already been made outclassed and obsolete by Mauser’s designs.  In 1898 the German military adopted the Gewehr 98, a Mauser design considered one of the greatest bolt actions ever created, it’s action serving as a basis for most bolt action designs up to this day. The poor Gewehr 88 had been in service barely ten years before being replaced, Paul Mauser’s ultimate comeuppance to the Rifle Commission. 

While Germany was rearming with its new ultra modern Mauser rifle, Germany didn’t want to simply scrap or sell as surplus it’s stock of hundreds of thousands of Gewehr 88′s.  Thus in 1905 began a program to modify the Gewehr 88 into an appropriate reserve arm.  The first major modification was to rechamber the rifle to fire spitzer cartridges.  Spitzer cartridges featured pointed bullets which had greater velocity, better ballistics, and more accuracy. 

The Gewehr 88 was adopted before the invention of the spitzer bullet, and thus used round nosed bullets.

The other major modification was to the Mannlicher magazine.  Whereas the Gewehr 88 used en bloc clips the new Gewehr 98 used stripper clips. It was decided that the German Army couldn’t have two separate forms of ammunition, which would make logistics and supply more difficult. Rather, the Gewehr 88 was modified to accept Gew 98 stripper clips, with a clip holder machined directly into the receiver of the rifle. In addition, the opening on the bottom of the magazine, which originally was the opening through which the empty en bloc clip dropped through, was capped off as it was no longer needed and only provided an opening through which dust, moisture, and dirt could enter the action. Thus the new Gew 88/05 was born.

It was a good idea Germany held on to the Gew 88.  The first few years of World War I exacted heavy demands on Germany for small arms, and dangerous shortages of almost every weapon occurred.  Specifically there weren’t enough Gewehr 98′s to arm everyone, so Germany had to dig in to it’s old stocks of Gew 88/05′s to shore up the numbers.  Originally the Gew 88/05 was only intended to be used by reserve units, guards, messengers, supply personnel, and other rear echelon units, however due to the severity of arms shortages in 1914 it was not uncommon for Gewehr 88′s to be used at the front.  The Gew 88/05 had many problems.  The new stripper clip system was very finicky, as the conversion wasn’t really tested much to see if it worked adequately.  Loading of the Gew 88/05 required meticulous care to ensure the cartridges were seated right in the magazine.  It was also discovered that after a few dozen shots, the action and magazine tended to overheat, causing the magazine the lock up and cause the bolt to lock in place when closed. The rifle would continue to function again once the action cooled down. 

The Gewehr 88/05 was far from a perfect rifle, in fact it downright sucked big time. However a sucky rifle is better than no rifle at all, and the Gewehr 88 was a necessary stopgap until Gewehr 98 production could catch up with the war. By 1916 German production of the Gewehr 98 increased to the point that every soldier and sailor of the German military could be armed with a Gewehr 98. Thus the Gewehr 88/05 was not longer needed. Some went back into storage, however most would be donated to Germany’s allies, such as Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, both of whom were in desperate need of working rifles.

[gun-gallery]

Karabiner Model 1888 - 8x57mm

[peashooter85]

The Commission Rifle Part IV --- The Karabiner 88 and Gewehr 91

In case you missed Part I, Part II, Part III

After the Germans had fixed the flaws of the Gewehr 88 to their satisfaction, it was now time to create carbine variants for cavalry and artillery troops.  Thus in 1890 Germany introduced the Karabiner 88, a carbine variant of the Gewehr 88 made specifically for mounted troops.  The Kar 88 was made to be more shorter, lighter, and more compact than the Gew 88, with a barrel length of a little more than 17 inches, an overall length of 38 inches, and a weight of 6.5 pounds. The Kar 88 was more than just a shortened version of the Gew 88, but instead utilized some interesting features which made it specifically suited for use on horseback.  Cavalry troopers tended to carry their carbines in a sheath behind the back or in a saddle holster.  The Kar 88 was designed to have a streamlined profile with features which prevented snagging when being removed from a holster.  The barrel jacket was tapered, being thicker at the chamber and narrowing towards the muzzle.  The front sight featured a half shroud to protect it, again from snagging.  Instead of a tradition knob type bolt handle, the Kar 88 used a spoon handle type bolt which was typically common on German and Austrian sporting rifles.  As an aside I must admit that I really love spoon handle bolts. Again this feature was intended to prevent snagging, however it’s downside was there was very little clearance in between the bolt and the side of the rifle, making it more difficult to work the bolt.

The Kar 88 became a handy dandy carbine favored not only by cavalry, but also military police and other rear echelon units.  Artillery soldiers also needed a carbine.  While artillery typically operate out of the way of frontline combat, they still needed a light, compact rifle to defend themselves against surprise attacks, especially from flanking cavalry.  The German Army really didn’t want to develop and issue a third model of the Gewehr 88, nor did industry really want to produce it.  So, Germany just issued artillery troops the Kar 88 with one major difference.  Artillery soldiers usually don’t carry their rifles with them when they are operating their big guns.  Despite being carbines they still get in the way of efficient artillery operations.  Instead artillery troops tend to stack their rifles nearby.

Thus, artillery troops were issued the Gewehr 91, which was simply the Kar 88 with a stacking rod.

Both the Kar 88 and Gewehr 91 would serve with the German Army well into World War I.  It was loved by all who were issued, so much so that when the Gewehr 88 was phased out as a reserve rifle during World War I, both carbines continued to be issued in large numbers despite the introduction of carbines based on the newer Gewehr 98.

[peashooter85]

The Commission Rifle Part I --- The Gewehr 88

The story of the German Gewehr 88 begins in 1886 when the French introduced the Lebel Model 1866 bolt action rifle. At first glance the Lebel doesn’t seem very special, it was a bolt action rifle with a tubular magazine, something very common at the time. However it wasn’t the Lebel itself that was special, rather it’s cartridge.  It used a revolutionary 8x50mm cartridge, much smaller in caliber than most other rifles of the time. While smaller caliber rifles had been attempted before, the problems of fowling from black powder made such calibers impractical.  The 8mm Lebel cartridge used a new smokeless powder which not only prevented fouling, but fired with much more velocity, range, and accuracy.  In addition, the cartridge lacked the characteristic puff of smoke which could give away ones position to the enemy, or could an entire battlefield in a smokey, sulfuric haze. 

The invention of smokeless powder stunned the world, and immediately nations began to develop their own smokeless powder rifles to catch up. France’s old rival Germany was especially alarmed, whose Mauser Model 1871/84 had been made instantly obsolete. Thus shortly after the introduction of the Lebel, the German Army formed the German Rifle Testing Commission to create a new design.  The Commission consisted of some of the best German and Austrian firearms designers of the time, however conspicuously absent was Paul Mauser, inventor of Germany’s previous infantry rifle, the Mauser M1871. Mauser was not very happy about not being invited to the Commission, especially since they were using his action as a basis for the rifle. Mauser would go his own path, creating revolutionary designs that would surpass the Gewehr 88 and invent the rifle which would ultimately replace it.

The basis for the Gew. 88 was the Mauser M1871 action, a turn bolt split bridge cock on opening bolt action. The action was redesigned with various updates intended to make it more modern, stronger, and more reliable. Whereas the Lebel had a Kropatscheck style magazine tube, the new Gew 88 was equipped with a five round single stack Mannlicher style magazine invented by Austrian gun designer Ferdinand Mannlicher.  The new magazine was used with Mannlicher’s with M1885 and 1886 straight pull bolt action designs which used black powder cartridges. The Mannlicher magazine was fed by a five round single stack en bloc clip, which was inserted cartridges and all into the magazine.  When the user expended the five rounds, the empty clip would drop out through a port at the bottom of the magazine.

While an efficient design, one common problem with Mannlicher magazine’s was that the port on the bottom often served as an entry point for dirt, dust, and moisture. The Commission improved upon the Mannlicher design by making it mutlidirectional, whereas in the original Mannlicher design, the clip had to be inserted in one “up/down” direction. 

One of the oddest features of the Gew. 88 was a barrel shroud made of stamped sheet metal.  The shroud wasn’t really created to dissipate heat, but instead was intended to create a space in between the barrel and the stock, in other words a “free floating” barrel.  The purpose of this was to prevent the stock from shifting the alignment of the stock and disrupting it’s barrel harmonics when fired.  While an interesting feature, the shroud often trapped moisture resulting in rust and corrosion.

Of course, the most important feature of of Gew 88 was it’s cartridge, called the Patrone 88, a rimless 8x57mm cartridge which used a nitrocellulose based smokleless powder as propellant. Despite being of much smaller caliber than most cartridges of the 19th century, it was far more accurate, had much greater range, and had much more power than black powder cartridges before it. Note that it used a round nosed bullet, the pointed spitzer bullet not being invented until 1898.

The Gewehr 88 would immediately be approved by this Commission after barely testing it, and it would be adopted by the German Army in 1888, a mere two years after the introduction of the French Lebel, and remain in German service even in World War I.  The Gew. 88 would be used by other nations as well, including Turkey and China, and it’s action would form the basis of other Dutch and Austrian designs.  However, a rifle created by a commission and rushed into service with little testing was certainly not perfect, and the new Gew. 88 had many flaws that would come to light once in military service.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[gun-gallery]

Hanyang Type 88 - 7.92x57mm