MBG: The Reichgewehr 88
John Walter looks at Germany’s hybrid Mauser-Mannlicher rifle
The introduction of the French Lebel rifle caused consternation in Germany so a rival weapon was demanded. The result was the hybrid Mauser-Mannlicher rifle, as John Walter explains.
The introduction of the French Lebel rifle caused consternation amongst rival nations. The rifle was not a particularly noteworthy design, but the use of smokeless propellant in its cartridge and the flat trajectory of its bullet gave French infantrymen a great advantage.
This was clearly unacceptable in newlyunified Germany, where the Franco Prussian War was too recent a memory. In November 1887, therefore, the Gewehr Prüfungs Kommission (GPK) sought advice from officers and technicians serving in the Danzig, Erfurt and Spandau manufactories.
Converting Gewehre 71/84 for a cartridge loaded with smokeless powder, being developed by Rottweiler Pulverfabriken, was proposed. The rifle would require virtually no alterations, other than barrel and sights, if the new cartridge was essentially a necked-down 11mm Reichspatrone. Prussian War Minister Paul Bronsart von Schellendorff and his colleagues duly favoured using a bolt with double locking lugs, Verschluss mit doppeltem Widerstand, to enable the 71/84 to withstand additional pressures generated by smokeless propellant.
However, mindful of technological advances elsewhere, the German smallarms specialists recommended developing something new. The GPK concurred, and work began.
Now widely credited to Louis Schlegelmilch, a technician attached to the Spandau arsenal, the prototype commission rifle had a Mauser-like action, a Mannlicher-inspired magazine with a clip that would load either way up, and a barrel jacket designed by Armand Mieg.
Experiments with 8mm cartridges adapted from the 11mm Reichspatrone 71 began early in 1888. By midsummer, however, a modified Schweizer Art (Swiss design) based on the doctrines of Eduard Rubin had been substituted.
As early as 23 March 1888, the Bavarian military observer of the trials, Oskar von Xylander, had reported not only that design of the small-bore rifle had been virtually completed but also that it was immeasurably superior to the 71/84. But then, on 18 April 1888, Waffenfabrik Mauser AG patented a rifle destined for trials being undertaken in Belgium. However, to Paul Mauser’s chagrin, the German authorities regarded locking lugs placed behind the magazine to be a weakness, while the clumsy bolt and elongated cocking piece compromised handling.
Acceptance and production
Field trials with Spandau’s pre-production rifles continued. Work on the Gewehr 71/84 stopped once they had been completed and the GPK recommended immediate adoption of the experimental Reichsgewehr. The orders were signed by Kaiser Wilhelm II on 12 November 1888 and despatched to Bavaria, where approval followed on 19 February 1889.
Machinery was delivered in the autumn of 1888 to Spandau, then to Danzig and lastly to Erfurt. Deliveries of tools to Amberg commenced in
July 1889, and by October the arsenals were working around the clock. The Prussian factories each attained a daily output of 600 guns, while the Bavarian establishment contributed 400.
The most important private contractor was to have been Waffenfabrik Mauser, but the Oberndorf factory was committed to a huge Turkish order and so Ludwig Loewe, whose experience was limited
to copying the Russian-model Smith & Wesson revolver, was given an order for 300,000 Gewehre 88 in January 1889. This had soon been increased by 125,000.
The Loewe-made Gewehr 88 cost the Prussian government appreciably more than each government-made item, leading to unfounded allegations of deliberate profiteering by Jewish-owned manufacturers – the so-called Judenflinteaffäre – intent on undermining the morale of the German Army.
More problems arose when the Prussians tried to order 300,000 rifles from Österreichische Waffenfabrik Gesellschaft (OEWG) in October 1889, owing to legal wrangling over patent infringements.
The clip-loaded magazine was clearly based on Mannlicher’s, and though the Prussian government granted Armand Mieg 50,000 marks in 1889, acknowledging use of his barrel-jacket design, disputes continued for some time.
Gewehre 88 began to reach XV and XVI Armeekorps, stationed in Alsace-Lorraine in the autumn of 1889. The first large-scale issues in Bavaria seem to have commenced on 22 October.
By 1 August 1890, delivery of about 275,000 guns had allowed infantry regiments in Prussia, Saxony and Württemberg to reequip. By the end of the year, deliveries from the Prussian manufactories had risen to 600,000, and guns were beginning to come from Amberg, Loewe’s factory in Berlin, and OEWG in Steyr. When assembly ceased in 1897, output amounted to 1.675 million.
But, the front-line life of Reichsgewehr was to be short; beginning in 1900, they were gradually replaced by the Gewehr 98 and relegated to the Reserve, Landwehr and Landsturm. Large quantities were sold to China in 1907, and, in 1911, A.L. Frank Exportgesellschaft (ALFA) was still offering 40,000 for sale commercially. Gewehre 88 were also exported in large numbers to the Balkans and the Far East, and also, by Österreichische Waffenfabrik Gesellschaft, to Peru and Brazil up to 1914.
Gewehre 1888 have dated maker’s marks above the chamber, with the designation ‘Gew. 88.’ on the rear left side of the body. The serial number lies on the body, the barrel clamping ring and the bolt-handle base, with the last two digits on many of the components.
Unit markings usually appear on the left side of the barrel band. An Erfurt-made Gewehr 88/S displaying ‘105.R.9.196.’, for example, was rifle
No. 196 of the ninth company of Saxon infantry regiment König Wilhelm II von Württemberg, numbered 105 on the combined establishment.
Teething troubles
The Gewehr 88 seemed to be superior to the French Lebel and the Austro Hungarian Mannlicher, but problems soon arose. Overloaded cartridges generated too much pressure, rupturing barrels and often injuring the firers. More than 30 such failures had been reported in the Bavarian Army by the end of 1890.
Approved on 9 January 1891, the Gewehr 88/• had a strengthened barrel signified by a large dot struck into the top of the body and on the side of the barrel.
This, and improvements in cartridge quality control – the art of loading smokeless propellant, after all, was still then in its infancy – greatly reduced incidents, though nearly 1,000 rifles with damaged barrels were still returned to Spandau between March 1900 and March 1901 alone.
Explosions in the magazine were traced to double loading. If a cartridge failed to extract and the firer attempted to reload, the nose of the second round slammed into the primer of the one left in the chamber. Cutting away part of the recessed bolt-head face so that cartridges rose from the magazine directly under the extractor claw, rather than hoping that the claw would slip over the case rim as the bolt shut, largely cured the problem.
Excessive gas leakage from ruptured primers or case-head failures was answered by adding two gas-deflecting lugs on the striker head, all service rifles being altered from 1894 onward.
New rifling
In the early summer of 1893, a check of all 88-type rifles and carbines held by artillery depots and in store revealed that half of them needed new barrels. Problems with rifling that had been pirated from the Lebel had become obvious.
GPK trials with modified bullets and different bullet-jacketing material were unsatisfactory, and so experimentation with rifling depths began in the autumn of 1894. Because the 8.1mm diameter bullet had to be reduced to a bore diameter of 7.9mm, friction generated by excessive pressure between the bullet jacket and the bore walls accelerated bore wear. In addition, bullet jackets tended to crack and excessive metal fouling was left in the barrel.
The standard groove depth of 0.1mm was clearly too shallow, but 0.15mm optimised bore life, accuracy and chamber pressure. Modified rifling was adopted on 7 July 1896 for the Gewehr 88/Z, guns with new or re-rifled barrels gaining a 3mm ‘Z’ on top of the chamber and sometimes a 7mm ‘Z’ on the right side of the butt.
A new cartridge
The adoption of the S-Patrone on 3 April 1903 brought an upgrade to ‘88/S’ standards. The new bullet had a diameter of 8.22mm, appreciably greater than the 8.1mm
Geschoss 88, which increased chamber pressures significantly; consequently, only rifles with new ‘Z’-pattern barrels were altered.
The chamber was bored out, and a large ‘S’ was struck into the body. A crowned 7mm-high ‘S’ appeared on the right side of the butt, and the sights were suitably altered. Some rifles will be found with ‘n m’ in Fraktur beneath the designation on the left rear of the body, which may represent ‘nitro munition’: Munition 03 contained a new nitrocellulose-base propellant.
Charger loading
The Gewehr 88/05 relied on a pressedtin charger from which five rounds were simply pushed downwards into the magazine, instead of a clip. Charger guide blocks were attached to the top of the bridge, and the left side of the
body wall was ground out to enable the thumb to press cartridges down into the magazine well. A channel milled vertically across the breech face gave clearance for the pointed S-Patrone bullet.
The magazine was narrowed internally with a steel strip, and shortened with a small steel block. A spring loaded cartridge retainer was fixed horizontally in its left wall, and the opening in the bottom of the magazine well was sealed with a pressed steel cover.
Approved on 3 January 1907, about 370,000 Gew. 88/S were converted to 88/05 standards in Spandau, to be stored for the active reserve.
When World War I began, Gewehre 88/05 were being stored for Landwehr units which had not received Gewehre
98, and Gewehre 88/S were held for the third-line Landsturm. Some Steyr-made guns were pressed into service in Austria Hungary as 8mm Repetiergewehre M 13.
In December 1914, a sheet-metal cover was introduced to prevent debris entering through the bottom of the magazine, and, in 1915, the Spandau manufactory fitted thousands of Gewehre 88/S with an ejector which threw empty clips upwards out of the action when the bolt was opened to expel the last spent case.
In addition, about 75,000 Gewehre
88/S were somewhat crudely upgraded to 88/14 standards by welding protrusions onto the front of the bridge and then twisting them upwards into curved-ear charger guides. The left wall of the body was cut away to allow cartridges to be pressed down into the magazine well, and a groove milled across the face of the chamber accepted S-Patronen.
The magazine well was shortened and narrowed by sheet-steel inserts, and the opening in the bottom of the magazine was blocked by a sheet-steel cover.
The spring loaded cartridge retainer, horizontal in the 88/05, was angled forwards in the 88/14.
Shortages of serviceable weapons early in 1915 caused many 88/05 and 88/14 conversions to be withdrawn from the Landwehr and Landsturm for re-issue to line infantry regiments. The men of 3. Magdeburgisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 66, for instance, carried the Gewehr 88/05 from May 1915 until replaced in November by Russian Mosin-Nagants, which were in turn replaced late in 1916 by the Gewehr 98.
Many 88-type rifles ended their days in Turkey, but about 120,000 Gew. 88/05 and Gew. 88/14 remained nominally on German army inventories in 1918.
The accessories
There were three types of cleaning rod, Wischstöcke, and a muzzle protector or Mündungsschoner. Screwdrivers were issued on the scale of one to every 10 guns and lock spanners on the scale of one to three.
The Gewehr 88 was originally issued with the brass hilted Seitengewehr
1871 (‘S. 71’), reintroduced on 20 November 1888 in Prussia, Saxony and Württemberg. The Hirschfänger 71, with a leather gripped steel hilt, reappeared at the same time for the riflemen (Jäger), but the Bavarian units initially retained the short-bladed S. 71/84.
During World War I, shortages of regulation weapons meant that all-metal Ersatz bayonets were used alongside transformations of sword, sabre and knife bayonets.