Family heirlooms that had been through a house fire, as well as rare and historic guns are the usual recipients of this treatment. It’s not cheap as it often entails welding up pits or adding missing metal, reheat treating fire damaged parts, relining barrels, restoring original markings that have been buffed or worn mostly away, and producing the exact finish the gun had when it left a specific factory. It’s not cheap but the results are identical to a new gun. This can determine the long-term survival of a particular piece, as pristine guns are treasured by museums and individuals while those in poor condition are the first to be culled and discarded. When Golubstov set out to make a duplicate of the original M1907 Test Trials Luger, he made sure to meet the manufacturing standards used by the Deutsche Waffen und Munitions Fabriken (DWM), the original manufacturer of the Luger.

RECREATING THE M1907 LUGER

Golubstov started by obtaining a set of the blueprints of the M1907 Luger that Army Ordnance had drawn up at the time of its 1907 tests. At this time the .45 caliber round had not been standardized and the ammunition at the tests was variable and of poor quality, resulting in Georg Luger making the perfectly reasonable demand (under the circumstances) of being able to provide his own ammo. U.S. Army Ordnance found fault with him and not their ammo over that. As a result, the blueprints did not reflect a gun made for today’s standardized 45 ACP ammo and it was up to Golubstov to make the necessary modifications a century later. Spring tension had to be worked out and the feed ramp had to be adjusted. All of this took time. One thing you will notice is that Luger had made the grip angle slightly less steep to work best with the .45 cartridge.

When Golubstov had fired 10,000 rounds through his prototype, he brought it to my farm where we shot a one-inch group at 50 yards with it. While the current generation of pistols often has a lifespan of 5000 to 10,000 rounds, the Luger never seems to wear out just—like the toggle lock Maxim machinegun that inspired it. He also brought a cut down Baby Luger version inspired by Luger’s personal carry pistol. I liked this one a lot. Finally, there was a target version machined to closer tolerances than the regular Lugers.

All of these were made to DWM commercial standards. Finished in the traditional rust blue that takes about 20 hours of labor to produce, this finish is very durable and rust resistant. Golubstov warns customers that some modern lubricants (like WD-40) attack rust, and, over time, can degrade a rust-blue finish. The solution is Ballistol oil which is available now in the U.S. Developed in Germany as the one oil for all the soldier’s equipment, whether it be steel, wood, or leather, Ballistol does not harm a rust-blue finish. The Germans used this oil in both World Wars, and it is still in use in NATO today. When it contacts water, it forms an emulsion and as long as the emulsion is at least 5% Ballistol, the water will evaporate without causing rust while the Ballistol remains. This is the oil we needed in Vietnam.

MADE TO BE USED

Many of Golubstov’s customers buy these guns for personal protection, wanting the natural-pointing, easy-to-hit-with, super accurate Luger but also wanting the perceived stopping power of a 45 ACP. When it’s your life and the lives of your family are at stake, price ceases to be a hindrance. Each gun is function tested with 150 rounds of eight types of ammo to ensure total reliability. Prices are high compared to the mass-produced guns of Colt or Smith & Wesson because these are largely hand-made in a relatively small shop. You get what you pay for, though.

THE 1907 TEST TRIALS

By now you are probably wondering how the Luger did in the 1907 Army Test trials. Actually, it did quite well. Too well to suit Army Ordnance who were still reeling from the backlash that came when they had adopted the Norwegian Krag rifle instead of an American design. They sure didn’t want a repeat of that which was sure to come if a foreign weapon was adopted again.

Before the tests even began, they had already decided that the Browning-designed Colt 45 Auto was what they wanted, but not in its original 1905 form. They were confident that their old pistol supplier, Colt, could iron the wrinkles out of the design if given enough time. Indeed, the final M1911 version has only a passing resemblance to the M1905 that it began as. Revolvers were included in the tests, as Ordnance figured they might need a stopgap handgun if this dragged on too long. The M1909 Colt New Service revolver was the result of these trials.

To give the M1905 Colt .45 automatic a rival to race against, they chose the Savage automatic. This gun utilizes the Searles locking system which does work, but it works so fast that it might as well be a straight blow back design, as it has all the attendant recoil of a straight blow back gun. However, its simple design promised enough reliability to task the Colt gun in competition… even if its excessive recoil when paired with the powerful .45 cartridge made it forever unsuitable for issue. Scaled down to .32 and .380, it sold well commercially as a pocket pistol, though.

REAL COMPETITION

Other guns were there just to give the impression of an open competition and they were to be gotten rid of as soon as possible, but there was one pistol that they had reason to fear. The Bergman pistol was designed by Louis Schmeisser, who was regarded by some of his contemporaries as a better designer than John Browning. It featured the strongest locking system of all automatic pistols and was exceptionally steady in the hand for precision shooting. When the Bergman needed to replace a defective hammer spring, that was used as a reason to discontinue testing it. However, Ordnance had no problem letting the Savage entry replace its bad main spring in the middle of its test. The Bergman went on to be adopted by Denmark and widely used elsewhere.

A much higher profile gun was the Luger which had been adopted by Switzerland in 1900 and the German Navy in 1904 (Designated the M1906) and was rapidly being adopted by militaries around the world. The Luger gave no excuse to dismiss it though as it was performing well against the Colt and Savage pistols. During the endurance test the Luger had 8 jams in 506 rounds, all of which were cleared by simply slapping the toggle. The M1905 Colt had 24 jams in 500 rounds while the Savage had 18 misfires, 8 failures to eject, and 6 other malfunctions in 500 rounds plus it had to have a new recoil spring after round 151. Malfunctions in the Colt and Savage could not be cleared by a simple slap on the toggle like the Luger but were longer and harder to clear.

SAND, DUST, RUST

The sand box test went to the Colt. The barrels were corked tightly, and the magazines were empty as a blast of fine sand in a specially prepared box hit the pistols for one minute. Excess sand was removed from the gun by blowing, jarring, and wiping with the bare hand. The Colt had no jams, the Luger had two, and the Savage only was able to fire three rounds.

The dust box test was the same as the sand box test, except that fine dust was used. The Luger had four jams, all of which were quickly cleared by striking the toggle. At Luger’s request, a second magazine was fired resulting in only one jam as the pistol was throwing the dust out of itself as it fired. The Colt had no jams, while the Savage had three misfires and one jam.

The rust test was clearly won by the Luger as it was the easiest to put back in action. In this test the bore was plugged, and the guns were soaked for 5 minutes in a saturated solution of salammoniac for 5 minutes then hanging it up indoors to rust for 22 hours. The Luger had to be manually cocked and the toggle closed by hand to fire. Only the application of oil was required to make it work. No rust removal or tools were required. In sharp contrast, the Colt needed a wooden rod to manipulate the mainspring and release the slide catch. The slide was worked back and forth, and the hammer snapped several times before the test was deemed started. The Savage had to have its parts operated by striking it on a bench and manipulating them by hand before firing. The magazine spring had to be repeatedly forced back and forth by a metal rod before it would work, and the gun could be fired.

Significantly, there was no test with wet sticky mud. This is where the German P08 Luger earned its reputation in the trenches of WWI as the most reliable pistol used in that conflict. Drop the Luger in the mud of the Western front and it comes up firing, throwing the mud off. Drop a pistol with an exposed hammer in the same mud and it jams the hammer so it can’t fire, as the mud goes inside the gun there. If the barrel is blocked with mud and you fire it, the barrel will bulge. The exposed barrel of the Luger bulges and keeps firing whereas any pistol with a slide has the slide jammed by the bulge so that it cannot work until the barrel is replaced. In WWI if you didn’t end up crawling through the mud, the exploding artillery shells would cover you and your gun with mud.

When it came time for troop trials, Ordnance declined to let the Luger be tested. They said that it didn’t have an inline mainspring. The real reason was that in the earlier 1900 troop trials with the famed American Eagle .30 caliber Luger pistols, a lot of the troops fell in love with the accurate and easy-shooting Luger. Still, everyone knew by now that you couldn’t stop a charging cavalry horse or Philippine Moro with anything less than a .45. The 1907 Luger was a .45. Old Ordnance veterans told me of all the flack Ordnance got over adopting the Norwegian Krag rifle instead of an American design and how they did not ever want to go through that again. Ordnance could not afford the troops favoring a foreign gun, so they didn’t let it go on the troop trials. Luger knew that there was no hope of his pistol being adopted without them, so he went back to Germany to concentrate on getting his 9mm version adopted by the German government. This became the famed P08 of both World Wars.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Golubstov has also made a new version called the P2020 Luger 45 which incorporates two changes to the original design. First, the ejector was changed to a fixed position. The original ejector design is spring-loaded and needs to flex in and out of the slide to allow the breechblock to move. This isn’t good because it creates additional resistance to the gun cycling. Small changes were made to the breechblock and ejector to eliminate the need for the ejector to flex when the breechblock moves, making the gun more reliable.

The original Luger hold-open spring is a flat spring in front of the bolt hold-open and was delicate and unreliable. Golubstov moved the spring to the back of the hold open to make it more reliable.

The grip safety is available as an option on the 2020 version, whereas it’s standard on the M1907 version.

All these guns are also available in stainless steel. For an additional $2500, any of these can be turned into a Baby Luger. Existing 9mm Lugers can also be converted to Baby Lugers for the same price. LugerMan also makes any style of holster you may desire to carry them in.

Golubstov can also furnish these guns as target versions for match shooting for $1500 extra. The conversion consists of adjustable Partridge sights, a tighter toggle assembly, and a 6.5-inch target barrel. The Luger is one of the most accurate pistols ever made, so a target version is logical. If speed of firing figures into the match, the Luger wins, hands down, as it’s the fastest cycling of all semi-automatics. Its light toggle is extremely fast and travels only a very short distance. You can fire off a magazine and have all the empty cases in the air at the same time.

For those who want the easiest .45 to hit with in a gun that’s built to the highest quality standards, high enough to stake their life on, the .45 Lugers from LugerMan are the answer.

SPECIFICATIONS

In the course of time different methods of mine clearance were developed and tested. A quick clearing of larger areas was to be achieved by machines. For example, armored vehicles specially converted for this purpose pushed massive cylindrical clearing devices in front of them, which detonated the mines without causing any damage to the vehicle itself. In impassable terrain or areas with heavy vegetation, however, this method was usually ruled out. In these cases, portable mine detectors had to be used. The mines were marked with a warning flag after detection until the time was found to dig them out by hand. During an attack, possibly still under enemy fire, this kind of search was hardly feasible.

In early 1940, the idea therefore arose to detonate laid mines by means of a so-called “Knallteppich” (literally translated as “bang carpet”). Sometimes it is also referred to as a “blasting carpet” or “blasting net”). This net was made of explosive igniter cord and could be laid over a detected minefield. When ignited by a fuse, it detonated, and the blast wave was sufficient to detonate the mines below it.

The Waffen-SS also showed great interest in this development and on 4 September 1941 a meeting took place between representatives of the Heeres-Waffenamt and the SS-Waffenamt. SS-Gruppenführer Hans Jüttner, as head of the SS-Führungshaupt- und Kommandoamt, received a protocol of this meeting that shows the technical details and the still unsolved problems.

Due to the positive assessment by the Pi.Lehr-Btl.2 in Dessau-Roßlau, 3,200 “Knallzündschnurteppiche” (blasting cord nets) were ordered and delivered to the troops. However, at this point in time there was no feedback. The carpets delivered had a length of 10 meters, a width of 7.5 meters and a mesh size of 10 to 15 centimeters. The weight was about 0.5 kilograms per square meter. The nets could be laid next to each other to cover areas of any size. It was not necessary to connect them, but they should overlap by about 10 cm to ensure a proper activation. If necessary, such carpets could also be made provisionally by stretching igniter cords over a slatted frame. When laid out, the carpets were insensitive to rifle ammunition (including tracer ammunition), but extremely sensitive to shrapnel, which caused an immediate detonation.

According to a leaflet of June 1942, the easiest way to unroll the rolled net was by two men using a rod inserted into the roll and, to the surprise of the opponent, preferably at dusk or in the dark. The loud bang of the exploding nets was to be camouflaged by simultaneous fire of the artillery. So far so good, but from this we can already see the disadvantages: to roll out the net, the two soldiers had to walk through the minefield themselves. And this, as far as possible, in the dark! Furthermore, it turned out that the nets worked very well with anti-tank mines, but almost not at all with anti-personnel mines. Trials with treated, meshless fabric (nitrated cotton cloths) brought no success.

As an alternative to the dangerous rolling out by hand, the use of line-throwing devices was tested and found to be useful. A rope was attached to an anchor, with which the net could then be pulled over the minefield. However, the method only worked in unobstructed terrain, otherwise the carpet tore when pulled over rocks or vegetation. Another idea was laying the nets from the air and so together with the Luftwaffe, they tested dropping the nets from airplanes. The success was moderate. A helicopter was a better option, but this would not have made much sense due to the danger of getting shot down while hoovering so close to the front line.

Another development called automatic net-layer did not get beyond the planning phase. A light vehicle, steered from a safe distance by cables, would have rolled out carpets 3-meters-wide over the minefield. It was controlled from a PzKpfw II, which protected the operating crew from spall. The Talbot wagon factory in Aachen had produced a prototype, but shortly afterwards the order was cancelled as “not decisive for the war”.

Although the idea with the blasting nets was well-intentioned, it failed due to the rigors of reality. No type of net or laying device was actually introduced by the Heer or Waffen-SS.

Successful inventors often have to think outside the box. In weapons technology, too, many a smirked-at pipe dream has turned out to be a great success. But now and then it’s difficult to distinguish deliberate charlatanry from actual conviction. This is a problem that the SS-Waffenamt also had to contend with when so-called “inventors” described their ideas in grandiose terms. Like Dr. Christian Fuchs, for example, with his centrifugal machine gun.

Machine guns became an indispensable weapon in warfare. Their firepower helped both in attack and defense. On days of heavy fighting, however, this turned into hard work for the ammunition carriers, considering that a German MG34 could easily fire 800 rounds per minute. The MG42 even managed 1,500 rounds in the same amount of time.

Dr. Fuchs, from Poznań in the Nazi-occupied Reichsgau Wartheland area of Poland, who had a doctorate in law, had the idea of developing a machine gun that used kinetic energy instead of gunpowder to impart thrust to projectiles. Whether he was aware of other prior attempts to create such a device is unknown. He approached the Heereswaffenamt (Army Ordnance Office) with this idea and on 8 February 1943 his project was discussed during a weapons demonstration at the proving ground Kummersdorf as the agenda item “Development of a new machine gun with mechanical projectile acceleration.” According to Dr. Fuchs, his invention was recognized as correct in principle, but the development time needed to create a weapon suitable for frontline use was judged to be too long and he was refused further support.

However, Dr. Fuchs did not give up that quickly. He contacted a Nazi SS office in Poznań and presented his idea there on 20 November. “With this machine, the projectiles are hurled away without explosives, i.e. silently,” it was reported, and that, “Dr. Fuchs has already achieved a performance of 50 shots per second, that is 3,000 shots per minute, with his model.” Furthermore, he lambasted the lack of support from the Speer Ministry, declaring that he needed only six months to complete a weapon “which could be used immediately at the front,” but, of course, only if qualified mechanics and raw materials were made available to him. Furthermore, Dr. Fuchs urged a quick decision, because the suspension period for the public announcement of his patent would soon end and failing to gain an extension would be contrary to the interest of national defense. He urgently requested the support of Gauleiter SS-Obergruppenführer Arthur Greiser and wanted to demonstrate the invention to him personally.

Despite the support of the SS, Dr. Fuchs was unable to procure the necessary high-speed motors and other individual parts. In May 1944, he travelled specially to the Siemens company in Berlin where he learned the compact, high-speed electric motors he had planned to use in his design were no longer being built. Instead, he had to make do with motors that provided only 7,000 revolutions per minute, for which, however, a gearbox was necessary. Siemens agreed “in the most obliging manner” to produce a model of the machine gun and also commissioned the development of a gearbox that ran in oil. But nothing came of it.

In June 1944, Dr. Fuchs wrote to the SS headquarters (Technical Office VIII FEP), “Due to the two heavy air raids on Poznań, the workshops of the company entrusted with the construction of the gearbox were partly destroyed. […] In addition, the manager of the Poznań workshop of the Siemens company has collapsed due to work overload and is therefore no longer able to provide the kindly promised help in the construction of the machine gun.” Dr. Fuchs then built a prototype gearbox himself that reached a speed of 15,000 rpm. On the finished weapon, one bullet would have left the barrel for every revolution.

Dr. Fuchs felt very important. He again pressed for help from the SS, who this time were to make certain parts for him. The work would only progress so slowly and Fuchs urged, “since I must not neglect my professional duties as a judge, nor can I cease my intensive collaboration as Hauptsturmführer of the SA, lest I betray the cause. […] Without the requested help, it would hardly be possible to make the new weapon operational for this war. In my opinion, however, that would not be in the Führer’s interests”. Two weeks later, the SS-Führungshauptamt agreed to have the parts manufactured in SS workshops and asked for drawings to be sent to them. In mid-July, the finished parts were sent to Dr. Fuchs.

Now the personal staff of the Reichsführer-SS also intervened. SS-Obersturmbannführer Gräßler wanted to know why the matter was taking so long. The head of the technical office, SS-Brigadeführer Schwab, himself a doctor of engineering, made it clear in his answer of 3 October 1944 what he thought of the centrifugal machine gun. He reportedly said the invention was a technical gimmick and that such a weapon would weigh 100 times more than a normal machine gun and the trajectory would be uncontrollable. All this did not justify the use of an extensive test facility and the assignment of dozens of experts, he continued. Presumably in order not to upset anyone, he added, “It must remain the case that we give Dr. Fuchs further opportunities to improve his ideas and to see for himself on basic tests how far things can be realized. […] Dr. Fuchs has now expressed the wish to be transferred to the Waffen-SS in order to be able to continue working here within the framework of the Technical Office. I have no objection to this and will clear the way for him to do so. With the best will in the world, that is all that can be done at the moment.”

Unfortunately, this is where the story ends. The further fate of Dr. Fuchs, the whereabouts of his prototype and the technical drawings of his design are unknown. But, based on what we know of his ambition, the ammunition consumption of his invention would have been incredibly high, if the system worked at all. With some basic math we can see how absurdly the idea was likely viewed at the time. The common heavy pointed bullet (schweres Spitzgeschoss) of the rifle cartridge weighed 12.8 grams. At the intended target of 30,000 revolutions per minute, the centrifugal machine gun would thus have hurled 384 kilograms (about 85 pounds) of lead per minute at the enemy. So, assuming the technology could be developed to realize Fuchs’ design, the weapons insatiable appetite for ammunition would have precluded it from ever becoming a reality given that ammunition was already in short supply in almost every corner of the German Reich by this point of the war.

In World War I, the U.S. discovered that some of the low numbered M1903 Springfield receivers had burst because the metal had been burned by overheating it in manufacture. It was heated to the point that it was white hot with sparks coming out and held at that temperature long enough to burn most all the carbon out of the steel, leaving it porous where the carbon had burned out, very fragile, and brittle. When reading the description of this event in Hatcher’s Notebook, and the Army’s solution of going to temperature-controlled furnaces, one could get the impression that this problem was caused by judging the temperature by eye. Neither General Hatcher nor the Army Ordnance Department were experienced blacksmiths, though. As an experienced blacksmith of many years, I would like to set the record straight.

BURNING METAL

You harden metal at a cherry red heat. You burn metal at a white-hot heat with sparks coming off the metal as the carbon is burned out. It takes a little bit of time for it to burn out, also. There is a big heat difference between cherry red and white-hot, just as there is a big difference between the color of cherry red and white with sparks coming out. I would trust a careful apprentice to quench metal at cherry red. For an experienced blacksmith to burn metal is almost unheard of, and for him not to know that he had done it is not possible. To do this on multiple receivers is nothing but deliberate sabotage. Somebody was mad about something and taking it out on the work. There is just no other possibility.

It’s likely that Ordnance realized this while also recognizing a public scandal might ensue if news of failure were reported in the newspapers. It would be a scandal that could hurt the careers of all the men in charge of Ordnance, as well as destroying a lot of the confidence that the Army (and the public) had in the Ordnance Department. Better to quietly correct the problem and get temperature controls on the furnaces so they could blame the lack of them for the problem instead of causing a scandal.

Then again, it’s also possible that Ordnance never understood this, as their heat treatment of the receivers was the same as hardening a file. They wanted the glass smooth action of the Krag rifle and touted the great strength of file-hardened metal under a load but ignored the extreme brittleness of said metal under a sudden shock. Any good blacksmith could have told them this was a very bad idea.

Except for files, I’ve never hardened anything without tempering it, which is reheating it to anything from a straw yellow to a blue, the latter color being used for springs, knives, razors, and axes. Some folks have complained that the receivers of Mauser rifles were too soft. Well, they didn’t break or give trouble in over 100 years of hard service, and they have successfully been re-barreled for every cartridge that will fit through the action. Softer is better for sudden shock loads, such as those you get with a ruptured cartridge case… which will burst the file hardened receivers of the low numbered Springfield rifles.

BURSTING SPRINGFIELDS

The problem surfaced with the poor-quality ammunition that came out in WWI when Ordnance reported that their ammunition was getting worse. Soft brass and erratic loading of powder (with some loads that exceeding the 70,000 PSI army proof load) coupled with the fact that the last part of a cartridge case projects out over an eight of an inch (specifically 0.147 to 0.1485-inch) on a Springfield or M98 Mauser rifle is a formula for ruptured cartridge cases. When that happens, the brittle, file-hard receivers of the low number Springfield rifles burst. If the steel was burnt, it had very little strength; it burst even quicker.

THE FIX

Between 1917 and 1929, there were 61 cases of receivers blowing up. Attempts to reheat treat the receivers met with inconsistent results because often the steel used did not meet the specifications for composition. Ordnance finally gave up trying to repair the faulty receivers. They pivoted and made some good receivers that were hardened AND tempered, calling them double heat treated, and then went to nickel steel. During this time, some low numbered receivers got mixed in with the new, safe receivers… the cut-off date for manufacturing the old glass-hard receivers was not exactly recorded. How many ways can they screw up!? After thoroughly investigating the problem, Ordnance wanted to scrap ALL of the old receivers and replace them with updated, safe ones, but the money for this was never appropriated.

In their attempt to copy the M98 Mauser and call it an American invention (so that they wouldn’t catch the flak they had caught over previously adopting the Norwegian Krag rifle) Ordnance succeeded in making the only M98 variant that had its receivers blow up!

SAFETY, STOCK, AND SIGHT ISSUES

Ordnance also apparently didn’t appreciate that the thumb notch cutout on the left side of the M98 receiver was there as a last line of defense to protect the shooter’s eyes by diverting the gas from a pierced primer or ruptured cartridge case. They coupled the cocking knob from the Krag rifle with a 13-inch length-of-pull stock that resulted in some soldiers seriously injuring their eye on the cocking piece when rapidly working the bolt. Most soldiers learned to either move their head way back or drop the rifle from their shoulder when working the bolt.

In the British gun trade, rifle stocks are custom fitted to the shooter’s individual measurements to a sixteenth of an inch in all directions. A 13-inch length-of-pull is for people 4-and-a-half feet tall and shorter. That’s the average height of a 10-year-old. To make a soldier’s rifle stock that short is insane. The M1928A1 Thompson submachine gun had a 15-inch length-of-pull and was universally lauded for its extraordinary handling qualities.

Mauser rifles came with a “V” rear sight and an inverted “V” front sight. This front sight has a broad base that easily catches the eye in low light and a narrow top enabling minute-of-angle groups. It’s a rugged arrangement and can stand alone with no protection. In the U.S., Ordnance had long favored a narrow blade that needed a hood or side-mounted wings to protect it. A blade hood cuts down light on the sight, making it hard to see in low light. As a result, later rifles with protective side wings on the front sight sometimes had soldiers sighting on the wing instead of the blade in the hurried stress of combat.

Despite these shortcomings, the M1903 Springfield rifle series became one of the most respected and loved rifles in U.S. military history, even serving iron-sighted snipers in the Vietnam War some 70 years after the rifle’s introduction. It’s just a shame that it had to go through these unnecessary problems.

Thanks to the ingenuity of one man, a Marine infantry unit serving in the Korean War was equipped with M1 Garand rifles capable of full-auto fire. This is the story of selective fire Garands built by then Marine Staff Sergeant Harold Johnson that were used in combat during the Korean War.

During the Korean War, WWII Marine combat veteran Harold Johnson, at the time a staff sergeant, was serving as platoon sergeant in 1^st Battalion, 5^th Marine Regiment. During his time there, the Korean Army was largely out of the fight, and the enemy were the Chinese communists. The war was fairly static, and his unit spent the bulk of their time in an established bunker and trench line. There were frequent Marine night patrols forward of their line to keep themselves informed of enemy troop activities. Most of the Chinese troops in his area were armed with the Soviet PPSH submachine gun. Naturally most of Hals Marines were armed with the M1 Garand or M1 Carbine with approximately one Thompson submachine gun and one Browning Automatic rifle per squad. In short, he felt that his patrols were short of firepower when they engaged in skirmishes with the Chinese during patrols.

Accordingly, Hal Johnson modified several Garands, though the total number is unknown, to be capable of selective fire. He did this work in the field, which is testimony to his skill. Also bear in mind that Hal Johnson was a tanker in WWII, and an infantryman after that; it was not until after the Korean War that he moved into the Ordnance Corps.

During our many conversations, Hal stated to me that he always sent at least two of his modified rifles out with each patrol. In use, the modified rifles provided good, reliable service. They put lots of rounds in the direction of the enemy and helped keep their heads down. On occasion the front hand guard would char or even smoke from the overheated barrel. A story Hal liked to tell was of a buddy of his from WWII arriving at his unit. This guy’s attitude was “a Springfield was good enough to shoot Japanese, its good enough to shoot Chinese.” Accordingly, he carried a Springfield on his first night patrol, made contact with the enemy and heard burp-gun fire all around him. Upon his return to friendly lines, he promptly asked Hal for one of his modified Garands.

HOW WAS THE RIFLE MODIFIED

The modification made by Johnson was simple in design and was reliable. Starting with the trigger group and working forward, the left disconnector hook is ground off of the hammer to prevent that left hook from engaging. A trip lever is fabricated and installed inside a channel cut inside the stock. This trip lever has a lug welded to its rear that protrudes into the action of the gun. This lug engages with the right side of the disconnector. This trip lever pivots on the selector switch to the rear of the center of the trip lever. A spring is installed under the rear of this trip lever to provide upward tension. A transfer bar is fabricated and installed on the outside of the stock below the charging handle. It pivots at its center and has no spring tension on it. The charging handle is ground flat on its front surface. The transfer bar and trip lever were fabricated from M1919 and M2 .50 caliber feed cover belt feed levers. Disclaimer: This is not a how-to guide on building your own full auto M1. Do not modify an M1 to fire full auto unless you are in possession of the appropriate licenses.

HOW THE RIFLE WORKS, THE CYCLE OF OPERATION

When the rifle is fired, the operating rod moves to the rear, bringing the bolt with it. At the beginning of this movement, the flat surface of the charging handle moves away from the transfer bar. Spring tension on the rear of the trip lever moves it up out of engagement with the right side of the disconnector. toward the end of the rearward travel of the bolt, the hammer will lock in the rearward position, held by the disconnector on the remaining right lug on the hammer. As the bolt is returning forward, and just as the bolt locks up, the flat cut into the front of the charging handle impacts the top of the transfer bar forcing the rear of this transfer bar up. This forces the front of the rear trip lever up, moving the rear of the trip lever down against spring tension. The lug welded to the rear of the trip lever pushes down on the right hook on the disconnector, pushing and holding it to the rear and releasing the hammer to fire the chambered round and firing the successive round. The cycle repeats as long as the trigger is held down, or until the rifle runs out of ammunition.

A MODERN REPRODUCTION OF HAL JOHNSONS DESIGN, PROOF OF CONCEPT

Some years ago, in the post-1986 era, but prior to the advent of handheld movie studios, hence the low-quality photos taken with a disposable camera, a working copy of Hals design was built. It was built under my tutelage by a tax stamp holder. That individual has long since surrendered his tax stamp and the rifle was duly turned into the BATFE. I like to think that it resides in their reference collection. It was built as a tool-room prototype with no attempt to make it pretty or field worthy. It also lacks the selective fire option and is full-auto only. This rifle ran and ran flawlessly for many rounds. The rate of fire was an estimated 600 rounds per minute. Controllability of this rifle was not great, but it was manageable for an experienced full-auto shooter. As the owner of an original M-14, I can state that it was more controllable than an M-14 in full-auto mode. It is worth noting that it is possible to build this design to operate at a rate of fire of 600 per minute up to 800 rounds per minute. To do this imagine the lock-up of the bolt and auto firing taking place during a very short window of time. If the rifle fires at the earliest moment in this window, the rate of fire will be faster. The reproduction rifle I fired could have been made to shoot at a higher RPM by adding metal to any contact surface in the linkage, causing a slightly earlier release of the hammer by the lug on the rear of the trip lever.

Though largely unknown, Garands capable of full-auto fire were used in combat in the Korean war by infantry Marines in 1/5 courtesy of the efforts of one smart and able man, Harold Johnson, who has gone largely unrecognized by history.

As the fronts hardened in World War I and little progress was made in trench warfare, the heroic bayonet charges showed less and less success and led to high losses. All sides were looking for new solutions to regain momentum.

The United States had long hesitated to intervene actively in the hostilities of World War I. As the conflict continued to escalate, the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) were formed in France on 5 July 1917, under the command of then Major General John J. Pershing. The first of the so-called Doughboys landed on the European mainland in June 1917. But Pershing insisted that his soldiers be well trained before they boarded ships. As a result, few troops arrived in France before January 1918.

Initially, four combat-ready U.S. divisions under French and British command were deployed to gain initial front-line experience by defending relatively quiet sections of the front. Initially, the equipment used also came from French and British stocks. Meanwhile, in the United States, resourceful tinkerers and engineers were searching for new and better weapons to give their soldiers an advantage in battle.

The Gas Service Section of the U.S. Armed Forces had a curious idea for increasing combat effectiveness: a kind of miniature flamethrower on the rifle was intended to cause the enemy to take flight in fear when attacking their positions. The development went under the name “Flaming Bayonet.” While work was still in progress, the Gas Service and Chemical Service departments were merged to form the Chemical Warfare Service (CWS).

The Flaming Bayonet was a square sheet metal container with six flame cartridges, three in each of two rows. Initial tests with liquid fuel had to be abandoned because of the danger to the shooter from leaks and difficulties with firing or spraying. Therefore, they switched to cartridges filled with powder. In front-line operations, these would have been much safer to handle and easier to transport.

The container was attached to the bayonet lug from below with a connecting piece when the bayonet was mounted. On both sides of the connector were two spring-loaded pushers that clamped the container in place. It could thus be easily removed and replaced. On its upper side was a metal bracket as a trigger, which was secured by a cotter pin with a ring.

After pulling the cotter pin, the shooter could operate the trigger. To do this, he gripped the rifle with his second hand at the front of the stock above the receiver, as in bayonet fighting. This allowed him to aim the weapon at the target. With the edge of his hand, he then pressed down the trigger and the fireworks went off.

Unfortunately, it is not known exactly how the system worked. It is not clear from the few surviving documents whether all six flame cartridges were activated simultaneously or somewhat delayed one after the other. The former would give a greater fire spell, the latter a longer lasting fire. According to the drawing, individual activation of each cartridge as needed does not seem to have been possible. It is also not known whether the device could be refilled on site or whether this had to be done at the factory.

The official designation was “Flaming Bayonet, Cartridge Type, Mark I”. The weight is given as 285 grams (5/8-pound). Depending on humidity and wind direction, the flame length was between 5 and 15 feet. That is about 1.5 to 4.5 meters. The few available photos of tests show the device mounted only on a rifle U.S. Model 1917. However, it could easily have been adapted to other rifles by altering the connecting piece.

Old but undated notes state that a consignment was shipped to France. However, there is no evidence of this, and no surviving specimen is known to date. Why the development finally came to nothing can probably no longer be explained.

However, the head of the overseas division of the Chemical Warfare Service, General Amos A. Fries, was an avowed opponent of incendiary weapons of all kinds. He saw them as completely useless. Even of flamethrowers, he wrote after the war that they were, “one of the greatest failures among the many promising devices tried out on a large scale in the war,” and one could simply duck under the flames. Fries relied entirely on poison gas and pushed developments in this direction.

Under a leader with this attitude, it is not surprising that the flame bayonet was not given a future. Whereby – based on the photos, the whole thing looks impressive. But would an opponent who had already survived weeks or months of barrage and all kinds of horrors really have been impressed by it?

The increasing air superiority of the Allies and their area bombing had severely damaged the German armaments industry and transport routes during the WWII. In the last months of the war, the precarious supply of weapons and ammunition therefore necessitated a great deal of improvisation.

And in these difficult times everything available was used, as, for example, unexploded incendiary bombs that had been dropped by the Allies. The Forensic Institute of the Security Police (Kriminaltechnisches Institut der Sicherheitspolizei or KTI), a department of the Reich Security Main Office (“Reichssicherheitshauptamt” or RSHA), had experimented in early 1945 with converting Allied incendiary bombs into incendiary devices for ground combat. After all, the Allies dropped more than 80 million of them on German cities – with a correspondingly large number of duds. SS-Hauptsturmführer Professor Dr. Specht, an expert in arson investigation, and SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Albert Widmann, who headed the D2 “Chemistry and Biology” department, were involved in the experiments.

The experiments were satisfactory and immediately aroused the interest of SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny. Skorzeny was generally very open to new weapons and maintained close contacts with the KTI. In February 1945, Dr. Widmann reported to the head of the Criminal Investigation Police Department (Reichskriminalpolizeiamt), SS-Oberführer Friedrich Panzinger, about the Elektrothermit incendiary devices. At the time, he said “3,000 incendiary bombs were being converted for Skorzeny, because they were much sought after by the SS-Jagdverbände. 500 of them could already be finished and shipped to Theresienstadt. With these incendiary devices, files can be destroyed in an emergency or tar-oil barrels, vehicles, buildings, or prepared fire barriers against tanks can be set on fire.”

According to Widmann, the Wehrwolf organization had also reported such a need. The conversion work was carried out by a KTI workshop.

To cover the demand, not only allied duds were collected. The declining German Luftwaffe hardly carried out any major bombing raids and large quantities of bombs therefore lay unused in German depots. As a U.S. report on captured ammunition shows, German 1 kg stick-type incendiary bombs had also been converted from larger ordnance.

From the incendiary bombs, the tail unit, the head fuse and the thermite filling were removed. The body was then filled with a pyrotechnic powder (magnesium and aluminum) and a detonator with a pull cord was installed. The detonator ignited a delay charge with about 100 seconds burning time. The filling then burned for about 3 to 4 minutes.

The Americans puzzled over the sense and purpose of the conversion. The heat development was too low to ignite fires. The original filling would have been better suited for this purpose. Therefore, a use for lighting or ground signaling seemed most likely. The report ends by stating that it was a forced measure with components that were just available, that it worked poorly, and that it was not well suited for fire or lighting purposes.

Unlike the U.S. Air Force, which thinks a hard-to-hit with skeletonized zip gun is a survival weapon, the German Luftwaffe went all-out, offering its pilots the ultimate survival weapon: a high quality, high priced, traditional German drilling-type rifle made by the illustrious J.P. Sauer and Sohn. This masterpiece of the gunmaker’s art had two 12-gauge barrels, with the right barrel designed for birdshot and the left barrel regulated for the famed German Brenneke shotgun slugs. Underneath the 12-gauge barrels was a 9.3x74R rifle barrel. This caliber is often preferred to its rival, the .375 H&H Magnum, which at the time, had seen numerous cases of poorly constructed bullets breaking up and failing to perform satisfactory on African game. The German ammunition makers made sure that ALL their bullets met standards and never failed to perform correctly. Not just most of them, like the numerous makers of .375 H&H Magnum cartridges did.

The utility of a 12-gauge shotgun on all sizes of birds and small game needs no elaboration. It has long been a favorite meat-getter around the world. The German Brenneke Torpedo Slug is not only super accurate, but it has also killed all African big game. A man armed with this drilling was able to take any game in the world while decisively dealing with any animal that attacked him. This is in sharp contrast to the U.S. Air Force survival guns which are chambered for the smallest and weakest small game cartridges and are virtually useless against many attacking big animals. It’s worth noting that after the war, I had a friend in Norway whose father was a commercial pilot flying the polar route. The airline had the same sort of drilling in the cockpit of every plane in case they went down. Being able to shoot seals and birds to feed the downed passengers and defend them against hungry polar bears was something that required this exact sort of gun. Once again, the value of human life was placed above the high cost of a top-quality weapon. They accepted the price for the ultimate subsistence and survival gun; a gun that was easy to make hits with and that they could be sure would provide sustenance and safety.

DEVELOPMENT

The survival drilling was the brainchild of Hermann Göring, the head of the Luftwaffe, Nazi-Germany’s air force. In addition to being a WWI fighter ace, Hermann had also taken over Baron Manfred von Richthofen’s command after the great ace was killed in combat. Göring was an avid hunter and quite an expert on sporting firearms. A former fighter ace himself; he wanted the absolute best for his fellow pilots in the Luftwaffe. He was keenly aware that the German drilling was the most versatile gun available, as it offered the ability to kill anything from birds to deer to elephants without changing the load in the gun. The word “drilling” comes from the German word “drei” which means “three”, hence it means a three-barreled gun.

For the contractor, he chose J.P. Sauer and Sohn, one of the finest drilling-makers of all time. They did not disappoint him. The Sauer Luftwaffe drillings were made to the highest German standards. They were lively and accurate pointing as shotguns and steady when sighting as a rifle. If you couldn’t make hits with the M30 drilling, then you couldn’t make hits with anything.

SPECIFICATIONS AND OPERATION

The finished gun delivered to the Luftwaffe was 7.5 pounds and 42 inches in overall length with a 25.6-inch barrel. It was a blitz action, having the mechanism mounted on the trigger plate. There is a forever-unresolved dispute over whether the trigger plate action was first developed by the Scottish “best quality” gunmaker John Dickson and Son of Edinburgh, or it was developed in Germany. John Dickson and Son employed a lot of German workmen making his guns at the time, and there’s no way to know if they took the design to Germany or if they brought it from Germany. John Dickson and Son also made 3-barreled shotguns in all barrel positions, as the trigger plate action allows this. Again, we don’t know whether they or the Germans were the first to make a three-barreled blitz-action gun. One thing we do know is that John Dickson and Son patented the trigger plate action.

To give you an idea of the high standards required of a three-barreled gun I knew a man who had to choose between building both a best quality double shotgun and a best quality double rifle, or one drilling (all with hand tools) as a capstone project before he could be accepted into the Belgium Gunmaker’s Guild. He chose to make the two doubles. Drillings are hard to make.

The Sauer drilling has a Greener-style crossbolt, as well as the traditional double locking lugs under the barrels. A Greener-style safety on the side is used as the normal safety position for a double barrel gun is taken up by the barrel selector on the drilling. To fire the rifle barrel underneath the two shotgun barrels, you push the selector forward which causes the V-notch 100-meter rear sight to pop up and the front trigger to engage the rifle barrel. Pulling the selector back causes the rear sight to fold down and activates the two side by side shotgun barrels. The front trigger fires the right barrel with birdshot while the rear trigger fires the left barrel with the Brenneke slug.

The barrels have side clips and there are gold-plated cocking indicators on the top of the receiver. The receiver is case hardened, and the blued barrels are made of the best Krupp steel.

There are three ordnance marks on the M30 drilling. The stock and the barrels both have the Luftwaffe Eagle, and the Luftwaffe ordnance stamp of Eagle 2 is on the front locking lug.

CASE

A gun without ammo and accessories is useless, so the M30 Luftwaffe Survival drilling came in a green-painted aluminum case. It weighed 32 pounds, fully loaded, and it was intended that the pilot would remove it from the plane after a crash landing. The case contained the drilling with the barrel and forearm separated from the action and stock in the European manner of trunk cases. It also contained a cleaning kit, sling (supremely important for an exhausted and possibly injured pilot in a survival situation), a 20-round box of 9.3x74R soft point hunting ammo, a 25-round box of 12-gauge Brenneke Torpedo slugs, and a 25-round box of 12-gauge birdshot shells. You can live off the land for quite a while with this kit.

USE

The M30 was standard issue for Messerschmidt BF109 fighter planes and Stuka dive bombers during the North African campaign where it was well appreciated by pilots flying over the Dark Continent. It also was used for trap shooting, as this training was mandatory for fighter pilots. Hermann Goring also presented some of them to Luftwaffe heroes. The Knights Order of the Iron Cross may have been a great honor for a Nazi pilot, but this was a practical gift that promised many days of peacetime pleasure. Since the drilling is a traditional German sporting gun, these could expect to see a lot of use.

CONCLUSION

Issuing such a high-quality weapon is the ultimate expression of the high value that a military places on its members. This was a situation where only the very best would do. Having been a licensed Alaskan trapper and a subsistence hunter, I consider this the ultimate subsistence hunting gun. I would love to have a drilling like this stocked to my measurements. The last thing I would want is one of the American Air Force skeletonized “survival” guns. I have never seen a real subsistence hunter using such garbage. They sought after the best gun they could get for their pilots, and the Germans got it right with the M30.

Editor’s Note: Over several decades of research on small arms for his books, as well as for SMALL ARMS REVIEW and other magazines, Robert Bruce has captured many thousands of copy photos in libraries, archives, and private collections.

Some sources have included U.S. National Archives, Springfield Armory National Historical Site, U.S. Army Center for Military History, U.S. Navy Historical Center, USMC Museum, U.S. Army Ordnance Museum (at both Aberdeen and Ft. Lee), U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum, U.S. Army Infantry Museum, Library of Congress, and more.

What follows here is the first of an occasional series, this time providing a look at some representative images from his own files as well as some that are available to anyone from America’s National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Many of us who are fascinated by the evolution of man portable weaponry aren’t content to merely examine actual examples of historic firearms, ammunition, sighting devices and such. Accordingly, we become virtual time travelers, seeking contemporary documentation as well as photos, drawings and other imagery.

While enormous amounts of authoritative documentation are readily available for casual purposes in countless numbers of books from the last many decades, copyright restrictions must be strictly honored when formally publishing photos and quoting passages. (Details at copyright.gov)

Perhaps the very best source for copyright-free “public domain” info and imagery is NARA – the National Archives and Records Administration.

Decades ago, in a quest for imagery to accompany early efforts at providing feature articles to various magazines including Machine Gun News, predecessor to Small Arms Review, this author would venture into downtown Washington, D.C., where the ornate original building housing the National Archives was located. This arduous journey presented a number of challenges, not only in fighting the District’s notoriously complicated and congested traffic, but also finding rare parking places anywhere within walking distance.

Fortunately, later forays became much easier when much of NARA’s main holdings – notably including the Still Picture Branch – were relocated in 1994 to Archives II, a sprawling, sparkling new facility in nearby College Park, Maryland. Easily accessed from the Capitol Beltway with plenty of free parking right on site, it was a vast improvement in both accessibility and efficiency for researchers.    

America’s official repository of its government, military, and diplomatic activities since 1934, the collection has grown to include more than 30 billion items. Of greatest interest to those of us who research and write about military small arms is a wealth of information to be found among 44 million still pictures, astonishing numbers of motion pictures, 5 billion paper records, and much more.

Although a daunting task that will never be completed, work is ongoing to digitally scan these and post on the internet for anyone to freely access, view, download, and even publish.

The search for any and all begins at www.archives.gov where researchers are prompted to select specific areas of interest in “record groups including paper documents, microfilm, still pictures, motion pictures, and electronic media.” 

Since the focus of this featurette is on still photos, click “Research Our Records” and scroll down to bottom left to “Online Research by Format” for “Photographs and Graphic Works.” Choose “Still Picture Branch” in College Park, Maryland, review the introductory info and get off and running.  

COPYING PHOTOS ON OLD-FASHIONED FILM

These first several photos that follow are representative of a thousand or more copies the author had to make on 35mm black & white negative film and sometimes on color slides. Not only were there no digital scanners available in the cramped and poorly laid out downtown D.C. research room, but we also had to bring our own copy stands, lights, and even extension cords.

Noting the date and location in the last days of Hitler’s dying Third Reich, U.S. Ordnance and Military Intelligence units were encountering previously unknown weaponry. It’s understandable that Walther’s 1941 prototype Maschinenkarbiner MKb 42 (W) was a new discovery since only about 200 had been made for a competition that was lost to the Haenel entry. Haenel’s production model was fielded in vast numbers and best known today as the iconic Sturmgewehr (“storm rifle”).  

This is the first production model of the remarkable Fallschirmjager Gewehr (paratrooper rifle), initially fielded for Germany’s airborne infantry early in 1943. The 9.3-pound, selective fire machine rifle fired full powered 7.92 Mauser cartridges from a side mounted 20-round box magazine. Along with the improved Type 2, only about 7000 of these impressive but expensive weapons were made, soon overshadowed by the cheaply made and much more controllable Sturmgewehr assault rifle, firing 7.92 x 33 mm Kurz (short) cartridges.

This is the 90-degree Krummerlauf (curved barrel) device, clamped to the barrel of a Sturmgewehr. Originally intended to be mounted through the top of a tank turret and fired from inside to sweep away enemy infantry, it also came in a more practical and controllable 30-degree version with prism sight for hand-held use, literally “around the corner.” With his 1938 masterwork The Rifle in America, Philip Sharpe was already internationally famous as an authoritative writer on guns and ammunition, a distinction that continued to grow after the war. 

After Germany’s surrender, untold numbers of all types of small arms had to be secured and inventoried. In the foreground are dozens of Pistole 08 “Lugers,” a war souvenir highly coveted by American GIs.

At the end of the war, Europe was awash in explosives as used by all of the combatants, presenting Allied forces with the dangerous and daunting task of identifying and clearing munitions from not only minefields and battlegrounds, but also scattered around in innumerable cities, towns and villages.

SOME FROM THE ‘PICTURE PALACE’ AT COLLEGE PARK

Things got a lot easier for the staff archivists, as well as for those of us doing photo hunting, when the palatial College Park facility opened. Meticulously cataloged photos were now carefully arranged and stored nearby in seemingly endless rows of racks, readily accessible for the staffers to find and deliver carts of requested items. There, in a spacious, clean and well-lit setting, we found both professional grade photocopy stands with attached soft lights, along with a kiosk for scanning and digitizing. These next couple of examples are from both digital copy cameras and scanners.

Clever fellows of the British Army’s secretive SOE (Special Operations Executive) had packed these diabolically useful tools for parachute delivery in long, cylindrical CLE drop canisters containing stackable H Cell cans. Nighttime airdrops in secluded countryside locations were recovered by the Maquisards (guerrilla fighters) and Allied Jedburgh teams who would put the guns and explosives to deadly use against the hated German occupiers.  

Subsequent research shows this fellow to be a Hungarian soldier armed with what is most likely a Solothurn Golyózóró 31.M. Originally built by Solothurn of Switzerland as the MG 30, some 3000 were bought by Hungary, specially chambered for their 8x56mmR M30 cartridge. Fed by a side-mounted 25-round detachable box magazine, this efficiently handy light machine gun previewed some of the characteristics later utilized in the excellent German MG34, notably including a quick change, air cooled barrel.

SEARCH AND RETRIEVE IMAGES RIGHT FROM YOUR OWN COMPUTER

As described in the introduction, we armchair photo enthusiasts of today need only crank up our computers, access the internet and begin trolling America’s National Archives. We conclude here with a modest handful of examples, spanning various conflicts from the “War to End All Wars” to “Enduring Freedom.” All are available to download with the click of a mouse. Happy hunting!

With information not apparently known to Central News Service, the supplier of this image in September 1918 near the end of WWI, we know that the “NEW GERMAN GUN” is actually a 37mm Maxim-Nordenfeldt Quick Firing Gun. It was first fielded around 1890 and universally called the “Pom Pom” due to its distinctive sound when firing at 300 rounds per minute. Additional photo research tracks the original image to files in Germany’s Bundesarchiv where its modern caption for this enormous anti-aircraft gun reads (in translation): German soldiers with gas masks and M1916 steel helmets with 3.7 cm-Maschinen-Flak M 14.  

Scanned in high resolution right from its mounting card, this real battlefield photo shows these undaunted Marines with a Taisho 14 Type 3 heavy, air-cooled machine gun, originally a French Hotchkiss design modified by Kijiro Nambu. Note the prominent radiator style cooling fins and 30 rounds of 6.5 x 50mm Arisaka rifle cartridges on the feed strip.

Searching with the key words “machine gun,” we stumbled on this amusing photo of the “King of Rock ‘n Roll,” drafted into the U.S. Army, serving from 1958 to 1960 during what was known as the “Cold War.” Elvis insisted on being assigned to a regular combat unit and he proved to be a fine soldier, well-liked by his superiors and his fellow GIs. Looks like in the photo he’s probably adjusting the headspace for a blank-adapted Browning .30 cal. M1919A6 (heavy barrel) machine gun. Also note the back half of a 3.5 in. rocket launcher “Bazooka” tied to the pedestal mount. 

Although seemingly relaxing in the PBR’s forward gun tub, this young, flak-jacketed Sailor is no doubt ready to “light up” enemy attackers with devastating .50 caliber rounds pumped out at nine-per-second from his “Ma Deuce.” The formidable, combat classic Browning Machine Gun, Cal. .50, M2 Heavy Barrel, Flexible, has its origins at the end of WWI and is still serving with distinction to this very day with all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces and many Allied nations. 

ENDURING FREEDON is the American Military’s official name for two decades of conflict for operations in Afghanistan against the Islamofascist Taliban from 2001 until the Biden administration’s withdrawal in 2021. Will the National Archives eventually catalog photos of the mountains of American military weapons, munitions, vehicles, aircraft, and other materiel abandoned to the enemy?

War usually means wounding and death of many people. How wonderful it would be if battles could be fought without much bloodshed.

Again and again, scientists conducted research on non-lethal weapons and warfare agents, but none of them could be accepted for use under war conditions. What might have seemed useful in the hands of the police in the fight against individual perpetrators was hardly usable in the fighting at the front. However, the idea of not having to kill the enemy at once is still alive and well and stimulates research and the military to conduct new experiments.

This was the case in 1994, when scientists at Wright Laboratory presented various concepts for non-lethal chemical weapons at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. Wright Laboratory was founded in 1990 as the research and development department of the U.S. Air Force Materiel Command. It was reorganized in 1997 and became part of the existing U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. By the way, the base is named after the Wright brothers, who had made many of their flight attempts in this area.

In the report “Harassing, Annoying and ‘Bad Guy’ Identifying Chemicals” there are many curious ideas among the suggestions of the laboratory. You might think they were a joke, but it was indeed (non-)deadly serious at the time. So was the “Gay Bomb”, a bomb that was supposed to make the enemy so lustful that they would become homosexual. Even if only for a short time. The scientists relied on the artificial production of body-own substances, which were to be spread by means of airdrops or spray planes and absorbed through the respiratory tract or the skin. The report says: “One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior.” The enemy soldiers would thereby be brought into sexual ecstasy with great lust and be incited to sexual acts with each other. The soldiers, who were thus no longer able to fight, would then be easily overpowered without having to kill them. The laboratory had applied for a budget of 7.5 million U.S. dollars for the complete development.

But the hoped-for money blessing did not come to anything. At first the concept did not arouse much enthusiasm and was not pursued further. In 1997, the United States ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits the development, production, possession, transfer, and use of chemical weapons. Thus ended the short history of the Gay Bomb. Today, the documents are no longer classified as secret. After they became known, they certainly caused amusement and in 2007 the concept even received the Ig Nobel Prize, a satirical award to honor scientific achievements that “first make people laugh, then make them think”.

The documents also contain other very special ideas. For example, certain groups of people should be marked with chemicals by spreading them out on marching routes and letting the enemy walk over them unnoticed or by spraying an enemy camp from the air. People marked in this way could then be easily identified during checks. Other chemicals should serve as an attractant for insects. Ideally, naturally stinging and biting flies and beetles, rodents, and even larger animals should be made aggressive and drawn to the enemy positions. The “Halitosis Bomb” was intended to make the bad breath of soldiers unbearable. Or the body odor by the “Heavy Sweating Bomb”. The “Flatulence Bomb” on the other hand was supposed to cause severe discomfort by stench in the air. In one of the released documents there is a rather interesting counter argument. The chemical weapons would certainly not work everywhere, since, ”people in many areas of the world do not find faecal odour offensive since they smell it on a regular basis.”