There are few firearms more quintessentially British than the Webley revolver and a Lee-Enfield rifle. Today, we’re going to take a look at the Webley MkIV, adopted by the British Army right at the very end of the 19th Century. Entering service in October 1899 [Read More…]
Prelude to a war, an opportunity for inventory: In the last days of 1895, a contingent of mounted Rhodesian Police headed into the South African Republic (ZAR), also known as the Transvaal. Their goal: to initiate an uprising of “Uitlanders”-foreign [Read More…]
Looking like the bizarre lovechild of a bolt-action rifle, a boat oar, and those weird prop rifles from the original Planet of the Apes movie, the Thorneycroft Carbine is one of the unsung “firsts” of the 20th Century. Specifically, this British [Read More…]
The .303 Lee Metford bolt action rifle filled the needs of the British Empire between the Martini-Henry of Zulu lore, and the SMLE that would fill the hands of Tommy infantrymen for the next half century. The rifle wasn’t in service very long, but it did serve in [Read More…]
The paradigm was established by the 1870s: Future infantry combat would focus on a combination of entrenchment, and long-range concentrated fire from well-drilled units to defeat the enemy beyond his own effective range. The arms race for a smaller-caliber, [Read More…]
It’s not commonly remembered in today’s world of .22 caliber infantry rifles that once upon a time .30″ was “small caliber”, and with that came all of the doubts an questions about wounding and killing power of such small bullets. [Read More…]
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