In 1815 the Napoleonic era ended after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Although a new political stage was opening, the same could not be said militarily. In the first half of the 19th century and from the middle of the 18th century, the infantry’s weapon of choice was the musket. This weapon had evolved since the 16th century, being in 1800 a long and less heavy weapon, which no longer needed a fork as before. In addition to the physical improvement, its construction and firing mechanism had also been improved, which was now “flint”. Starting in the 1820s, a new progressive evolution began, which although at first it would be slow, later, during the 20th century, it would reach breakneck speed.
From smooth to rifled bore
The bore is the interior of firearms and can be smooth or ribbed (the latter in various ways). Smooth-bore guns were predominant after the Napoleonic era, but in the 1850s this began to change radically. Rifled or rifled-bore rifles had been around for a long time, but were very rare. In a smoothbore gun, the projectile bounces around inside and is propelled imprecisely, losing its effectiveness at about 150 meters. On the other hand, a projectile that was fired from a rifled barrel was propelled with a centrifugal spin that allowed good accuracy at much greater distances. In the 1850s and thanks to the broaching machine, the inside of the barrel could be scored. When this technique began to improve and generalize, the armies gained effectiveness and scope.
From the flint system to the percussion system
The spark or flint system (visible in the first photograph) had been imposed during the 18th century. In the middle of the 19th century, a new method was introduced to cause the musket to fire, the percussion method. This new method had many advantages over the previous one, the first advantage being that it was a much more reliable system, because the powder was ignited inside the barrel and not with the help of a bowl as was the case with the spark. Being an internal combustion, the projectile came out with more speed and therefore more range. The spark was made thanks to the hammering of the striker against a piston or primer. This type of rifles together with the rifling became widespread between the 1850-1860 decade.
From spherical ammunition to Minié ammunition
Since the appearance of firearms, the projectiles were spherical, in 1848 some French generals created the Minié bullet, conical in shape. This new projectile was more deadly than its predecessor, since when it penetrated the meat its trajectory was not deflected by the bones, it normally went through them and split them. The first time this type of ammunition was used was in the Crimean War (1853-56) where Russian soldiers verified its effectiveness in their bodies. The wounds caused by the Minié bullet were difficult to treat at the time, so the affected limb almost always ended up being amputated. During the American Civil War (1861-65), its use was already widespread.
A complement to this new ammunition (although they already existed before) will be the paper cartridges that are manufactured now. These cartridges allow a faster reloading of the weapon, we must not forget that with this type of weapon the rate of fire was 3-4 per minute, if the soldier was well instructed.
From muzzle-loading muskets to breech-loading rifles
Like spherical ammunition, since the appearance of firearms, these have been reloaded by muzzleloading, that is, they were reloaded by introducing the projectile through the mouth of the barrel. In the mid to late 19th century different models and breech-loading systems began to appear. There are mainly two breech-loading systems, lever and bolt. These two systems allowed a high rate of fire that left muzzle-loading rifles clearly inferior. With a muzzle-loading rifle the soldier had to stand to reload, with a breech-loading rifle the soldier could reload while lying on the ground.
In the lever system we are going to have the famous Winchesters that conquered the American West. In the bolt-action models we are going to have the Prussian Dreyse rifle that, although it did not have a magazine for anything other than a cartridge, was easy to manufacture and had a simple mechanism. Undoubtedly, the appearance of these new models opened a new stage in military history.
The arrival of the 20th century was the arrival of full industrialization, which was not hesitated to apply to military techniques. Mass production and mechanization were essential for the war effort in this new century that was beginning. Since 1871, after the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), breech-loading weapons had finally established themselves as the main equipment of the infantryman. From this date until the year 1900, new models of rifles and ammunition had been created.
metal ammunition
At the end of the 19th century, metallic ammunition became widespread. That paper cartridge evolved into a metal-jacketed cartridge. The lead bullets also began to be coated with some type of alloy so that it would not deform with the muzzle velocity. The metallic ammunition allowed a great effectiveness and also did not leave large remains in the barrel of the weapon. A parallel evolution to this was the improvement of gunpowder, culminating in the appearance of smokeless gunpowder. Undoubtedly the characteristic cartridge of this final stage of the 19th century was the Lebel cartridge designed in 1886.
New models of bolt action rifles
Between 1886 and 1900 the rifles that would become famous for participating in the two world wars appeared. These bolt-action rifles are characterized by using metal ammunition and having internal magazines (vertical or tubular) that allow 5 to 10 cartridges to be fired until they have to be reloaded. The main models are the French Lebel M1886, the British Lee-Enfield, the German Mauser M1888 and M1898, the Russian Mosin-Nagant M1891 or the Italian Carcano M1891. I will make special emphasis on the British Lee-Enfield model that will have many variants throughout its history and that undoubtedly stands out for the speed with which the shots are fired. During World War 1, at the Battle of Mons (1914), the British mowed down wave after wave of Germans with accurate fire from this rifle.
Although the infantryman’s weapon had evolved very rapidly in the last fifty years, the tactics had not changed, which will produce real massacres at the beginning of the Great War, although that is another story.
From the bolt system to semi-automatic operation
Although the gas system that made it possible to create a semi-automatic rifle had already been invented in various ways at the beginning of the 20th century, it was not until the 2nd World War (1939-1945) when this type of weapon became widespread. Semi-automatic rifles work primarily by reusing gas from the shot. Undoubtedly, the rifle that characterizes this method is the North American M1 Garand, widely used by US troops during the last world war and in the immediate postwar period. After 1945, many armies around the world adopted this type of weapon as an intermediate step towards the assault rifles that also appeared in the mid-1940s.
This type of rifle allowed faster reloading, since they normally used external magazines of 8 or 10 shots, if not more. In spite of everything, this system never replaced the bolt system as both systems coexisted for a long time.
The appearance of assault rifles
During the 2nd World War, the concept of the assault rifle finally took off with new air. This idea had already appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, when an automatic rifle was mixed with intermediate ammunition between pistol and rifle, but it was not very successful. Germans with more advanced technology already in the 1940s produced several assault rifles called MP43, MP44 and Sgt-44 (all three models are very similar). The assault rifle allowed the soldier to fight at an intermediate distance of 400-500 meters and had precise and automatic fire. Without a doubt, this type of weapon was very complete and it is not surprising that after the war all the countries began their own tests to produce a national model. We cannot fail to mention the famous Russian Ak-47, the most produced weapon in history.
The Vietnam War (1959-1975) was the beginning of the era of the assault rifle. In that conflict the famous American M-16 appeared, which with its 5.56mm caliber was a magnificent weapon, although it is true that in the jungle areas it caused many problems due to jams. Also during the 1960s in Spain another very famous assault rifle appeared, the CETME, which produced numerous versions until the year 2000 when it was replaced by German models. Undoubtedly, the appearance of this type of weapon, like the bolt-action rifle at the end of the 19th century, was a change in military history.