6.5mm Military Rounds

[The_Champ]

Here is a Milsurp question I've been pondering for the last little while.

When smokeless powder and a slew of new rifles designs took hold with the worlds various militaries in the late 1800s, it seems as though all of the major powers settled on .30 cal and 8mm rounds. Russia, Germany, France, Great Britain, The USA(admittedly not then a major military power), Austro-Hungry, etc.

However, a great number of smaller nations chose 6.5mm rifles. Sweden, Norway, Holland, Romania, Greece, Portugal, Japan, Italy(did I miss any?).

Does anyone have a theory as to why none of the major powers went for a 6.5mm? Is this all just coincidental?

 

[Eaglelord17]

IMHO Italy I would consider to be a major power at that point.

That being said I would argue the main reason you see more smaller nations using 6.5mm rifles would be more to do with timing.

France adopted the Lebel in 8mm in 1886. UK adopted .303 in roughly 1888, Germany 8mm in 1888, Austria-Hungary 8mm in 1888, USA .30 in 1892, Russia 7.62mm in 1891, Switzerland 7.5mm in 1889, etc.

For the 6.5s they were adopted in general later than the larger diameter bullets. Sweden and Norway in 1894, Holland in 1895, Romania in 1893, Greece in 1903, Portugal in 1904 and 1896, Japan in 1899. The big exemption to adoption time for a 6.5mm bullet was Italy who adopted it in 1891 and started the trend for nations to adopt 6.5mm bullets.

Basically the smaller nations were in general not as quick to go and arm themselves with the latest and greatest equipment (specifically because they were not really doing the developing of the rounds). Because of this they were able to learn lessons from the larger nations who spent significant amounts of money to try and stay ahead in the arms race of the period. The advantage was they could pick the best ideas and were not burdened by having already adopted a quickly inferior firearm/cartridge (such as France with 8mm Lebel and the 1886 rifle, or Austria-Hungary who was forced to limit the strength of 8x50r later on due to the weak 1888 action).

Many of those larger nations had to either heavily modify there service rifles to make it suitable within a couple years, or adopt completely new firearms as the stop gap didn't perform as expected. The UK was constantly trying to update the Lee Enfield system (no charger loading until 1903!), the Germans had two rifles in 10 years (1888 and 1898), Austrian-Hungarians had two rifles in 7 years (M1888 and M95), etc.

 

[donor]

I think 6.5 caliber rifles would have stayed around a lot longer if it wasn't for mass adoption of a machine gun after Boer War.

That and a Great War little later changed a lot in infantry tactics.As Italians found out mass firepower just can't be provided with a machine gun in 6.5 mm bore.Individual rifleman can be happy with it but then there is a supply issue.

Japanese realized that in Russia/China/Manchuria as well when faced with larger calibers.Finns also didn't have much use for Swedish supplied Mausers for exactly the same reasons.

Edit:even today Western armies use M249 SAW MG and had to adopt FN MAG for much of the same reasons.