How they used to use a .50 cal sniper rifle in the good old days (WWI)
- Thread starter mkrnel
- Start date
1918 Mauser TuF rifle - Tank und Flieger. It was the first purpose-built anti-Tank weapon, used a 13.2mm (.52") semi-rimmed cartridge very similar to the later .50 BMG. Matter of fact, the Americans could not get the performance they wanted with the powders available, so they copied the German powder.
There was also a TuF machine-gun which the Germans kept in production, part by part, until about 1921. It was a more-or-less standard Maxim-system gun, weighed about the same as Ma Deuce. Only a single specimen exists, though. Idea was to up-gun existing fighter planes, use them as airborne tankbusters: Warthog 1919. War ended before they could be put into action. I REALLY want one!
There was also a TuF machine-gun which the Germans kept in production, part by part, until about 1921. It was a more-or-less standard Maxim-system gun, weighed about the same as Ma Deuce. Only a single specimen exists, though. Idea was to up-gun existing fighter planes, use them as airborne tankbusters: Warthog 1919. War ended before they could be put into action. I REALLY want one!
Last month I got to look at one of these bad boys on display at the excellent National Arms Museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This place is not to be missed for anyone visiting Buenos Aires. Many moons ago the RCEME Museum in Kingston/Barriefield had one of these on display. I wonder what ever became of it and the RCEME Museum after the RCEME School was moved to Borden.
Most South American nations equipped themselves with German weaponry which were pretty much the world standard in the late 1800s/early 1900s, the best illustration of which are the various models of Mauser rifles which were universally adopted. The Argentine National Arms Museum holds an extensive collection of various South American Mauser rifles as well as a wide variety of other weapons incl MGs and light artillery. I was also fascinated to see prototype copies of the M1941 Johnson, M1 Garand and STG44 which the Argentinians had reverse engineered in the early 1950s with a view to possible domestic production. Both the Johnson and the Garand are chambered in 7.65 Arg. The Argentinian naval honor guard still stands vigil at the nearby Malvinas War memorial with M1891 Argentine Mausers (what else).
For those interested in Nazi era artifacts you can see an anchor and the rangefinder from the German battleship Adm Graff Spee on display in the port of Montevideo, Uruguay just a few miles from where the ship was scuttled in the Rio del Plata in 1939.
