Category Archives: weapons

The Saga of Russian Broomhandles

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Just $25 fully outfitted! Deal!

Designed by the Feederle brothers in conjunction with Paul Mauser, over a million DWM Construktion 96 autoloading pistols– in addition to their M712 Schnellfeuer machine pistol brothers as well as unlicenced Spanish Astra/Royal/Azul and Chinese boxcannon clones– were crafted between 1896 and 1945. While never fully adopted by their home country, “Broomhandle” Mausers circled the world and have been seen in nearly every conflict large and small since the days of the Boer War (where a young Winston Churchill carried his London-bought “ripper” of a pistol during his work as a correspondent) and the Boxer rebellion.

Available on the commercial market in Imperial Russia for almost 20 years before the Great War ended importation, the C96 was a favorite for Russian officers, who had to buy their own sidearms and sword.

During the Russian Civil War, this love grew rabid as high-ranking Bolsheviks loved the big, flashy German-made automatic.

Red Guards of the Vulkan factory in Petrograd dressed in their Sunday best. Note the officer in the second row with his C96

Soviet commissars with C96 Mausers

Hell, they were even present (along with Browning FN 1900s, Nagant revolvers, and M1911 pistols) at the Romanov extermination. 

One favored user of the C96 was a four-time knight of St. George, former Imperial Dragoons Sgt. Maj. Semyon Budyonny, the impressively bewhiskered Red commander of the Konarmiya, the Bolshevik’s feared 1st Cavalry Army during the Russian Civil War and Russo-Polish War.

This guy

Reds of “Budyonny’s Cavalry Army” (Konarmia) the key Bolshevik fire brigade of the Russo-Polish War. Note the mix of French Adrian helmets, Cossack shapskas, and Trotsky Budenovka caps for headgear. Also, note the Cossack at the left is wearing the 1909 pattern officer’s web gear to include a trench whistle near his left armpit. As pre-Civil War Cossack officers in the Konarmia were rare, this officer has likely had an interesting tale– though notably, he has ditched his shoulder boards.

“Proletarians, to Horse Russian!” Soviet Republic. c. 1919 recruiting poster for Budyonnys Red Cavalry Konarmia

Budyonny was presented an engraved C96 in honor of his wartime service in 1921, and it is maintained in the Russian Army Museum, where it was placed after his death in 1973.

Nonetheless, the gun remained popular with Soviet officers into WWII, showing up occasionally with those who undoubtedly remembered the status symbol of 1918-20.

Russian Soviet Cossacks watering their horses in the Elbe river 1945. Note the distinctive Mauser C96 Broomhandle pistol holster on the Cossack colonel’s belt, which has been bedazzled. As he looks to be in his 50s, it is possible he dated to the old Konarmia days, or at least inherited it from someone who did. 

In addition, Spetnaz was schooled in the use of the vintage C96 during the Cold War, as the Broomhandle was expected to be encountered on the ground locally in the course of their operations in Asia and Africa on hearts and minds missions to support those in international brotherhood. 

Soviet Spetsnaz Special Operations in training 1980s C96 Mauser Broomhandle

Slow That Fury Down

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A U.S. Navy Douglas AD-6 Skyraider (BuNo 134538) from Attack Squadron VA-105 “Mad Dogs” refueling a North American FJ-3M Fury (BuNo 139232) of Fighter Squadron VF-62 “Boomerangs,” overwater, circa 1958.

U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.253.7228.002

Note the early AIM-9B Sidewinder missile on the Fury– essentially a navalized F-86 Sabre with folding wings, a J65 engine, and 20mm cannons– and the extended landing gear, to be able to fly as slow as the Spad. While capable of high subsonic level flight, the Fury/Sabre had a low stall speed for a jet, down to the 120-knot range, which was well inside the AD-6’s envelope. The propeller of the refueling pack is also clearly visible.

Both the Mad Dogs and the Boomerangs were assigned to the short-lived Air Task Group 201 (ATG-201) for a nine-month Med to West Pac deployment aboard the converted WWII flattop USS Essex (CVA-9) from 2 February to 17 November 1958. The cruise ran so long due to the Lebanon Crisis which saw 1,700 Marines supported by not only Essex but also her sistership USS Wasp (CVA-18) and the new Forrestal-class supercarrier USS Saratoga (CVA-60).

Grrr, What’s the Deal with Import Marks on Guns?

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One phrase that pops up in conversations on collectible firearms of all stripes is that of “import marks,” or the lack thereof. Not strictly needed until 1968, they have evolved over the years from being somewhat subtle to loud and proud.

To clear the air on that, I wrote a piece on the subject over in my column at Guns.com.

Visiting with Boothroyd

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As I’ve covered in the past, Sean Connery’s on-screen main piece while holding down the Bond gig across seven installments was a Walther PP/PPK.

One of the most famous of these was the “origin gun” used in 1962’s Dr. No, where M, assisted by Major Boothroyd (in a nod by Fleming to a real British firearms guru), pulls Bond’s pipsqueak Beretta 418 in .25AC (“nice and light, for a lad’s handbag”) for the much more powerful .32ACP Walther (insert modern ballistic snobs having a heart attack right about here).

Of course, the movie kinda screwed it up and used a Beretta M1934 in 9mm Corto and a Walther in .380ACP to recreate the scene from the novel, but still…

Said pistola, SN19174A as confirmed by Bapty prop house– who provided weaponry for every Bond film from Dr. No through To Die Another Day— is up for auction at Julien’s next month.

The bid is already up to $37K.

Brastil M1911

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In 1932, Colt ordered a small batch of modified M1911 pistols from Doehler Die Casting Co. of Toledo, Ohio– the largest producer of die-cast metal in the world. The thing about Doehler is that they were known at the time for a high tensile strength corrosion resistant bronze alloy called “Brastil.”

From the American Society for Metals’ “Woldman’s Engineering Alloys,” circa 1936.

As such, the experimental guns used standard M1911 internals, wooden grip panels, and a receiver and slide made of die-cast Brastil rather than forged steel.

They certainly were distinctive, almost fit for Christopher Lee.

In the end, only two Brastil M1911s were made and this one, SN#2, has been in the collection of the Springfield Armory since 16 August 1932.

Battleship No. 39: Grab the Cutlasses!

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From the 1924 overhaul plans of the Pennsylvania-class dreadnought USS Arizona (BB-39), listing her battery. Besides the traditional battlewagon muscle such as 14″/45, 5″/51, and 3″/50 guns, keep scrolling down passed the two submerged torpedo tubes, two 1-pounder boat guns, and quartet of four-pounder saluting guns, and you see her impressive small arms locker for fielding a light battalion-sized landing force of bluejackets armed with 350 M1903 Springfields, 100 GI .45s, an unspecified number of Krag 1898s (which may have been line throwers), two .30-cal machine guns, and a 3-inch field piece.

Oh yeah, and 10 cutlasses– arms that remained an ordnance allowance item until 1949.

For reference: Atlantic Fleet sailors in formation at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, landing force drill, circa 1909, complete with packs and rifles.

Collection of CQM John Harold. Catalog #: NH 101534

Sig’s TANGO6 Optic Picks up an Army Three-peat

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Sig Sauer’s variable powered 1-6×24 TANGO6T is a first focal plane ruggedized riflescope with a flat dark earth anodized aircraft-grade aluminum main tube, with a magnification that allows either relatively close-quarter shots or use against more distant targets. The optic is already in use with the Army on the Squad Designated Marksman Rifle (SDMR) and with SOCOM as the Squad-Variable Powered Scope, or S-VPS.

It has now been picked by the Army as the new Direct View Optic (DVO) for use on the M4A1 Carbine.

More in my column at Guns.com.

What’s Better Than a .50 cal? How About Four!?

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I’ve always been a fan of the M45 Maxson Quad-50, dubbed the “Meat Chopper” by those who saw it in action.

My buddy Ben Philippi recently posted a great video of one doing its dance in high-res/slo-mo.

What more can you ask for?

Own a Flying Nightmare

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A U.S. Marine Corps Vought F4U-5N Corsair night fighter of Marine night fighter squadron VMF(N)-513 Flying Nightmares on the flight line at Wonsan, Korea, on 2 November 1950.

A slugger, the gull-winged F4U-5 was the first post-WWII Corsair to enter production, filled with lessons learned from combat use in that conflict. Some 538 were produced of which 315 converted to the -5NL configuration with a wing-mounted radar for nighttime operations and other tweaks including winterizing– both of which would come in very handy in Korea.

Speaking of which, Bu.124541, as detailed by Warbirds News, spent more than 200 hours with the Flying Nightmares in Korea before she was charged off and transferred to the Argentine Navy in 1958 for operations from the Colossus-class carrier ARA Independencia (ex-HMS/HMCS Warrior).

The Argies kept her on the books until 1966, then she spent a period in storage before weathering life as a gate guard at the Museo del la Aviacion Naval in Buenos Aries before she was purchased by a French group of aviation enthusiasts in the 1990s.

Extensively restored, today she carries her historic VMF 513 livery, sans the radar dome which was deleted in the late 1960s.

F4U-5NL Bu.124541 via Platinum Fighters

F4U-5NL Bu.124541 via Platinum Fighters

Best yet, this flyable Corsair is airworthy and for sale at Platinum Fighters, just don’t ask how much.

Soldier of the Grand Army of the Republic

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Unidentified Civil War veteran from Grand Army of the Republic Post# 386 in uniform with a musket in front of flags, weapons, and equipment.

Note the extensive militaria assembled. The old Vet was likely rushed to pose with the belt, as it is upside down. Liljenquist Family collection. Library of Congress. hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.49787

I am not sure which Post# 386 the above bluecoat belonged to, as there were at least two of them, one each in Naperville, Illinois and Conway Springs/Sylvia, Kansas, which were in existence from the 1880s into as late as the 1930s in the case of the Illinois post.

Be sure to reach out to your veterans this week. 

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