Tag Archives: tirailleurs

Nord Poilus

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Some 110 years ago this week, 22 November 1915. French lines “Somewhere on the Western Front.”

Official caption: “Three men in the cold, in a front-line trench, wearing hats and scarves. One of them, sitting on the firing bench, is handling grenades. While they seem like North African riflemen (Tirailleurs nord africain), they are actually just standard Poliu infantry equipped with mountain caps and hats.”

Note their Lebel rifles and long spike bayonets, as well as the man holding the early F1 (Fusante No. 1) cast-iron fragmentation grenade. Réf. : SPA 1 S 21 Emmanuel Mas/ECPAD/Défense

Stay warm out there, guys.

You do know the Model 1851 Feldstutzer, yes?

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From the Hungarian site Kapszli comes a great piece on the Swiss Army’s innovative Model 1851 Federal Rifle, otherwise known as the Feldstutzer or Eidigenössischer Stutzer.

Via Cap & Ball (Kapszli)

“The Model 1851 rifle at the time of the acceptance was truly the best military rifle of its age. First of all, it fired a much smaller diameter and lighter bullet than any other military rifle. While the French military rifle fired a 17 mm bullet, the American and British a 14.7 mm bullet, the Swiss rifle fired a 10.4 mm bullet weighing only 16.5-17 g. The bullet was pushed from the bore with a relatively high 60-grain charge of fine grade black powder resulting in a 440 m/s muzzle velocity and a flat trajectory.

The flat trajectory was a key feature in Switzerland the soldier had to master shooting downhill and uphill. The Swiss army consisted of free people for many centuries. These civilians were more important to the state than to let them be killed in melee combat so sniping the enemy from a safe distance was always an important element of the Swiss tactics since the introduction of firearms. It is also a reason why the shooting sports have been always so popular in this beautiful little country.”

Much more here