In the first half of the 20th century, no British politician had as much influence as Winston Churchill. Churchill, who came from an aristocratic family, was born to do politics, he was elected to parliament at the age of 26, entered the cabinet at the age of 31, served as minister of the navy on the eve of World War I, and advocated naval competition with Germany to promote the development of new weapons such as aircraft and tanks; during World War II, he was appointed as wartime prime minister, leading Britain to fight against Germany and Italy, promoting the establishment of anti-fascist alliances, and becoming one of the three giants that led the victory of the war and built the post-war world; after World War II, he opened the prelude to the Cold War era with a "Iron Curtain" speech. To this day, Churchill is still considered by the British people to be one of the greatest Britons in history.
Winston Churchill was speaking, he was eloquent and had many famous speeches in his career.
■ Sipping a cigar to make a victory gesture was Churchill's signature action.
Many people have the impression that Churchill was obese and poopy, either smoking a cigar and making his signature V-shaped victory gestures, or making generous statements in the parliamentary pulpit. However, Churchill was also a handsome little fresh meat and a gun enthusiast. He was keen on shooting since childhood, was interested in gun collection, and accumulated a wealth of gun knowledge in his youth, so much so that after joining the army, he was selected by the British military intelligence department to go to Cuba to collect gun information from the local Spanish army. During World War II, Churchill, who was the prime minister, inspected the troops and often test-fired them himself with great interest when he came into contact with new firearms, leaving many photos. Churchill loved guns not only because of his hobby, but more importantly, he once went to the battlefield as a young officer, experienced short battles, and knew the importance of good firearms for soldiers.
■ Churchill test-fired the American-made Thomson submachine gun during a visit to the U.S. troops in Britain.
■ Churchill was test firing a Stern submachine gun, and the Prime Minister had always thought about gun addiction whenever he had the chance.
In the Victorian era, many children of the British aristocracy would choose to enter politics and join the military career planning, and Churchill was like this. His family itself had a long military tradition, and was a descendant of the Duke of Malborough, the famous Commander of England in the 18th century, so Churchill, after graduating from Harrow College, took the entrance examination for the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst three times in a row, and finally became an officer cadet, ranking 20th out of 130 cadets upon graduation in December 1894, and later became an army lieutenant in the 4th Queen's Hussar Regiment of the British Army. In October 1895, Churchill took a vacation to Cuba, where he witnessed the engagement of Spanish troops with the Cuban rebels, while assisting the British in gathering intelligence. In addition, Churchill, who was good at writing, was also hired as a military reporter to write war reports for newspapers, a role that accompanied him for many years. In 1896, Churchill was transferred to India with his troops.
John Churchill, the first Duke of Malboro (left), was a famous British commander in the 18th century, and under his influence Churchill also chose to join the army, becoming a cavalry officer in 1895 (right).
After serving in the cavalry unit, Churchill received a .455-caliber (11.6 mm) Webbley revolver as a carry-on gun. The Weberley revolver is a gun model developed by the British company Weberley & Scott in the 1880s and was listed as a standard equipment by the British military in 1887. The Weberley revolver adopts a mid-fold design, its barrel and body are articulated, when the barrel is folded downwards, the empty shell in the nest is automatically withdrawn, thus omitting the push lever, which can be completed at once with 6 rounds of ammunition, which is very convenient, using a double-action design in firing mode, initially firing 11.6×19 mm black powder pistol cartridges, and later developing the same specifications of smokeless powder gun cartridges. The Webbley revolver as a late type revolver as a whole is more mature, decent design, decent performance, in the two world wars are the standard pistol of the British Army, in service until 1963, the output of up to 625,000 pieces.
■ 455 Webbley revolver, full gun length 286 mm, gun weight 1.1 kg, nest capacity 6 rounds.
British soldiers trained with a Weberley revolver during World War I.
During his service in India, Churchill had an accident while playing polo, injured his arm, and because of the limited medical level and unsatisfactory recovery, he was unable to wield a saber normally on horseback, so Churchill decided to buy a pistol with a longer range and more fierce fire as a self-defense weapon. On July 25, 1898, Churchill, who had returned to England on a holiday, walked into a gun shop in London and was attracted by a strangely shaped pistol on the shelf while browsing the goods, which was the German Mauser C96 pistol. At the end of the 19th century, semi-automatic pistols were still a new thing, and the C96 was a new pistol launched by Mauser two years ago, which was very different from the traditional revolver in all aspects, when it was generally believed that the semi-automatic pistol was not reliable, and the price was much more expensive than the revolver, and this weapon was not accepted, and few European countries listed the C96 as standard military equipment, including Germany, which was mainly used for commercial sales.
Churchill was armed with an early standard Mauser C96 pistol, which was 280 mm long, 140 mm long, weighed 1.1 kg, had a magazine capacity of 10 rounds, and used 7.63 × 25 mm Mauser pistol cartridges.
■ The Mauser C96 pistol set sold by British gun shops at the end of the 19th century, in addition to the original wooden gun case, is accompanied by accessories such as cleaning tools and ammunition bags.
Westley Richards, a well-known British firearms seller, purchased the C96 from Mauser in 1897 to introduce this novel pistol to the British market. In the years at the turn of the century, britain on the African continent has carried out several colonial wars such as the Sudan War and the Boer War, many British officers have purchased pistols at their own expense, affected by this Mauser C96 sales once climbed, in 1897 to 1905 Richards sold 7901 C96, at most more than 1000 a year, but with the end of the Second Boer War, sales plummeted, to 1905 only sold more than 100. In contrast, the Webbley revolver sold 14,008 units in 1900 alone, showing that the market acceptance of Mauser pistols was very limited. However, the Mauser C96 has captured the most heavyweight fans in the Uk, and it is the future British Prime Minister Churchill. Mauser's unusual shape, 10 rounds of large ammunition capacity and long range impressed him, and he did not hesitate to spend 55 pounds to buy one, which was absolutely sky-high at the time, at the end of the 19th century, 1 pound was equivalent to 7 grams of gold, which was equivalent to more than 140,000 yuan in gold today!
■ A photograph of Churchill taken before he went to war in Africa shows his Mauser C96 pistol stored in a wooden holster on his right side.
Just a month later, the Mauser C96 proved that the money was well spent, helping Churchill survive the killings. Shortly after purchasing the gun, Churchill traveled to Africa to participate as a lieutenant in the 21st Lancers regiment in the suppression of the Mahdi uprising in Sudan. The Mahdi rebels were mainly cavalry and armed with many guns, which was more difficult to deal with than the African natives who used long contradictory cards. At the Battle of Entumán on 2 September 1898, the 21st Lancers were besieged by superior enemy forces and were in a critical position. Churchill later recalled that the enemy had gathered from all directions, brandishing machetes and spears, in an attempt to knock the British cavalry off their horses. Churchill turned the horse's head and tried to break through, directly in front of him a Mahdi soldier threw a machete at him, Churchill leaned over to dodge a blow, and used a Mauser pistol to knock it down at a distance of only 3 yards, then he straightened his body on the saddle, fired continuously, repelled the approaching enemies one by one, shooting within 10 yards, and finally broke out of the siege and met his comrades. Churchill killed at least 5 opponents with 10 rounds of ammunition, which he later detailed in his book War on the River.
■ A painting depicting the Engagement of British cavalry with the Mahdi army at the Battle of Ntuman.
■ Footage of Churchill leading a charge in the Battle of Entumán with a Mauser C96.
■ Stills of Churchill holding a Mauser C96 pistol in the movie "Churchill's Youth".
Churchill's personal experience on the battlefield in Sudan made the Mauser C96 admired the Mauser C96, believing that this weapon surpassed all revolvers and other automatically reloaded pistols, and he even called the Mauser pistol "the most beautiful thing in the world" in a letter to his mother! When Churchill returned to England from Sudan, he bought four more Mauser C96s in one fell swoop, and later learned that their gun numbers were 3511, 2373, 4257 and 13769. Churchill carried at least one of them with him when he traveled to South Africa in 1900 to cover the Boer War as an army correspondent. Although he had retired from the army at the time, he still participated in the battle and experienced what it was like to use the Mauser pistol as a carbine after the stock was added. During one of the battles, Churchill was responsible for covering the retreat of British soldiers aboard a train, and he observed a group of Boers approaching along a dry riverbed in an attempt to launch a surprise attack. Churchill mounted a wooden tray for the Mauser pistol, held it in both hands, and fired six or seven shots at a distance of about 100 yards, and the Boers were frightened and did not return fire and scattered.
■ During the Boer War, British officers used a Mauser C96 pistol with a stock mounted on it to shoot at the Boer cavalry.
■ A Mauser C96 pistol and its holster that fought in the Boer War, and belonged to an officer of the Royal Scottish Flintlock Regiment.
Thanks to the excellent combat performance of the Mauser C96 and its extraordinary courage and luck, Churchill was able to return safely from the battlefield, and his battlefield experience was widely known through his own vivid reports and several documentary works, accumulating valuable capital for Churchill to enter the political arena. If Churchill had used not a Mauser pistol on the battlefield of Ntuman, but a revolver or sabre, it is doubtful that he would have been able to tell his story alive. Unfortunately, none of Churchill's five Mauser pistols survived. Throughout his life Churchill was of great interest in firearms, as evidenced by the numerous photographs of gunmen he took during World War II, which Roosevelt and Stalin rarely left behind.
Churchill test-fired the American M1 carbine with Eisenhower and Bradley.
■ Churchill holding a Thomson submachine gun in a classic photo, black round hat with striped suit and cigar, very American gangster flavor.