When mauser military pistols or Mauser submachine pistols are mentioned, many people may shake their heads and indicate that they are not clear or have not heard. But if it comes to shell guns or box guns, I am afraid that there are few Chinese people today who really do not know. Influenced by many film and television works, the Mauser military pistols (including German-made C96, M30, M712 and Spanish-made ETAL, Royal, Astra 900 and other sub-models) that are called "barge guns", "box guns" and "fast and slow machines" by our military folklore can be said to be almost known to women and children in China.
According to incomplete statistics, since entering China in the first year of the Republic of China (1912), no less than 700,000 of the 1.5 million barge guns produced by German and Spanish arsenals have been sold to China through various channels; 21 arsenals in Taiyuan, Gongxian, Qingdao, Hanyang and other places have imitated this gun, and the total output may exceed 1 million.
Above_ The armory's imitation of the barge gun
The number of miscellaneous barge shell guns produced by the indigenous method in various military repair centers, ordnance stations and military workshops throughout the country is so large that it is impossible to accurately count them. At that time, not only all kinds of armed forces favored the barge gun and used it as a standard pistol to equip the troops, but even some grass heroes, green forest good men, jianghu Haojie and even bandits were proud of having a barge gun inserted in their waists.
However, why is it that such a well-known pistol, which cannot be mentioned in that period of history, disappeared very quickly after 1949?
Above_ The Shell Gun pistol regiment formed by the Northwest Army
The environment determines the needs
To answer the above question, we must first understand why the shell gun is so popular in China but almost no one in Europe.
The barge gun belongs to the large combat pistol, the maximum range is 150 meters, and some models such as the M712 have a fully automatic firing function, and their theoretical rate of fire can reach 900 rounds per minute. Compared with ordinary pistols, it can be seen that it has great advantages in range and rate of fire. And because of its longer barrel than the general pistol, its 7.63 mm pistol has great kinetic energy and strong lethality, and it is a powerful individual weapon, so many people call it a "cannon" (box gun), rather than as a "gun".
However, the so-called success is also Xiao He, and defeat is also Xiao He. At the same time as the advantages are outstanding, the disadvantages of the shell gun are also very obvious, that is, the length of the (benchmark type) gun reaches 28.8 cm, the empty weight reaches 1.24 kg, which is far more than the general pistol, which makes it inconvenient to carry and use. In addition, the recoil of the shell gun is extremely large when shooting, and the gun body is not easy to control. Especially in the state of continuous shooting, the accuracy of the shot depends entirely on the character.
Above_ Shell Gun Illustrated
Because of this, if the gun is used as a single self-defense pistol, then it appears too big and too heavy; if it is used as a combat firearm, its power, range, etc. are not as good as the same light submachine gun, carbine, so the gun is very unpopular in the European and American military powers that do not lack infantry weapons. However, the West is not bright and the East is bright. This gun was very important for the Chinese army, which was short of weapons at that time, especially the lack of individual automatic firearms.
For example, the famous Northern Expedition Iron Army, the Ye Ting Independent Regiment, a main force regiment and a reinforcement regiment, all the automatic weapons were only 4 heavy machine guns, 11 submachine guns, and none light machine guns. In this case, all kinds of shell guns that can be semi-automatic shooting, and even have both semi-automatic and automatic shooting functions, have become sharp weapons in the hands of fighters, effectively filling the gap in melee firepower within 200 meters caused by the lack of submachine guns and carbines.
Especially for armed forces such as guerrillas and armed workers, because their combat styles are mainly special operations such as disguised surprise attacks, ambushes, assassinations, and sabotage, it is common for them to engage in close combat with enemy forces that have absolute superiority in strength and firepower. Therefore, compared with rifles and machine guns, they need to be equipped with submachine guns, which are both easy to carry and can be fired continuously.
Above_ Li Xiangyang in the old movie "Plain Guerrilla", the image of holding a shell gun in both hands is indeed domineering and powerful, but it is impossible to exist in actual combat
In the absence or even absence of submachine guns, the shell gun was reluctantly difficult and shouldered the heavy responsibility of performing special operations. In this way, we can also understand why the guerrilla heroes portrayed in those literary works, such as Li Xiangyang in "Plain Guerrilla", Liu Hong and Wang Qiang in "Railway Guerrilla", Xiao Fei in "Fire golden steel", etc., use barge guns, rather than rifles such as three-eight large covers and water beads, nor light machine guns such as Czech-style and crooked handles.
As the saying goes, being able to pull out pus is a good plaster. The fact that the shell gun is so "popular" in China is actually a true portrayal of the weak military industry foundation and serious shortage of weapons and equipment in old China.
Above_ The Eighth Route Army using a shell gun, with a wooden butt attached to the grip
Tactics determine the use
Shell gun due to muzzle kinetic energy, recoil and other reasons, play is very uncomfortable, its almost cylindrical grip is not easy to hold, semi-automatic shooting may be fine, once the full automatic shooting, soon can shock the tiger's mouth numbness caused the gun to fall out of hand. Therefore, when the shell gun is used, it is necessary to attach a wooden butt at the grip and shoot it against the shoulder.
In the existing historical video data, there is not a single example of sweeping and shooting with a shell gun, this so-called "Chinese is very clever, and the huge up and down jump of the muzzle when the shell gun is shot has become a fan sweep", most of which is created by film and television dramas.
Perhaps it is precisely this that in today's film and television works, the correct use of the shell gun is almost completely absent. Many of the protagonists in the play even take ordinary pistols, holding a shell gun in both hands and suddenly hitting endlessly. In actual combat, such a scene is impossible. If you do that, you can't shoot a few rounds, and the shooter will be unable to withstand the vibration and cause the gun to fall out of his hand.
Above_ The correct way to use the shell gun: the wooden butt is fired against the shoulder
After the wooden stock is attached, if a semi-automatic single shot is used, the shell gun is similar to a carbine; if the 20-round magazine is loaded with full automatic shooting, the shell gun is a reduced version of the submachine gun - which is exactly in line with the tactical positioning of the shell gun in China, that is, to complete the melee task that should have been undertaken by the submachine gun and the carbine.
However, at the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, with the large number of aid weapons from military powers such as the United States and Britain entering China, the Chinese army gradually equipped with submachine guns such as M3, Stern, Thomson and M1 carbines in batches. After World War II, the United States, Britain and other countries dumped a large number of wartime weapons, including submachine guns and carbines, into China as "surplus materials".
Above_ M1 carbine
Above_ Volunteer soldiers using an M2 carbine with an additional scope
Subsequently, in the War of Liberation, our army captured a large number of Chiang Kai-shek's submachine guns and carbines and equipped them with troops. At this point, submachine guns and carbines finally belatedly began to gradually assume their due melee tasks on the Chinese battlefield, and the status of the shell gun became embarrassing.
In particular, after the war to resist US aggression and aid Korea began, our army gradually replaced the miscellaneous weapons captured during the civil war with Soviet-style or imitation Soviet-style equipment, and the whole army realized the serialization and standardization of weapons and equipment.
Above_ A 20-round magazine barge gun, which is equipped with a stock and used, is a submachine gun
The sword is not old: the famous gun still plays the residual heat
With the rapid withdrawal of the shell gun from our army after the founding of the country, this batch of old equipment that was eliminated by the submachine gun did not immediately enter the garbage heap of history, but still played a residual heat for a long time.
Beginning in the mid-to-late 1950s, a large number of barge guns were distributed to the public security army, border guards, militia and police forces, and were used to carry out patrols, guards, guards, counter-special forces, hoeing, and suppressing bandits. In many old movies that reflected the elimination of enemy elements in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, such as "Silent Mountain Forest", "Yangcheng Dark Sentry", "Railway Guard", "Tiger's Den Tracking", etc., many of our public security investigators used shell guns to fight with enemy elements.
Above_ The barge gun scene shown in the stills of "Railway Guard"
This kind of anti-special combat, because it is mostly a close-range gun battle within 100 meters, it is impossible for both sides to use rifles, and submachine guns are difficult to play a role due to inconvenient carrying and easy exposure of targets. The shell gun just meets the task requirements of the task of not only suppressing the firepower of the enemy's ordinary pistol or short gun, but also effectively killing and injuring the opponent, and also easy to carry (relative to the submachine gun), so the supply is in short supply for a time. In February 1951 alone, the 20th Corps of the North China Military Region handed over 3,562 barge guns and more than 680,000 rounds of ammunition to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Divisions of the Public Security.
Due to the large stockpile of 7.63 mm pistol ammunition used in barge guns, shell guns were used in some places until the early 1980s when they were completely obsolete. Most of the eliminated shell guns were returned to the furnace, and a few were "fortunate" to enter museums everywhere, quietly telling their origins with China.
Author: Lin Sen Correction/Editor: Lilith
Resources:
[1] "Historical Materials on Small Arms of the Chinese and Japanese Armies" Firearms Hall Chief Editor-
[2] "List of Domestic Firearms and Pistol Volumes", printed by the General Affairs Office of the Ordnance Industry Bureau of the Republic of China (1934)
[3] Encyclopedia of China • Military, Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, 2007
[4] "Chinese Army" Armed Guidebook, compiled by the Old Japanese Army Province (November 1937), Library of Congress, Washington Document Center Collection
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author