Re: Blood and Iron

The year was 1901. In thirteen years, the Great War would break out. While machine guns had existed for the last 20 years or so, they were sparse and mostly used in colonial conflicts. There was a certain air of arrogance among the European powers, or more specifically their military leadership who were focused on the main army.

Machine guns were seen as a crude tool whose only use was mowing down savages. By 1914, when the Great War broke out, the Imperial German Army, who was one of the first nations to truly embrace the concept of the machine gun, had less than 400 total in their entire arsenal.

The French, who would be their initial rivals had perhaps two machine guns for every battalion of soldiers. It was a woefully foolish oversight on behalf of the European powers who would quickly come to realize the effectiveness of machine guns. Even if at the time they were heavy, cumbersome, and static weapons.

Bruno, having two weeks to himself, decided he would begin designing the initial concept blueprints for three weapons. All of which he hoped would give Germany the greatest advantage possible over the course of the next decade as they prepared themselves for the upcoming war.

First and foremost, as much as the Mauser 98 was the pinnacle of military bolt-action rifle designs. The technology already existed to produce a better infantry rifle. The only problem was that the gun designers of the era had not yet perfected how to properly make a semi- automatic rifle that was suitable to military conflicts.

But Bruno was aware of these things. At least in theory. He had a particular interest in firearms in his past life, no doubt due to his time as an infantry officer. And had a general understanding of the basic principles that went into designing self-loading rifles.

He may not be able to make something as modern as a G36 assault rifle. Such a thing required modern composite materials which would not come into existence until at least half a century later. Nor would he be able to provide an optic for every rifle.

But such a thing did not matter in this era. Nor were such weapons ideal for the trenches of the Great War, whose fighting often took place initially over distances greater than what a modern assault rifle was practical at.

No, Bruno felt that a full power, semi-automatic rifle was more suited to such a conflict. And in his past life Germany had made one such rifle during the later days of the Second World War.

The Gewehr 43, as it was known in his past life. Was a semiautomatic rifle, chambered in 7.92x57 Mauser. It had a detachable 10 round magazine. And a built in dust cover which would prevent mud and debris from entering the action.

If issued to the standard infantryman in the German army, such an increase in firepower and rate of fire would overwhelm the enemies charging at the German trenches. Especially if employed in conjunction with a general purpose machine gun, and a submachine gun.

The Gewehr 43 operated under a principle called the short stroke gas piston. It was a concept employed in many semi-automatic, automatic, and select fire platforms. Even ones designed in the 21st century.