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Notes
England
has lately adopted a small-bore — 0.303-inch
calibre — modified Lee magazine rifle … after
making a long series of most amusing steps of
development in order to reach the conclusion that
this arm was suited to her needs. For some
years she has been more than content with her
famous 0.45-inch calibre single-loading
Martini-Henry rifles and Boxer cartridges — guns
almost as bad in principle of breech mechanism as
our own Springfields, and cartridges even worse
than the United States' regulation ones — and in
her late "wars with people who wear not the
trousers," her soldiers have gallantly fired
on the enemy when they knew full well what
horrible punishment they were to receive from the
brutal recoil of their weapons, and have borne
their torture with true English grit. An
English officer informed the writer that the
practice was a great aid to gallantry in battle in
South Africa, for "when a fellow has been so
brutally pounded by his own rifle half a hundred
times, he doesn't so much mind having an assegai
as big as a shovel stuck through him; it's rather
a relief, don't you know."
(Reprinted
from "The Small Arms of European
Armies," W. W. Kimball, Scribner's
Magazine, September 1889.)
Soldier's
Companion, pg. 101
This weapon was rated, not designed, using Fire,
Fusion & Steel. |
