Small arms question, 1918?

[Adm.Lee]

I'm slowly getting around to planning a Twilight: 1918 game for Origins this year. I've gotten as far as an outline, set in Siberia. A question popped up for weaponry: if I include American PCs, they would presumably come from the Pacific or Asiatic Fleets, or the two Army regiments that moved to Siberia from the Philippines.

Does anyone have information, solid or otherwise, on deployment of the BAR? Did any go to Siberia? For that matter, what rifle would Americans in Siberia be packing? I'm aware that the Americans sent into North Russia picked up Moisin-Nagants (or the American-made copies), but no idea what's what in the East.

[simonmark6]

All I could find was a note in wiki that the units were armed with BARs, Springfields and Browning shotguns as well as the Colt .45.

The nearest I could get to a primary source that displayed rifles was a drill contest won by the Americans. The Corporal that won was carrying a Springfield.

The next nearest source was a Harold Lloyd film, "Sammies in Siberia" and they seemed to be using single shot rifles that could have been full-length Springfield single shot rifles, the hammers look like they could even be converted cap and ball weapons.

Guess Hollywood wasn't big on verisimilitude even in the silent days...

[Cdnwolf]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_...sian_Civil_War

[Adm.Lee]

Thanks! Meh, knew I should have gone to Wiki. I've been pleasantly surprised by the data I've been able to collect from there.

Yay for BAR, another option for PCs.

[dragoon500ly]

pistols would be the M-1911

the rifle was the M1891 Mosin-Nagant

The BAR was carried, there are at least photos showing GIs with them in"U.S.
the M917 Infantry Weapons of the First World War"

The Model 1897 and Model 1910 Trench Guns were both used

Machine Guns would be the Lewis Gun (pirated from the Brits!), there are mentions of a "Hotchkiss", most likely the M1914 version, there are also mentions the U.S. troops used Russina weaponry, the stated reason was so that the troops could use the massize stockpiles of munitions that had been shipped into the various ports, but had not yet been transported into the interior (makes sense).

[Adm.Lee]

Here, or elsewhere, I picked up that the Czecho-Slovak Legion had Madsen MGs. ISTR that this was the predecessor to the Bren gun, so I think I'll just used that gun's stats for this game. Anyone have better data?

Aside: have I mentioned recently how much I dislike cranking out pre-gen characters? I like to have extras for a convention game, to let players have some kind of choices. I did a batch of 14 this weekend, and I'm going to be seeing the v2.2 career-skills tables in my sleep tonight.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

The Madsen isn't the MG you're thinking of, it was the ZB vz.26 and although nobody seems to have any game stats for it that I can find, it directly influenced the French FM24/29 which is in 2nd Ed. Infantry Weapons of the World. I think you could use that gun for general stats but changing the ammo/ammo performance to the 7.92x57mm Mauser round as a quick fix.

Or, knowing that the vz.26 design went on to be refined as the vz.27, vz.30 and vz.33, you could use the stats that Mr Mulcahy has provided for the vz.30 here
http://www.pmulcahy.com/machineguns/...achineguns.htm

Sorry if that's too much information, I get a bit carried away with infantry weapons at times

[Adm.Lee]

I'm good with the detail. I did check out Mulcahy's weapons, but I didn't think of that French weapon. So far, I haven't statted out the weapons cards that I usually do, so I will file that info for next week's work.

Thanks.

[Adm.Lee]

Several months too late, I find at my local library: Bruce Canfield's U.S. Infantry Weapons of the First World War. It starts with bayonets, trench knives and bolos, and goes all the way to the 37mm infantry gun-- very thorough, including weapons only used in training and ones acquired from the Allies.

Stuff I didn't know about: the Springfield "Air service" semiautomatic rifle, with a 25-shot magazine, and reduced stock. It looks very like an M1/M2 carbine, and was intended for balloon crews and perhaps paratroopers.

How about a flamethrowing bayonet!? Est. weight 1.5 pounds, mounted on the bayonet lug of the M1903 or M1917. Five cartridges, each to shoot flame 5-15 feet.

Also learned: the Russians didn't make or issue scabbards for the bayonets for their Moisin-Nagant rifles-- they were meant to be fixed all the time. Not good for training, I wonder if that got fixed by WW2? Now that I think on it, nearly all the pictures I see from WW1/RCW usually show the rifles with fixed bayonets.

Confirmed: the US troops that went to North Russia were given Moisin-Nagants (made by Remington), but not the ones that went to Siberia.

Included: quotes from reports of infantry officers regarding the deployment of shotguns to the troops. They really liked them for nighttime patrols. Daytime, not so much. And the use of paper cartridges in the trenches was not popular-- brass shells didn't make it over in large quantities in time.