The First World War was remembered by mankind not only for the monstrous destruction and multimillion losses of the population, but also for the beginning of the widespread use of the latest types of weapons. Tanks, planes, submarines, chemical weapons. Against the background of all of the above, the Winchester Model 1897 should predictably fade. However, history has developed in such a way that a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun crashed into historical memory no worse than phosgene.
The First World War was hell for ordinary foot soldiers. Millions of people on both sides of the front were buried in mud and blood under endless artillery fire, hiding from sniper and machine-gun fire. However, there was no salvation in the trenches either. Lice and rats were far from being the worst of the uninvited guests. Infantry assault groups brought chaos and terror to yesterday's peasants and workers.
Particularly well remembered by the soldiers of the Triple Alliance were American infantrymen who were armed with a Winchester Model 1897 pump-action shotgun. This weapon, remarkable from all sides, which served almost a century, was developed by John Moses Browning at the end of the 19th century. The Trench Broom was issued with a circulation of over 1 million copies.
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In a confined space, this is an exceptionally terrible weapon. And it's not just that this is a smooth-bore gun that shoots shot. The key feature that gave the Model 1897 its notoriety was the principle of the firing mechanism, which had no uncoupler. In other words, it was possible to release all five cartridges loaded in 1897 with one pull of the trigger. All that remained for the shooter to do was to pull the handguard as quickly as possible to reload. This small feature made it possible to radically increase the rate of fire in comparison with other similar guns.
The Model 1897 shotgun proved so effective in the hands of stormtroopers that the propaganda of the Trinity Union was forced to stigmatize the Americans in every possible way in inhumanity and violation of the rules of conduct war. Moreover, the Germans directly demanded a ban on these weapons, and also promised to execute any Americans captured with Model 1897 or cartridges for it as a war criminal. Of course, to all the notes of protest about the inhumanity of the shotgun in the trench warfare, American generals and politicians only laughed in response. And it's really funny when on the battlefield you have chemical warfare agents freely used to make people spit out their own insides.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about what was the last creation of the legendary "pistol master" Igor Stechkin.
Source: https://novate.ru/blogs/290122/61987/