Mauser C96

Mauser C96
"Red 9" Mauser C96 (9 mm Parabellum) with stock
Type	Semi-automatic pistol, Machine Pistol (M712 Schnellfeuer)
Place of origin	German Empire
Service history
In service	1899-1961 (Present in militia use)
Used by	See Users
Wars	Second Boer War, Anglo-Irish War, World War I, World War II, Spanish Civil War, Second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese Civil War, Korean War
Production history
Designer	Feederle brothers (Fidel, Friedrich, and Josef)
Designed	1895
Manufacturer	Mauser
Produced	1896–1937
Variants	"full sized" C96 (standard model); "Bolo" (short barrel, small grip); "Red 9" (9 mm chambering); M712 "Schnellfeuer" (full-automatic)
Specifications
Weight	1,130 g (39.9 oz)
Length	312 mm (12.3 in) (pre-Bolo) 271 mm (10.7 in) (post-Bolo)
Barrel length	140 mm (5.5 in) (pre-Bolo) 99 mm (3.9 in) (post-Bolo)
Cartridge	7.63x25mm Mauser 9x19mm Parabellum .45 ACP (China) 9 mm Mauser Export (rare) 8.15mm Mauser (experimental)[1]
Action	Recoil operated
Muzzle velocity	425 m/s (1,394 ft/s)
Feed system	6, 10 or 20-round integral or detachable magazine; 40-round detachable magazines were also made
Sights	V-notch rear tangent sight adjustable up to 1000 meters, inverted V front sight

The Mauser C96 (Construktion 96)^[2] is a semi-automatic pistol that was originally produced by German arms manufacturer Mauser from 1896 to 1937^[3] Unlicensed copies of the gun were also manufactured in Spain and China in the first half of the 20th century.^[3][4]

The main distinctive identifying characteristics of the C96 are the integral box magazine in front of the trigger, the long barrel, the wooden shoulder stock which can double as a holster or carrying case, and a grip shaped like the end of a broom's handle. The gun's distinctive appearance earned it the nickname "Broomhandle" in the English-speaking world (from the shape of its grip), and in China, the C96 was nicknamed the "box cannon" (Chinese: 盒子炮; pinyin: hézipào) because of both its square-shaped internal magazine and the fact it could be holstered in its wooden box-like detachable stock.^[5]

The Mauser C96, with its shoulder stock, long barrel and high-velocity cartridge, had superior range and better penetration than most other standard pistols; the 7.63x25mm Mauser cartridge was the highest velocity commercially manufactured pistol cartridge in existence until the advent of the .357 Magnum cartridge in 1935.^[6]

Approximately 1 million C96 pistols were manufactured by Mauser alone,^[7] with the number produced in Spain and China being large but unknown due to the loss, non-existence, or poor upkeep of production records from those countries.^[3]

Service

A Chinese National Revolutionary Army soldier with a gas mask and a Mauser M1932.

Within a year of its introduction, the C96 had been sold not only to governments, but also commercially for resale to civilians and individual military officers. The first military contract was in 1896, with the Ottoman Turkish government ordering 1,000 of the new C96 pistols.^[4] This was followed in 1899 by the first major military contract; an order for 5,000 C96 pistols for the Italian navy.^[7] The Mauser C96 pistol was also extremely popular with British officers at the time and purchased privately by many of them; numbers were supplied to Westley Richards in the UK for this purpose, although its popularity with the British military had waned by the onset of World War I.^[8]

As a military sidearm, the pistols saw service in various colonial wars, as well as World War I, The Estonian War of Independence, the Spanish Civil War, the Chinese Civil War, and World War II. Mauser also became a staple of both Bolshevik Comissars and various warlords and gang leaders in the depiction of Russian Civil War.

Winston Churchill was fond of the Mauser C96, and used one at the Battle of Omdurman and during the Second Boer War; similarly, Lawrence of Arabia carried a Mauser C96 for a period during his time in the Middle East.^[9][3] Chinese Communist general Zhu De carried a Mauser C96 during his Nanchang Uprising and other future conflicts, his gun (with his name printed on) can be viewed in Beijing war museum as a first class relic.

Imported and domestic copies of the C96 were used extensively by the Chinese in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, as well as by the Spanish during the Spanish Civil War and the Germans in World War II.^[4][10]

Besides the standard 7.63x25mm chambering, C96 pistols were also commonly chambered for 9mm Parabellum, ammunition, with a small number also being produced in 9 mm Mauser Export and there was also a Chinese-manufactured model chambered for .45ACP.^[3] Despite the pistol's worldwide popularity and fame, the only nation to use the C96 as the primary service pistol of its military and police was China. The Broomhandle Mauser has become a popular collector's gun.^[3]

The C96 frequently appears as a "foreign" or "exotic" pistol in a number of films and TV shows, owing to its distinctive and instantly recognisable shape^[3], and, for the same reasons and in the same tradition, a C96 was modified to form Han Solo's prop pistol for the Star Wars films.^[3]

Variants

There were many variants of the C96 besides the standard Commercial model; the most common are detailed below.

Mauser "Red 9" C96 with Stripper clip

"Red 9"

During World War I, the Imperial German Army contracted with Mauser for 150,000 C96 pistols chambered for the 9mm Parabellum cartidge, as used in the standard-issue Luger P08 pistol then being used by the German military. This variant of the C96 was named the "Red 9", after a large number "9" burned and painted in red into the grip panels^[11], to prevent the pistols' users from loading them with 7.63 mm ammunition by mistake. Of the 150,000 pistols commissioned, approximately 137,000 were delivered before the war ended.^[4]

Bolo

The Treaty of Versailles (signed in 1919) imposed a number of restrictions of pistol barrel lengths and calibres on German arms manufacturers, ^[12] and so Mauser began manufacturing a compliant version of the C96 for commercial sale. This model- which featured smaller grips and a shorter (99mm) barrel^[13], as well as being chambered for the 7.63x25mm Mauser cartridge- was sold in quantity to the Bolshevik government (and the Red Army) of the Soviet Union in 1920s ^[14], and was thus nicknamed the "Bolo" model^[15]. The "Bolo" model was also popular with Bolshevik revolutionaries, both in Russia and elsewhere in Europe, as the shorter barrel and smaller overall size made the gun easier to conceal.^[16]

M712 Schnellfeuer

The Spanish gunmaking firms of Beistegui Hermanos and Astra began producing detachable magazine-fed, select-fire versions of the C96 in 1927 and 1928 respectively, intended for export to the Far East.^[4] Mauser began production of their own select-fire version of the C96, the M712 Schnellfeuer ("Rapid Fire") in 1932,^[4] again largely intended for export to China. The US National Firearms Act of 1934 made exports of the Schnellfeuer guns to the US impractical, and the remaining guns were almost exclusively supplied to either China or the opposing sides in the Spanish Civil War with small numbers also being supplied to the Germans during World War II.^[4]

.45 calibre Shansi Type 17 and Hanyang C96

During the Warlord era of Chinese History in the early 20th century, the province of Shansi was ruled by the warlord Yen Hsi-shan, who had established a modern arms factory in his capital city of Taiyuan. Yen was equipping his troops with a locally produced copy of the Thompson sub machine gun, chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge, but was experiencing supply difficulties as his troops' sidearms were 7.63mm calibre C96 handguns.^[17] His solution was to produce a .45 ACP calibre version of the C96, thus standardising ammunition and making supply easier.^[17]

Designated Type 17, production on the .45 calibre handgun began in 1929 at the Taiyuan Arsenal and they were issued (along with Thompson SMGs) to railway guards in the province as defence against bandits and other warlords. Besides being chambered for a larger cartridge, the Shansi .45 pistols are noticeably bigger than their 7.63mm counterparts, with the magazine extending below the trigger guard, and they are inscribed (in Chinese) "Type 17" on the left hand side of the gun, and "Republic Year Eighteen, Made in Shansi" on the right hand side. ^[17]

Most of the Shansi .45 pistols were melted down after the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, largely due to their odd calibre for Communist Regulations, but a few examples were exported overseas for sale on the commercial market.^[17] Approximately 8,500 Shansi .45 calibre Broomhandle pistols are believed to have been produced by the Taiyuan Arsenal, but there is some debate as to how many of the Shansi .45 calibre Broomhandle pistols currently on the commercial market were actually produced for Yen's troops, and how many are more recent productions for the US collectors' market. In 1923 the Hanyang Munitions Works began making a copy of the Mauser C96, the result was the Hanyang C96, about 13,000 copies were produced, it is sometimes described as the "fancier" of the two Chinese copies. Like the Shansi Type 17, it is unknown of how many are currently left on the market. ^[18]

Astra Model 900

Astra Model 900

The Spanish gunmaking firm of Astra-Unceta y Cia began producing a copy of the Mauser C96 in 1927. Externally similar (including the presence of a detachable shoulder stock/holster) to the C96 but with non-interlocking internal parts it was produced until 1941, with a production hiatus in 1937 and 1938 and a final batch being assembled from spare parts in 1951.^[4] The Spanish copies of the C96 were generally intended for export to China,^[4] but after the commencement of the Sino-Japanese war (which blocked supply of guns to Chinese forces) the remaining Astra 900s were used in the Spanish Civil War, and numbers were also sold to Germany in the period 1940–1943.^[4].

Royal MM34 machine pistol

A rare copy of the Astra Model 900 were also manufactured in Spain as the Royal MM34, these are recognised by its finned 'Thompson gun' type barrel and muzzle. Very few examples of the Royal MM34 are in existence today.

Users

• China, Republic of - Hundreds of thousands were used by Kuomintang, Communist and warlord forces during the Chinese Civil War.^[19]
•  German Empire - Army issued 137,000 of the "Red 9" variant during World War I.^[4]
•  Nazi Germany 8,000 of the Schnellfeuer variant was issued to the Luftwaffe during World War II. Also bought thousands of the Spanish-made Astra Model 900 & 903 variants. ^[4]
•  Kingdom of Italy - 5,000 bought from Germany in 1899 for the navy.^[7]
•  Ottoman Empire - 1,000 ordered from Germany in 1896.^[4]
•  Soviet Union - "Bolo" variant bought from Germany during 1920s.^[20]
• Second Spanish Republic^[4]
•  United Kingdom - many were privately bought by British officers in the period before World War I.^[21]

Notes

Bibliography

• Skennerton, Ian (2005). Mauser Model 1896 Pistol. Gold Coast, QLD (Australia). ISBN 0 949749 77X. 
• Wilson, Royce (January 2009). Mauser C96 Broomhandle. Australian and New Zealand Handgun magazine. 
• Bishop, Chris (Editor) (1998). Guns in Combat. Kent (UK). ISBN 1-84013-083-0. 
• Maze, Robert J. (2002). Howdah to High Power: A Century of Breechloading Service Pistols (1867-1967). Tucson, AZ (USA). ISBN 1-880677-17-2. 
• System Mauser - A Pictorial History of the Model 1896 Self-Loading Pistol, John W. Breathed, Jr. and Joseph J. Schroeder, Jr., (Handgun Press, 1967)
• The Mauser Self-Loading Pistol, James N. Belford and Jack Dunlap, (Borden Publishing Cie 1969)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mauser C/96

• 1896mauser.com
• Astra 900 (Spanish Copy) Information
• Detailed article on Chinese .45 calibre C96s
• Mauser C-96 at guns.ru
• History of the Chinese C96