Rifles by countries and continents. Part of 20. Spain: Women and Mauser

Incidentally, not on purpose, it turned out that when I was preparing the first materials of the series “About Mouzers with Love,” which were once published here at VO, three Spanish Mauser of excellent preservation fell into my hands at once. Well, of course, having supported them, I hurried to tell not so much about the Mauser rifles of Spain, but about my impression of them. But now it is time, in some way, to delve into the “theory”. And we have with you, dear visitors of the VO website, there is a wonderful opportunity to admire the Spanish beauties 1936 - 1938. with Mauser in hand. Spanish women are, of course, a separate topic. But with weapons related. When I was there, I noticed that women of that age are so ... unsightly. However, many young too. But for some reason only beauties served in the police there. Rides such a cop on a bicycle, in a white shirt, in blue shorts, in white golf, with a truncheon and handcuffs on a belt, behind a ponytail to the sacrum ... Also in “Guard Civil” - there is something to see! So the thought involuntarily creeps in that the girls and police in Spain are taken only as external data to the police and the “Guard of Sibil”. But it is now. And then, during the years of the Spanish Civil War, judging by the photographs, Spanish women finally broke free from the Catholic domostroi and ... began to take an active part in the public life of the country with arms in their hands. Probably they wanted power. But it is said - “the rifle gives birth to power!” And so it turned out that this very rifle, which level women and men in Spain, became ... a Mauser rifle!

Mauser rifles of direct relevance to Spain (from right to left!): Mouser M1888, "Spanish Mauser" M1893; “Spanish Mauser” M1916 “first model”; "Spanish Mauser M1916" second model "; the German Mauser, supplied by Franco his German ally.

Well, now let's look at another important circumstance. There are small countries that have played stories big role. For example, Switzerland has become the birthplace of the infantry that crushed the knightly cavalry. But Spain also played a completely unique role in the proliferation of rifles with a sliding bolt, and a role so important that it is almost impossible to exaggerate. Well, when the numerous colonial possessions of Spain in America followed its example, and it came to buying rifles, then ... for the Mauser company they became a truly “gold mine”. Moreover, Spain’s close relations with these countries continued even after the majority of these countries gained independence.

Why, yes, because people are “big monkeys”. Spain adopted the Remington rifle with a crane bolt, and the countries of Central and South America also adopted it in imitation of their “mother country”. But then the story was repeated with a Mauser rifle, since Spain "set an example." In the previous materials of this series it was described in great detail how many rifles went into the countries of the Caribbean and South America. That is, the Mauser company, one might say, flourished precisely at the expense of all these countries, and then Czechoslovakia began to produce rifles for them in the same way!

The device is a Spanish Mauser M1893.

This Spanish influence has even spread to the United States - which Spain would never have expected, and did not want. Despite the fact that it was defeated during the Spanish-American war, the famous Spanish Mauser impressed the American soldiers who fought in Cuba so much that the United States quickly adopted its own Mauser - the 1903 model of the year. they then paid many decades to patent royalties to Mauser, thus replenishing the German treasury, and these payments continued even during the First World War, when Germany and the United States fought among themselves. For it says "fight - fight, and give money!"

For example, a Spanish silver coin, which is directly related to the history of Spanish weapons. It was the presence of colonies that allowed the Spaniards to buy the very best, the modern and the expensive. The two pillars on the coin were part of the Spanish royal coat of arms for a long time, but after the voyage of Columbus they began to symbolize two parts of Spain: Europe and America. Moreover, many historians even believe that these two pillars formed the basis of two vertical lines on the symbol of the US dollar ($).

8 Reals 1818 of the Year, silver of the 903 sample, weight - 27 grams, diameter - 38,5 mm. Mint of Mexico City. the rule of King Ferdinand VII. Minted in 1811 - 1821's.

Then, of course, she was impoverished, but not enough to buy the worst. And having conceived the next rearmament of its army, Spain began by acquiring the 1887 model of the year for testing, but it did not satisfy her. Model 1891 of the year under the cartridge 7,65x53 mm (similar to the Turkish model) was tested in the version of the carbine with a characteristic front sight. Then the model 1892 of the year was purchased (in the version of a rifle and a carbine), and that, in turn, is almost identical to the Argentine Mauser of the year 1891, only now it was acquired in a relatively small number. Although, as in a small? According to Spanish author Bernardo Barcelo Ruby, 10000 brand new Mauzer carbines, including the M1891 long rifles, were sent to Cuba during the Spanish-American war, and then captured by the Americans.

And finally, women with rifles: Republican Spaniard with a Mauser rifle and in mono overalls.

Then they purchased the M1893 model, which was named the "Spanish" Mauser (ie, the 1890 model, which is identical to the Turkish 1890 model), and entered service under the designation "Fusil Mauser Español Modelo 1892". But in this case, the example itself was important! Well, it got its name "Spanish" because of the new cartridge 7x57 mm, with which the M1893 model was widely recognized as the best military rifle of its time. It was originally produced by Ludwig Loewe and DWM, but then, starting in 1896, its production was transferred to the Spanish arsenal in Oviedo. A total of 1 of these rifles were produced! A cavalry carbine of the same caliber was put into service in 275, and from 1895 to 1896 by Ludwig Loewe & Co, by order of Spain, five thousand copies were produced. Later in 1915-1896. its production was carried out by the firm "Fabrica Nacional de Armas", where more than 1915 thousand of them were produced, or rather - 20 carbines!

Marked by Spanish Mauser rifles 1894 of the year. In this case, applied to the chamber of the M1891 cavalry carbine of the year. Production of Ludwig Loewe.

What makes the 1893 model of a “Spanish” Mauser so special? The fact is that this was the first Mouser with a magazine in which the cartridges were placed in a checkerboard pattern. For that time, it was a surprisingly comfortable and elegant design. These were the first 7x57 mm Mauser that could be seen in action as the main infantry weapon in a serious military conflict. And the world was quite impressed with what he saw!

Another beauty with Mauser!

The rifle showed itself so well in the Spanish-American war that the United States armed forces used captured Mausers after the cessation of hostilities in their army, using the details of broken rifles to correct the remaining ones. This repair program gave the US more 7000 rifles, which were then maintained as a strategic stock.

Here with the Mauser they are all: no wonder that there were not enough rifles on the front!

During the Spanish civil war, when the nationalists (who were mostly army officers) supplied their troops with weapons from their own arsenals, and also received it from their fascist allies in Germany and Italy, the Republicans had a hard time. That is, they also captured many government arsenals. But still, they constantly lacked weapons, which his merchants around the world used. Since all sales deals were a violation of the international embargo aimed at ending the conflict, the most surprising ways to circumvent it were undertaken. And the weapon was transported through the most exotic foreign ports, on the ships of Liberia and Panama, and the money for it was usually laundered in Finland, which brought her huge profits! However, it was also said that money does not smell, so what are we talking about ?!

And these residents of Barcelona, ​​even mono decided not to wear. The main thing is to have a rifle and learn how to shoot from it!

As an example, consider one such deal, which included the delivery of Paraguayan Xauer 1927 model Republicans. January 15 1937, Erich Thorvald, a arms dealer in Paraguay working with the Spanish government, bought a large number of rifles left over from the recently ended Grand Chaco war. These weapons were sent to Buenos Aires, where they loaded aboard the ship Hercules, heading for the free city of Dantsing, controlled, however, by the administration of the League of Nations by the Polish administration, where they were transferred to another ship and sent to Helsinki. The accompanying documents claimed that all weapons were damaged and sent to Helsinki "for recovery" and possible return to Paraguay. But in fact, the rifles were transported to Tallinn in Estonia, where in September 1937 was once again loaded onto a ship going to Spain. This delivery included 7119 Paraguayan 7,65 caliber Mauser mm. In the spring of 1938, the nationalists were confused when they encountered so many rifles of this caliber at the front of the Republicans, but could not understand where they came from and, accordingly, complain about the violation of the embargo in print. And no one knew that they received these rifles from Paraguay through the mediation of Poland and Estonia.

They are trained in shooting from a short rifle М1916, “the first model”.

Here it should be added that Poland received a lot of all weapons as foreign aid after the First World War, and it had to put all these stocks somewhere. After all, by the end of the 1930s, Poland had established the release of its own Mauser, and the Spanish Civil War became just a gift of fate for her. Therefore, all Russian rifles of the 1891 model of the year, inherited from the Tsarist warehouses and also as trophies after the defeat of the unsuccessful “campaign against Warsaw” in 1920, were sold, of course, to the Republicans. There was another reason, which was very happy for both the Republicans, the Poles, and the leadership of the USSR. The caliber of all these rifles was 7,62-mm, so that they all could shoot our Soviet ammunition!

Snipers of the Republican army on the Aragon front during the Spanish Civil War, September 11, 1936.

To be continued ...

Comments

[Vard]

An interesting article about rifles ... But women here like that ... A word about kings and cabbage ...

[Cat]

Quote: Vard

An interesting article about rifles ... But women here like that ... A word about kings and cabbage...

Everything is according to Freud, at least put a diagnosis!
Well, or as in the old Russian proverb "who cares what, and lousy to the bath" !!!
Vyacheslav Olegovich thanks for the article, I’m making a toast to you from Spanish women and their rifles!
Sincerely, Kitty!

[Vard]

Please ... After all, there’s just one word that she wants something — let it be the most trifle: a flower, pomegranate or — oh yes, a peach — and now you bravely set off into the night, into a wide world that doesn’t in forces against resist, and her desire is fulfilled. But God forbid she asks you for a rifle ... Remember it’s very difficult to shoot yourself from a rifle ... but it’s very easy to kill ... so let’s drink so that Spanish women never pick up a rifle!

[2329 Carpenter]

These las mujeres and without rifles beast.
The Italian pilot Monico, a 22-year-old boy, had the misfortune of being shot down, throwing himself with a parachute and falling into the hands of the Spanish peasant women. After the brutal beating, he was tied to 4 horses and torn to pieces.
The pilots of his group wrote his name on the fuselages.
But nobody felt easier from this.

[Vard]

They are women ... I refused to marry one ... like she’s fifteen years younger than me and her husband is her younger ... so she got me kicked out of work ... with my diagnosis it was essentially a murder ...

[Golovan Jack]

Quote: Carpenter 2329

The Italian pilot Monico, a 22-year-old boy, had the misfortune of being shot down, parachuting and falling into the hands of the Spanish peasant women

I am embarrassed to ask: did the little boy Moniko fly there purely to admire the scenery, or, how is it ... "a little bang-bang"?
If the second - I fully understand the Spanish peasant women

[2329 Carpenter]

Of course not. Monico arrived in the war to kill people. Well, like in any war.
Here, I know of course that such a ... threshold of atrocity, perhaps, is much lower for women than for men; but still: to kill a person in this way - I do not understand anyone. Neither Spanish, nor any peasant women, or office hamsters - anyone.
Atrocities are always and everywhere disgusting. IMHO.

[Golovan Jack]

Quote: Carpenter 2329

Atrocity

But shooting from heaven unarmed, including women and children - is not atrocity?
Apparently, the "boys-monica" got them cool, and the return to them (him) is quite right.
IMHO.

[2329 Carpenter]

The executions of "unarmed women, children" and the elderly began to gain strength later, and most likely in the midst of World War II.
There is, of course, no information whether the squadron where Moniko served was engaged in civilian air executions in Spain. But I do not think that the Italians had reasons for such actions - nevertheless, the moral principles of the fighters of all, mainly countries, were different at that time. The traditions of the First World War have not yet been forgotten.
Well, in general, everyone has their own IMHO.
I think that in that case a stranger, an enemy simply fell into the hands of those dense people - he must be destroyed. They chose the method themselves - because of their mentality and national traditions.

[Golovan Jack]

UPD: here, read on the topic of the love of the population for such pilots. The book, although fictional, is quite suitable for itself, and a man wrote it, quite self-sufficient:

 Beaver Gleb, Age of the Stillborn

http://okopka.ru/b/bobrow_g_l/text_0280.shtml

Search in the text for the word "Psheprasham *", just find it.

[2329 Carpenter]

Thank you. I'll look.

[kalibr]

For whom the bell tolls .... Better not, I guess. And ha ha - the second book of my novel "Pareto Law" - "Freedom Volunteers". It’s about the war in Spain.

[Senior seaman]

I apologize...

Such a policeman rides on a bicycle, in a white shirt, in blue shorts, in white golf, with a club and handcuffs on his belt, behind a horse’s tail to the sacrum ... There is also something to see in the “Civil Sibyl”!

And where?

[Lekov L]

It is true without a bicycle and, apparently, in the winter, but here, for example, very nice and strict:

Best regards

[Roman shi]

I support, I’ve been to Spain three times, the police girls are very pretty and stylish !!! Just like in Italy.

[Royalist]

In Spain, where else

[2329 Carpenter]

"Rolls-Royce" among the army rifle-shops is, of course, ten-charge Lee-Anfield.
Mausers have spread so widely around the world as a result of technological effectiveness in production, the ratio of "price-quality" and competent marketing.

[Royalist]

Quote: Carpenter 2329

These las mujeres and without rifles beast.
The Italian pilot Monico, a 22-year-old boy, had the misfortune of being shot down, throwing himself with a parachute and falling into the hands of the Spanish peasant women. After the brutal beating, he was tied to 4 horses and torn to pieces.
The pilots of his group wrote his name on the fuselages.
But nobody felt easier from this.

Apparently, the wrong peasant women were caught: instead of a warm greeting, the phalangists were sure that they were exempting from the Republicans, the peasant women “propagated” the Italian

[Royalist]

V.O., do you happen to present one of the Mausers? Joke. What specific Mausers have you come across? I believe the pistols, but they were different and Like 96, Mauser K 96/1916 (chambered for 9 mm Luger) Mauser Bolo and Mauser Astra if so curious: how different he was from the "priest".
Interestingly, the Mauser’s Mspans were even thanked when Chile, Paraguay and others began to buy a Mauser?

[hohol95]

November 9, 1936 (according to other sources, November 16) the first I-16 fighters appeared in the sky of Madrid. And already on November 17, 1936, the I-16 suffered the first losses: ironically, the first I-16 was also shot down by the already known Angel Salas Larrazabal. Other sources claim that the first I-16, piloted by senior lieutenant Vladimir Bocharov, was shot down on November 13, 1936 by German pilots, and Bocharov himself was seriously wounded. According to one version, he died of wounds the next day, was brutally killed on the other, and his chopped-up remains were dumped on a parachute on a box or canvas bag over the Barajas airport in Madrid on November 15, 1936. However, as the well-known test pilot Mark Gallay, who was trying to study this issue, wrote who exactly was in that box or bag, it is impossible to establish reliably and documentally - from November 10 to 13, 1936, at least ten Soviet aviation pilots died or disappeared over the territory of the enemy could drop anyone.

So the simple Spaniards were guilty?

[kalibr]

All Mausers are in the photo above. I didn’t hold pistols in my hands.

[John22]

The pistols indicated by you had offal, like that of a priest, and the external surroundings were distinguished by trifles.

[Royalist]

V.O.u you always have good illustrations and now Spanish with rifles .. It is a pity that there is no photo of the police officer, and therefore I have to trust your taste.
Someone like that, but I liked the little Spanish girl in a cap and a rifle on his shoulder: fun.
I look at old photographs and sometimes ask myself: what happened to the fate of one or another person?
I remember in my childhood I sometimes came across old photographs where a person was thoroughly retouched or a man was cut off, and I was fed "fairy tales about a pockmarked bull": an unsuccessful photo or something else, but I felt some kind of secret. So here: we can only broadly assume what happened to this smiling Spanish woman

[3x3zsave]

In the group photo (below), she is the far right. Judging by the background, they were photographed in one day and in one place. I think, with a certain perseverance, you can find out the name and fate of the girl.

[Kot_Kuzya]

Why are the Spaniards in the photo so similar to the Jews?

[hohol95]

The consequences of the Arab occupation of the Iberian (Iberian) peninsula from the first half of the 8th century (period 711-718) to 1492!

[Kot_Kuzya]

Do Arabs look like Jews?

[hohol95]

Among the peoples who inhabited Spain in the Middle Ages, one of the most numerous was Jews. X-CP centuries were the golden age of Spanish Jewry. Islamic rulers, very tolerant of Judaism, made Jews their personal doctors, viziers, advisers, and ministers. It was to the Jews that both Arabs and Christians addressed during diplomatic negotiations. Since the main occupation of the Jews was trade, it was usually they who were considered the richest people. Several medieval synagogues have survived in Toledo and Cordoba. Jews called Spain Sephardim and are still called Sephardic Jews of the South and East. In Spain, prominent Jewish philosophers and writers lived - Yehuda Halevi and Maimonides (a monument to him was erected in Cordoba).
The "decline" of Spanish Jews began in the XNUMXth century, after the advent of the fanatical Almohads, who proposed three ways for Jews and Christians: conversion to Islam, eviction, or death. Most Jews fled the country, including Maimonides, who moved to Egypt with his family.

Christian states treated Jews with apprehension, especially during the Crusades, but no persecution until the 12th century. they did not lead. Jews served in Christian troops, worked as doctors, teachers, could hold any position. In Toledo, for example, XNUMX thousand Jews lived; mainly with their money and the war was conducted with the Moors. A historical novel by L. Feuchtwanger “The Spanish Ballad” was written about Toledan Jews and the attitude of Christians towards them.
But after ousting the Arabs from the peninsula and establishing the Inquisition, the days of Spanish Jews were numbered. Even Yitzhak Abrabanel, the Minister of Finance at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, could not prevent the royal decree on the expulsion of Jews, issued in 1492 at the insistence of the great inquisitor Torquemada. All Spanish Jews - about 200 thousand - were to leave the country. The happiest of them were those who fled to Turkey; Sultan Bayazet said that, having expelled the Jews, Ferdinand "made his country poor and enriched ours."