A periscope rifle is a rifle that has been adapted to enable it to be sighted by the use of a periscope. This enables the shooter to remain concealed below cover. The device was independently invented by a number of individuals in response to the trench warfare conditions of the First World War, and while it is not clear which army was the first to use periscope rifles, the weapons were in use by the end of 1914. [1]
Similar devices were also built for use with machine guns. [2] [3] In 1916, another similar device was patented for use with pistols. [4]
The first periscope sighting rifle attachment was the Youlten hyposcope invented by William Youlten. An early version of the attachment was tested in 1903, receiving its first patent in 1914. Its maximum range was 600 yards (550 m). [6] [7] [8]
A form of periscope rifle was invented in May 1915 during the Gallipoli campaign by an Australian soldier, Lance Corporal, later Sergeant, William Beech (1875–1929), a builder's foreman in civilian life. [9] At that time, Beech was serving in the 2nd Battalion, Australian Imperial Force (AIF). The device allowed a soldier to aim and fire a rifle from a trench without being exposed to enemy fire. [10] Beech modified a standard Lee–Enfield .303 rifle by cutting the stock in half. The two halves were re-connected with a board and mirror periscope, horizontally aligned to the sights of the rifle, as well as a string to pull the trigger, which allowed the rifle to be fired from beneath the line of fire. According to the testimony of John Adams, a private who served with Beech, the idea came to Beech after the traumatic experience of seeing the bodies of fellow soldiers shot through the head. [9]
Beech's device was quickly copied by other members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC). It saw extensive use in the intense trench warfare of Gallipoli, [11] where some lines of trenches – such as at Quinn's Post – were within 50 metres (160 ft) of one another. According to a Gallipoli campaign participant, Sir David G. Ferguson, the use of conventional rifles during daytime was abandoned in favour of periscope rifles. [12] It was generally regarded as significantly less accurate than a conventional Lee–Enfield, although the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 states it was accurate to 200–300 yards (180–270 m). [9] A test conducted on the TV documentary series The Boffin, the Builder and the Bombardier suggested that the effective range was approximately 100 yards (91 m). [13] However, during the Gallipoli campaign, a reduced effective range was not a significant problem as in many sectors, the Turkish and Allied trenches were close together. Some were only five yards apart. [14]
Periscope rifles were later manufactured in crude production lines on the beach at Anzac Cove. Field Marshal Sir William Birdwood described the invention as one of considerable importance during the Gallipoli campaign. In 1921, the British War Office awarded Beech £100 for the invention [9] (around £4,000 in 2015, when adjusted for inflation).
Two Lee–Enfield periscope adaptations were patented in September 1915. The first by J.E. Chandler was able to fire a full magazine before being dismounted, thanks to a fairly complicated mechanism to operate the bolt. The second by G. Gerard was of a similar design. [16] This was followed by E.C. Robert Marks' design in 1916 [17] and the patents of M.E. Reginald and S.J. Young in 1918. [18] [19]
On the Western Front, periscope rifles were used by the Belgian, [20] British [21] and French armies, [22] whereas on the Eastern Front, a periscope version of the Mosin–Nagant rifle was used by the Imperial Russian Army. [23]
A number of periscope rifles including the "Elder" and the "Cameron-Yaggi" for the M1903 Springfield were devised in the United States. The Cameron-Yaggi was invented in 1914, but development of the model came to an end after the Armistice in November 1918. [24] The Cameron-Yaggi mounting required no permanent alteration to the fitted rifle, [25] and included a mechanism to operate the rifle's bolt. The aiming periscope also functioned as a 4-power telescopic sight. [26] However, only around 12 were constructed. [25]
The Cameron-Yaggi and Elder designs could be fitted with an enlarged magazine with 25 rounds, [27] [26] [15] so as many shots as possible could be fired without needing to dismount the rifle below the trench parapet for reloading. [25] An even more ingenious American design was the Guiberson periscope rifle, which featured a pop-out stock with a built-in periscope. [28]
The Dutch designed the M.95 Loopgraafgeweer (Trench gun) based on the Dutch Mannlicher service rifle. It saw service with the Royal Netherlands Army from 1916 until World War II. [29]
Bolt-action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by directly manipulating the bolt via a bolt handle, most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the firearm. The majority of bolt-action firearms are rifles, but there are also some variants of shotguns and handguns that are bolt-action.
The Mosin–Nagant is a five-shot, bolt-action, internal magazine–fed military rifle. Known officially as the 3-line rifle M1891 and informally in Russia and the former Soviet Union as Mosin's rifle, it is primarily found chambered for its original 7.62×54mmR cartridge.
The Lee–Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the standard service rifle of the British Armed Forces from its official adoption in 1895 until 1957.
A periscope is an instrument for observation over, around or through an object, obstacle or condition that prevents direct line-of-sight observation from an observer's current position.
Technology during World War I (1914–1918) reflected a trend toward industrialism and the application of mass-production methods to weapons and to the technology of warfare in general. This trend began at least fifty years prior to World War I during the American Civil War of 1861–1865, and continued through many smaller conflicts in which soldiers and strategists tested new weapons.
The Ross rifle is a straight-pull bolt action rifle chambered in .303 British that was produced in Canada from 1903 until 1918.
The Battle of Hill 60 was one of the last major assault of the Gallipoli Campaign. It was launched on 21 August 1915 to coincide with the attack on Scimitar Hill made from the Suvla front by Major-General H. de B. De Lisle's British IX Corps, Frederick Stopford having been replaced in the few days previous. Hill 60 was a low knoll at the northern end of the Sari Bair range which dominated the Suvla landing. Capturing this hill along with Scimitar Hill would have allowed the Anzac and Suvla landings to be securely linked.
The Pedersen device was an experimental weapon attachment for the M1903 Springfield bolt action rifle that allowed it to fire a .30 caliber (7.62 mm) pistol-type cartridge in semi-automaticfire mode. The attachment was developed to allow an infantryman to convert "their rifle to a form of submachine gun or automatic rifle" in approximately 15 seconds.
A battle rifle is a service rifle chambered to fire a fully powered cartridge.
The New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade was a brigade of the New Zealand Army during the First World War. Raised in 1914 as part of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, it was one of the first New Zealand units to sail for service overseas.
A stripper clip is a speedloader that holds several cartridges together in a single unit for easier and faster loading of a firearm magazine.
The Berdan rifle is a single-shot rifle created by American engineer and inventor Hiram Berdan in 1868. It was the service rifle of the Imperial Russian Army from 1870 to 1891, when replaced by the Mosin–Nagant rifle. The gun was widely used in Russia as a hunting weapon, and sporting variants, including shotguns, were produced until the mid-1930s. The Russian Berdan I (M1868) and Berdan II (M1870) rifles of .42 caliber are distinct from the Spanish Berdan 15 mm (0.591 in) conversion rifles adopted by Spain as the M1857/67 Berdan.
The Rifle, .303 Pattern 1914 was a British service rifle of the First World War period, principally manufactured under contract by companies in the United States. It was a bolt-action weapon with an integral 5-round magazine. It served as a sniper rifle and as second-line and reserve issue, until declared obsolete in 1947. The Pattern 1914 Enfield was the successor to the Pattern 1913 Enfield experimental rifle and the predecessor of the U.S. Rifle M1917 Enfield.
The origins of the modern British military rifle are within its predecessor the Brown Bess musket. While a musket was largely inaccurate over 100 yards (91 m), due to a lack of rifling and a generous tolerance to allow for muzzle-loading, it was cheap to produce and could be loaded quickly. The use of volley or mass firing by troops meant that the rate of fire took precedence over accuracy.
James Paris Lee was a British Canadian inventor and arms designer. He is best known for having invented the Lee Model 1879 rifle, which is the first bolt-action detachable box magazine-fed rifle. These features would be incorporated into more successful repeating rifle designs later on, such as in the Lee–Metford and Lee–Enfield rifle series.
William Charles Scurry, was an Australian soldier who invented the self-firing "drip rifle" while serving as a private in the Gallipoli campaign during the First World War. He was decorated for his invention and was later commissioned and served as an officer during the fighting on the Western Front, where he commanded a mortar battery before being wounded in action.
Quinn's Post Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery from World War I in the former Anzac sector of the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey. The battles at Gallipoli, some of whose participating soldiers are buried at this cemetery, were an eight-month campaign fought by Commonwealth and French forces against Turkish forces in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war, to relieve the deadlock of the Western Front (France/Belgium) and to open a supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea.
The third attack on Anzac Cove was an engagement during the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War. The attack was conducted by the forces of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, against the forces of the British Empire defending the cove.
The battle for No.3 Post was fought during the Gallipoli Campaign in the First World War, between the forces of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade and the Turkish 19th Division.