vetterli rifle, question

Hi there!
Can anyone tell me if the roumanian troops used in ww1 the swiss Vetterli rifle?
In Kiritescu's volumes "Istoria Razboiului pentru Reintregire", there is a paragraph in which he says something about this rifle and its "famous" bayonet being used by roumanian soldiers with great succes (some units). Or, as far as I know, the Vetterli rifles where, somehow, obsolete for that time.
Is this the only statement about this weapon in the roumanian army?
How many units used this rifle?
And, if they were truly in our arsenal, is there a picture of them, along with its bayonet?
Thanx

In autumn 1916, Romanian army received from Italy about 123,000 rifles “Vetterli-Vitali” Md. 1870/87, 10.4 mm caliber. They were distributed to the troops in October-November 1916 in order to replace the single-shot “Henry-Martini” rifles, which equipped some reserve and militia battalions and also to round the infantry equipment after the heavy looses of the first months of campaign. The “Vetterli-Vitali” rifle was already an obsolete weapon with a primitive four cartridge magazine. It was most criticized by the Romanian soldiers because it easily got stuck after a few rounds. The soldiers still preferred the old but very efficient “Henry-Martini” rifles.
The “Vetterli-Vitali” rifles were withdrawn from service in 1917, when the French rifles were delivered in grand quantities.
This weapon is on display on the National Military Museum weapons exhibition.



http://www.militaryrifles.com/Italy/ItalVetVitali.htm

Thank you Kepi!

I wonder why they ordered in the first place those rifles, having the experience with the Martini-Henry rifle. This rifle was nicknamed among the troops the "pusca cu pruna" meaning " plum-firing rifle" (becouse of the caliber). And this rifle had also drawbacks becouse it also got stuck quite often and the cartridge did not fired.

In what I have seen on the net, the special thing about this Vetterli rifle (and probably that is why Kiritescu mentioned it), was the long blade bayonet, which, in the hand of an attacking soldier, was meant to create havoc.

I've just found this older topic and thought that some pictures with the Vetterli-Vitali Md. 1871 bayonet from my collection will be useful. Indeed, this bayonet is an awesome sight, measuring 64 cm overall with a blade length of 51 cm.

Unfortunately, my bayonet isn't in the best of shapes and the leather scabbard was missing when it entered the collection

So let the pictures do the talking.





The markings: Terni arsenal on ricasso and KI 9738 serial on crossguard:

Amazing! I have never seen this type of bayonet before. Not even at the local collectors. Only in books.
Great aquisition!

Thank you, Andi. It really is an outstanding bayonet. It really dwarfs all the others in my collection. Time to find a french Chassepot. Those yataghan bayonets look mean too...

Yes indeed, but so far I have never seen a Chassepot bayonet in Romania either.
...not that I would be surprised to find one....and I expect a big price for it...

Hi,

Can you post a picture with the 10,4 m.m. bullet and another one? Just for fun... I want to see how big it was. In one of my (unpublished on paper) alternative histoy storys i wrote about those weapons... (a story Turtledove-like, with alien invasion in first world war time line; in that scene, one alien POW in Romania, was guarded with soldiers who used Vetterli-Vitali long bayonets and those terrible bullets - romanians named "pusca cu pruna" ).

Iama

Hi Iama.
All I have is the photo with the 11.43mm rimmed Henry-Martini cartridge. Check the Small arms, daggers & uniforms section, "Wandering the battlefields" topic, 4-th page.

for Andi: Any yataghan bayonet could furfill my needs. Had a chance to buy this one from the original owner for 110 EUR http://www.okazii.ro/catalog/2685837/obiec....html#div_photo, but at the time money was in short supply And it seems the guy who bought it wants to get himself a small fortune from selling it...

for Iamandi: go to http://www.municion.org/ and search "10.4 x47R Vetterli 1870". They have a few pictures - indeed, those bullets can pack a punch...