WW1 weapons?

What were the weapons used by the Romanian Army in WW1? I know that Romania used 1892 and 1893 Mannlicher rifles and carbines in 6.5mmX 53 rimmed caliber. But, I have no idea what pistols , and machine guns were used by the Romanian Army.

Steyer 8mm 1912 revolver
Maxim mg
Schwastzlose 8mm???

C-2, I have done some research on the Steyr M1912. The caliber is 9mmSteyr which is somewhat more powerful than the 9mm parabellum(Luger). It loads from a stripper clip similar to the Mauser C-96. It is a very reliable weapon and gave excellent service in the field. Romania ordered some 25,000 pistols for use in WW1. The Germans converted a number of these fine pistols to 9mm Parabellum and used them in WW2. Garry Owen!

The Steyr was still in use in the Romanian army during WW2, as the sidearm of the LMG-gunner

This tank commander has a Steyr

Victor, Thanks for that information, I have a firearms dealer looking for a Steyr M1912 for me. I hope to add one to my collection soon. Dragos, what a great picture, fantastic shot of the Steyr!!! Garry Owen!!!!!!

Hotchkiss 8mm M1914 machinegun was also used.

[quote]Victor, Thanks for that information, I have a firearms dealer looking for a Steyr M1912 for me. I hope to add one to my collection soon. Dragos, what a great picture, fantastic shot of the Steyr!!! Garry Owen!!!!!![/quote]

The photo is from a Signal magazine.

According to an old source, the artillery used 1908 Krupp 75 mm guns, 105 mm howitzers and 155 mm Schneider howitzers.

I find this informations in "Istoria infanteriei romane" [The history of romanian infantry]vol. 2, Ed Stiintifica si Enciclopedica, Bucuresti 1985:

At the begginig of WW1 the main rifle of romanian infantry was Mannlicher md 1893 cal 6.5 mm (373 936 pieces) with an effective range of 600 m, practical rate of fire- 8 - 10 rpm, 6.5 kg weight. The majority of them was manufactured in Austria by Steyr. This rifle was called as "romanian system" becouse of changes wich make it different than the other Mannlicker rifles.

In summer of 1916 the romanian army was in possesion of only 574 machine guns - Maxim cal 6.5 mm md 1910 and only (161 was fixed MGs into fortificated positions - so only 413 MGs suitables for normal combat actions) 100 000 grenades Savopol wich didn t worked very well durring the 1916 campaing.

So, a romanian infantry battalion was equiped only with 1 or 2 MG - and a german one, in the same year was equiped with 6 - 8 MG, around 12 LMG s, 4 mine throwers and enough grenades ...

In winter of '916 - '917 the romanian army received from France 262 000 Lebel rifles cal 8 mm, (wich equiped 1th Army divisions and 1st, 3th and 12th divisions from 2nd romanian army), 1760 St. Etienne and Hotchkiss MGs, 2 628 LMG, 1 300 000 grenades / and from UK, 197 Vickers MGs and 108 LMGs.

I have no ideea about the caracteristics of Lebel rifles, St. Etienne MG, I don t know what types of LMG was recived ... I

Even the Italians used 6.5 calibre rifles, in both world wars, the Mannlicher Carcano 91, an italian design (Carcano) with the austrian Mannlicher type loading system.

Regarding pistols used by romanians during WW1 ,beside Steyr 1912 (the romanian one can be easy recognised by the royal crest on the left side of the slide),there are some revolvers provided by the French: St.etienne revolver Md.1892 and Pieper Bayard Md.1915 both 8mm Armee caliber ,and a spanish copy of the top break open S&W revolver in .380 caliber.A spread of calibers wich is a curse for a regular army(logisticaly )
The 1893 Romanian Mannlicher rifle was not the only.The stright pull 1895 Mannlicher version in 8mm cal was used too,along with the Lebel 1892 and the Berthiez mod.1907/15 (both in 8mm Lebel)

The Berthier and Lebel rifles were provided by the French but the straight-pull Mannlicher 1895 in the 8x56 rimmed round must have been captured (the M.95's were the main K.u.K. rifles and carbines)... Or were they instead bought before the war?

Ruy

This post has been edited by Ruy Aballe on December 10, 2004 08:49 pm

You are right.Huge quantities of stright pull Mannlichers were captured from hungarians and distributed to romanian soldiers

Just for fun

This post has been edited by Petre on May 07, 2017 10:38 am