Today for Gus’ Gear are a few rifle mounted barbed wire cutters. A number of different devices were developed to cut wire. Barbed wire is still a widely used defensive weapon and difficult to clear for an attack.
Shown here are three main battle rifles equipped with a wire breaker or wire cutter mounted. The top rifle is a French Mle 1886 M93 Lebel rifle with a simple device that would hold the wire in front of the muzzle so it could be broken by firing a cartridge. The problem with this system is the pointed bullets would push the wire aside without breaking it. This problem was solved by removing the bullets and reversing them so they would strike the wire with the blunt back of the bullet. This created another problem when the Germans found unfired reversed bullets. The Germans used it as propaganda to condemn the French, British, Italian and Russians who all used this type of wire breaker at some time. I suspect that is a reason that the use of this type of wire cutter was discontinued.
The second rifle is a Russian Mosin-Nagant 1891 rifle with a pivoting wire cutter attached. The wire would be gathered on the top of the rifle behind the cutter and then the rifle would be pulled back, this caused the cutter to rotate up and forward which would close the jaws, cutting the wire. There are several different types of Russian rifle mounted wire cutters and all that I have observed work by pulling the rifle against the wire to cut it. Another type mounts on the bottom of the rifle and rotates down to cut.
The bottom rifle is a British S.M.L.E No. 1 MK III with a wire cutter mounted. The wire could be gathered on the top of the bayonet, and it would feed into the wide jaws of the cutter, then the soldier would apply forward pressure to the wire and the cutter would rotate up and back, closing the cutting jaws. If more wire was in the jaws than could be cut, the rifle would be moved to the rear and the jaws would open again and the process could be repeated. There is photographic evidence that this type of wire cutter was employed late in the war.
A close-up photo of the French wire breaker shows the v-notch that holds the wire in front of the muzzle for cutting. It is a very simple and cheap tool, but due to the problems with pointed bullets pushing the wire out of the way, they were not used long. This example is dated 1916.
This Russian wire cutter is a recovered example, but still in working condition. There is a wing nut that is used to tighten the clamp on the end of the rifle and the wire can be gathered on the top of the rifle to guide it into the jaws. I have tried this cutter and it does cut a single strand without trouble, but the wire does not feed naturally into the jaws without concentrated effort. I was unable to cut more than a single strand, but I suspect that the jaws are not as sharp as they were before the corrosion of one hundred years happened. The mechanism is not as smooth as it would have been when it was issued. Also, the application of a lubricant would help. One problem with this design is that when pulling the rifle back to cut, it is possible for the wire cutter to slip forward on the rifle and could easily fall off after multiple cuts. If the bayonet is installed, this does provide a little barrier to the cutter coming off in use.
It has come to my attention that this style of cutter was manufactured in Manchester UK.
The British wire cutter is connected to the rifle with a wing nut, it utilizes the bayonet to direct the wire into the jaws, and this works very well without any real effort. This cutter cuts through a single strand of wire very easily and without much more effort it cuts two strands of wire. This example is dated 1917.
