Today on Gus’ Gear I present a selection of flare pistols used during the Great War. Flare pistols were used for signaling as well as to provide illumination at night.
This is an example of the German Hebel Model 1894 flare pistol. It fires a 26.5mm flare cartridge which is the most common caliber for European flare pistols. This pistol has Belgian proof marks, indicating it was used by Belgian forces, but in all other aspects it is identical to the German issued flare pistols. The lever visible beneath the trigger guard is the release to open the action. The barrel pivots forward and down in the same manner as a top break shotgun, allowing the cartridge to be chambered and then the barrel is returned to the closed position and it locks automatically. The hammer is then cocked by hand and it is ready to fire.
This is an example of the German ersatz flare pistol, referred to as the Kommandantur Lille Leuchtpistole. These were manufactured in occupied Belgium during the war and are of a crude construction. This fires the 26.5mm flare cartridges. To open the action on this pistol, a button on the right side is pushed forward to release the catch and then the barrel is rotated up and to the left on the hinge visible just above the front of the trigger guard. Once the cartridge is inserted, the barrel is rotated back to the closed position and the barrel locks in place automatically. The knob on the back is the firing pin and when it is pulled back to cock the pistol is ready to fire. The spring loaded catch doubles as an ejector for the spent cartridge. It is shown with two used German manufactured flare cartridges that were recovered from a battlefield on the eastern front.
German pistols were made of steel due to a shortage of brass because Germany didn’t have a source of tin to alloy with copper to make it. The German military had to use all available brass to manufacture cartridges and artillery casings.
This is an example of a British Webely & Scott #1 MKIII* Very pistol (named for Edward W. Very, who developed the single shot flare pistol) manufactured by Cogswell & Harrison dated 1917. It fires 1 inch (4 gauge) cartridges and has a flared muzzle guard to protect the user from the muzzle blast. This is another top break pistol, the catch is visible just below the hammer on the left side of the pistol, the action locks when the action is closed, the hammer must be cocked by hand and when the pistol is cocked, it is not possible to open the action without lowering the hammer or firing the pistol. It is shown with a primed but unloaded 1 inch flare cartridge. British flare pistols were generally constructed of brass.
This is an example of the French Mle 1917 flare pistol, also constructed mostly of brass. It is a top break action, the latch is the long lever on the left side below the barrel, when it is moved to point straight down, the action is unlocked, once the pistol is loaded and the action is closed, the lever must be returned to the forward position to lock the action. This pistol has an aggressive ejector for the fired cartridge. This pistol is listed in references as using a 25 mm cartridge. The 4 gauge, 1 inch, 25 mm and 26.5 mm cartridges are all interchangeable. I suspect that the French measure the size of the projectile and the Germans measure the size of the cartridge.
This is the U.S. Army Remington MKIII flare pistol. It utilizes 10 gauge flare cartridges (approximately 20mm) and has a brass frame with a steel barrel. The button on the left above the trigger is depressed to open the action and it locks when closed and the hammer must be cocked manually. It is shown with a canvas holster and three 10 gauge cartridges, the top is white, the middle is red and the bottom is green.
This is a close up of the flare cartridges, the white cartridge has a bump in the middle of the wad that closes the cartridge, the red one has a raised bar and the green one is flat, this allows the soldier to tell what color the cartridge is even in the dark, when it was most likely that it would be needed, to tell what color he was going to launch. Different colors would have a predetermined meaning with the supporting artillery or reserves and using the correct color would be very important.