Tore’s Tuesday. Brother from another mother – The P14 and M1917 rifles.
Quite often I see pictures showing the main battle rifles of WWI posted in different groups, and for the British it is the Lee-Enfield No 1 Mk III, which is correct, and for the Americans they show the M1903 Springfield, which is not quite as correct. Allow me to elaborate.
During the Boer war the British had problems with the Boers accurate long range fire from their 7mm Mausers. This was a problem they could not counter with their .303 ammunition. So, the brits wanted to experiment with smaller caliber high velocity ammunition, and their aim was to replace the .303 permanently.
The solution they found was the .276 Enfield cartridge, a powerful round. So, they developed the P13 experimental rifle, and with it the P13 bayonet. However, as WWI broke out, the brits realized that changing their standard caliber in the middle of a war would be a logistical nightmare. So, they decided to have the new rifle made in their standard .303 instead, and thus the P14 rifle was born. The Pattern 1914 rifle was mainly manufactured in the United States, due to lack of sufficient production capacity in the United Kingdom.
So, the P14 was manufactured by Eddystone, Winchester and Remington. At first standardization was poor, so parts were not easily interchangeable, and therefore a letter before the serial number indicated what manufacturer had made it. These problems were eventually sorted out. A little more than 1.2 million such rifles were made.
Then, in 1917, the United States entered the war. Their standard rifle was the M1903 Springfield, but they did not have enough to equip their expeditionary force with those. Neither did they have the capacity to make as many as they needed. However, they took over the already established production of the British P14 rifle, had the caliber changed to 30-06, and used the rifle as US Model 1917.
So, about 2.2 million such rifles were made, and about 75% of the American Expeditionary Force were equipped with these. So, in actuality, the main US battle rifle of the war was the US M1917.
These rifles are heavy beasts, but the sights were revolutionary, far better than on other period guns. They are very accurate and so quite a few were utilized as sniper rifles.
As we all know, history did not stop in 1918, and both types of rifles travelled far and wide into other conflicts. The P14 ended up in use by several armies, in Estonia for instance. Many were in use in Latvia, and those would later turn up in the Spanish Civil War on the government side. During WWII Norway got a number of P14. In the Lend Lease program Britain got a number of M1917 for Home Guard use, but with the 30-06 caliber that created a headache for the brits. So, post WWII Norway traded their P14s to the brits in exchange for the M1917. Then we traded the M1917s to Denmark in exchange for some M1 Carbines, so the M1917 is very hard to find here these days.
I am planning to do a follow-up blog on the P13 and M1917 bayonets next time, as there are some interesting stories and variations of those. Did you ever wonder why there are parallel grooves cut in the grips of those bayonets? Well, stay tuned for next Tuesday’s blog.