--- title: 5 Obscure WWI Weapons description: "Having had a little peek down our analytics it appears that you all, the folks of *fine* taste that you are, just might have a little penchant for firearms content, and seeing as how we here on Sideprojects always aim to please—pun intended—here's another such video for your enjoyment; this is Five Obscure WWI Weapons. Let's begin!\n\n## The Mondragón M1908\n\nOur first entry today is the first semi-automatic rifle to both be adopted by a military, and to see combat: the Mondragón M1908. Designed by Mexican General Manuel Mondragón, hence the name, and manufactured by SIG in Neuhausen, Switzerland, it was initially chambered in 7×57mm Mauser, then the standard rifle round of the Mexican Army—although efforts to both tinker with the design and market it to more countries would also see models made that were chambered in everything from 7.5×55mm Swiss to .30-30 Winchester. Really niche cartridges even in their day, never mind now.\n\nIt was also quite the overengineered thing, as early examples of technologies often do tend to be, featuring a *very* robust action that employed a long-stroke gas piston system underneath the barrel—that is, a type of action that actuates the bolt via a whopping great operating rod that gets pushed by high pressure gases released during a cartridge's combustion.\n\nAware that semi-automatic rifles of his day could be a touch finicky, however, Mondragón also included a gas cutoff that would physically lock up the gas piston and prevent it from cycling—allowing it to be used as a straight pull bolt action should quality ammunition that could reliably cycle it prove hard to come by.\n\nThe bolt design is pretty tarty too, particularly for an early semi-auto rifle, and it uses dual sets of rotating locking lugs both at the front *and* the rear of the bolt—locking lugs being \"arms,\" for want of a better term, that firmly hold the bolt in place and keep it sealed tight, which is handy for making sure the gas goes down the barrel to push the round with maximum whack, and not straight back into the operator's face.\n\nAs is also the case with many early semi-auto rifles, it uses an internal magazine, specifically a 10-round one, fed through either stripper clips of five rounds or individually by hand, although larger magazines with capacities of 20 and 30 rounds were also made.\n\nAs for its sights, they were the same as basically *every* military rifle of the era in that they were graduated sights that went out to a *very* optimistic distance—specifically 2,000 metres.\n\nAll in all, then, it was a pretty high-tech bit of kit for its time, but this didn't stop it from suffering from some real issues. For starters, it worked an absolute treat in the clinical conditions of a gun range, but out in the real world it turned out to be a tad mysophobic—as it really, *really* didn't like dirt. And remember what we said about it including a gas cutoff to use with bad ammo? Well, that turned out to be nothing if not prophetic, because the Mexican Army's ammo back then was utter garbage, and would fail to cycle the action more often than not. As a result of both of these issues, the Mexican Army cancelled its contract after only 1,000 units had been delivered.\n\nThis put SIG in quite the pickle, because they had already manufactured a further 3,000 of the things, and now they needed someone to flog them to. Luckily for them, however, WWI broke out but a moment later, which left them with no shortage of opportunities to be rid of them.\n\nIt would ultimately be the Germans who took them off of SIG's hands, but they very quickly learned exactly what the Mexicans had before them, and so using them in the trenches was quickly abandoned as an idea. The Air Force, however—yes; for there was nowhere less dirty than the sky! Thus, the extra 3,000 Mondragóns found their way to the back seats of various airplanes, where they would be used as self-defence weapons.\n\nThey worked an absolute treat there too, far away from ever so scary dirt, and fed by high quality German ammunition as they were. Soon though, with aviation technology progressing *very* quickly, they would find themselves obsolete following the adoption of synchronised forward-facing machine guns. Then, they were given to the Navy, because why not at that point—no one else had a use for them—and that's where they remained till the end of the war.\n\n## The Webley Self-Loading Pistol\n\nNext, we have another first, specifically the first ever semi-automatic pistol adopted by the British Military: the Webley Self-Loading Pistol. Oh, and if you happen to be wondering, \"self-loading\" is just an old-timey term for semi-automatic.\n\nWebley, in this instance, refers to Webley & Scott, a *very* famous British manufacturer of handguns, particularly revolvers, with a more notable model of theirs being the Webley Self-Extracting Revolver, which, in one form or another, was in service with the British Military for a whopping 103 years between 1887 and 1970.\n\nAs for the Self-Loader, it was designed by William Whiting, and is descended from a long line of early 20th century semi-automatic pistols made by Webley in an attempt to break into that then-nascent market. The first in its lineage was the Webley Model of 1904; a simply huge and hulking thing that went down about as well as a cup of cold sick on the commercial market. From there it was scaled down into a few models of \"pocket pistols.\" These had some modest success, but still left Whiting dissatisfied, for he knew that the *big* money was in landing a military contract.\n\nThis led to him putting together a prototype of what would become the Self-Loader, and then trying to flog it to the British Military. After *really* taking his time to perfect the design, his ego still bruised from the abject failure of the Model 1904, he submitted it for testing in 1909.\n\nThese initial trials went well. They liked the basic design of the thing, finding it to be reliable and handy enough, but they suggested a few additions to make it more to their liking, most notable of which was a magazine cut-off—literally a big slice of steel that physically blocks the magazine from feeding to the chamber. This *very* archaic idea was actually very much in vogue with the British Military at the time, and was also featured on early No.1 Mk.3 SMLEs, with the general premise being that it allowed a weapon to be loaded and discharged one round at a time to make a soldier *really* think about where he was putting his rounds, rather than blating away everything he had and costing the Military untold pennies in wasted rounds.\n\nFurther testing was then undertaken later in 1909, chief among which was a \"torture test\" of sorts where 1,254 rounds were put through the pistol in a range of failure-inducing conditions such as water immersion, sustained firing, and induced corrosion. This test went well, but unfortunately for Whiting, he couldn't do anything right at this point, as every different branch of the Military was giving him conflicting messaging as to what they wanted; the Navy, for example, *really* liked the grip safety, which prevented the pistol from discharging unless held in a proper firing grip, and the Army—they *hated* the grip safety, fearing it to be inherently unsafe—ironically.\n\nWhiting pushed on, however, and in 1910, a new set of trials saw it pitted against a Colt Model 1905 and a \"normal\" Webley Self-Extractor. It did *very* well here, blowing the Colt out of the water by proving itself to be more reliable and accurate. This finally saw the Navy put their money where their mouth was, and they put in an order for 1,000, which was then followed by them formally adopting it in February 1912. That order was fully delivered by September 1913, and the Navy, thoroughly chuffed with it by that point, had intended to go all in on it and make it their service handgun with a *big* order of them—but a little something happened the following year that scuppered those plans: WWI.\n\nThis changed everything, and suddenly, big and grand plans about completely shaking up the service's main handgun just were not on the table, and so their dream of fully adopting the Self-Loader was never realised. Production continued at a trickle, with a total of 8,050 of them being made by the time production finally ceased in 1919.\n\nMost of these ended up going to the Navy, who, despite now being reluctant to go all in on it, did find the spare cash to treat themselves to a crate or two of them from time to time. As for the rest, they found their way to the Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Flying Corps, both of whom put in some modest-sized orders as the war rolled ever on.\n\nOh, and if you're wondering how it worked, don't worry, we haven't forgotten. It worked using a short recoil action—that is, a mechanism where, upon firing, the barrel and bolt initially move backward together for a short distance before the barrel stops and the bolt continues to the rear to eject the spent cartridge and load a new one. As this is a *rather* common action, being seen on everything from Glocks to M1911s, it really isn't that exotic, despite its peculiar appearance—at least on a basic level.\n\n## The FN M1900\n\nFor our third entry we have another semi-automatic pistol: the FN M1900. It was actually one of *the* earliest semi-automatic pistols ever designed, having been designed all the way back in 1896 by none other than John Browning, who also created the M1911 and Hi-Power pistols, as well as the M1919 and M2 machine guns.\n\nAs for how it worked, it was a simple little thing, operating on a straight blowback mechanism—that is, by using the recoil energy of a fired cartridge to directly move the slide backward, with the slide's mass and recoil spring delaying the opening of the breech until the bullet exits the barrel. It also, quite peculiarly even by the standards of the day, and *especially* by modern standards, has its recoil spring positioned above the barrel, rather than below it—a choice that Browning thought would help manage recoil more effectively.\n\nBeyond that, however, it was actually quite a surprisingly modern thing, especially when one considers that its contemporaries included the stripper clip-fed Mauser C96, and the toggle-action-operated Borchardt C-93, which rather than a slide used an articulated \"arm\" of sorts that was pushed back under pressure to chamber another round after discharge. Particularly \"normal\" on the M1900 was its seven-round magazine that was inserted into the grips, and contained seven rounds of .32 ACP—which, unlike say the weird .455 Webley Auto round fired by the Webley Self-Loader, you can still happily find on the shelf today.\n\nIts first, and main, user was the Belgian Military, which adopted it the moment the first unit left the factory in 1899. It began to be marketed commercially the following year, hence its name, and this led to it finding its way *everywhere*, as it proved just a tad popular. A substantial number found their way to the German Army, for example, having been privately purchased by many officers prior to the outbreak of WWI.\n\nBut that is just the tip of the iceberg, as it is also known to have found its way to the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Militaries the same way—although seemingly in lesser numbers. We'd also bet money on the fact that some found their way to the British Military too, given how common privately purchased sidearms were in its officer corps, but we didn't find anything explicitly that stated this, and nor did we find any photos—so we aren't stating it as fact.\n\nWe *do* know that the French were quite partial to it, however, with it being well documented that it was used not just by their officers, many of whom were lucky enough to snag one on the commercial market, but by their enlisted trench raiders too, who were issued basically any pistol that the army could get its hands on.\n\nAnd all in all, it seems to have been very well appreciated by those who used it. It was compact, so didn't prove too intrusive to carry on one's person, and it proved reasonably reliable even in the muddy conditions of the trenches of the Western Front, where its slide, which kept much of its operating mechanism covered, led to it being far better suited than something like, say, the P08 Luger, which, courtesy of using a toggle action like the C-93, had its operating bits right up on top, out in the open, nice and vulnerable to picking up the assorted flotsam that built up in those horrific conditions.\n\n## The Frommer Stop\n\nNext, we have *another* pistol, but this time from the Austro-Hungarians, specifically the Frommer Stop, which was designed by the Budapestian arms designer Rudolf Frommer in 1912. It was adopted by the Austro-Hungarian Army that same year, who dubbed it the \"Pisztoly 12M.\"\n\nIt was distinctive for using a long recoil action, a mechanism where both the barrel and bolt move back for the entire length of the cartridge, rather than just for a short distance before separating, as in a short recoil action.\n\nThis isn't one that you come across much, either then or now, and *especially* not in a pistol, with it typically being the preserve of rifles such as the Remington Model 8 and shotguns like the Browning Auto-5.\n\nIt's also debatable how good it actually was—it was still a functional semi-automatic pistol in WWI, so it inherently had some utility and advantages just from that, but it was so overcomplicated that the troops reportedly hated having to strip and clean it, which often led to its maintenance being neglected, and thus its reliability suffering. It also didn't have a hold-open, meaning that when its magazine was emptied, the bolt would have to be fully re-cocked, costing the operator precious time that his enemy would be using to try and shoot him.\n\nAs for its use, it was always a niche thing, and was never *the* Austro-Hungarian service pistol, with it serving alongside an absolute mishmash of other designs such as the Steyr M1912 and Roth-Steyr M1907, but it did become more common as the war went on, due to it initially being in service just with the Honvéd, the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian Army, but later being rolled out to the rest of the military as Central Command got desperate and began buying bucket loads of *any* pistol that it could get its hands on—with a grand total of 130,000 of them having been procured come the war's end.\n\nA peculiar twist in its tale came in 1916, when an attempt was made to convert it into a machine gun in the style of the Italian Villar Perosa. This saw two of them mounted side by side on a common mount, and then fitted with extended barrels and extended 25-round magazines. Although novel, this idea proved to be something of a dead end, and a small, but unclear, number of them were made before the company turned its attention back to just pumping out the tried and tested \"normal\" pistol.\n\n## The Huot Automatic Rifle\n\nAnd to finish us off, we come full circle with another rifle, specifically the Huot Automatic Rifle, developed in Canada by Joseph Alphonse Huot.\n\nIt was an attempt to alleviate the crippling machine gun shortage that was then plaguing Canadian Forces by converting surplus Ross Rifles, which were originally straight pull bolt actions, into fully fledged machine guns.\n\nInitial design work began in 1916, the same year that the Ross Rifle was withdrawn from frontline service, and thus became available in *big* numbers. Eventually, after much fettling, Huot finalised on a design that saw 33 of the Ross' original parts retained, around which was added a gas piston system which would actuate the bolt, a new receiver to house it all, and the cooling shroud from a Lewis Machine Gun, which was meant to work by using the muzzle blast to suck air in through the back of the jacket and across the barrel. Further to that, Huot also added a 25-round drum magazine, and kept the original .303 calibre of the Ross Rifle.\n\nInitial testing began in late 1916. Through that Huot secured the support of the Canadian military and started refining his design under the supervision of the Government Small Arms Experimental Department. From there, with his idea polished up a bit, more serious testing began, with a 650-round test being carried out in February 1917, which, thanks to it going well, led into an intense endurance test the following month that saw 11,000 rounds put through the weapon. This went so well that Huot was summoned to England in January 1918, as a bigwig Canadian general had recommended that the Huot be adopted by the entirety of the Imperial British Military, and so they wanted to put it through its paces themselves at the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield.\n\nThis saw the Huot tested alongside the Lewis, Hotchkiss, and Farquhar-Hill light machine guns. The Huot performed impressively in several aspects, such as snapshooting from trenches and quick deployment. Fouling did prove to be a \"bit\" of an issue in these tests, however, as after 4,000 rounds had been fired, it needed to be cleaned and oiled to keep going, and was starting to show notable barrel wear after 10,000 rounds; but this was still better than the Lewis Gun managed—so the job was a goodun' as far as Huot was concerned.\n\nOne *major* thing it had going for it was cost, as converting a Ross Rifle, of which Canada specifically and the British Empire more generally had a metric shitload, cost a mere 50 Canadian dollars as compared to around one thousand Canadian dollars for manufacturing a whole new Lewis Gun, and if you know anything about British Military procurement—they love a bargain, they do.\n\nUnfortunately, however, while the poshos of British Military Command might have been so tight you could hear them walk, they were still creatures of reason ultimately, and so, when confronted with the Huot Automatic Rifle, cheap though it was, they looked at the 25-round magazine, which seemed awfully small compared to the 47-round pan that was plonked on top of the Lewis, they looked at its lack of a pistol grip, which made it a bit awkward to handle and manoeuvre, and they ended up passing on it, opting instead to just beef up production of the tried and tested Lewis Gun.\n\nMany, both then and now, say that this was quite the foolish move purely because of the cost difference; 50 dollars for an \"alright\" machine gun instead of 1,000 dollars for a banger of a machine gun is quite the tantalising prospect after all, but none were more annoyed about this than Huot himself, as he had sunk 30,000 dollars of his own money into the project, and with it being rejected, he received *nothing* in return. For years after the war he fought to get reimbursed, as it wasn't exactly like he submitted a joke proposal just to try to screw the War Office for a few quid, and eventually, in 1936, after 18 long years of fighting, he was compensated with 25,000 dollars—not even enough to cover the costs he incurred just trying to do his country a solid during wartime.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- The Mondragón M1908 was the first semi-automatic rifle adopted by a military, but it struggled with dirt and poor ammunition.\n- The Webley Self-Loading Pistol was the first semi-automatic pistol adopted by the British Military, but its full adoption was halted by WWI.\n- The FN M1900, designed by John Browning, was one of the earliest semi-automatic pistols and was widely used by various militaries.\n- The Frommer Stop, used by the Austro-Hungarian Army, had a complex long recoil action and was not favored by troops due to maintenance issues.\n- The Huot Automatic Rifle, developed in Canada, was cost-effective but rejected by the British Military due to its smaller magazine and lack of a pistol grip.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### What was the first semi-automatic rifle to see combat?\n\nThe Mondragón M1908 was the first semi-automatic rifle to both be adopted by a military and to see combat.\n\n### What was the first semi-automatic pistol adopted by the British Military?\n\nThe Webley Self-Loading Pistol was the first semi-automatic pistol adopted by the British Military.\n\n### Who designed the FN M1900?\n\nThe FN M1900 was designed by John Browning.\n\n### What was distinctive about the Frommer Stop's action?\n\nThe Frommer Stop used a long recoil action, where both the barrel and bolt move back for the entire length of the cartridge.\n\n### What was the Huot Automatic Rifle designed to address?\n\nThe Huot Automatic Rifle was designed to alleviate the crippling machine gun shortage that was plaguing Canadian Forces by converting surplus Ross Rifles into fully fledged machine guns.\n\n### What was the primary issue with the Mondragón M1908 in combat?\n\nThe Mondragón M1908 suffered from issues with dirt and poor-quality ammunition, which prevented it from cycling reliably.\n\n### How did the Webley Self-Loading Pistol perform in trials?\n\nThe Webley Self-Loading Pistol performed very well in trials, proving to be more reliable and accurate than the Colt Model 1905.\n\n### What was the main advantage of the FN M1900 in trench conditions?\n\nThe FN M1900's slide, which kept much of its operating mechanism covered, made it better suited for the muddy conditions of the trenches compared to pistols like the P08 Luger.\n\n### Why was the Frommer Stop not widely popular among troops?\n\nThe Frommer Stop was overcomplicated, leading to difficulties in maintenance and reliability issues, which made it unpopular among troops.\n\n### What was the cost advantage of the Huot Automatic Rifle?\n\nConverting a Ross Rifle into a Huot Automatic Rifle cost only 50 Canadian Dollars, compared to around 1,000 Canadian Dollars for manufacturing a new Lewis Gun.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [Original Side Projects video: 5 Obscure WWI Weapons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lSAp36pm60)\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://sideprojects.pub/article/5-obscure-wwi-weapons.md canonical: https://sideprojects.pub/article/5-obscure-wwi-weapons datePublished: 2026-06-25 dateModified: 2026-06-25 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://sideprojects.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: Side Projects image: "https://media.sideprojects.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,height=900,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/9lSAp36pm60/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: edc23e59889eaf962eeb91c9e05788f8b9d05fc6edcd53894508d9e2b2fd659c tokens: 5457 summaryUrl: https://sideprojects.pub/article/5-obscure-wwi-weapons.md.summary.md --- Having had a little peek down our analytics it appears that you all, the folks of *fine* taste that you are, just might have a little penchant for firearms content, and seeing as how we here on Sideprojects always aim to please—pun intended—here's another such video for your enjoyment; this is Five Obscure WWI Weapons. Let's begin! ## The Mondragón M1908 Our first entry today is the first semi-automatic rifle to both be adopted by a military, and to see combat: the Mondragón M1908. Designed by Mexican General Manuel Mondragón, hence the name, and manufactured by SIG in Neuhausen, Switzerland, it was initially chambered in 7×57mm Mauser, then the standard rifle round of the Mexican Army—although efforts to both tinker with the design and market it to more countries would also see models made that were chambered in everything from 7.5×55mm Swiss to .30-30 Winchester. Really niche cartridges even in their day, never mind now. It was also quite the overengineered thing, as early examples of technologies often do tend to be, featuring a *very* robust action that employed a long-stroke gas piston system underneath the barrel—that is, a type of action that actuates the bolt via a whopping great operating rod that gets pushed by high pressure gases released during a cartridge's combustion. Aware that semi-automatic rifles of his day could be a touch finicky, however, Mondragón also included a gas cutoff that would physically lock up the gas piston and prevent it from cycling—allowing it to be used as a straight pull bolt action should quality ammunition that could reliably cycle it prove hard to come by. The bolt design is pretty tarty too, particularly for an early semi-auto rifle, and it uses dual sets of rotating locking lugs both at the front *and* the rear of the bolt—locking lugs being "arms," for want of a better term, that firmly hold the bolt in place and keep it sealed tight, which is handy for making sure the gas goes down the barrel to push the round with maximum whack, and not straight back into the operator's face. As is also the case with many early semi-auto rifles, it uses an internal magazine, specifically a 10-round one, fed through either stripper clips of five rounds or individually by hand, although larger magazines with capacities of 20 and 30 rounds were also made. As for its sights, they were the same as basically *every* military rifle of the era in that they were graduated sights that went out to a *very* optimistic distance—specifically 2,000 metres. All in all, then, it was a pretty high-tech bit of kit for its time, but this didn't stop it from suffering from some real issues. For starters, it worked an absolute treat in the clinical conditions of a gun range, but out in the real world it turned out to be a tad mysophobic—as it really, *really* didn't like dirt. And remember what we said about it including a gas cutoff to use with bad ammo? Well, that turned out to be nothing if not prophetic, because the Mexican Army's ammo back then was utter garbage, and would fail to cycle the action more often than not. As a result of both of these issues, the Mexican Army cancelled its contract after only 1,000 units had been delivered. This put SIG in quite the pickle, because they had already manufactured a further 3,000 of the things, and now they needed someone to flog them to. Luckily for them, however, WWI broke out but a moment later, which left them with no shortage of opportunities to be rid of them. It would ultimately be the Germans who took them off of SIG's hands, but they very quickly learned exactly what the Mexicans had before them, and so using them in the trenches was quickly abandoned as an idea. The Air Force, however—yes; for there was nowhere less dirty than the sky! Thus, the extra 3,000 Mondragóns found their way to the back seats of various airplanes, where they would be used as self-defence weapons. They worked an absolute treat there too, far away from ever so scary dirt, and fed by high quality German ammunition as they were. Soon though, with aviation technology progressing *very* quickly, they would find themselves obsolete following the adoption of synchronised forward-facing machine guns. Then, they were given to the Navy, because why not at that point—no one else had a use for them—and that's where they remained till the end of the war. ## The Webley Self-Loading Pistol Next, we have another first, specifically the first ever semi-automatic pistol adopted by the British Military: the Webley Self-Loading Pistol. Oh, and if you happen to be wondering, "self-loading" is just an old-timey term for semi-automatic. Webley, in this instance, refers to Webley & Scott, a *very* famous British manufacturer of handguns, particularly revolvers, with a more notable model of theirs being the Webley Self-Extracting Revolver, which, in one form or another, was in service with the British Military for a whopping 103 years between 1887 and 1970. As for the Self-Loader, it was designed by William Whiting, and is descended from a long line of early 20th century semi-automatic pistols made by Webley in an attempt to break into that then-nascent market. The first in its lineage was the Webley Model of 1904; a simply huge and hulking thing that went down about as well as a cup of cold sick on the commercial market. From there it was scaled down into a few models of "pocket pistols." These had some modest success, but still left Whiting dissatisfied, for he knew that the *big* money was in landing a military contract. This led to him putting together a prototype of what would become the Self-Loader, and then trying to flog it to the British Military. After *really* taking his time to perfect the design, his ego still bruised from the abject failure of the Model 1904, he submitted it for testing in 1909. These initial trials went well. They liked the basic design of the thing, finding it to be reliable and handy enough, but they suggested a few additions to make it more to their liking, most notable of which was a magazine cut-off—literally a big slice of steel that physically blocks the magazine from feeding to the chamber. This *very* archaic idea was actually very much in vogue with the British Military at the time, and was also featured on early No.1 Mk.3 SMLEs, with the general premise being that it allowed a weapon to be loaded and discharged one round at a time to make a soldier *really* think about where he was putting his rounds, rather than blating away everything he had and costing the Military untold pennies in wasted rounds. Further testing was then undertaken later in 1909, chief among which was a "torture test" of sorts where 1,254 rounds were put through the pistol in a range of failure-inducing conditions such as water immersion, sustained firing, and induced corrosion. This test went well, but unfortunately for Whiting, he couldn't do anything right at this point, as every different branch of the Military was giving him conflicting messaging as to what they wanted; the Navy, for example, *really* liked the grip safety, which prevented the pistol from discharging unless held in a proper firing grip, and the Army—they *hated* the grip safety, fearing it to be inherently unsafe—ironically. Whiting pushed on, however, and in 1910, a new set of trials saw it pitted against a Colt Model 1905 and a "normal" Webley Self-Extractor. It did *very* well here, blowing the Colt out of the water by proving itself to be more reliable and accurate. This finally saw the Navy put their money where their mouth was, and they put in an order for 1,000, which was then followed by them formally adopting it in February 1912. That order was fully delivered by September 1913, and the Navy, thoroughly chuffed with it by that point, had intended to go all in on it and make it their service handgun with a *big* order of them—but a little something happened the following year that scuppered those plans: WWI. This changed everything, and suddenly, big and grand plans about completely shaking up the service's main handgun just were not on the table, and so their dream of fully adopting the Self-Loader was never realised. Production continued at a trickle, with a total of 8,050 of them being made by the time production finally ceased in 1919. Most of these ended up going to the Navy, who, despite now being reluctant to go all in on it, did find the spare cash to treat themselves to a crate or two of them from time to time. As for the rest, they found their way to the Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Flying Corps, both of whom put in some modest-sized orders as the war rolled ever on. Oh, and if you're wondering how it worked, don't worry, we haven't forgotten. It worked using a short recoil action—that is, a mechanism where, upon firing, the barrel and bolt initially move backward together for a short distance before the barrel stops and the bolt continues to the rear to eject the spent cartridge and load a new one. As this is a *rather* common action, being seen on everything from Glocks to M1911s, it really isn't that exotic, despite its peculiar appearance—at least on a basic level. ## The FN M1900 For our third entry we have another semi-automatic pistol: the FN M1900. It was actually one of *the* earliest semi-automatic pistols ever designed, having been designed all the way back in 1896 by none other than John Browning, who also created the M1911 and Hi-Power pistols, as well as the M1919 and M2 machine guns. As for how it worked, it was a simple little thing, operating on a straight blowback mechanism—that is, by using the recoil energy of a fired cartridge to directly move the slide backward, with the slide's mass and recoil spring delaying the opening of the breech until the bullet exits the barrel. It also, quite peculiarly even by the standards of the day, and *especially* by modern standards, has its recoil spring positioned above the barrel, rather than below it—a choice that Browning thought would help manage recoil more effectively. Beyond that, however, it was actually quite a surprisingly modern thing, especially when one considers that its contemporaries included the stripper clip-fed Mauser C96, and the toggle-action-operated Borchardt C-93, which rather than a slide used an articulated "arm" of sorts that was pushed back under pressure to chamber another round after discharge. Particularly "normal" on the M1900 was its seven-round magazine that was inserted into the grips, and contained seven rounds of .32 ACP—which, unlike say the weird .455 Webley Auto round fired by the Webley Self-Loader, you can still happily find on the shelf today. Its first, and main, user was the Belgian Military, which adopted it the moment the first unit left the factory in 1899. It began to be marketed commercially the following year, hence its name, and this led to it finding its way *everywhere*, as it proved just a tad popular. A substantial number found their way to the German Army, for example, having been privately purchased by many officers prior to the outbreak of WWI. But that is just the tip of the iceberg, as it is also known to have found its way to the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Militaries the same way—although seemingly in lesser numbers. We'd also bet money on the fact that some found their way to the British Military too, given how common privately purchased sidearms were in its officer corps, but we didn't find anything explicitly that stated this, and nor did we find any photos—so we aren't stating it as fact. We *do* know that the French were quite partial to it, however, with it being well documented that it was used not just by their officers, many of whom were lucky enough to snag one on the commercial market, but by their enlisted trench raiders too, who were issued basically any pistol that the army could get its hands on. And all in all, it seems to have been very well appreciated by those who used it. It was compact, so didn't prove too intrusive to carry on one's person, and it proved reasonably reliable even in the muddy conditions of the trenches of the Western Front, where its slide, which kept much of its operating mechanism covered, led to it being far better suited than something like, say, the P08 Luger, which, courtesy of using a toggle action like the C-93, had its operating bits right up on top, out in the open, nice and vulnerable to picking up the assorted flotsam that built up in those horrific conditions. ## The Frommer Stop Next, we have *another* pistol, but this time from the Austro-Hungarians, specifically the Frommer Stop, which was designed by the Budapestian arms designer Rudolf Frommer in 1912. It was adopted by the Austro-Hungarian Army that same year, who dubbed it the "Pisztoly 12M." It was distinctive for using a long recoil action, a mechanism where both the barrel and bolt move back for the entire length of the cartridge, rather than just for a short distance before separating, as in a short recoil action. This isn't one that you come across much, either then or now, and *especially* not in a pistol, with it typically being the preserve of rifles such as the Remington Model 8 and shotguns like the Browning Auto-5. It's also debatable how good it actually was—it was still a functional semi-automatic pistol in WWI, so it inherently had some utility and advantages just from that, but it was so overcomplicated that the troops reportedly hated having to strip and clean it, which often led to its maintenance being neglected, and thus its reliability suffering. It also didn't have a hold-open, meaning that when its magazine was emptied, the bolt would have to be fully re-cocked, costing the operator precious time that his enemy would be using to try and shoot him. As for its use, it was always a niche thing, and was never *the* Austro-Hungarian service pistol, with it serving alongside an absolute mishmash of other designs such as the Steyr M1912 and Roth-Steyr M1907, but it did become more common as the war went on, due to it initially being in service just with the Honvéd, the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian Army, but later being rolled out to the rest of the military as Central Command got desperate and began buying bucket loads of *any* pistol that it could get its hands on—with a grand total of 130,000 of them having been procured come the war's end. A peculiar twist in its tale came in 1916, when an attempt was made to convert it into a machine gun in the style of the Italian Villar Perosa. This saw two of them mounted side by side on a common mount, and then fitted with extended barrels and extended 25-round magazines. Although novel, this idea proved to be something of a dead end, and a small, but unclear, number of them were made before the company turned its attention back to just pumping out the tried and tested "normal" pistol. ## The Huot Automatic Rifle And to finish us off, we come full circle with another rifle, specifically the Huot Automatic Rifle, developed in Canada by Joseph Alphonse Huot. It was an attempt to alleviate the crippling machine gun shortage that was then plaguing Canadian Forces by converting surplus Ross Rifles, which were originally straight pull bolt actions, into fully fledged machine guns. Initial design work began in 1916, the same year that the Ross Rifle was withdrawn from frontline service, and thus became available in *big* numbers. Eventually, after much fettling, Huot finalised on a design that saw 33 of the Ross' original parts retained, around which was added a gas piston system which would actuate the bolt, a new receiver to house it all, and the cooling shroud from a Lewis Machine Gun, which was meant to work by using the muzzle blast to suck air in through the back of the jacket and across the barrel. Further to that, Huot also added a 25-round drum magazine, and kept the original .303 calibre of the Ross Rifle. Initial testing began in late 1916. Through that Huot secured the support of the Canadian military and started refining his design under the supervision of the Government Small Arms Experimental Department. From there, with his idea polished up a bit, more serious testing began, with a 650-round test being carried out in February 1917, which, thanks to it going well, led into an intense endurance test the following month that saw 11,000 rounds put through the weapon. This went so well that Huot was summoned to England in January 1918, as a bigwig Canadian general had recommended that the Huot be adopted by the entirety of the Imperial British Military, and so they wanted to put it through its paces themselves at the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield. This saw the Huot tested alongside the Lewis, Hotchkiss, and Farquhar-Hill light machine guns. The Huot performed impressively in several aspects, such as snapshooting from trenches and quick deployment. Fouling did prove to be a "bit" of an issue in these tests, however, as after 4,000 rounds had been fired, it needed to be cleaned and oiled to keep going, and was starting to show notable barrel wear after 10,000 rounds; but this was still better than the Lewis Gun managed—so the job was a goodun' as far as Huot was concerned. One *major* thing it had going for it was cost, as converting a Ross Rifle, of which Canada specifically and the British Empire more generally had a metric shitload, cost a mere 50 Canadian dollars as compared to around one thousand Canadian dollars for manufacturing a whole new Lewis Gun, and if you know anything about British Military procurement—they love a bargain, they do. Unfortunately, however, while the poshos of British Military Command might have been so tight you could hear them walk, they were still creatures of reason ultimately, and so, when confronted with the Huot Automatic Rifle, cheap though it was, they looked at the 25-round magazine, which seemed awfully small compared to the 47-round pan that was plonked on top of the Lewis, they looked at its lack of a pistol grip, which made it a bit awkward to handle and manoeuvre, and they ended up passing on it, opting instead to just beef up production of the tried and tested Lewis Gun. Many, both then and now, say that this was quite the foolish move purely because of the cost difference; 50 dollars for an "alright" machine gun instead of 1,000 dollars for a banger of a machine gun is quite the tantalising prospect after all, but none were more annoyed about this than Huot himself, as he had sunk 30,000 dollars of his own money into the project, and with it being rejected, he received *nothing* in return. For years after the war he fought to get reimbursed, as it wasn't exactly like he submitted a joke proposal just to try to screw the War Office for a few quid, and eventually, in 1936, after 18 long years of fighting, he was compensated with 25,000 dollars—not even enough to cover the costs he incurred just trying to do his country a solid during wartime. ## Key Takeaways - The Mondragón M1908 was the first semi-automatic rifle adopted by a military, but it struggled with dirt and poor ammunition. - The Webley Self-Loading Pistol was the first semi-automatic pistol adopted by the British Military, but its full adoption was halted by WWI. - The FN M1900, designed by John Browning, was one of the earliest semi-automatic pistols and was widely used by various militaries. - The Frommer Stop, used by the Austro-Hungarian Army, had a complex long recoil action and was not favored by troops due to maintenance issues. - The Huot Automatic Rifle, developed in Canada, was cost-effective but rejected by the British Military due to its smaller magazine and lack of a pistol grip. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What was the first semi-automatic rifle to see combat? The Mondragón M1908 was the first semi-automatic rifle to both be adopted by a military and to see combat. ### What was the first semi-automatic pistol adopted by the British Military? The Webley Self-Loading Pistol was the first semi-automatic pistol adopted by the British Military. ### Who designed the FN M1900? The FN M1900 was designed by John Browning. ### What was distinctive about the Frommer Stop's action? The Frommer Stop used a long recoil action, where both the barrel and bolt move back for the entire length of the cartridge. ### What was the Huot Automatic Rifle designed to address? The Huot Automatic Rifle was designed to alleviate the crippling machine gun shortage that was plaguing Canadian Forces by converting surplus Ross Rifles into fully fledged machine guns. ### What was the primary issue with the Mondragón M1908 in combat? The Mondragón M1908 suffered from issues with dirt and poor-quality ammunition, which prevented it from cycling reliably. ### How did the Webley Self-Loading Pistol perform in trials? The Webley Self-Loading Pistol performed very well in trials, proving to be more reliable and accurate than the Colt Model 1905. ### What was the main advantage of the FN M1900 in trench conditions? The FN M1900's slide, which kept much of its operating mechanism covered, made it better suited for the muddy conditions of the trenches compared to pistols like the P08 Luger. ### Why was the Frommer Stop not widely popular among troops? The Frommer Stop was overcomplicated, leading to difficulties in maintenance and reliability issues, which made it unpopular among troops. ### What was the cost advantage of the Huot Automatic Rifle? Converting a Ross Rifle into a Huot Automatic Rifle cost only 50 Canadian Dollars, compared to around 1,000 Canadian Dollars for manufacturing a new Lewis Gun. ## Sources - [Original Side Projects video: 5 Obscure WWI Weapons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lSAp36pm60) ## Related Coverage