Category: All About Guns
At the turn of the 20th century, Japan joined the race for the self-loading pistol, but the nation’s history of firearms goes back hundreds of years.
The first guns introduced were Portuguese arquebuses brought by merchants who found their way to Japan. Once Japanese blacksmiths developed and honed their craft they produced native guns. As the 20th century dawned and nations militarized, Japanese gun designers finally were catching up so that there would be less reliance on imported weapons. Kojirõ Nambu would be a key cog in the militarization of Japan.
Rock Island Auction Company’s May 13-15 Premier Auction features a broad array of Japanese firearms, from ornate matchlocks and arquebuses to often scarce and hard-to-find early 20th century pistols, and World War II machine guns.
Guns in Japan
Black powder guns arrived with Portuguese merchants in 1543, selling arquebuses to feudal lords. Arquebuses are an early matchlock firearm that didn’t require the user to manually ignite the powder charge. They were initially given as gifts or used for hunting, but they quickly became important weapons of war during the latter shogunate.
By 1563, guns were widely used in large battles, taken up by samurai’s foot soldiers. The Battle of Nagashino in 1575 was influential for its use of firearms as feudal lord Oda Nobunaga’s 3,000 arquebusiers helped turn the tide, stopping opposing infantry and cavalry. It is considered the first “modern” Japanese battle.
The first Japanese service rifle didn’t arrive until 1874. The first arsenal to produce weapons on a large scale was founded in 1871.
Two arquebuses are on offer in the Premier Auction. One has a number of interesting design elements, including brass, silver, and copper inlays in the breech section in the shape of koi fish, trees, and water while its breech plates form a samurai’s mask and helmet. The second arquebus has a raised mon – or crest – with two birds enclosed in a circle at the breech.
A matchlock pistol that likely dates from the Shogunate’s dominance of Japanese affairs (1600-1868) is also on offer in May’s Premier Auction. It features hammered and engraved silver as well as a gold and silver inlaid dragon in flight amongst silver clouds.
Grandpa Nambu
Nambu, considered the Japanese equivalent of legendary American gun designer John M. Browning, is a bridge between the shoguns and the modern weapons of the 20th century. His designs were a significant part of the Japanese arsenal during World War II. Nambu, whose father fought for a samurai in the 19th century, went to the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and served in the army, assigned to Tokyo Arsenal in 1897. It was at Tokyo Arsenal where he was promoted to major and started developing automatic pistols.
The Nambu Type A pistol was the first solo design undertaken by Nambu. The earliest Type A pistols, to about serial number 2,400, are colloquially known as a “Grandpa” Nambus. The rarest of the Type A pistols, it was produced starting in 1902, and chambered in 8mm. The pistol had a small trigger guard that made it difficult to use while wearing gloves, a fixed lanyard loop at the back of the pistol, and a slot in the back of the grip to accept a shoulder stock that converted to a wooden holster. They often had magazines with wood bases.
Most Grandpa Nambus were sold commercially to China and Siam – now Thailand.
Papa Nambu
The Modified Nambu Automatic Pistol Type A, considered the “Papa” Nambu, went into production in about 1906. They featured a larger trigger guard to accommodate a gloved hand, magazines with aluminum bottoms, and swiveling lanyard loops. It too was chambered in 8mm.
At the time, Japanese military officers were expected to purchase their sidearms, but the production cost of the “Grandpa” and “Papa” Nambus priced them too high for many junior officers. The Type A wasn’t adapted by the Japanese Army.
The Japanese Navy did adopt the Papa Nambus. About 4,600 were made before production ended in the mid-1920s.
Baby Nambu
Hoping to improve the design issues with the Type A pistols, Nambu debuted the Type B pistol or “Baby” Nambu in 1907. Trying to compete with smaller, more compact pistols from Europe and the U.S., the gun is lighter and smaller than the Type A, chambered in 7mm. It improved on some issues but still wasn’t formally adopted by the military despite praise from the army minister. The price remained too high for junior officers but was snapped up by senior officers who bought virtually all of them.
Production on the Baby Nambu ended in 1923 when the Great Kanto earthquake destroyed Tokyo Arsenal. Parts remained available so assembly continued until 1929. About 6,500 were made. The Type 14 pistol, also designed by Nambu and introduced in 1926, did become the standard issue sidearm for the military.
Gun designer Nambu, having been elevated to the rank of lieutenant general, left the military and created his own company in 1927. An example each of the Grandpa, Papa, and Baby Nambus are available in the May 13-15 Premier Auction.
What’s Your Type – of Machine Gun?
Nambu developed several light and heavy machine guns used by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II.
The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 convinced Japanese military leaders of the importance of machine guns to provide covering fire for advancing infantry. The Nambu-designed Type 11 light machine gun, like many of the Japanese machine guns, follow in the footsteps of the French Hotchkiss machine gun that is air-cooled and gas-operated. The Type 11 fired 6.5mm ammunition.
Adopted in 1922, the Type 11 was the first mass-produced Japanese light machine gun. It featured an oddly-shaped stock and a non-detachable hopper magazine instead of a removable magazine or a feed way for belt fed options. The hopper could hold up to six cartridge clips used with the standard issue Type 38 rifle. Unfortunately the light machine gun had a bad reputation with troops because the open hopper allowed in dust and grit, making it liable to jam in muddy or dirty conditions. To make matters worse, the system also used an integral pump to oil each round which tended to make things even gummier when dirt and grime got in the mix.
The Type 96 light machine gun, adopted in 1936, was similar to the Type 11, but its biggest improvement over its predecessor was that it had a removable box magazine. This improved reliability and lessened the gun’s weight. It also featured a folding bipod. Alas, it too fired 6.5x50mm Arisaka ammunition so it lacked stopping power for a weapon of its type, measuring approximately 1,966 fl/lbf. By comparison, U.S. machine guns firing .30-06 M1 ball at the time enjoyed a muzzle energy of 2,675 ft/lbf.
Despite plans to retire the Type 11, both guns saw action in World War II.
As World War II beckoned, the Japanese army wanted a more powerful light machine gun, so the Type 99 light machine gun was introduced in 1939. The gun was basically the same design as the Type 96 but chambered to handle a larger caliber, firing 7.7x58mm Arisaka ammunition (approx. 2,350 ft/lbf). The Type 99 was often issued to the best marksmen of their unit and occasionally used as a sniper rifle. It arrived too late in the war to have much impact.
The Type 99 eventually found its way into the weapon inventories of China, North Korea, and Taiwan.
The Woodpecker
Dubbed the “Woodpecker” by Allied soldiers for the stuttering noise it made, the Type 92 was a heavy machine gun that followed the Hotchkiss model with its air cooling and gas operation. The gun spit 7.7mm ammunition, but only at a rate of 400 to 450 rounds per minute because it used strip-fed ammo, rather than belt-fed ammo.
The standard heavy machine gun for the Japanese army in World War II, the Type 92 is distinguishable by the larger cooling flanges on the barrel. The gun’s tripod was designed with carrying poles so it could be transported by two to four soldiers. Usually manned by a team of three, the gun could also be fitted with an anti-aircraft sight.
Captured Type 92 machine guns were used by U.S. and Chinese forces. The gun was also used by the North Korean Army after World War II.
Knee Mortar
Japan also developed a grenade discharger in 1929 called the Type 89 that had a pipe-like rifled barrel attached to a small base plate. It was developed to extend the range of hand grenades and could also fire 50 mm artillery shells. Similar to a mortar but more primitive, it used a firing pin striking a primer to discharge the grenade or shell. It has a range adjusting assembly that moves the firing pin housing up and down regulating the weapon’s range by controlling the distance travelled through the barrel.
Japanese manuals captured at the time showed the weapon carried strapped to the leg above the knee, but not fired from it. Learning this, the Allies called the Type 89 the “knee mortar.”
The Type 89 had an effective firing range of about 130 yards. Set on the ground, it was operated by holding it at 45 degrees and the projectile is inserted into the barrel base, then fired. The 50mm shells were either high explosive, smoke, or incendiary versions. A single soldier could operate the Type 89, but a three-man crew could send off about 25 rounds per minute.
The Type 11, Type 92, Type 96, and Type 99 are available in the May 13-15 Premier Auction as is the Type 89 grenade discharger.
Japanese Ambassador Gun
One gun on offer in the Premier Auction this report doesn’t mention is a Colt New Model 1855 Revolving Percussion Full-Stock Military Pattern Rifle presented to Muragaki Norimasa, a Japanese ambassador, in 1858 after exchanging ratified copies of the Harris Treaty which opened up commercial and diplomatic privileges to U.S. trade. This important historic treasure will be touched on separately.
Shogun to Machine Gun
Rock Island Auction Company’s May 13-15 Premier Auction offers an eclectic mix of guns from Japanese history. They include a beautifully made matchlock and equally impressive arquebuses. A number of 20th century weapons show the legacy of weapon designer Kojirõ Nambu and his influence. These include scarce and exceptional semi-automatic pistols to some of the Japanese Army’s hard-to-find automatic firepower of World War II. For a collector looking to fill out some of these niches, the opportunity is yours.
Sources:
A look back at the Japanese Nambu Pistol, by Dave Campbell, www.americanrifleman.org
The Impact of Firearms on Japanese Warfare, 1543-98, by Delmer M. Brown, The Far Eastern Quarterly, 1948
Second World War Combat Weapons, Volume 2 – Japanese, W.H. Tantum IV and E.J. Hoffschmidt (editors)
Japanese Handguns, by Frederick E. Leithe
Type 89 heavy grenade discharger, by Jon Guttman, historynet.com
Japan’s Type 11 Light Machine Gun: The Worst Machine Gun of All Time? by Peter Suciu, nationalinterest.org
Have you ever pondered the miraculous design of the human digits? They are, in general, stubby, crude sorts of things. Anyone who has ever tried to remove a splinter without the aid of tools can appreciate their innate limitations. Human fingers are the archetypal blunt instruments to be sure. However, slave these stubby rascals to the human brain, the most refined computer in the known universe, and you have capabilities most remarkable.
Your brain weighs three pounds and is mostly fat. It consumes one-fifth of your body’s total energy output and contains about 100 billion neurons. With the world as its playground, the human brain has contrived some of the most wondrous machines.
World War I was the species’ rude introduction to warfare on an industrial scale. This unprecedented hemoclysm brought us such rarefied stuff as poison gas, the combat submarine, tactical aircraft, and belt-fed machineguns aplenty. It also saw the introduction of the German MP18, the world’s first viable handheld man-portable submachinegun.
Sixteen million corpses later, the First World War ground to a bloody halt, but not before fundamentally altering the way men killed each other. Absorbing the tactical and strategic lessons learned, all the combatant nations went home to lick their wounds and plan for the next Great War. For the defeated Germans desperate to acquire the refined implements of modern combat, this required some creativity.
Convoluted Origins
The Treaty of Versailles that ended WWI restricted German pistol-caliber firearms to no more than eight rounds onboard and barrels of four inches or less, the specific vital statistics of the infantry version of the P08 Parabellum Luger pistol. As a result, the German weapons manufacturing behemoth Rheinmetall simply meandered over to Switzerland and purchased the Swiss Waffenfabrik Solothurn Company in 1929.
Working in secret, German and Swiss engineers produced the prototype S1-100 submachine gun. As Solothurn was a design outfit without an expansive production base, Rheinmetall then purchased a controlling interest in the Austrian Waffenfabrik Steyr company. The resulting Steyr-Solothurn Waffen AG conglomerate produced the redesignated MP34 for both military and commercial markets.
Technical Details
The MP34 is a blowback-operated open bolt selective-fire submachine gun that weighs 9.9 lbs. fully loaded. The gun was chambered for the 9x19mm Parabellum, 9x23mm Steyr, 9x25mm Mauser, 7.63x25mm, 7.65x21mm, and even .45 ACP cartridges. Most of the guns remaining today fire Georg Luger’s Parabellum round.
The MP34 fed from the left side via 20- or 32-round magazines canted slightly forward for optimal feed geometry. A sliding switch on the left aspect of the receiver selects between semi and fully automatic modes of operation. The heavy steel barrel shroud is an absolutely beautiful thing liberally perforated and sporting a bayonet lug.
The magazine housing incorporated a curious device wherein an empty magazine could be locked in place from the bottom. Ammunition could then be quickly loaded via eight-round stripper clips charged from above. Absolutely everything about the gun is executed to a ludicrously refined standard of fit and finish.
The bolt of the MP34 sports an interesting rattail out its back that telescoped into a recoil spring assembly in the buttstock. A beautifully machined top cover pivoted upward in the manner of a belt-fed machinegun. All the gun’s major components to include the magazine well and buttplate were meticulously machined out of big chunks of forged steel.
The rigid cocking handle reciprocates with the bolt. It can be locked into a safety slot in the manner of the later MP40 as needed. Certain of the production guns also had a secondary bolt lock-up around the magazine well that secured the bolt in either the forward or aft positions. The sights are well protected up front, and the rear sight is optimistically adjustable for elevation out to 500 meters. Turning the barrel out with a wrench facilitates easy caliber changes, a radical and mostly superfluous capability for its day.
Combat Use
The Germans never had enough weapons to go around. The MP34 saw limited service with the Wehrmacht in the opening phases of WWII. The advent of the MP38 and MP40 soon pushed the MP34 to second-line users like police and security forces. However, the Waffen SS used the gun fairly extensively throughout the war.
Literally “Armed SS,” the Waffen SS or Schutzstaffel began as an offshoot of Hitler’s personal bodyguard. The Waffen SS was forever finding itself scrambling for small arms. The traditional German Army resented these black-clad thugs and released resources to them, at least early on, with great reluctance. As a result, the SS remained the most prolific operational user of the MP34.
Trigger Time
The MP34 is excessively heavy by modern standards, but this makes the gun thoroughly controllable. The gun easily stays on target even in long bursts. Firing semi-auto, the weapon remains monotonously accurate out to the effective range of the 9mm Parabellum cartridge.
The gun’s sedate 600 rpm rate of fire is simply mesmerizing. Singles and doubles are easy with a disciplined trigger finger. The bolt must be manually locked to the rear with each magazine change.
Ruminations
Despite their many well-documented moral failings, the Germans during World War II did contrive some of the world’s most extraordinary weapons. The MP34 was never suitable for mass production, but it served as an evolutionary stepping stone to simpler, more effective stuff down the road. In many ways the MP34 was like the Thompson gun on our side of the pond. Expensive, heavy, and unnecessarily onerous to produce in bulk, it was nonetheless available when needed.
Sporting undeniably beautiful lines and unimpeachable workmanship, the MP34 design philosophy oft employed three parts when but one might otherwise suffice. Regardless, the MP34 was both gorgeous and effective as a World War II submachine gun. In the mitts of the most repugnant villains of the modern age this classic Steyr submachine gun represented art amidst chaos.
Special thanks to worldwarsupply.com for the period replica gear used in the production of this article.
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Washington and Layfayette at Valley Forge
John Ward Dunsmore, circa 1907
The winter of 1777-1778 was a cold and bitter one for the battle-weary Continental Army at Valley Forge, as it contended with shortages of food, clothing and medical supplies and suffered from starvation, exposure and sickness. George Washington, the commander-in-chief, elected to winter over with his 12,000 troops, plus 400 women and children. During that time, he suffered deeply under the crushing weight of responsibility, not only for them, but also for the cause of the American Revolution.
Valley Forge was a military encampment more than two miles long, consisting of crude log huts, each one crowded with soldiers. During the course of six months (from December to June), Washington would watch as diseases such as influenza and typhoid claimed around 2,000 members of his force. In contrast, the British army, ensconced approximately 20 miles away in Philadelphia under Gen. William Howe, enjoyed much better conditions in warm colonial homes.
However trying those days were for Washington and his troops, during the ensuing months, positive developments eventually began to emerge, so the army that paraded forth in June 1778 was a better trained and equipped force than the one that had marched in during December the previous year. A number of factors would come into play during the course of the winter to promote that fact. Baron Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian military officer, provided important tactical training for the American troops, enabling them to successfully fight the British using European military tactics of battle and operate as a professional, unified army.
Washington was able to successfully thwart a subversive attempt by some of his officers to demote him from the commander-in-chief role, thereby bolstering his position and authority. He was also able to work with and convince the Continental Congress to procure much-needed supplies for his men. Another big boost came when France and the United States subsequently signed a treaty on Feb. 6, 1778, creating a military alliance between the two countries. That was a major and positive turning point in the revolutionary cause.
During the spring of 1778, probably sometime in early April, one event, seemingly insignificant compared to the whole backdrop of the Valley Forge experience, occurred in the life of George Washington that doubtlessly bolstered his spirits. A young American officer, Capt. Henry Fauntleroy, appeared at Washington’s headquarters near Valley Forge Creek, carrying a nicely finished walnut display case and bearing a letter from his brother-in-law, Thomas Turner. The letter, quoted as it was written, and dated March 22, 1778, reads:
Altho [Although] I have not the honor of being personally acquainted with your Excellency, nevertheless I am far from being a stranger to your distinguished merit, both in private and publick [public] life; your indefatigable zeal and unwearied attention to the true interest of your native country, since the commencement of these differences, must excite the warmest sense of gratitude in the breasts of every American that is not callous to the rights of humanity; That it may please the supreme Disposer of human events to crown you with success in this important struggle and speedily put an end to the distressing scenes of this unnatural war, is the fervent wish of your,
Excellency’s respectful + obedient h’ble [humble] servant.
Thomas Turner
March 1778
P.S. I have transmitted to your Excellency a pair of pistols & to your acceptance of which will confer a singular obligation on T.T.
Gifted to Washington by Thomas Turner while the general and his army overwintered at Valley Forge, both of the pistols have “Gen.l G. Washington” (inset) engraved onto a silver band on their grips.
Washington opened the display box, and, to his delight, found an exquisite pair of matched English pistols. Picking them up and admiring them, he then thanked and dismissed Capt. Fauntleroy, who would be killed by a cannonball on his 22nd birthday at the pivotal battle of Monmouth, N.J., in June.
On April 22, Washington picked up a quill pen, dipping it periodically in his inkwell, and composed this letter:
Sir,
Altho’ [Although] I am not much accustomed to accept presents, I cannot refuse one offered in such polite terms as accompanied the pistols & furniture you were so obliging as to send me by Capt. Fauntleroy. They are very elegant & deserve my best thanks, which are offered with much sincerity. The favorable sentiments you are pleased to entertain of me, & the obliging and flattering manner in which they are expressed add to the obligation & I am Sir, Yr [your] Most Obedt [obedient] & Most H: [humble] Serv [servant]
GW
Several days later, he wrote a letter of instruction to Capt. George Lewis:
Dear George,
I should be glad if you would let the enclosed [the thank-you letter to Harry Turner] go by a safe hand as is to thank Mr. Turner for an elegant pair of pistols and furniture which he obligingly made me a present of. I do not know where to direct to him, but believe he lives somewhere on Rappahannock, either near Leeds or above it. He is the son of Harry Turner, and I think married the sister of Captain Fauntleroy. I would not have the letter to miscarry … .
George Washington carried those pistols with him throughout the remainder of the American Revolution. Today, they reside on the second floor of the West Point Museum, featured in “The American Wars” gallery. Some time ago, my friend Larry Spisak and I were given the opportunity and privilege to examine and photograph them. It was an inspirational and educational experience.
The Washington pistols at West Point are a pair of identical, flintlock, silver-mounted, English pommel pistols (to be carried in holsters over a saddle’s pommel,) 14″ long in total length. The 8″-long, octagon-to-round brass barrels show clear British proofmarks and are stamped with the initials “RW,” which has been determined to be the touchmark for the London gunmaker Richard Wilson. The sideplates display motifs of lions and unicorns. Both of the grips have engraved silver bands with the name: “Gen.l G. Washington.” Hawkins, the name of a gunmaker, also from London, is engraved upon the lockplates. One interesting feature about the locks is that they are equipped with a sliding-tab safety, located underneath and behind the cocking mechanisms. This allows the guns to be safely carried cocked, loaded and primed. Both pistols, ergonomically, felt right at home in the hand and are in good enough condition that I believe they could be safely loaded and fired.
Colonel Thomas Turner, the original owner of the pistols, born in 1696, was a prosperous landowner in Virginia and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. He ordered them from London sometime in the mid-18th century, and when he died around 1758, left his estate to his grandson, also named Thomas. That’s because young Thomas’ father, Maj. Harry Turner, a clerk for King George County, had died earlier in 1751.
Milton F. Perry, a past West Point Museum curator, wrote in 1955, “Turner was the grandson of Thomas Turner, who died in 1758, and with whom the young Washington was well familiar. … in 1747, 15-year-old Washington played him [the grandfather] at billiards. It cannot be said that the justice (Colonel Turner) was taking advantage of the youth, for he lost a total of thirteen shilling to him. Apparently, Washington visited the (Colonel Thomas) Turner plantation, Walsingham, on the Rappahannock River, not a great distance from Mount Vernon, fairly often, even after the owner’s death.”
Washington owned these pistols into the twilight of his retirement. A few years before he died, however, he presented them as a gift to Bartholomew Dandridge Jr., the nephew of his wife, Martha, and his personal secretary for six years. They were very close friends. In a letter from Philadelphia, dated March 8, 1797, Washington wrote Dandridge:
My Dear Sir,
Your conduct during a six Years residence in my family, having been such as to meet my full approbation & believing that a declaration to this effect would be satisfactory to yourself & justice requiring it from me, I make it with pleasure. And in full confidence that the principles of honor, integrity & benevolence which I have reason to believe have hitherto guided your steps will still continue to mark your conduct, I have only to add a wish that you may lose no opportunity of making such advances in useful acquirements, as may benefit yourself, your friends and mankind. And I am led to anticipate an accomplishment of this wish when I consider the manner in which you have hitherto improved such occasions as have offered themselves to you.
The cares of life on which you are now entering will present new Scenes & frequent opportunities for the improvement of a mind desirous of obtaining useful knowledge, but I am sure you will never forget, that without Virtue & without integrity, the finest talents & the most brilliant accomplishments can never gain the respect or conciliate the Esteem of the truly valuable part of mankind. Wishing you health happiness and prosperity, in all your laudable undertakings, I remain Your Sincere friend & Affectionate Servt [servant]
Go: Washington
The author (l.) and Les Jensen, curator of arms and armor at the West Point Museum, stand before the Washington pistols.
After Dandridge died, his estate was put up for auction, and Col. Philip Marsteller, a close friend of Washington and one of six pallbearers at Washington’s funeral, purchased them. Marsteller would eventually will the guns to his son, Samuel. When Samuel passed away, the pistols were bequeathed to his sons, and when they died, their sister, Monnie, became the owner. A family dispute forced the pistols to be auctioned at that time, and the guns were sold to an arms collector named Francis Bannerman for $500. In 1914, they were sold to Edward Litchfield, and he kept them until 1951 when they were sold to a New York millionaire named Clendenin Ryan. It was Ryan who donated the pistols to the West Point Museum.
When Larry Spisak and I arrived at the museum, we were cordially met by Les Jensen, the museum’s curator, who guided us and the photo equipment to the room where we photographed the pistols. It was a bit tricky getting the pistols out of their display case and freed from the very tight security system, but, in the end, we got the images we came for.
In 1976, the United States Historical Society copied and made available 975 commemorative cased sets of the Washington West Point pistols, and they still show up at auctions. The West Point Museum has fabulous exhibits of firearms to view, including a pair of pistols that once belonged to Napoleon.
Handling a pair of pistols that once belonged to our first president seemed to bring me closer to the man and time period, including the struggles at Valley Forge and our War of Independence. I can imagine how they might have looked, holstered and secured to the pommel of Washington’s saddle. They were and are an exceptional work of art and artistry—a gift from a patriotic admirer for an exceptional man: George Washington!