During the Franco-Prussian war of 1870/71, the Prussians defeated the French and helped to continue years of hatred between the French and Germanic peoples that culminated in extremely harsh penalties at the end of WWI and led to the rise of the Nazis and WWII. During this conflict, the French had what was arguably the best rifle in the world at the time, the Chassepot while the Prussians were still using the 20 year old Dreyse 'needle gun'. As often happens, this was a war won by better strategy, leadership, and tactics and not by who had the best weapons.

Following the war there was a movement in the Prussian/German army to make sure that their soldiers had the best weapons and so began the development of several rifle designs that eventually led to the Mauser military rifles, guns that would be considered the best of their kind for half a century.

As with all weapons the gun went through several designs that resulted in improvements, many of which were the result of field use in battle. Eventually the Mauser 98 series was produced (as in 1898), and this became the staple of the German army through World War I and World War II. It was also heavily produced under license in other countries, making it probably the most produced rifle in the world. So influential was the design that the US Springfield 1903, used by the US Army for decades, was considered to have infringed on the Mauser patent so the US was required to pay licensing fees to Mauser for every gun produced. It is estimated that in Germany alone, 14 million Kar98k rifles were produced from 1898 until production stopped in 1945. Millions more were produced overseas bringing the total to over 100 million rifles. At one time, half the armies in the world were issued these rifles.

In line with other books in this series, the author provides us with a background to the rifle, its development and subsequent use in various conflicts from the Spanish American War of 1898 to the Arab-Israeli War of 1973 and even later in smaller conflicts in the Balkans, Africa and the Middle East. The author provides information on training to use the gun, what it is like to fire it and how its use impacted future gun developments. It all makes for a great book that a military history fan will want on his or her book shelf.

July 2015

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