RetroWARTHINK 012: Allied Lightning Troops in WW1?

U.S. ARMY Cavalry Trooper during a Pistol Charge

Surely, we could have developed rifle-caliber-defeating Hard Body Armor (HBA) in WW1 and weaponized these Lightning Troops with Mauser Pistol/Carbines SCL & PRELM fed as Phil proposes... 

SGT York of the 82nd "All American" Division in WW1 had a M1903 Springfield bolt-action rifle and a .45 ACP and captured German Luger 9mm pistols to wipe-out the Germans in their trenchlines. Though the movie has some errors like actor Cooper firing his rifle twice without cycling the bolt, it accurately shows him and his men crossing "No Man's Land" and producing no enemy suppressive fire resulting in at least half the men being mowed down by German heavy machine guns. When he began rifle picking-off Germans along the trenchlines, he stays at a safe stand-off so he could operate its bolt action. A stripper clip loading is shown once, but once his 5x rifle shots were used up he WENT TO HIS SEMI-AUTOMATIC PISTOLS in order to fire fast enough to get the charging Germans before they got him. 

SGT York WW1 Battle Scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmRRhxo0RHc

Clearly, the Allies needed Semi-Automatic Rifles (SARs) so they could generate "walking fire" to suppress enemies ahead yet the British Army refused to field them, the French created bad SARs and fortunately the Germans toyed with pistols with large magazines. The American BAR arrived at WW1's end and was the game-changer that should have been upgraded with pistol grips, fluted barrels, SCLing, side or top magazine loading etc.

combatreform.org/lightmachineguns.htm

Moreover, HBA-wearing horse Cavalry troops could have employed Mauser Pistol/Carbines as the art work at the top depicts that firing this pistol cartridge didn't spook horses to throw their riders who still had 1 hand/arm free to securely hold the reins controlling their horse. Why the U.S. ARMY horse Cavalry didn't use a .45 ACP pistol with shoulder stock is a puzzling question... 

Colt M1911A1 .45 ACP with Shoulder Stock Holster Combo

Inglis Shoulder Stock Holster Colt 1911A1 .45 ACP 1911

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XhVhGvMpwk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Cavalry

A horse cavalry rifle squad consisted of a corporal and seven privates in two sets of four. One of the privates acted as the squad's second-in-command (2IC). Each set of four consisted of a squad leader or 2IC, a scout, a horseholder and a rifleman. Mounted troopers would attack with their pistols; at the command 'charge', troopers would shorten their reins, lean well forward and ride at full speed toward the enemy. Each trooper would select a victim to his immediate front and bear down on him with his pistol extended at arm's length, withholding fire until within 25 yards. When fighting on foot, troopers would dismount taking their rifles from the scabbards mounted on their horses. The horseholder would then take control of the other troopers horses in the set of four while the three dismounted troopers operated on foot.

The 10th Mountain Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop of the 10th Mountain Division, while not designated as U.S. Cavalry, conducted the last horse-mounted charge of any U.S. Army organization while engaged in Austria in 1945.[18] An impromptu pistol charge by the Third Platoon was carried out when the Troop encountered a machine gun nest in an Italian village/town sometime between 14–23 April 1945.

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German foot Stormtroops used 9mm Luger pistols with stocks and beaucoup 32-round snail drum magazines...

Chinese Army Pistol Charge in WW2

Philip West writes:

"Potentially, some time around 1915, someone around might have looked at what was actually happening on the battlefield and said: 'Let's leave these rifles in the trenches for the snipers and marksmen. It's the Lewis guns and grenades that are doing the real work. Why not give the former riflemen grenades and some of these Mauser pistols with stocks? They shoot as accurately as a rifle, as far as you can see a target. When you don't need them, they pack into a compact package you can carry on your belt or thigh. And should you need a pistol, you just use it without the stock.' (trivia: Churchill carried a C96 Mauser in the Sudan and thought highly of it)

Of course, this never happened, although some individuals did follow this route. In China, however, thousands of Mauser pistols and copies were used instead of rifles and served very well. The design evolved a little. There were .45 versions, selective fire and models with 20 round detachable box magazines that could still be reloaded by the 10 round strip. But for the most part, the potential of the broomhandle was ignored, since all this was happening deep in China. The Mauser's 7.63 round gives a performance close to that of the later M1 carbine round. Having the magazine before the trigger would have allowed the design to utilize a slightly longer cartridge, perhaps something more powerful and/or larger calibre, a rimless .357 magnum, perhaps."

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9mm Mauser Variant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauser_C96

The Mauser C96 (Construktion 96)[7] is a semi-automatic pistol that was originally produced by German arms manufacturer Mauser from 1896 to 1937.[8] Unlicensed copies of the gun were also manufactured in Spain and China in the first half of the 20th century.[8][9]

The distinctive characteristics of the C96 are the integral box magazine in front of the trigger, the long barrel, the wooden shoulder stock which gives it the stability of a short-barreled rifle and doubles as a holster or carrying case, and a grip shaped like the handle of a broom. The grip earned the gun the nickname "broomhandle" in the English-speaking world, because of its round wooden handle, and in China the C96 was nicknamed the "box cannon" (Chinese: 盒子炮; pinyin: hézipào) because of its rectangular internal magazine and the fact that it could be holstered in its wooden box-like detachable stock.[10]

With its long barrel and high-velocity cartridge, the Mauser C96 had superior range and better penetration than most other pistols of its era; the 7.63×25mm Mauser cartridge was the highest-velocity commercially manufactured pistol cartridge until the advent of the .357 Magnum cartridge in 1935.[11]

Within a year of its introduction in 1896, the C96 had been sold to governments and commercially to civilians and individual military officers.

The Mauser C96 pistol was extremely popular with British officers at the time, and many purchased it privately. Mauser supplied the C96 to Westley Richards in the U.K. for resale. 

Winston Churchill was fond of the Mauser C96 and used one at the 1898 Battle of Omdurman and during the Second Boer War; Lawrence of Arabia carried a Mauser C96 for a period, during his time in the Middle East.[8][16] 

M1917 Mauser trench carbine

Prototype Mauser Trench Carbines

This model featured an extended stock and barrel similar to the M1896 Kavallerie Karabiner. It also possessed a 40-round magazine and was chambered in 9×19mm Parabellum. The M1917 Mauser trench carbine was introduced during World War I and was intended as a cheaper replacement for the expensive Lange Pistole 08 in close-quarters combat.

Indian Revolutionary Ram Prasad Bismil and his partymen used these Mauser pistols in the historic Kakori train robbery in August 1925. Chinese Communist General Zhu De carried a Mauser C96 during his Nanchang Uprising and later conflicts; his gun (with his name printed on it) can be viewed in the Beijing war museum.

Three Mauser C96s were used in the killing of Spanish prime minister Eduardo Dato in 1921, and a Mauser C96 was used in the assassination of the King of Yugoslavia Alexander I of Yugoslavia in 1934.

Imported and domestic copies of the C96 were used extensively by the Chinese in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, as well as by the Spanish during the Spanish Civil War and the Germans in World War II.[9][17]

Author Ian Fleming outfitted agents of SMERSH in the James Bond series with Mausers on the advice of firearms expert Geoffrey Boothroyd.[52] A C96 was modified to form Han Solo's prop blaster pistol for the Star Wars films (under the name BlasTech DL-44 heavy blaster pistol).[8]


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We can achieve the same pistol/carbine things today by the USW folding shoulder stock for the U.S. ARMY M17/P320 pistol...

James Bond: Shoulder-Stock P320 9mm Pistol (M17)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUJ0UPERfsk

James Bond is REAL.