Franco-Spanish WWI stuff

by A K Church, Friday, May 26, 2023, 06:11 (483 days ago) @ JimT

The French shut down production of their Model 1892 service revolver sometime during WWI, to free up the manpower and arsenal space to produce Berthier rifles.

Kicker being, with the advent of the newer form of trench warfare, the huge need of handguns on all sides became rapidly apparent. I don't think there has ever been a war where handguns were used as much as WWI.

The French went to Spain to produce a huge number (maybe over a million) of the .32 ACP "Ruby" pistol. Quality on these ranged from decent to awful, with a lot more awful than good ones. Short lifespan, poor metallurgy and a lack of interchangeability, but the French needed pistols RIGHT NOW, and Spain provided.

What would become Star also sold a much better .32 auto to France.

But more to the point, France also bought smaller numbers of Spanish made Smith Hand Ejector copies chambered in the French 8mm revolver cartridge. These were referred to as the Modele 92 Espagnole. Oddly enough I've never seen a photo of them in use in WWI, but I have seen photos of Vichy police with them in WWII.

The Spanish also sold sort of Webley, sort of S&W Model 3 copies in .455 to the British, the same sort of revolver in 10.4 Bodeo to the Italians, Bodeo copies to the Italians, and a proprietary revolver design to Romania.