World War 1 Firearms. Who built and used what and why?

Colt. You have to know how this company evolved to understand why Americans both love and hate this company. They screwed up massively during WWI and have continued to screw up down to the present.

First, the founder, Sam Colt, was a sociopath with a fondness for blowing things up and running away from his mistakes. The company seems to have inherited its founder's proclivities as its business model.









American Civil War era Colt revolver this is. This is the American cavalry "club" for Unreconstructed Confederates.



You have NO IDEA how evil Samuel Colt was. I am firmly convinced that he murdered or arranged to have his brother "suicided" in that alleged jailbreak and suicide. Then Colt's mistress was married off to that Prussian drunk, Frederick von Oppen, who became Colt's "Belgian business agent" was the cherry on that manure wedding cake that led to the 1877 Colt revolver.  Yikes.



General Franklin, the bozo, who Burnside rightly credited as the one who screwed up the Battle of Fredericksburg and who was cashiered as a result is added to this disgusting story.     



This is the larger brother to the 1877. More salacious Colt details are included with this gun. 



The Filipinos were teaching the Americans some needed lessons about how not to govern a nation. One of those lessons was the Colt "manstopper". Call it a kinetic solution to a Moro bolo induced headache to stupid American army lieutenants. 

The chief item of interest about the Philippine Model Colt is this idiot.



 William Crozier. He is the reason the Philippine model Army Colt was service function "unacceptable" due to his incompetent technical oversight. The trigger pull was unbelievable. You had to be a gorilla to work the trigger pull. This was the worst American revolver of the late 19th century. Moros would be murdered by shotguns instead of pistols.    
 
 

 

Montgomery Sicard, admiral USN, contracted malaria, went insane and talked to his pet plant, a potted fern or palm, (I think he named it, M.), during the Spanish American War, but while he was Bu-Ord Actual from 1881 to 1890 laid down the successful New Steel Navy programs that the imbecile, William Sampson, would screw up after he left, but this poor overlooked navy guy, while he was doing that sterling service for the Republic obtaining decent guns and ships, managed to include the Colt pistol as part of his legacy.  The army would screw it up, but somehow; I just know that Sampson had a hand in it somewhere.     

But refer to the Spanish American War and the Filipino American War for why this Colt failed and was replaced by the Smith and Wesson 1901. The gun will work on until John Browning makes nonsense of all of this Colt history with his auto-pistols.

Colt is not done with revolvers for WWI, yet.



Colt rips off the French, specifically Francois Galland. Their "Greek Model" is probably IP theft. It was only fair that it became a circular theft with the Spanish stealing this design and then selling it to the French who originated the design in the first place.

 

Another weird revolver.



The Japanese "borrowed" heavily from two of the best gun designers on the planet...

The geniuses behind the Chamelot-Delvigne, the Swiss revolvers and the American geniuses behind the Smith and Wesson Model 3 top-break inspired the Japanese.









Yeah, the French, the Belgians, the Swiss and those guys in Connecticut are the granddaddies of the first Japanese wheel gun.