Small Arms & Light Weapons (SALW)
Small arms are weapons designed for individual use, generally at the lower end of range of calibre for weapons of their kind–.50 calibre, or around 12 mm might be considered the upper limit for firearms. This includes pistols, rifles, shotguns, submachine guns and light machine guns.
Light weapons are those that are either designed to be used by a crew (although some may be carried and used by one person), or those weapons that shoot explosive projectiles or incendiary devices. This can include: general purpose & heavy machine guns, portable flamethrowers, light cannon, hand-held & underslung grenade launchers, rocket-propelled grenades, recoilless rifles, anti-tank rifles, portable rocket and missile launchers, mortars under 100 mm (4 inches) and Man-Portable Air Defence Systems (MANPADS).
Ammunition, explosives, land mines and hand grenades also fall into the SALW category.
Wheelock
Beneath the circular cover plate is a metal wheel with a grooved edge, roughened by a series of cross-cuts. The wheel was attached to a large and powerful v-spring by means of a short chain.
The hub of the wheel protrudes through the side plate and ends in a square shank which enables the user to rotate the wheel (and thus compress the spring) using a special spanner.
A small spring operated catch, called a sear, prevented the wheel from rotating. The edge of the wheel protruded through the bottom of the pan which held priming powder.
An angular metal arm called the dogshead or cock held a piece of iron pyrites against the edge of the wheel. When the trigger was pressed the sear was withdrawn allowing the wheel to rotate rapidly. Friction between the wheel and pyrites threw sparks into the pan and ignited the main charge.
Flintlock
The wheelock was a delicate and intricate mechanism, expensive and difficult to manufacture. Flint is harder than iron pyrites and gave more sparks with less wear.
A flintlock musket at full cock (ready to be fired) and in the act of striking sparks from the frizzen, which is opening to reveal the priming powder in the pan.
Exploded view of the components making up a typical Tower pattern pistol.
Ferguson flintlock rifle–one of the first breech-loading rifles adopted for service by the British Army, the Ferguson could achieve a high rate of fire for its time–between six and ten rounds per minute.
Invented by James Wilson in 1779, and named after Henry Nock, the manufacturer contracted to manufacture it, the Nock volley gun is a smoothbore seven-barrelled flintlock intended for ship to ship fighting.
Percussion
The early ignition systems meant that there was a delay, called hang fire, which could result in a target being warned of the shot to come. The Reverend Alexander Forsyth of Aberdeenshire was keen hunter and amateur scientist who turned his talents to the problem.
Fulminates are the salt residues produced when dissolving metals in acid. One of their properties was the tendency to explode when struck.
In itself, the explosion is too small to be able to propel a bullet but, a small quantity inside a little copper cylinder place on a tiny hollow tube leading to the chamber was enough to instantly ignite the main charge.
Paterson Colt
Probably the first “true” revolver in that it featured a single stationary barrel with a revolving five-shot cylinder.
The main charge; wadding and bullet are loaded from the front of the cylinder, while percussion caps are fitted to the nipples at the rear.
Winchester Rifles
Lever-action models of 1892, 1894 and 1895.
Marketed as “The Gun That Won The West”, the early Winchesters had a tubular magazine under the barrel that held between 7 and 14 rounds, depending on calibre. Probably the most popular chambering was 44-40, as this was also offered by Colt in its popular Single Action Army revolver (“Peacemaker”)
TekMat
Full colour cutaway illustrations produced for TekMat. Dye-sublimation printed onto a polyester/rubber gun cleaning mat.
Glock 17
The Glock pistol, sometimes referred to by the manufacturer as a Glock “Safe Action” pistol and colloquially as a Glock, is a series of polymer-framed, short recoil-operated, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Glock Ges.m.b.H., located in Deutsch-Wagram, Austria. It entered Austrian military and police service by 1982 after it was the top performer on an exhaustive series of reliability and safety tests.
M1911
Designed by John Moses Browning, the M1911 is a single-action, semi-automatic, magazine-fed, recoil-operated pistol chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. It served as the standard-issue sidearm for the United States Armed Forces from 1911 to 1986.
AR-15
Designed by Eugene Stoner of the ArmaLite company, the AR-15 is a lightweight, 5.56×45mm, magazine-fed, air-cooled semi-automatic, gas-operated rifle with a rotating bolt. It was designed to be manufactured with the extensive use of aluminium alloys and synthetic materials.
M16-A4
The ArmaLite rifle was taken in to U.S. military service in 1969, and had seen many modifications over the years. The principal difference between the civilian and military versions is that the M16 has a selector switch to enable single-shot or fully automatic fire.
Handguns
A selection of pistols from “Small Arms: Visual Encyclopedia”
Founded in 1852, Smith & Wesson are one of America’s oldest names in firearm manufacturing.
This colour cutaway technical illustration shows the Model 586, in blued steel and chambered for the .357 magnum cartridge.
MP 40
Commonly referred to as a “Schmeisser”, although Hugo Schmeisser was not involved in the weapon’s design or production. The weapon was actually designed by Heinrich Vollmer and was derived from the earlier MP 38, making use of stamped steel (rather than machined) components.
Sten Guns
Used extensively by British and Commonwealth forces throughout World War II and the Korean War, the Sten gun was designed by Major R.V. Shepherd of the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, and Harold Turpin of the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield.
Using simple stamped metal components and minor welding, much of the production could be performed by small workshops, and Stens were manufactured by many resistance groups in occupied Europe.
Sten Mk I
The British Army was resistant to the use of submachine guns, referring to them as “gangster guns”. Indeed, the small number of Thompson submachine guns that were available went to the Commando and Special Air Service, whose fighting style might be regarded as less than gentlemanly.
The Mk I of 1940 attempted to overcome this resistance by use of traditional wooden furniture.
Sten Mk II (First Pattern)
The most common variant, with more than two million produced and, by this time, much simplified in terms of manufacture.
The Second Pattern was made in Canada and differed in having a bent tube steel skeleton stock instead of the strut type shown here.
Sten Mk V
The last variant had a swivel stock and was intended for urban warfare.
MP 3008
By 1945, Germany was seeking a weapon that was cheaper to produce than the MP40 for issue to the Volksturm. Mauser produced this modified Sten copy with the magazine below the weapon.
Sterling Submachine Gun
By 1944, submachine guns had proved their worth and the General Staff issued a specification for a replacement for the Sten.
Designed by George Patchett of the Sterling Armaments Company, the new weapon was considerably more accurate and reliable than its predecessor. The curved magazine was a double-feed design, but the weapon could also use the Sten’s straight single-feed magazine, there being so many in the Army’s inventory.
With no magazines, folded stocks, and the addition of an optical sight, Sterlings were used as prop blasters for Imperial Stormtroopers in “Star Wars”
MG-08/15
The Maschinengewehr 08 is a heavy machine gun that served with the Imperial German Army during World War I. It was an adaptation of Hiram Maxim’s 1884 design.
The MG08/15 was an attempt to make a lighter and more portable version of the weapon, but it still remained cumbersome an infantry weapon.
Lightened air-cooled versions of the original design were used as aircraft armaments.
Lewis Gun
An American design, though not adopted there, the Lewis was the British Army’s standard light machine gun throughout World War I.
Air-cooled, the barrel shroud drew air in through the open end at the muzzle and channelled it along the length of the barrel, expelling it through the radial fins at the front of the receiver.
Without the barrel shroud, the Lewis was also fitted to aircraft.
Adding some minor cosmetic alterations saw the Lewis gun as the T-1 light repeating blaster used by Imperial Stormtroopers in “Star Wars”
Bren Gun
A license-built version of the Czechoslovakian ZGB 33, the Bren was the British and Commonwealth’s primary light machine gun during the Second World War.
Gas operated, the Bren was magazine-fed, which slowed the rate of fire to less than that of belt-fed guns, but which did prevent overheating.
It was also known for its accuracy, and it was much lighter than belt fed guns. Although usually fired from a prone position using the bipod, it was possible to advance into battle, firing it from the hip.
M73 Machine Gun
M73 machine gun, a 7.62mm NATO machine gun designed for tank use.
These illustrations appeared in Amber Books’ “World’s Worst Weapons”–deservedly so, as the weapon suffered from numerous malfunctions and stoppages.
Grenade Launchers
FN40GL SAGL
Shown here as a stand-alone grenade launcher (SAGL), this weapon is also shown with the optional fire control unit that measures range, temperature and slope angle, calculating trajectory and adjusting the aim point. It also has visible and infra-red lasers.
SPG1-V4
An underslung grenade launcher, the SPGG1-V4 is a 40x46mm grenade launcher, here fitted to the Indonesian Pindad SS2 assault rifle.
M1 “Bazooka”
“Bazooka” is the common name for any man-portable recoil-less anti-tank rocket launcher weapon, but this is the original as widely fielded by the United States Army.
Also referred to as the “Stovepipe”, the innovative bazooka was among the first generation of rocket-propelled anti-tank weapons used in infantry combat.
Featuring a solid-propellant rocket for propulsion, it allowed for high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warheads to be delivered against armoured vehicles, machine gun nests, and fortified bunkers at ranges beyond that of a standard thrown grenade or mine.
The universally-applied nickname arose from the M1 variant’s vague resemblance to the musical instrument called a “bazooka” invented and popularized by 1930s U.S. comedian Bob Burns.
RPG-7
This portable, re-usable, unguided, shoulder-launched anti-tank rocket launcher was introduced in the Soviet Union in 1961. Still in service today, it is estimated that in excess of 9 million units have been produced.
9K38 Igla
The Igla (“needle”, NATO codename SA-18 Grouse), is a man-portable, infra-red homing, anti-aircraft missile system (MANPAD).It entered service in 1981 and is said to be superior to the American Stinger missile.
German Mines
The Tellermine (left) was a steel-cased anti-tank blast mine containing 5.5 kg of TNT or Amatol with a PETN booster charge.
The Schü-mine 42 (Schützenmine “rifleman’s mine”) was a hard-to-detect, minimal metal, anti-personnel containing 200 grammes of explosive.
During Operation Overlord, the British used dogs especially trained to detect explosives as a counter-measure.
The Hafthohlladung (“adhesive hollow charge”) mine used powerful magnets to adhere itself to the surface of a tank where the shaped charge would penetrate the armour.
It was effective, but did require direct placement on an enemy tank by an infantryman.
