What was the point?
 

After i got offline last night and was getting ready for bed, i began to think of this. What was the point of the german navy having Lugers with a six inch barrel? I mean why didn't they just use the standard 4inch Lugers. Was it because the navy lugers give more accuracy or what? Same with Artillary crews and the ARtillary Lugers, what was the point on having a huge barrel.

War ships are cramped. 6" barreled Lugers with an attached butt stock are a good compomise and are easier to obtain better accuracy with than a 4" barreled Luger. And work very well as a carbine/ boarding weapon.

Ron

same reasoning with an artillery 8 inch.

I love a 5 or 6 inch barrelled gun, EXCEPT for carrying one on my hip, then I like a 4 incher. Getting in and out of a patrol car with a 6 inch gun is a pain.


Ed

Kohkau,

The Navy adopted the Luger in 1904, 4 years prior to the Army's adoption of it. Their were no 4" German military Lugers at the time.
The intent was to provide the matrosen with the capability to board other vessels as well as to engage and repel boarders when his vessel was under attack. The stocked 1904 offered the advantage of accuracy to 200 meters as well as the compactness, when the stock was not attached, such that it could be effectively weilded in one hand while the other hand was weilding the boarding cutlass. I address this at some length in the section on naval tactics in my yet to be released book on Navy Lugers and their accoutrements.

Tom A

"but because they were shorter than the service rifle"

The veneered Tac is absolutely correct.

Tom A.

A zeppelin using a gun of any sort with all that hydrogen around?
Big Norm

Not more dangerous than a Zeppelin flying with a (spark-ignited) gasoline engine, I would think...

--Dwight

Hi,

Most wartime zeppelins indeed came equipped with Maxim machine guns, built under license by DWM.

The hydrogen gas was stored in large bags, pretty well shielded from the crew and their equipment, like radios, etc...

Filling of the hydrogen gas containers of the LZ126 (the later 'Los Angeles').

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/lz126_copy1.jpg

Tac,

We're both right on this one, early craft were sometimes gasoline powered--checked before I posted just to make sure.

You goin' to Vancouver?

--Dwight