Lugers in the Boer War?

[Levallois]

Originally posted by tacfoley
Ahem, you may be barking up the wrong tree here, Sir.

1. The young Winston Churchill, who was a war correspondent, took a C-96 to a war in Africa, that much is true.

2. British officers were required to carry a service revolver of the appropriate and common calibre - that is to say - .455 Webley - not an untried item of foreign manufacture in what was seen at the time by the British War Office as being a piddling mouse-killing calibre.

3. I would hazard a guess that you are as likely to find any evidence of an British officer in Africa carrying a Luger as you are to find one carrying a Glock.

As for the Boers, there is very little evidence that they carried handguns at all. Certainly, when I visited the Anglo-Boer War museum in Bloemfontein a few years ago, there were no formerly Boer-owned handguns on display.

My $0.02.

tac

Tac,

It would not be my first bark up the wrong tree. However, I found a book called "Small Arms of the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902" by Ron Bester and Associates. If you are interested in Boer War weapons, this is the book.

In the British Military handguns chapter, he presents data from a survey conducted by the British in 1901 with 360 out of 603 who were polled replying and 40 of them carried Broomies in SA or 11 percent. While not overwhelming, considering the newness of the technology, I think this is a signicant number who don't seem to mind "piddling mouse-killing calibres." There are a few accounts of its use during the conflict.

In the Boer Handguns chapter Mr. Bester confirms the Boers did not use many handguns but when they used them they were Webleys and Mauser Broomhandles. In fact the Broomies were "popular" with those Boers who did carry handguns including Jan Smuts himself.

No mention of Lugers but there were three who carried the Borchardt.

John