Effect and war-surgical significance of the self-loading pistol System Mauser. 1897

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Effect and war-surgical significance of the self-loading pistol System Mauser. 1897 - Prof. Dr. von Bruns.

When Paul Mauser introduced his first semi-automatic pistol, the Mauser C96 in 1897, he was already very experienced on how to advertise his arms in the international military world.

In particular, he was helped in this by two internationally renowned experts with whom he had a friendly relationship.

The first one I want to mention and that is known by those who study the first semiautomatic arms is General Richard Wille.
General Wille's books were then regarded as international references and his studies were often taken as guidelines in the drafting of acquisition contracts. This was the case, for example, with the Italian Navy, which referred to General Wille's studies on the Mauser C96 in its contract with the Mauser Company for the purchase of the 5003 Mauser C96 pistols in 1898/99.

Those interested in General Wille's report and studies with particular reference to the C96 pistol can refer to the book written by Gerben van Vlimmeren and myself, "Paul Mauser - His Life, Company, and Handgun Development 1838 - 1914" (see http://www.paul-mauser-archive.com/b...nformation.htm).

In this post, I want to refer instead to the studies of a person who is not as well known as General Wille but who contributed to the success of the C96 pistol and in general, to underline the advantages in the use of semi-automatic pistols compared to the M79 and M83 revolvers.

This person is Professor von Bruns, who carried out his duties as a physician at the Württemberg Medical Corps.

In 1897, Prof. von Bruns extended General Wille's studies of the Mauser C96 pistol, considering the implications of using reduced calibres with high speed on the human body.

Prof. von Bruns studied the consequences of the use of such ammunition used with the Mauser C96 pistol on the bones of the human body and of horses.

Prof. von Bruns wrote:

“Thanks to the friendly mediation of Mr. Kommerzienrat Mauser, I was provided with the pictures of the targets, which were shot with the pistol and the revolver M.83 at six different distances with a total of 180 shots during a comparison shooting… according to these numbers, the pistol is five times more accurate (than a revolver M83) at a distance of 20 m and seven times more accurate at a distance of 150 m…
…The tubular bones of the horse are fragmented from 50 to 100 m, while the revolver bullet will not penetrate them at 15 m…
…Concerning the human body, in the actual fire area of the short firearms, i.e. up to 100 m and above, the self-loading pistol thus produces bone injuries of a serious and medium severity: the diaphysis is always, the epiphysis in the majority fragmented, but the soft tissues are also injured to a massive or minor degree…
…The penetration power is so powerful that from close distance a single projectile can neutralize three enemies in a row…
…In fact, the revolver is an unreliable, ineffective weapon even at short distances!”

A copy of the Prof. von Bruns study is available in the Paul Mauser Archive.

I provide some scans of the document.

Interestingly, the result of the study of the Prof. von Bruns were used to describe the effectiveness of the pistol in the rare Turkish Mauser C96 manual.