The Model 1898 infanterie Gewehr: the German 98 Mauser was blooded and proven during the four nightmare years of WWI

Guns Magazine, Dec, 2004 by John Sheehan

"I quickly informed my men of my intention to open fire. We quietly released the safety caches; jumped out from behind the building; and standing erect, opened fire on the enemy nearby. Some were killed or wounded on the spot; but the majority took cover behind steps, garden walls, and woodpiles and returned our fire. Thus, at very close range, a very hot fire fight developed. I stood taking aim alongside a pile of wood. My adversary was twenty yards ahead of me, well covered, behind the steps of a house. Only part of his head was showing. We both aimed and fired almost at the same time and missed. His shot just missed my ear. I had to load fast, aim calmly and quickly, and hold my aim. That was not easy at twenty yards with the sights set for 400 meters, especially since we had not practiced this type of fighting in peacetime. My rifle cracked; the enemy's head fell forward on the step."

While this passage reads as if it was right out of today's news From Najaf or Faluja, the above action took place on August 26th. 1914 in the Belgian village of Bleid. The young man who was experiencing combat for the first time, was a 23 year-old 2nd Leutnant of the 7th Platoon, 124th Infantry, 6th Wurttemberger Regiment. His name was Erwin Rommel. He is better known to most of us as the Desert Fox, the German general who's Africa Korps gave the Allies fits from Tobruk to the Kassarine Pass during WWII.

World War I was 23 days old. Nobody, save Britain's Secretary of War--Lord Kitchener, the grizzled old veteran of the Sudan and Boer War--thought the war would last more than six weeks to three months. He alone had foreseen what modern war would bring to Europe. Had the combatant nations known what they were to suffer through over the next 4 years, 3 months and 8 days, they might have rethought their decision to go to war in the first place. By the time the dust settled on November 11th, 1918, over 65 million men had been mobilized, nine million of them lay dead on the battlefield, over 21 million more had been wounded, and an estimated 7 million civilians had lost their lives simply because they were in the way.

The Gew 98

The rifle Leutnant Rommel so expertly wielded against the French troops in the village of Bleid, was the Modell 1898 Infantry Gewehr, better known to us as the Gew 98. It was the standard front line infantry rifle of the German Army, the culmination of more than 30 years of trial and error, development and design work on behalf of Wilhelm and Paul Mauser. The Gew 98 was adopted by the German Rifle Testing Commission on April 5th, 1898. The new rifle was not issued in quantity until 1901. The Gew 98 was first used in combat in the hands of the German East Asian Expeditionary Force, which saw combat in the closing months of the Boxer Rebellion in China.

The 98 has a rear mounted bolt handle, a closed, solid receiver bridge, and two forward locking lugs that seal the action when the bolt is closed. The primary design features that set the Gew 98 apart from it's predecessors included a third safety lug, located just ahead of the bolt handle, which locked in the bottom of the bolt way beneath the receiver bridge when the bolt was closed, a shrouded bolt face and a guide rib that contributes to the smooth action for which the Gew is famous. The bolt has two large boles milled in the bottom of the bolt body, which are designed to help channel hot gas away from the shooters face in the event of a blown primer or case failure. In addition, a gas shield was added to the boll shroud (o further protect (he shooter's face by deflecting any escaping gas that was not channeled through the gas escape boles.

The Gew 98 was loaded from the top of the action with five-round chargers, more commonly referred to in the U.S. as stripper clips. The magazine capacity was five rounds in a staggered arrangement and was contained completely within the stock, the floorplate being flush with the bottom lines of the pistol gripped stock. A 25-round trench magazine was introduced during the war and could be mounted in place of the standard floorplate. The trench magazine extended well below the stock and was loaded in five round increments through the top of the action in the same manner as the regular magazine. A deep recess was cut into the left side of the receiver sidewall to facilitate ease of loading and a slot was milled in the front of the solid receiver bridge to provide a clip guide for the positioning of the five-round chargers. The action cocked upon opening. The firing pin travel had been reduced to speed up lock time, which allowed for more accurate fire. The two-stage trigger has considerable take up before the trigger engages the sear. This feature was considered necessary to prevent premature firing during combat, when a soldier was pumped up on fear and adrenaline.

The Gew 98, as originally issued, was equipped with a Lange pattern rear sight. This is known to most collectors today as the roller coaster sight for obvious reasons. The battle sights were set for 200 meters and sight was adjustable in increments out to a range of 2,000 meters. While this extreme range adjustment may seem ridiculous to most shooters today, in 1914, troops were taught to engage large enemy formations at extended ranges with plunging area fire, delivered in volleys. This practice was eventually to be replaced by the machinegun. In 1903/04, the original loading of the 8x57mm cartridge was changed. The original 8x57mm J Patronen was loaded with a .318" 220-grain lead core, cupro-nickel-washed roundnose bullet. The new loading introduced a higher velocity .323" 154-grain, flat-based spitzer bullet at a much higher velocity. The new loading increased the velocity of the bullet from 2,100 fps to 2,822 lips. This required the replacement of the rear sight. A new Lange pattern rear sight was designed to replace the original version. The battle sight, which is the range of the lowest sight setting, was set at 400 meters on the new 1903 pattern sight. Rifles produced prior to 1903 were refitted with the new pattern sight, however, the original sight bases remained with the 200-meter setting, even though the new Lange sight could not be adjusted to the old setting.