History of the Mauser
C96 pistol
The
C96 pistol began to be produced in 1896 and started to be used
in the German Army during the First World War. Used on many battlefields
and developed under license by several countries like China or
the Soviet Union, the Mauser C96 gradually became efficient.
Winston
Churchill, who wass at the beginning of 20th century military
in the expeditionary corps of the British Army, was armed with
a C96 pistol during his campaign and he said about it: "this
weapon saved my life several times."
In 1932, German engineers decided to create new models of the
C96 pistol, called 711 and 712 models. The weapon acquired a shooting
modes selector for semi-automatic and automatic (burst), located
on the left side of the pistol.
The automatic mode has a very high rate of fire (1000 rounds per
minute), but because of its heavy weight (1.3 kilos) and a reloading
difficult to make, the 711 and 712 Mauser C96 mod. were distributed
only in little to the German Army during the Second World War
and the Battle of Normandy.