Chapter 94 Rifle

Accompanied by Schmidt, Nobel first returned to Sweden to visit his eldest brother Robert, and then inspected his work in Adil, England, and Krummel, Germany, before setting sail for Athens.

It was an unexpected surprise for Constantine to learn that Nobel had left Paris.

Now that the smokeless gunpowder matter has come to an end, the selection of new rifles for the Greek army has entered the agenda.

After Nobel agreed to set up a factory in Athens to produce gunpowder, Constantine invited Mr. Nobel as a consultant to participate in the design of Greece's new rifle.

Nobel was not only a chemist, but also quite accomplished in mechanics. After all, as a scholar who studied gunpowder, it was impossible not to come into contact with guns from various countries.

After careful consideration, Constantine decided to use what became known as the Lee-Enfield rifle as the standard rifle for the Greek army.

In 1888, the British army had just upgraded to the Lee-Mefort rifle, but this rifle still used black powder. Therefore, Constantine asked the Military Technology Office to organize manpower and cooperate with the Mechanical Office of the University of Athens to improve this rifle. .

The improved rifle, like later designs, adopted a ten-round magazine design.

Constantine liked the rifle's rate of fire advantage.

After the preliminary design was completed, Constantine asked the machinery factory to produce 100 prototype guns for use in experiments before they were installed in the army.

The Army Technical Office was noncommittal, but some military officers raised objections.

Since the improved Lee-Meford rifle (the Lee-Enfield rifle) uses a ten-round magazine supply mode, soldiers using this rifle can shoot ten bullets in an extreme time, which makes some officers Feel dissatisfied.

You know, at this time, in the Greek army, each soldier fired no more than five live bullets per year. This rifle directly installed 10 bullets in the magazine.

The annual bullet training quota for soldiers is not enough to fill the magazine.

As this incident caused an uproar in the army, the young faction headed by Constantine requested the adoption of this powerful rifle.

However, many senior military officers had objections to this rifle. Due to the dispute between the two parties, a meeting was held to discuss the selection of the new rifle.

In the conference room of the Royal Palace in Syntagma Square, senior officers of the Greek army gathered together, sitting at attention, and Constantine was also among them.

The meeting officially began after King George entered the meeting room.

"Your Majesty, colleagues, we have seen the design of the new rifle and conducted a live test firing at the shooting range. Frankly speaking, the new rifle is indeed revolutionary compared to the army's old weapon, the Xiasebo rifle. progress"

"Fast rate of fire and strong firepower, these are the advantages of the new rifle," Chief of General Staff Emmanuel was the first to speak.

"But there are also some obvious problems. This rifle fires extremely fast, which poses a logistical challenge to the Greek army. We are worried that we will not have so much ammunition to supply soldiers during wartime."

"Since there are ten bullets in the magazine, a well-trained infantryman can shoot out all ten bullets in one minute."

On the battlefield, soldiers are in a very tense state. Driven by pressure and fear, soldiers are likely to run out of bullets in the magazine as soon as their heads get hot and they can't predict the accuracy at all.

"Your Majesty, Greek soldiers currently only receive 5 rounds of live-fire training every year. Using new rifles, our logistics pressure is too great."

Emmanuel elaborated.

Arms Minister Giannis also nodded in agreement: "We compared the new rifle with the German 1888 Committee rifle."

"Although the new rifle has strong firepower, it is rarely inferior in accuracy. Our military expenditure in Greece is limited and our family is not rich. Therefore, I personally think that it is best for the new rifle to pay more attention to accuracy, and the rate of fire does not need to be so exaggerated. This can Save bullets”

"This new rifle can add a bullet separator, forcing infantry to reload after every bullet fired to prevent soldiers from wasting bullets."

The Minister of Arms expressed his attitude tactfully.

King George was silent after hearing this, but turned his attention to Constantine. After all, Constantine strongly supported this design.

Metaxas took over and said: "Our Greek army is originally at a disadvantage in terms of numbers."

"When the conflict with the Ottoman Turks broke out, the Greek Army was only able to achieve the same level in terms of technical weapons, or it was worse. After all, the Germans are getting closer to the Turks."

"We must always have some advantages and tell them to the soldiers. How inspiring, right?"

"We can't let the soldiers think that not only are they inferior in numbers, but they don't even have any advantage in the rifles in their hands."

Constantine said: "In order to increase the chances of winning, I think it is necessary to increase the firepower."

"As for logistics, there is actually no need to worry so much. After all, Greece can now produce its own bullets."

With that, Constantine related the news of the discovery of copper deposits in the Congo.

After listening to the opinions of Constantine and the two, Arms Minister Giannis frowned and asked: "Your Highness, how much do you think Greece's production capacity can do when the war breaks out?"

After all, Greece's industrial development was short-lived. According to the rate of fire of the new rifles, there was simply no time to supply the front-line consumption.

"This just puts forward more stringent requirements for the operating conditions of the Greek army."

"We need to be fully prepared before the incident occurs, especially in terms of logistics. It is essential to store enough to meet the army's consumption for a certain period of time."

Emanuil retorted seriously; "Your Highness, does the Turkish army need to notify us before the war?"

There is no doubt that the use of rapid-fire rifles will greatly increase the army's logistics consumption. Once a military emergency occurs, the army will be in an awkward situation if it is not fully prepared.

"Mr. Chief of Staff, unless we are all crazy, we will launch a military operation before everything is ready."

"If it is true as you said, the war breaks out suddenly, I don't think there is any need for military action at all, because it is impossible to win."

At least for now, the Greek army is still in a weak position. If the war breaks out before it is fully prepared, Greece will have no chance of winning.

"In the final analysis, Mr. Chief of the General Staff, Mr. Minister of Armaments, whether the Greek army adopts rapid-fire rifles or not, Greece will not be able to win if it launches the war hastily before being fully prepared."

"On the contrary, if the Greek army is equipped with a large number of rapid-fire weapons, it can prepare in advance and reserve more strategic materials, such as ammunition, and be fully prepared. When facing Turkey, Greece will have some advantages. At least, our soldiers have more firepower."

The grim reality of the Greek army being at a comprehensive disadvantage as described by Constantine and Metaxas made the senior Greek officers present feel heavy.

The resistance to this rifle, which they thought was a waste of bullets, was reduced a little.