From June 1917 to November 1918, U.S. Marines earned a reputation for being ferocious and unrelenting on the battlefield. Between the opening shots fired at the Battle of Belleau Wood and the routing of German forces in the Argonne Forest, Marines proved, during “The War to End All Wars,” that mastery of marksmanship and small-unit tactics — not waves of poorly trained conscripts — would decide the outcome of battles in modern warfare. The lessons learned through much mud and blood during World War I are still relevant today. Surprisingly, so are several of the USMC small arms that were used more than a century ago.
Like the Marines themselves, the weapons they used deserve recognition. Some of the USMC small arms used in the war were in the arsenal thanks to bureaucracy and not because they were the best available — some were downright shitty. Others had reputations for being so powerful that Marines had to turn them in before reaching the front lines to prevent the enemy from developing countermeasures. A select few are still held in high regard.
USMC Small Arms of WWI
Springfield M1903 Bolt-Action Rifle
- Caliber: .30-06 Springfield
- Action: Bolt-action
- Capacity: 5-rounds, internal box magazine
World War I brought about a frenzy of new military technology, including airplanes, tanks, and chemical weapons, but the bulk of all forces involved consisted mostly of infantrymen and their rifles. Fortunately for the Allies, some of those infantrymen were Marines. Fortunately for the Marines, the rifle they carried was the Springfield M1903.
The combination of a Marine and a Springfield M1903 was a match made in heaven. Some accounts of the fighting of the Battle of Belleau Wood claim that Marines began accurately engaging German soldiers at ranges of up to 800 yards, and the attacking Germans were ultimately stopped somewhere between 100 and 200 yards from the Marines’ position. This kind of engagement was rare, but it proved that a well-trained marksman was an invaluable asset on the battlefield.
What we call the Springfield Model 1903 was actually the result of three years of modifications to the rifle design by military leaders; President Theodore Roosevelt even got in on it. He had a bone to pick with the original rod-style bayonet. After changes to the bayonet, rear sights, barrel, and ammunition, the rifle was finally ready for battle in 1906 under the original M1903 name.
Relentless testing and development created a supremely reliable and accurate rifle used by the U.S. military for decades, and the M1903 remains an icon of marksmanship. For an excellent deep dive into the Springfield 1903, check out this video from C&Rsenal.
Colt M1911 Pistol
- Caliber: .45 ACP
- Action: Semi-automatic, recoil-operated
- Capacity: 7-round detachable magazine
Most Marines who fought in World War I didn’t receive a sidearm, but almost all of those who did carried the Colt M1911. A semi-automatic pistol capable of being rapidly reloaded with seven-round magazines of the powerful .45 ACP was a game-changer in the early 1900s. The days of big-bore .45 Colt cowboy guns was over, and the Magnum era had not yet arrived; many revolvers at the time were considered underpowered for the battlefield. The M1911 performed so well that it stayed in the U.S. military arsenal on a widespread basis for nearly 75 years until the 9mm Beretta M9 began phasing it out in 1985.
During the battle of Belleau Wood, then 1st Sgt. Dan Daily captured an enemy machine gun position using only grenades and his M1911, earning the Distinguished Service Cross in the process. Then Pvt. John Kelly also captured a German machine gun position with his M1911 and subsequently received the Medal of Honor for his actions. The single-action, semi-auto pistol performed well in the Banana Wars and gained popularity prior to World War I, but stories like these inspired a lasting, cult-like following.
At a time when the U.S. Army was still issuing revolvers, getting handed an M1911 must have felt like hitting the jackpot of futuristic weaponry. After all, the design is still popular more than a century later for a reason.
The pistol’s semi-automatic action and short, crisp trigger made it an instant hit with Marines. It was also known to be reliable and very accurate. When cleaning or maintenance became necessary, the pistol could be field-stripped in seconds without tools. Modern 1911s are remarkably similar to the ones carried by Marines in World War I, and entry-level pistols can be had for a few hundred dollars. If you have more to spend, you can choose from an original M1911 or a slick, modern interpretation like the Vudoo Gun Works Möbius 1911.
Winchester M97 Pump-Action Shotgun
- Caliber: 12 gauge
- Action: Pump-action
- Capacity: 5-round tubular magazine
As good as the Springfield M1903 and Colt M1911 were, few firearms get gun enthusiasts more excited than the legendary Winchester M97, nicknamed “the trench-sweeper.” Aside from being a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun — one of the most famously reliable platforms in history — the M97 had a few quirks built into it by John Browning that made it unique among pump guns.
The result was a shotgun that was less prone to jamming and failure to feed than its predecessors (but not immune). It could also be slam-fired by holding the trigger working the action — as soon as a round was chambered, it would fire. Doing this in a small space, like a trench, could put a cloud of buckshot down range very quickly. While the shotgun was popular on the civilian market for many years, the trench version specifically got a 20-inch barrel, a heat shield, sling swivels, and — most importantly — a bayonet lug.
The M97’s lore established in the war has grown over time (a lot like the lore surrounding notched bayonets), leading many to believe that it was a battlefield terror so mighty that international law banned its use. As with most war stories, that’s a bit of an exaggeration.
It’s true that the German government accused the weapon of inflicting excessive suffering in violation of the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare, but nations that had come to terms with indiscriminately lobbing chemical weapons weren’t actually bothered by a combat shotgun. The M97 was, ironically, also prone to malfunction. This wasn’t a fault in the weapon but rather its ammunition.
Shotgun shells of the time, in the days before plastics, were still made with cardboard hulls, and the omnipresent moisture, torrential rain, and mud of trench warfare caused them all kinds of problems. Plus, at five rounds, the gun’s capacity was a bit short and it was slow to reload.
Ultimately, Marines likely found that the M97 was a great idea that needed some work to be perfect. That refinement came in the years following World War I with different shotgun models, and the M97 saw military, law enforcement, and civilian use for decades to come.
M1915 Chauchat Machine Gun
- Caliber: 8mm; .30-06 Springfield
- Action: Automatic, long-recoil with a gas-assist
- Capacity: 20 rounds, detachable half-moon magazine for 8mm; 16 rounds, detachable curved-box magazine for .30-06
While other Marines were falling in love with their issued weapons, automatic riflemen of World War I were…not. The French Chauchat automatic rifle was one of the most hated pieces of gear ever carried into battle by Americans. But was it really that bad, or did Marines just need something to complain about?
According to the American Marines and soldiers who used it, the Chauchat was an unmitigated catastrophe. From the moment they picked it up, it was clear that the people who built the Chauchat didn’t give a damn about craftsmanship. Crude design and poor ergonomics stood in stark contrast to the svelte M1903 and downright pretty M1911.
Then there was the magazine. The original design used an open-sided half-moon magazine that was seemingly designed to allow as much mud into the weapon as possible. Plus, the magazine capacity of 20 or 16 rounds was inadequate for a machine gun. If the weapon did manage to fire, it would beat the shooter’s eye socket to a pulp, overheat, and miss everything more than 100 yards away.
So, yes, the Chauchat deserves its bad reputation. Oddly enough, European soldiers had more luck with the platform. It turns out that the Chauchat was originally chambered in 8mm. It wasn’t a good weapon by any stretch of the imagination, but European soldiers on the western front could at least work with it.
The real problems arose when the U.S. government, which had failed to procure enough machine guns, desperately outsourced that role to the French. In order to maintain continuity across weapon systems, the Chauchat was chambered in .30-06 for American forces. The powerful round overwhelmed the flimsy design, and malfunctions were all but guaranteed as soon as the barrel got warm. It was, in all practical senses, useless.
The Chauchat was a terrible weapon, but American policymakers found a way to make it worse.
Lewis Gun Light Machine Gun
- Caliber: .30-06 Springfield
- Action: Automatic, gas-operated
- Capacity: 47 rounds or 97 rounds, detachable pan magazine
The Chauchat’s story is abysmal on its own, but the fact that the whole situation was avoidable makes it even worse. Several years before the U.S. got involved in World War I, Army Col. Isaac Newton Lewis redesigned a prototype from the Automatic Arms Company for military use. The result was the Lewis Gun. Unfortunately — and in keeping with longstanding military tradition — the brass torpedoed the possibility of a military contract, and many speculate that they did so out of personal resentment toward Lewis.
Lewis left the Army and pitched his design to the British, who were more than happy to buy and manufacture more than 145,000 of his machine gun chambered in .303 British throughout WWI. Perhaps begrudgingly, the U.S. military had to reverse course when it entered the conflict woefully unprepared.
The Army and Navy bought Lewis Guns in small batches, but the Marine Corps was more welcoming and even created a program to train armorers at the Savage Arms manufacturing facility on the new gun.
Unfortunately, commanders confiscated Marines’ Lewis Guns upon arrival at the Western Front and issued Chauchats instead. This didn’t go over well with men who had come to know and trust the Lewis Gun. Worse yet, they had to watch their British counterparts use the weapon with great success while they struggled with the pitiful Chauchat.
M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle
- Caliber: .30-06 Springfield
- Action: Selective-fire, gas-operated
- Capacity: 20 rounds, detachable box magazine
The Chauchat was unusable, and the Lewis Gun was hamstrung by political baggage, but something much better was brewing during the war. Legendary firearms designer John Moses Browning was hard at work developing an automatic rifle that was as light as the Chauchat, as reliable as the Lewis Gun, and easier to use than both. What he ended up with was the Browning Automatic Rifle, a platform that saw service for several decades to follow.
The M1918 BAR was originally designed for a tactic called walking fire. Using this technique, automatic riflemen fired from the hip for suppression as they advanced toward an enemy position. The BAR fired .30-06, accepted a 20-round detachable box magazine, and came with a cloth pouch to hold the buttstock close to the shooter’s beltline. It used the same sights found on the Enfield M1917 (the sights were later replaced with the M1903 sights Marines used in World War I).
By World War II, the BAR would seem heavy and outdated to the competition, but it was a game-changer in 1918. Or, rather, it would have been.
Marines were not issued the BAR until the very end of the war, but it was widely issued in WWII. Soldiers got their hands on the new automatic rifle in small numbers earlier, but the American Expeditionary Force leaders felt that they needed to hide the BAR from the enemy to prevent Germany from developing tactics in response and building their own version.
It’s easy to criticize this decision for being out of touch, especially if you’ve suffered at the hands of nonsensical orders. But with the war already coming to an end by the time the BAR was being mass-produced, it may have been the right call — even if the walking fire concept wasn’t successful, the 20-round magazine proved too small, and the gun wasn’t very controllable in full auto for more than quick bursts. Remember, these are the earliest days of machine guns — 20 years earlier, it was all six guns and lever-actions.
U.S. Marine Corps Lore
Questionable decision-making forced Marines in World War I to deal with the terrible Chauchat and robbed them of superior machine guns like the Lewis Gun and the M1918 BAR. Fortunately, the vast majority of Marines fought with the M1903 Springfield and Colt M1911, and their stories will live forever in Marine Corps lore.
With luck, the weapons they carried through that devastating war will appear on a shooting bench in front of you one day. If you have the opportunity to put rounds on paper with any of these legendary firearms, even the Chauchat, you should.