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The Role of the Rifle in the First World War
In the first phase of the war, the infantries’ firepower continued to come primarily from rifles. In 1914, there was an average of only two machine guns for every thousand riflemen. This ratio quickly shifted in favor of fully automatic weapons. Nonetheless, infantrymen who did not work with crew-served weaponry such as machine guns, trench artillery or trench mortars still needed to be equipped with rifles.
Although no battle in the First World War was decided by riflemen, no battle could have been fought without them. The rifle was and remained the primary weapon for combat troops. The rifle’s availability in sufficient numbers was the precondition for the use of special high performance weaponry. The rifle had neither the firepower of a machine gun, nor the total impact of a piece of artillery or the particular effect of a hand grenade.
Nonetheless, on the whole, it combined a number of unique features: availability on a wide scale, ability to be used by a single person, portability, logistical simplicity and great reliability. It was able to create a threatening space several hundred meters in front of its muzzle. In trench warfare, hidden and lurking riflemen helped create an atmosphere of pervasive danger. While machine guns and heavy weaponry could seal off access to a position, rifles were needed, and are still needed, for either holding or capturing and occupying the position.
Mass production
In the first phase of the war, there were still men available to offset the enormous losses and to increase the size of the armies. However, weapons were scarce. The peacetime preparations for expanding mass production in the event of war proved to be wholly inadequate. In 1914/1915, there was a serious shortage of rifles in all countries. Intensive efforts were thus made to expand mass production. In Germany, this resulted in a resounding success. By the end of the war, the rifle depots were overflowing – albeit there were no longer enough soldiers to give them to. In August 1915, there was one modern eight millimeter rifle for 6.8 soldiers in replacement units; three years later, there were 2.2 of such rifles, which were typically brand-new, for each soldier.
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