The Mauser C96 (Construktion 96) is a semi-automatic pistol that was originally produced by German arms manufacturer Mauser from 1896 to 1937. Unlicensed copies of the gun were also manufactured in Spain and China in the first half of the 20th century.
The distinctive characteristics of the C96 are the integral box magazine in front of the trigger, the long barrel, the wooden shoulder stock, which gives it the stability of a short-barreled rifle and doubles as a holster or carrying case, and a grip shaped like the handle of a broom. The grip earned the gun the nickname "broomhandle" in the English-speaking world, and in China the C96 was nicknamed the "box cannon" () because of its rectangular internal magazine and because it could be holstered in its wooden box-like detachable stock.Wilson (2009), p. 100.
With its long barrel and high-velocity cartridge, the Mauser C96 had superior range and better penetration than most other pistols of its era; the 7.63×25mm Mauser cartridge was the highest-velocity commercially manufactured pistol cartridge until the advent of the .357 Magnum cartridge in 1935.
Mauser manufactured approximately one million C96 pistols,Skennerton (2005), p. 8. while the number produced in Spain and China is large but unknown due to poor production records.
History
Within a year of its introduction in 1896, the C96 had been sold to governments and commercially to civilians and individual military officers. The Mauser C96 pistol was popular with British officers (who had to purchase their own sidearms) around the turn of the 20th century. Mauser supplied the C96 to Westley Richards in the UK for resale. By the onset of World War I, however, the C96's popularity with the British military had waned.Maze (2002), pp. 56, 70.
As a military sidearm, the pistol saw service in various wars including the Easter Rising and Irish War of Independence, as well as World War I and the Irish Civil War, when the gun was nicknamed "Peter the Painter", after the contemporary Latvian anarchist of the same name (so nicknamed by the Metropolitan Police) who was believed to use this gun, and because the pistol grip looked like a brush handle. It was also used during the Estonian War of Independence, the Spanish Civil War, the Chinese Civil War, and World War II. During the Warlord Era in China, European embargoes on exporting rifles to Chinese warlords meant that the C96 became a mainstay of the period's armies, and the basic form of the pistol was extensively copied. The C96 also became a staple of Bolshevik commissars from one side and various warlords and gang leaders from another in the Russian Civil War, known simply as "the Mauser". Communist revolutionaries Yakov Yurovsky and Peter Ermakov used Mausers to execute the Russian imperial family in July 1918.
Winston Churchill was fond of the Mauser C96 and used one at the 1898 Battle of Omdurman and during the Second Boer War; Lawrence of Arabia carried a Mauser C96 for a period, during his time in the Middle East.Skennerton (2005), pp. 33–34. Indian revolutionary Ram Prasad Bismil and his partymen used these Mauser pistols in the historic Kakori train robbery in August 1925. Chinese communist general, Zhu De, carried a Mauser C96 during his Nanchang Uprising and later conflicts; his gun (with his name printed on it) is in the Beijing war museum.
Three Mauser C96s were used in the killing of Spanish prime minister Eduardo Dato in 1921, and a Mauser C96 was used in the assassination of the King of Yugoslavia, Alexander I of Yugoslavia, in 1934.
Imported and domestic copies of the C96 were used extensively by the Chinese in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, as well as by the Spanish during the Spanish Civil War and the Germans in World War II.Skennerton (2005), p. 33.
Besides the standard 7.63×25mm chambering, C96 pistols were also commonly chambered for 9×19mm Parabellum, with a small number also being produced in 9mm Mauser Export. In 1940, Mauser officials proposed using the C-96 as the vehicle for an upgrade to the 9×25mm Mauser Export cartridge to match the ballistics of the .357 Magnum.Mauser Pistolen: Development and Production, 1877–1946, Weaver, Speed, Schmid, Collector Grade Publications, Canada, PP. 193. Lastly, there was a Chinese-manufactured model chambered for .45 ACP. Despite the pistol's worldwide popularity and fame, China was the only nation to use the C96 as the primary service pistol of its military and police.
Contract variants 1897 Turkish Army Mauser Mauser's first military contract was with the Ottoman government in 1897. They ordered 1,000 pistols for the royal palace guards. They had their own range of serial numbers, running from 1 to 1000. They differ in that they use a Persian number system on the tangent sight and serial number, and the weapon is designated in the Muslim calendar year number system "1314" in place of the year of the Gregorian calendar "1896/1897". Markings include a six-pointed star on both sides of the chamber and the crest of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (a trophy of crossed Turkish flags, various polearms, and a collection of his royal awards and honours) and the Muslim year "1314" on the square left rear frame panel. Under the sultan's rule, there was great concern about potential military coups, and most weapons were locked away in armories, including many of the C96 pistols. After the Young Turk Revolution of 1908-1909, these pistols were issued to the army and police for service use. Some were used in combat in World War I, and after the war they were considered obsolete, being put up for sale cheaply to army or police officers. All of this meant that they saw a lot of use, much of in quite harsh conditions, and as a result few specimens survive today.
1899 Italian Navy Mauser In 1899, the Italian government ordered Mauser's first major military contract; an order for 5,000 C96 pistols for the Italian Royal Navy. They differ in that their receivers are "slab-sided" (i.e., lacked the milling on the sides found on commercial Mausers). They also have a "ring hammer" (spurless hammer with a hole through its head) instead of the early "cone hammer" (spurless hammer with ribbed cone-like projections on the sides of its head). These guns had their own serial number range, running from 1 to 5000.
1910 Persian contract Mauser The Persian government ordered 1,000 pistols. They have the Persian government's "Lion and Sun" insignia on the rectangular milled panel on the left side of the receiver and the serial numbers range from 154000 to 154999. It is often confused with the Turkish contract Mauser.
M1916 Austrian contract Austria-Hungary ordered 50,000 Mausers in the standard 7.63×25mm. A small number were rebarreled to 8mm Gasser (8.11×27mm) for an unknown reason.
M1916 Prussian "Red 9"
During World War I, the Imperial German Army contracted with Mauser for 150,000 C96 pistols chambered in 9mm Parabellum to offset the slow production of the standard-issue DWM P.08 pistol. They use the same clip-loaded internal box magazines as the 7.63mm Mauser and also hold ten rounds. This variant of the C96 was named the "Red 9" after a large number 9 burned into the grip panels and painted in red.Skennerton (2005), p. 5. (This was done to warn the pistols' users not to incorrectly load them with 7.63mm ammunition.) Because the army delegated the branding to unit armourers, not all 9mm pistols carry the nine. Of the 150,000 pistols commissioned, approximately 137,000 were delivered before the war ended. Original 9mm pistols can be told from 7.63mm-to-9mm conversions because they have 9mm-rated sights (marked "50 m-500 m") rather than 7.63mm-rated sights (marked "50 m-800 m").
M1920 French police contract The French government set up an order for 2,000 pistols with barrels for the Gendarmerie Nationale. The pistol has black ebonite grips rather than wooden ones.
WW2 Luftwaffe contract The German government purchased 7,800 commercial M1930 pistols in 1940 for use by the Luftwaffe. They have Wehrmacht proof marks and the Mauser serial numbers come from the early- to mid-1930s. The weapon had ceased production in 1937 but the order was filled from remaining stocks. According to Kersten, Moll and Schmid, these were likely purchased by the high command of the armed forces and issued to motorcycle and flak crews of the Luftwaffe.
Major variants There were many variants of the C96 besides the standard commercial model; the most common are detailed below.
M1896 Kavallerie Karabiner One of the experimental ideas was the creation of a pistol-carbine for use by light cavalry. They had "slab-sided" receivers, standard 10-round magazines, permanently affixed wooden stocks and forends, and lengthened (early production) or (late production) barrels. They were dropped from production after 1899 due to poor sales and little military interest.
There was limited sporting interest in the carbine version and, due to small production numbers, it is a highly prized collectable priced at about twice the value of the pistol version. Recently, importers imported replica Mauser carbines with 16-inch or longer barrels for sale in the US.
M1896 compact Mauser A version of the Mauser pistol with a full-sized grip, six-shot internal magazine, and a barrel. Production was phased out by 1899.
M1896 officer's model This is the unofficial term for a variant compact Mauser with a curved wooden or hard-rubber grip, like that of the Reichsrevolver. The name comes from the US Army designation of the Mauser pistol sent to participate in their self-loading pistol trials.
M1898 pistol carbine This was the first model to come cut for a combination wooden stock-holster. The stock doubles as a case or holster and attaches to a slot cut in the grip frame.
M1912 Mauser Export model This model was the first to chamber the 9×25mm Mauser Export cartridge. It was designed to appeal to the arms markets in South America and China. Mauser C96 pistols in this caliber usually have an indentation milled into the upper surface of the magazine's follower to facilitate feeding of the straight-cased 9×25mm cartridge cases. The rifling in the barrel has a unique 13:8 twist. In addition, the flat surfaces extending around the chamber are longer, to accommodate the higher pressures of the 9×25mm cartridge. Examples of Mauser C96s in this caliber are rare, but are still occasionally found on the private collector's market. The 9×25mm Mauser Export calibre receded from the market as the armaments industry reoriented itself towards military manufacture during World War I, but the round enjoyed a resurgence in popularity as a submachine gun calibre in the 1930s.
M1917 Mauser trench carbine
This model features an extended stock and barrel similar to the M1896 Kavallerie Karabiner. It also possesses a 40-round magazine and is chambered in 9×19mm Parabellum. The M1917 Mauser trench carbine was introduced during World War I and was intended to be a cheaper replacement for the expensive Lange Pistole 08 in close-quarters combat. However, the Imperial German Army did not believe it was a cost-effective substitute, and the project was shortly abandoned with only a few ever made.
M1920 Mauser rework The Treaty of Versailles (signed in 1919) imposed a number of restrictions on pistol barrel lengths and calibres on German arms manufacturers.Bishop (1998), p. 94. Pistols for German government issue or domestic market sales could not have a barrel longer than 4 inches and could not be chambered for 9 mm cartridges.
The Weimar Republic banned the private ownership of military-issue or military-style weapons in an attempt to recover valuable arms from returning soldiers. The confiscated weapons were then used to arm government forces, leaving them with a hodge-podge of military and civilian arms. To meet the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, a major reworking project was begun that set about converting these weapons.