Small Arms of the Anglo-Irish Wars

Based on the figures that Liberation Miniatures currently offers, the following are the primary small arms used by all sides during the Anglo-Irish Wars.  Due to the wide variety of pistols used and their functional similarities, particularly within the context of the various miniatures rules I plan to use, I am not going to detail those weapons.



Lee-Enfield No. 1 Mk. III

Typically the Irish and their foes used the SMLE as their primary rifled long arm.  Being fairly easy to obtain, these weapons were available in large numbers, as was the .303 inch round that the SMLE used.  Small numbers of Gewehr 98s were also used, but being of a different calibre round, and coming from other countries, widespread use of the Mauser never occured.  Its performance would be similar to the SMLE, although there are many who prefer Mausers over the British standard rifle.



MP 18 (Bergmann)

The Bergmann submachine gun made its appearance during the later years of the period covered by this blog.  Having served in the later stages of the Great War, it proved to be an excellent weapon, both in trench and later in urban and guerrilla warfare.  The small dimensions of the Bergmann made it easy to carry and use in what we now term as close quarter combat.

Lewis Gun

The Lewis Gun was the great equalizer.  A unit that had the Lewis Gun within its ranks had a weapon that could put out a solid volume of fire.  In today's world it would be the equivalent of the squad automatic weapon or light support weapon.  Typically the Lewis Gun was crewed by a two man team, but could be handled by a single man if necessary.  While the Lewis Gun could have a 97 round drum magazine, the 47 round drum version was far more common.

Some basic stats:

Gewehr 98 - 7.92mm round, 5 round magazine, effective range 550 yards.

Lewis Automatic Machine Gun - .303 inch round, 47 round magazine, effective range 880 yards.

Maschinenpistole 18 (Bergmann) - 9mm round, 32 round drum, 20, 30, or 50 round box

Short Magazine Lee-Enfield (SMLE) - .303 inch round, 10 round magazine, effective range 550 yards.