[IW] Non-Nazi Germany-Dominant World?

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Historically i do not beleive that the implications of any sort of rapid fire weapon were sinking in to anyone until late in 1914.

If you allow "rapid fire" to include "several accurate shots per trooper before the enemy can close to contact" the idea goes back at least to ACW General John Watts de Peyster, who was among the first to advocate the adoption of an all-skirmish-line formation. And the fighting around Petersburg, VA was as good a preview of 1914 as any.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by RyanW

If you allow "rapid fire" to include "several accurate shots per trooper before the enemy can close to contact" the idea goes back at least to ACW .

It would probably go back rather farher than that as it would include bows.

The defintion would probably need to be something like "an effective battlefield weapon with a ROF of 2+ and a magazine of at least 10 shots". Without the "effective" you'd have to count the Volcanic. With it the first applicable weapon is the Winchester 1866 with the 1873 in 44-40 being somewhat more effective in terms of range and damage.

Ideally I'd want a detachable magazine and if I don't lower the mag-size number I've excluded the M-1 Garand.

Probably we're talking about the Maxim gun as the first effective rapidfire weapon if we don't include "portable".