# Martini Henry in ww1



## The Basket (Mar 5, 2017)

Considering a shortage of rifles how prevalent was the Martini Henry in ww1 and did it see any action?
The rate of fire of the Martini is actually about every six seconds so not that slow and in terms of firepower is powerful although short ranged.


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## mikewint (Mar 5, 2017)

The Martini-Henry rifles were produced substantially by hand, making the quality extremely variable. Though efforts were being made to phase out these rifles by the 1890s, some 9000 were still in service in 1906. In addition the .577/450 Martini–Henry cartridge was considered obsolete, though it was still in military production as late as World War I, and in commercial production by Kynoch until the late 1950s.

Therefore the Martini–Henry did see service in World War I in a variety of roles, primarily as a Reserve Arm, but it was also issued (in the early stages of the war) to the Royal Flying Corps observers and Zeppelin-buster aircrews, using an incendiary spitzer bullet. The spitzer was also effective against aircraft. Martini–Henrys were also used in the African and Middle Eastern theatres during World War I, in the hands of Native Auxiliary troops.


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## The Basket (Mar 6, 2017)

There was a shortage of firearms at the begining of the war so the use of Martini rifles I would hazard a guess have been expressed if only for UK based troops.


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## Shortround6 (Mar 18, 2017)

mikewint said:


> Martini–Henrys were also used in the African and Middle Eastern theatres during World War I, in the hands of Native Auxiliary troops.



This was pretty much a standard policy since the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Native troops were often equipped with rifles one generation behind what the British troops had. Native troops kept muzzle loaders when regular troops got Sniders, Native troops got Sniders when regulars got Martini–Henrys. Kind of went out the window in WW I.


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