Russo-Turkish War of Liberation 1877-1878

Chapter Three - Small arms of the warring states - Romania

"Dreyse" model 1841

The construction of needle fire arms started in the period of 1827-1828. At this time, the German constructor and manufacturer Johann fon Dreyse created several models of front-cartridge rifles, in which the ignition of the gunpowder charge was done with the help of a long and thin needle. On December 4, 1841, following some extended tests on the training field, one of the proposed models was approved for the armament of the Prussian army.

No one was supposed to know about the new rear-cartridge weapon to prevent any attempts at counter-action.

The first appearance of the “secret rifle” took place during the German revolution of 1848, when insurgents had attacked the arsenal at boulevard “Unter der Linden”. The seized rifles could not be used for lack of ammunitions. In the following few days, the rifles flooded the street markets at a price as low as 2-3 talers, while their state price was 13-14 talers.

The attempts of plain clothed Prussian officers to buy back the cheap “secret” rifles proved futile. Only 30 out of 1,000 seized rifles were returned back to the warehouses. This was a lesser misfortune. The bigger trouble was the fact that the foreign media divulged the news about the “secret fire arms” as well as the information that the military attaches of many countries had managed to get the needle rifle, which was kept in secret. Thus the first samples of Dreyse model 1841 had appeared in London, Paris, and Saint Petersburg.1

At that time, the attention of the American, French, and Austrian arms specialists was directed towards the introduction of bullets of the Minie type, which was providing greater precision and far-distance firing of the front-cartridge rifles. That was why the new weapon had not impressed much the constructors.

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