The Austro-Hungarian aircraft gunner in the picture is seen using a Mauser C96 pistol combination, probably just for demonstration. Each pistol held a clip of ten bullets and the device attached to them fired them in unison, giving the gunner the ability to rapidly fire 100 rounds in volleys of 10. Two bars passed through the five upper and five lower trigger guards and were attached to the single aiming grip that can be seen in his hand. It had a trigger at the end which was pulled to fire all ten pistols at the same time. Given the close arrangement of the pistols, if the gunfire did hit the enemy aircraft, it would have been like using a shotgun. With the light frame and canvas structures of early war aircraft that might have been enough to bring it down. But one has to wonder how long it would take, and how difficult it would be, to reload and re-mount all ten pistols while maneuvering and trying to avoid nearby enemy aircraft.
—RareHistoricalPhotographs.com
BB-Idaho
I’m familiar with quad mounts, but that is the first decad mount I’ve come across. As you note, reloading in air
would be next to impossible. Maybe
that is why decad is part of decadent?
Mike
If those have the detachable magazine, yes it would be a huge pain to remove them. But, if they can be loaded via stripper clips (the early pistols needed them, not sure if the pistols with detachable mags could use them or not), it would be at least a little bit easier. It would still take a long time, but it would not require each pistol to be removed from the bracket to be reloaded. Just a thought
Petro
The Mausers shown loaded from stripper clips through the top of the action. I looks, in the picture, like the pistols are mounted five up and five down. when the slides locked back (?can’t remember if that particular pistol did so), ten stripper clips could be applied and the actions racked. Ten more ten 9mm volleys.
Cactusjack
They had competent machine guns by then. Seems like a pretty half-assed approach to the problem.
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