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Rifle Cleaning

By Musk. Kurt Schmidt, Member JR63

Background:

This image of a armorer using a fixed cleaning table is from the original manual Transfeldts Dienstunterricht für Kriegsrekruten der deutschen Infanterie by Adolf Transfeldt, E. S. Mittler u. Sohn, Berlin, 1917.

In the years before the outbreak of the War, there had been rapid development in the cleaning and maintenance practices in the German Army. "Peacetime" cleaning and maintenance had moved in the direction of uniformity and standardization. The age old problem of field maintenance and the arch-enemy rust took a new turn with the change from Blackpowder to smokeless powder and the advent of corrosive primers. So, while attention to the outside of weapons was important, the real problem was the bore.

Previously, the M1888 rifles had been cleaned with water and cleaning rods. With the advent of the M1898 rifles, fixed cleaning tables or "cleaning rests" with padded clamps and mounts were instituted. The rifle was held in a vise-like clamp. A pierced steel cylinder with a hand grip called the "assistance bolt" replaced the standard bolt to protect the breech area. Cleaning rods cleaned the bores using grease or oil. Armorers were issued steel brushes to clean out metal deposits form the bores.

Initially, each company was issued seven sets of cleaning equipment, six to be used and one held in reserve. At peacetime strength, of 150 man companies, the six sets proved inadequate as the men had to line up to get a chance to use a cleaning rest. With the War, the numbers of cleaning rests were adjusted as one rest for every ten rifles or carbines.

In 1908, the cleaning was modified to include a pierced brass plate to prevent damage to the firing pin when the bolt was stripped (the ancestor of the "striping device" in the buttstock of the GEW 98 rifles after 1915).

When the new GEW 98 rifles came out, the "Instructions on the M 98 Rifle and Bayonet and its Ammunition" came out in 1899, it called for neatsfoot oil to be the universal cleaning agent. Neatsfoot Oil was extracted from animal bones and horses' hooves by dry distillation. It was to be used for barrel maintenance, lubrication moving parts, and general metal and wood preservation. As a substitute, beef or mutton tallow dissolved in petroleum could be substituted. A further substitute was added in the form of five parts of (pork) lard and one part beeswax, and was wiped onto stocks as well as used to fill gaps between metal and wood.

However, all of these organic substances had long term ill effects as they formed acidic compounds when they decomposed which attacked the stocks in storage at depots.

So, shortly after the turn of the new century, inspection commissions began looking at inorganic oils and greases. One of the first was Justinus oil in 1905 as "M 05 rifle cleaning oil."

In addition, realization that corrosive primers were the main cause of rusting bores led to makers adding alkaline additives to their oils to neutralize acids. It was soon realized that oils evaporated and the protective additives were dispersed over time. Good residue-dissolving and anti-rusting properties were found to be better in grease known as "cleaning fat" or "arms fat." These replaced the oils in 1912, which also solved storage and stock wrist appearance and structural damage problems when oiled bores leaked when stored standing up. In 1916, a more liquid grease was introduced, with the added feature of being able to protect rifle steel against the negative effects of chlorine gas.

Barrels continued to be cleaned with oiled oakum made up of flax fibers and cleaning rags or patches. During the War, flax was needed for textiles, causing a shortage. An "ersatz" version of oakum was introduced made of jute and willow bark fibers. Troops complained that it did not work well, but shortages kept it in use, followed by cleaning used oakum. But shortages worsened so that by 1918 crepe paper was substituted for oakum and even scrap cleaning rag patches.


rclean1Cleaning Practices:

M88 rifles had traditionally be cleaned using wooden cleaning rods in the cleaning-rest set-ups, followed by steel rods in 1893. In 1897, a new cleaning system was introduced which banned cleaning with water and called for cleaning with oiled oakum sections or pads followed by the introduction of muzzle caps at a hard to understand rate of one per every three rifles.

Shortly before the introduction of the GEW 98, pull-through "cleaning ropes" had been introduced as a field expedient to rods. Infantrymen carried a section or "rope" in their knapsacks so that troops in billets or the field did not have to be dependent upon fetching them and the cleaning rests from supply vehicles. However, regulations called for only the cleaning rod to be used when in billets. The pull-through ropes for the M88 were adopted unchanged for the M98 rifles.

In the trenches, pull-through ropes were used almost exclusively.

When using the pull-through ropes, two soldiers were to cooperate (if possible).

Each rope was 2.5m long and had two 5 cm long brass laces (later replaced during the War with zinc plated iron (or even lead) ends. In the middle of each hemp rope was a 10cm long string which formed an eye for holding the oakum section.

War time demand for pull-through cleaning ropes eventually led to a shortage of ropes that had to be replaced with screw-together cleaning rods. In September 1917 it was decreed that ropes could only be issued to carbine armed units who did not have rods. Three piece screw-together rods were authorized for rifle-armed troops if they had no pull-through ropes.

Used barrels were cleaned with oiled or greased oakum sections of pads. The pads were used until the oakum came out of the barrel "clean." When presenting the rifle as "cleaned," the soldier had to show the last strip of oakum. To encourage uniformity, it was decreed that the oakum moved through the whole barrel and came out of the muzzle cap "two fingers" wide. After use, rifles had to been re-cleaned over several days to remove the acidic fouling from the surface pores of the steel bore. Soldiers were prohibited form using mechanical abrasion, and had to use grease or fat. When this failed, the rifle was turned over to the armorer.

In Peace Time, the height of arms cleaning occurred every fall at the end of the "maneuvering season." Having been exposed to the elements with meager maintenance, they were taken and stripped so that all component parts could be inspected, cleaned, and greased. Worn out metal and wood finish was renewed if faded. Rifles and carbines were test fired to check accuracy against the standard deflection dispersion.

In War Time, there were no fall cleanings. However, wartime exchanged rifles deemed too worn out (5,000 to 8,000 rounds) did not have to be accurate target shooters, and were transferred to depots for mobilization issuance.

The Bavarians determined that a rifle was cleaned three (3) hundred times a year, or in the coarse of a ten year lifetime 1,800 times. However, actual War Time trench use and the ability to clean weapons as often saw a higher rate of decline and damage. Perhaps oddly enough, repeated references to careful and stricter supervision by officers and armorers give an indication that by late War there was a certain "apathy" if not distaste felt by the ordinary Soldat for his rifle- to the point that the rifle's serial number was recorded in the pay book to prevent the soldier from "swapping his poorly maintained and useless rifle for a better one."


Implications for Living History:

Historical "Gewehrreinigen" is a problem due to the seemingly total absence of surviving documented three piece screw-together cleaning rods, pull-through cleaning ropes, or any "cleaning kits."

It would appear as thought the soldier removed from the cleaning rest system, simply carried a rod or rope, and a tin of grease or oil in his Tornister.

The Germans did issue a cleaning bag in 1918 for carrying rifle cleaning supplies. Description for this bag is as follows:

20 cm long by 15 cm wide pouch consisted of field grey waterproof woven paper. A small 7 cm x 9 cm size pocket was sewn on the front side for the storage of the muzzle cover. Both pockets were secured by buttonable flaps. The pouch supported two 18 cm long buttonable belt loops on the upper end of the rear panel for hanging on the belt. It was to be worn on the belt on the right side between the Brotbeutel and the ammo pouch.

There is a field gray button-closure "cleaning bag" carrying Reichwehr seals in the Bayerisches Armeemuseum that historian Dieter Storz (p. 196) asserts is very simlar as the one used during the War.


This is an image of the commonly found "Yougoslavian Mauser cleaning kit".

There is a commonly found post-WWII cleaning kit, often labeled as "Yugoslavian Mauser cleaning kit", that consists of a small greenish canvas type material with either button or string tie closure typically containing a hemp pull-through rope, a small oil bottle and maybe a bore brush. Similar kits were used in the Post WWI world by a number of countries using Mauser rifles and carbines.

One can add a new leather seal to the oil bottle cap, replace the bore brush with a few rag patches, or flax tow sold by a number of 18th Century vendors. "Ballistol" oil makes a decent substitute for Justinus Oil. Plus one can make up beef or mutton tallow, or lard and beeswax for "cleaning fat" and carry it in the tins also sold by 18th and 19th century community vendors. This will give the reenactor a reasonably period looking kit that he can carry in his Tornister or Brötbeutel so he may clean his rifle in period fashion in the down times in the trenches just as the original soldiers would have done.

And last, avoid the WWII Wehrmacht cleaning tin sets.




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