The German Government Complains about Shotguns. September 19, 1918.

Sailors in Vera Cruz in 1914. The sailor on the far right is armed with a shotgun, and that shotgun is probably the Model 1897.  If it is, it's a long barreled, rather than the short barreled version used by the Army in World War One and World War Two.

After having shelled Paris with a giant inaccurate railroad gun, or rather series of guns, and after having introduced flame throwers, unrestricted submarine warfare and aerial bombing over cities, the Germans complained about the American use of shotguns in the trenches.

The complaint was presented by the Swiss government on behalf of the German government.

The German Government protests against the use of shotguns by the American Army and calls attention to the fact that according to the law of war (Kriegsrecht) every prisoner found to have in his possession such guns or ammunition belonging thereto forfeits his life. This protest is based upon article 23(e) of the Hague convention respecting the laws and customs of war on land. Reply by cable is required before October 1, 1918.

This followed the capture by the Germans of two American soldiers carrying shotguns.

We note that the Germans were, by this point in the war, using submachineguns in the form of the MP18.

Confederate cavalryman armed with what appears to be a double barrel 10 gauge shotgun, a fairly common weapons for mounted Confederate troops during the Civil War.

American troops had carried shotguns in combat at least as early as the American Civil War, when they were particularly popular with Confederate cavalrymen.  The US had introduced the pump action Winchester Model 1897, a John Browning designed hammered shotgun, in 1900 as a weapon suitable for combat in the Philippines.  The M1897 remained in use by the Army and Marine Corps from that point forward to World War One, when it was overhauled a bit to eclectically be retrofitted to take a bayonet, a dubious attachment for a shotgun.  Nonetheless, the weapon was very sell suited for trench conditions and Americans, who were perhaps more familiar with the day to day use of shotguns than other peoples, put it to good close quarter use along with the numerous handguns that were issued to American servicemen and, unofficially, a few light semi automatic rifles.

So it wasn't a novel weapon to Americans.

It might have been to Germans, who were familiar with shotguns, of course, but who no doubt associated them with double barred sporting models.  The Winchester shotgun was in fact primarily a sporting model, but with a large tubular magazine, it's capacity was over double that of any double barreled shotgun.  Moreover, in the United States shotguns had taken a different path in general than they had in Europe.  Going back to the 18th Century they were largely identical, but in the 19th Century Americans had retained them for big game hunting in the East and Midwest.

Indeed, in the 18th Century there were already fowling pieces, smooth bore weapons that were specifically designed for hunting birds.  These actually were fairly close in design in some ways to military muskets, which were also smoothbore weapons.  Indeed, one of the feature s of muskets was that soldiers frequently used shot, rather than balls, in them.  "Buck and Ball" was a common load for close quarter fighting and is part of what made muskets a deadly weapons.  Buck and Ball was a ball loaded on top of shot, which effectively made a musket into a large bore shotgun in that application, something absolutely devastating at close quarters.

Muskets had universal military use early on and rifles were actually fairly rare.  Infantry carried muskets while artillerymen and cavalrymen carried musketoons, short muskets. Cavalry musketoons, moreover, had permanent swinging attachments for their ramrods so that they could be loaded by a mounted man without the danger of the ramrod being lost.

The demise of military muskets was in site during the 1840s at which time the Rifle Musket started to come in. The Rifle Musket was a large caliber rifle with shallow lands and grooves, so it could fill the role of both the rifle and the musket.  Very quickly armies quit issuing shot for buck and ball loads and the Rifle Musket, which featured adequate long range accuracy, soon was a much more rapidly loaded muzzle loading rifle which replaced muskets in armies that could afford to replace muskets. Retention of muskets at this point indicated a certain species of military poverty.

By the American Civil War muskets were very much on the way out, but shotguns oddly were on their way in.  In Confederate use they supplanted musketoons, which were still in use in both armies at the start of the war.  Being little different in practical terms, a big shotgun, such as a 10 Gauge, was at least as effective as a muskettoon and had the advantage of having two barrels.

Also by that time, muskets and shotguns had seen a fair amount of big game use in North America, a feature of frontier conditions and geography.  In Europe, however, rifles took over early for hunting big game, which is not to say that they didn't see that use in North America as well.  As muskets yielded to rifles in North America, big shotguns took their place in some big game applications in densely wooded areas of the continent.  They are still used in that application today.

Woman posing with a long barreled Winchester Model 1897 12 gauge shotgun.

Therefore a more utilitarian shotgun became pretty common in North America.  That shotgun was designed for bird hunting, but designers knew that some would also be used for big game hunting. And, additionally, as people were familiar with the use of shotguns for big game, they knew that they could be used for other large targets as well, such as personal protection.  The term "riding shotgun" came from that, with stage guards using shotguns, as anything they might encounter, they were likely to encounter at short desperate range.

So a military use was fairly obvious to the American military. But it was apparently an unwelcome surprise to the Germans.

The Army dutifully studied the issue and a lengthy memorandum on the topic resulted by a General Ansell, who examined the complaint, and in the end concluded that; "The complaint is without merit".

United States Secretary of War Lansing then replied to the Germans:

The . . . provision of the Hague convention, cited in the protest does not . . . forbid the use of this. . weapon. . . [I]n view of the history of the shotgun as a weapon of warfare and in view of the well known effects of its present use, and in light of a comparison of it with other weapons approved in warfare, the shotgun . . . cannot be the subject of legitimate or reasonable protest.. . . . 

The Government of the United States notes the threat of the German Government to execute every prisoner of war found to have in his possession shotguns or shotgun ammunition. Inasmuch as the weapon is lawful and may be rightfully used, its use will not be abandoned by the American Army . . . [I]f the German Government should carry out its threat in a single instance, it will be the right and duty of the . . . United States to make such reprisals as will best protect the American forces, and notice is hereby given of the intention of the . . . United States to make such reprisals.

By September 1918 the direction the war was going was pretty obvious. To think that the Germans would have complained about the use of shotguns is in and of itself pretty remarkable.  It's all the more amazing in light of the fact that by September 1918 the Americans were taking in a lot more Germans POWs than the Germans were taking in American POWs.

The Germans did not carry through with their threat.

And the US has kept using shotguns.  It still does.

Indeed, the M1897 carried on into World War Two, by which time it was quite obsolete. During the Second World War the US also added the Winchester Model 1897's civilian replacement to its stable, the Winchester Model 12, in the riot gun configuration.  Model 12s carried on in service virtually forever, but in recent years various other shotgun models have been added.  The military shotgun is a uniquely American weapon, and its stuck around.