The Mars Automatic Pistol, also sometimes known as the Webley-Mars, was a semi-automatic pistol developed in 1900 by the

Englishman The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture. The English identity is of Anglo-Saxon origin, when they were known in ...

Hugh Gabbet-Fairfax and distributed by the Mars Automatic Pistol Syndicate Ltd. of Birmingham. It was manufactured first by

Webley & Scott Webley & Scott is an arms manufacturer founded in Birmingham, England. Webley produced handguns and long guns from 1834 to 1979, when the company ceased to manufacture firearms and instead turned its attention to producing air pistols and ai ...

and later by small gunmakers in Birmingham and London. Manufacture ceased in 1907. The Mars Automatic Pistol is noted for being available in a variety of calibers: 8.5 mm, 9 mm and .45. These were all

bottleneck Bottleneck literally refers to the narrowed portion (neck) of a bottle near its opening, which limit the rate of outflow, and may describe any object of a similar shape. The literal neck of a bottle was originally used to play what is now known as ...

cartridge Cartridge may refer to: Objects * Cartridge (firearms), a type of modern ammunition * ROM cartridge, a removable component in an electronic device * Cartridge (respirator), a type of filter used in respirators Other uses * Cartridge (surname), a ...

s with a large charge of powder, making the .45 version the most powerful handgun in the world for a time. It used a unique long recoil rotating bolt action which ejected spent cartridges straight to the rear, and the feed mechanism is unusual in that it pulls cartridges backwards out of the magazine and then lifts them up into the breech face. The Mars Automatic Pistol was rejected by the British

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

as a possible replacement for the Webley and Webley & Scott revolvers, then in service with the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, because of the unacceptably powerful recoil, considerable muzzle flash, and mechanical complexity. The captain in charge of tests of the Mars at the Naval Gunnery School in 1902 observed, "No one who fired once with the pistol wished to shoot it again". Shooting the Mars pistol was described as "singularly unpleasant and alarming".Geoffrey Boothroyd, ''The Handgun'', Crown Publishers, 1970, pp. 410–412. It has since become a collectors' item because of its rarity and as an example of the earliest developments in semi-automatic pistols.

In popular culture

The Mars is obtainable in the 2015 video game, Assassin's Creed: Syndicate despite the game being set in 1868, 32 years before the firearm was produced. However, the gun is shown once again in a historically-accurate manner in the game's

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

section, where it is wielded by the protagonist Jacob Frye's granddaughter, Lydia Frye. The Mars Automatic Pistol can also be used by the Scout class in the 2016 video game, Battlefield 1. The Mars is described in

Brian Catling Brian Catling (23 October 1948 – 26 September 2022) was a British sculptor, poet, novelist, film maker and performance artist. He was educated at North East London Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art. He held the post of Professor of Fi ...

's 2012 novel, ''

The Vorrh ''The Vorrh'' is a dark historical fantasy novel by multi-disciplinary artist B. Catling that was first published in November of 2012. Aided in its publicity by a glowing foreword from author and graphic-novelist Alan Moore, it garnered signi ...

''.

Notes

# filed on Oct 15, 1900 #Only around 80 pistols were made between 1897 and 1905. (Standard Catalog of Firearms) #An example of the Mars can be seen at the

Royal Armouries The Royal Armouries is the United Kingdom's national collection of arms and armour. Originally an important part of England's military organization, it became the United Kingdom's oldest museum, originally housed in the Tower of London from ...

Museum in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

#A near-perfect Gabbet-Fairfax Mars sold at auction in 2002 for $35,250. #On December 16, 1996, the Mars was cited as an example of a heritage arm during a debate in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

on gun control following

Dunblane Dunblane (, gd, Dùn Bhlàthain) is a small town in the council area of Stirling in central Scotland, and inside the historic boundaries of the county of Perthshire. It is a commuter town, with many residents making use of good transport links ...

References

External links

* {{youTube, RBKqvLpxpU4, Mars Automatic Pistol at Forgotten Weapons 19th-century semi-automatic pistols Semi-automatic pistols of the United Kingdom Trial and research firearms of the United Kingdom Victorian-era weapons of the United Kingdom