The M1867 Werndl–Holub was a single-shot breechloading rifle adopted by the

Austro-Hungarian army The Austro-Hungarian Army, also known as the Imperial and Royal Army,; was the principal ground force of Austria-Hungary from 1867 to 1918. It consisted of three organisations: the Common Army (, recruited from all parts of Austria-Hungary), ...

on 28 July 1867. It replaced the Wänzl breechloader conversion of the muzzle-loading

Lorenz rifle The Lorenz rifle was an Austrian rifle used in the mid 19th century. It was used in the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859 and the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, and also featured prominently in the American Civil War. History The Lorenz r ...

Josef Werndl Josef Werndl was an Austrian arms producer and inventor. His most famous rifle design was the M1867 Werndl-Holub. He also owned the Steyr-Mannlicher from 1855. References See also *Ferdinand Mannlicher Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher (Ja ...

(1831–1889) and

Karel Holub Karel may refer to: People * Karel (given name) * Karel (surname) * Charles Karel Bouley (born 1962), American talk radio personality known on air as Karel * Christiaan Karel Appel (1921–2006), Dutch painter and sculptor Business * Karel Elec ...

(1830–1903) designed and patented their rifle; Werndl later bought out all the rights, but was involved in name only. ÖWG (Österreichische Waffenfabriksgesellschaft) produced the Werndl and chambered it for the 11mm scharfe Patrone M.67 (11.15×42mmR) cartridge. In 1877, the military rechambered the Werndl for the bottleneck 11mm scharfe Patrone M.77 (11.15×58mmR) cartridge.

Production

In 1867, the army ordered 611,000 of the new rifles. The first batch of 100,000 rifles cost 5 million florins, or 50 florins per rifle. The army received 14 million florins in funding to acquire Werndl rifles and ammunition in 1868. The budget was then cut to just 1 million in 1869. As a result, by November 1870, only 316,650 Werndl breechloaders had been produced and the army still needed an additional 302,810 rifles to fulfill the needs of the regular troops, without taking into account the demands of the

Imperial-Royal Landwehr The Imperial-Royal Landwehr ( or ''k.k. Landwehr''), also called the Austrian Landwehr, was the territorial army of the Cisleithanian or Austrian half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1869 to 1918. Its counterpart was the Royal Hungarian Land ...

and the

Royal Hungarian Honvéd The Royal Hungarian () or Royal Hungarian (), commonly known as the (; Mass noun, collectively, the ), was one of the four Austro-Hungarian Army, armed forces ( or ) of Austria-Hungary from 1867 to 1918, along with the Imperial-Royal Landw ...

. In February 1873, the war minister Franz Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld stated a need for 370,000 more Werndl rifles for the army.

Use

In spite of the Werndl being long obsolete by World War I, the Austro-Hungarian forces issued Werndl rifles to rear-echelon units to free up more modern rifles for use by front-line troops.

Comparison with contemporary rifles

Users

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(limited use) *

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Conflicts

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(Limited) * Krivošije uprising 1869 * Herzegovina uprising 1875–1877 * Montenegrin–Ottoman War 1876–78 *

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* Battles for Plav and Gusinje 1879-1880 * Argentine Civil War 1880 * Kurdish uprising 1880-1881 * Herzegovina uprising 1882 * First Italo-Ethiopian War 1894-1896 * First Balkan War 1912-1913 * Second Balkan War 1913 *

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(limited) * Ukrainian War of Independence 1917-1921 (limited) * Retaking of Czech Borderland 1918-1919 (limited) * Austro-Slovene conflict in Carinthia 1918-1919 (limited) * Revolutions and interventions in Hungary 1918-1920 (limited) * Hungarian–Czechoslovak War 1918-1919 (limited) * Polish–Ukrainian War 1918-1919 (limited) * Silesian Uprisings 1919-1921 * Polish–Czechoslovak War 1919 (limited) * Polish–Soviet War 1919-1921 (limited)

References

External links

* 1867 introductions Early rifles Rifles of Austria Single-shot rifles Weapons of Austria-Hungary {{Rifle-stub