The Great War spread across the world quite rapidly. It wasn’t really surprising when you really thought about it. After all, the majority of the world was currently owned by the Great Powers. There were few independent nations outside of Europe that remained.
However, one of those independent nations was the Empire of Japan, and they were perhaps the only non-European nation in history who had more or less kept up with the level of development of the European Empires, so much so that in the first half of the 20th century, they were capable of challenging them to some degree.
Something that nobody else on the global stage was really remotely adequately prepared for. It was true that by 1945, Japanese technological development had completely and totally lagged behind their allies and rivals on the global stage.
But in 1914, they were more or less on par with the European Great Powers, having access to most of the same level of military equipment. Recoil-compensated artillery? Check. Bolt- action rifles? Of course. Heavy machine guns? Absolutely! And thanks to Bruno’s intervention in the timeline, the Imperial Japanese Army also had access to general-purpose machine guns.
Granted, many of these weapons were chambered in the relatively anemic 6.5x50mmSR Arisaka, as it was relatively lacking in power compared to contemporary cartridges of the era. However, in the 21st century, the 6.5×50mmSR Arisaka would more or less be redeemed in the eyes of ballistic experts, as it had more than enough power to take down a man-sized target and a very flat trajectory, which was something desirable among shooters.
Considering in the 21st century, the 6.5×48mm cartridge became favored among competition shooters for this very reason, Bruno actually advised the Japanese to stick with this round rather than develop an unnecessarily larger cartridge, like they had done in his previous life, and in doing so strained their supply lines.
It was honestly a testament to the capability of the cartridge that the world’s first “battle rifle” in Bruno’s previous life was chambered in the 6.5x50mmSR Arisaka. While many would argue that the Russian Fedorov Avtomat was the world’s first “assault rifle,”
The weapon, which was initially manufactured in limited numbers in 1915 and used more extensively in the Russian Civil War than during the preceding Great War, did not technically meet such a definition. As an “assault rifle” was defined by militaries across the globe as a rifle chambered in an intermediate cartridge, which had select-fire capabilities.
This, of course, meant that the Fedorov Avtomat, which was chambered in a full-sized rifle cartridge and not an intermediate cartridge like the 8x33mm Kurz utilized in the Sturmgewehr 44, was, by definition, a “battle rifle” instead. A battle rifle had virtually the same definition as an assault rifle, but with the slight variation of using a full-sized rifle cartridge instead.
This was a rather important detail to mention, as the Russians were currently developing this very rifle as a means to compete with the German Gewehr 43, or Gewehr 05, as it was called in this life that Bruno had forced into the timeline much earlier than it would have normally occurred without his interference.
But who wasn’t trying to come up with a solution to advanced German weaponry that was currently dominating the battlefield? The Austro-Hungarians were more or less in the process of creating a rather simple, cheap, and effective conversion of their Steyr-Mannlicher M95 straight-pull rifles into a semi-automatic variant.
Meanwhile, the French were desperately trying to replace their abysmal French Puteaux Model 1905 machine guns with something far more reliable and durable. As they had foolishly invested heavily into the mass manufacture of such weapons as a means to compete with the overwhelming number of Maxim machine guns the Germans displayed during the Russian Civil War.
Only now, after the war had begun, had the French begun to understand the folly of their hasty actions. The only machine gun within their service was incredibly prone to jamming under field conditions or, worse, suffering catastrophic malfunctions and failures in battle that required extensive repair to get back into action, something which could not be done outside of an arms factory.
Something that resulted in excessive casualties, as the French Army simply could not support their charges against fortifications with suppressing fire, resulting in massive waves of their men being mowed down by superior German weaponry.
It was admittedly an absolute embarrassment for the French as a nation. And while they were actively trying to fix this massive problem in their arsenal, the British and Italians were also working on their own focuses.
The Royal Navy had suffered catastrophic defeats on the seas and had begun circumventing Normandy and instead landing in southern France and the Balkans with their troops to avoid being hunted down by German wolfpacks focused in the North Sea.
However, the British had misunderstood what kept sinking their ships. Not understanding the threat which lurked below the waves, they instead believed that the Germans were sinking their vessels with air power. And thus their focus became towards rapidly developing anti- aircraft weaponry capable of defending their Navy and maritime trade.
The only nation that was truly concerned with German submachine guns and “light machine guns” were the Italians, who had suffered repeated and horrific losses in the Alps because of the overwhelming number of MP-34s and MG-34s which the Germans wielded, both of which were mobile enough to rapidly defend any corner of the fortifications built within the mountain range from Italian assaults.
It truly did not matter how rapid of an advance the Italians mobilized, as the Germans could simply mobilize their men with the most rapid rate of fire to counter their charge at any given moment. Something that was simply not possible with heavy machine guns.
It was also something the Italians realized was a glaring gap in their own armed capabilities. Each front proposed a variety of unique difficulties for the adversaries of the German Reich, difficulties which even Germany’s allies picked up on and were trying to fix in their own arsenals.
Thus, while the Germans had the overwhelming technological outbreak at the start of the war, if they were not prudent and simply rested on their laurels, it was entirely possible that by the end of it their enemies could have caught up to them.
Something that Bruno would have to keep an eye on if he wanted to guarantee a victory in this new timeline he found himself reincarnated into 35 years ago.