Bert-WWI Winchester use

Txs

August 10, 2010 05:10

The WWII thread got me to thinking....

I've heard stories and seen pictures of early WWI flyers carrying Winchester lever actions in their cockpits.

Any knowledge of how widespread this actually was or whether these were personal weapons as opposed to issue items?

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  Bert H.

  August 10, 2010 05:38

  To the best of my knowledge, the U.S. Army Air Corp never purchased any Winchester lever-actions for military use. If it happened, it was a personal firearm.

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  Tombstonejim

  August 10, 2010 11:28

  It is quite possible the references that you saw were of American pilots that flew with the French and English before the US entered the war. These pilots for the most part had no specif uniforms and did pretty much what they pleased as long as they fought Germans.
  
  The most famous of these groups was the Lafayette Escadrille. I am quite sure that some of them brought their own weapons and answered to no one about them.
  
  http://www.acepilots.com/wwi/lafayette.html
  
  Even later when the US was engaged in the war pilots for the most part were treated much different from regular soldiers and could have brought personal weapons with little questioning from superiors.

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  Txs

  August 11, 2010 06:01

  You're in all probability correct.
  
  As I said, this was supposedly early in the war when pilots were simply firing small arms from the cockpit instead of having mounted mounted machine guns.
  
  Bert - You aware of any Winchesters being issued by either British or French military forces or were any that found their way there personally acquired?

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  Tailgunner1954

  August 11, 2010 08:29

  Txs
  I'm stretching my feeble memory here, but I seem to recall that the French used some model 1907? Winchester self loading rifles as "air-air" weapons.

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  Bert H.

  August 11, 2010 13:50

  quote:Originally posted by Tailgunner1954
  Txs
  I'm stretching my feeble memory here, but I seem to recall that the French used some model 1907? Winchester self loading rifles as "air-air" weapons.
  
  
  You are correct... both French and English.

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