Well, it happened.  I stopped into the local gun shop to check on my consignment, a Century Inch-pattern upper receiver, and I found a pristine Norinco replica of the Winchester M1897 12 ga. shotgun called the "Trench Gun."  I gave it a thorough going over and decided that it would be a handsome stable mate to my Winchester M1912 12ga. Trench Gun.  It so happened that they'd sold my consignment piece, and in the fastest exchange of paperwork in history, the check was applied to the purchase of the Trench Gun.

 

When the Americans entered World War I, they brought with them combat shotguns.  The combat shotgun has a unique position in American combat arms, for they have been used in all of America's wars.  As most people know, the shotgun is deadly at close range as an anti-personnel weapon.  When not in combat, it can be used to supplement the soldier's rations by putting game on the table.

 

The German Army taught its enemies to both fear and respect the Maxim MG 1908 7.92x57mm heavy machine gun (called the "Spandau" by the Germans after the arsenal of its manufacture).  When American troops entered the war, they brought with them Winchester M1897 and M1912 pump shotguns.  These guns were 12 gauge caliber, had a 2-3/4 inch chamber, a 20-inch cylinder bore barrel, and had a ventilated handguard with a bayonet mount for the M1917 bayonet.  Trench Guns (and some Riot guns with 18-inch barrels and no bayonet mounts) were extremely deadly in the trenches of the day.  The American soldiers and Marines taught the Germans a thing or two about fearsome weapons.  In fact, the Americans and their shotguns were so effective that the German General Staff contemplated issuing an order that all Americans caught with shotguns or shotgun ammunition were to be summarily shot and not taken prisoner.  When the American General John J. Pershing heard of this, he communicated to the Germans that, should they implement their threat, he would order all American troops to take NO German pisoners.  With the war not going well for Germany, the General Staff reconsidered the proposed order. 

 

Both M1897 and M1912 guns did not have positive disconnectors, so that once the trigger was pulled to fire the first shot and held back, all the operator had to do was pump the forearm backwards and forwards to empty the magazine.  Either M1897 or M1912 Trench Guns carried one shell in the chamber and five in the magazine tube for a total of six.  When fired, the operator could put out six shots for a total of 54 caliber 0.33-inch lead pellets down range as fast as the gunner could work the action -- and these guns still beat the best submachine guns of today.  Shotgun-equipped soldiers or Marines carried bandoliers for their shotgun shells.  Later, they were issued pouches for them.  The first military shotgun shells were paper (cardboard) like their commercial counterparts.  However, the dampness of the trenches on the Western Front caused them to soak-up moisture and swell.  This led to jamming and soon resulted in the replacement of the cardboard materials with brass.  All-brass shotgun shells were type-standardized as the M19.  The M19 shell was 2-3/4 inches long, the caliber was 12 gauge, and it contained nine "00" (0.33-inch diameter) soft lead buckshot balls.  The M19 brass 12 gauge buckshot round was used well into the Vietnam War when it was replaced by the plastic M162 "00" buckshot round. 

 

The M1917 bayonet is very similar to the Pattern 1907 bayonet used on the Short Magazine Lee-Enfield (SMLE), No. III Mk I.  When the England adopted the Mauser-influenced Pattern 1914 .303 rifle, they produced a bayonet to fit it based on the SMLE bayonet.  The difference between the SMLE bayonet and Pattern 1914 bayonet is its muzzle ring.  The Pattern 1914 muzzle ring is taller than that of the Pattern 1907.  England was not able to build enough of either the SMLE or Pattern 1914 rifles to supply its fighting troops on the Western Front.  British purchasing agents contacted with the American firms of Winchester and Remington to maufacture the Pattern 1914 rifle to supply their infantry units.

 

At the time America got involved in World War 1, its need for infantry rifles far out-stripped its peacetime production of caliber .30 M1903 rifles from Rock Island Arsenal (Rock Island, Illinois) and Springfield Armory (Springfield, Massachusetts).  The U.S. Army and Marine Corps needed rifles and the only way to arm the troops was to go to the large American commercial manufacturers.  Fortunately, Winchester and Remington were ready with a caliber .30 version of the British Pattern 1914 .303 rifle.  The modified rifle was manufactured by Winchester, Remington, and Eddystone (a Remington subsidiary) as the U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, M1917.  About 2.5 million M1917 rifles were manufactured during World War 1 as compared to about 1 million M1903 rifles manufactured by Springfield and Rock Island.

 

M1903 Springfield rifles used the M1905 bayonet.  This bayonet was similar to the bayonet issued for the M1892 to M1898 Krag rifles.  The bayonet had wood grips, a blued blade over 16 inches long, with a spear point, and deep blood groove.  The standard scabbard was the M1910 that had a pair of locking lugs for the bayonet on mouth of the scabbard, an aluminum scabbard that was covered with khaki cloth, had a leather tip, and a pair of hooks for attaching it to eyelets on the M1910 haversack or M1910 cartridge belt. 

 

The M1917 bayonet did not fit the M1903 rifle, although the M1905 bayonet would fit into the M1917 scabbard if necessary.  The M1917 scabbard had the dual hooks to attach it to the haversack or cartridge belt like the M1910 scabbard, but it did not have the locking lugs, and its scabbard was leather with a metal tip,  The M1917 bayonet was very similar to the British Pattern M1914, except its wooden grips had two grooves and the British grips were smooth.  The American M1917 bayonet had a blood groove that ran along its center for most of its length and had a asymetrical point when compared to the symetrical M1905.  

 

Winchester M1897 and M1912 pump shotguns with 20-inch barrels were fitted with a ventilated handguard that incorporated a bayonet lug and stud for the M1917 bayonet.  Trench guns had 1-1/4 inch slng swivel on the butt stock and a triangular-shaped sling swivel attached to the bayonet lug.  During World War 1, Trench Guns were found with the M1907 1-1/4 inch leather sling or the M1917 Kerr web sling.  Very similar to the M1907 leather rifle sling, the Kerr was made of khaki cotton webbing with quick attach/detach ends instead of hooks and sling keepers.  The M1917 Kerr sling was used on Trench Guns and M1903 rifles (and a longer version of the Kerr sling was made for the M1917 rifle).  When the Kerr slings were no longer available, they were replaced by the M1 web slings that began being issued in the middle of World War 2.

 

Since former Secretary of Defense Robert S. MacNamara instituted the infamous "demilitarization" program for ordnance in 1960, hundreds of thousands of small arms, parts, bayonets, scabbards, and slings have all fallen victim to the shear, cutting torch, or cutoff saw.  While M1897 and M1912 Trench Guns had survived fights in the trenches of World War 1, fights all over the world in World War 2, more fights in Korea, and then fights in Vietnam, many of them, their slings, their bayonets, and the bayonet scabbards were chopped-up as the result of Mr. MacNamara's policy.  Demilitarization drives up the price for original guns and accessories that have not fallen victim to the "chop."  Fortunately, International Military Antiques came to the rescue with a very good replica of the M1917 bayonet and its scabbard for a very reasonable price (US $59.95) as opposed to US $125 to $175 for a genuine M1917 (without scabbard).  And so I ordered one from IMA (along with a replica M1905 bayonet and G.I. M3 [WW2] plastic scabbard).

 

The bayonets arrived about three days after I picked up the M1897 Trench Gun replica.  I was anxious to check the fit of the bayonet to the mount on the shotgun.  I soon found out that the replica had two problems: (1) the muzzle ring hole was undersized for the bayonet stud diameter and (2) the muzzle ring was misaligned with the bayonet handle so that the blade canted upwards and the muzzle ring hole was offset to the left.  These were problems that occured at manufacture.  The muzzle ring was not correctly positioned in the setup jig and the muzzle ring hole was not reamed to fit the bayonet stud.  It took some filing and reaming and some adjusting, but finally the replica bayonet fit the replica Trench Gun.  The final fit is much nicer than is typical with my Winchester M1917 rifle and M1912 Trench Gun.  The bayonets for these arms have a much "looser" fit than the replica bayonet on the replica Trench Gun.