Type 41 self-loading rifle
| Type 41 self-loading rifle | |
|---|---|
| File:Menghean Navy semi-automatic rifles.png The second Mun/Bak prototype, at bottom, was accepted as the Type 41. | |
| Type | semi-automatic rifle |
| Place of origin |  Menghe |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1941-1964 |
| Used by | Imperial Menghean Army various insurgent groups |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Mun/Bak Rifle Company |
| Designed | 1930-1941 |
| Manufacturer | Haeju No.2 Arms Factory |
| Produced | 1941-1944 |
| No. built | 34,000 |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 4.2 kg (9.26 lb) |
| Length | 1,192 mm |
| Barrel length | 630 mm |
| Cartridge | 7.5×60mm Menghean |
| Action | gas-operated |
| Rate of fire | semi-automatic |
| Muzzle velocity | 730 m/s (2,395 ft/s) |
| Effective firing range | 100 - 1000 m sight adjustments |
| Feed system | 10-round detachable magazine |
| Sights | Iron sights |
The Type 41 self-loading rifle (Menghean: 41식 자동 소총 / 四一式自動小銃, sal-il-sik jadong sochong), also translated as Type 41 automatic short rifle, is a type of semi-automatic rifle that entered service with the Imperial Menghean Army in 1941 and was used until the end of the Pan-Septentrion War. It used a gas-operated loading system with a rotating bolt, similar to that used on the Sieuxerrian MSC 1918 and Columbian M1 Garand. In all, it was a highly effective firearm, but due to concerns over cost it was produced in smaller numbers than the bolt-action Type 40 rifle.
Development
The Type 41 grew out of the same Navy procurement competition that had yielded the Type 38 self-loading rifle. It was the brainchild of a small private design team led by the Western-educated engineers Mun Gyŏng-sŏn and Bak Jun-yŏng. While the other prototypes involved in the competition were sourced from major state arsenals, Mun and Bak only owned a small workshop in the city of Haeju, and at the outset few took their proposal seriously. Yet over the course of many revisions, the "Mun/Bak rifle" proved relatively reliable and easy to maintain, despite using the gas-piston system that other Menghean arms designers considered unreliable. The prototype's only problem was its weight, which, at 4.8 kilograms, was well over the Navy's required maximum.
A core problem for Mun and Bak was how to handle the rear end of the gas piston, which had to move around the magazine. The initial design used a milled gas piston that forked inside the receiver, passing on either side of the ammunition feed, but this added unnecessary weight and required heavier bracing of the receiver. As one possible solution, the designers considered running the second stage of the gas piston on the outside of the rifle, connecting it directly to the bolt handle. This was a configuration which Mun Gyŏng-sŏn had seen in action during a 1923 visit to Sieuxerr, which used it on the MSC 1918 rifle. Yet this configuration was still protected by a patent, and with Menghe actively at war with Sylva, Sieuxerr's government was reluctant to sell Menghe production rights.
By the end of 1937, the Pan-Septentrion War had escalated dramatically, and Menghe was at war with Maverica, New Tyran, and Sieuxerr itself. Deciding that a lawsuit was the least of their concerns, Mun and Bak submitted a second prototype which used the MSC 1918 piston connection, as well as more wooden furniture in place of the stamped receiver. The resulting weapon performed well in trials, but it was still half a kilogram over the Navy's weight requirement, and lost the competition in favor of Hwasŏng's proposal.
By 1941, front-line service had uncovered severe drawbacks in the Type 38's design, and the twelve thousand or so rifles already produced were being pulled from service. Yet in a reversal of fortune, the Imperial Menghean Army had developed an interest in self-loading rifles, as the long, clumsy bolt-action Type 17s had proven ill-suited for urban combat in Maverica and Themiclesia. Army representatives contacted the other former competitors in the Navy's semi-automatic rifle program, and after conducting their own tests, they found that Mun and Bak's second prototype met all their requirements. They promptly placed an order for 100,000 - startling Mun and Bak themselves, who had only a small workshop to their name and were short on supplies as a result of home-front mobilization.
After contacting the government, Mun and Bak managed to set up a production contract with the Haeju No.2 Arms Factory, which produced submachineguns for the Menghean Army. In return for a down payment which Mun and Bak supplied themselves from a loan, Haeju converted one of its production lines to manufacture the new rifle, which had been assigned the Army designation Type 41. In this way, Mun and Bak remained financially liable for the Type 41 production, receiving a commission on every rifle produced, while the Haeju No.2 Arms Factory was responsible for actual manufacture.
Design
The production version of the Type 41 self-loading rifle was one of the few Menghean service-approved small arms of the Pan-Septentrion War to use a gas-operated loading system. With each round fired, a small amount of the propellant gases behind the bullet were diverted through a pinhole from the barrel into a gas block beneath it, where they drove back a piston. About halfway down the handguard, the conventional piston connected to a flat steel rod running along the outside of the rifle to the charging handle, where it cycled the bolt to load a new round.
As on some early semi-automatic rifles, it was possible to disable the gas system and operate the Type 41 as a straight-pull bolt action rifle. This could be done using a lever that extended forward from the gas block under the barrel. When turned straight downward, perpendicular to the barrel, this shifted a screw inside the gas block out of alignment, cutting off the flow of gas to the piston.
Unlike the Type 38 and the first Mun/Bak prototype, the Type 41's ten-round magazine was removable using a quick-release switch between the magazine and the trigger guard. The magazine itself was straight, but was angled slightly backward to aid with reloading. Service manuals called for soldiers to be equipped with one rifle, two magazines, and the remaining ammunition in standard five-round stripper clips, which could be used to refill magazines separately or while locked into the rifle.
The Type 41's sights used a tangent rear sight, standard on Menghean rifles at the time, which was marked out to 1000 meters. The forward sight was a simple blade on the trials version, but on rifles produced after 1942 this was replaced by a new foresight with a protective hood to prevent it from being bent out of alignment. The rifle could also mount a slightly modified version of the Type 17 bayonet, though it was not perfectly compatible with actual Type 17s.
Service
In all, about 34,000 Type 41 self-loading rifles were produced before the end of the war. Initially, the Army had ordered 100,000, but even as production expanded, unit costs did not fall as far as the procurement office had expected, and the Army leadership balked at the cost and effort of re-equipping the entire Imperial Menghean Army with a more expensive rifle in the midst of a war. Instead, they invested in increased production of the Type 40 rifle, which was progressively simplified as the war wore on.
Type 41s which made it to the front were issued to units fighting in built-up areas, and in some cases were recalled so that they could be moved to another unit. Given the low rate of production, the Army issued them at a rate of 1-2 per squad within a division, rather than forming dedicated units armed only with semi-automatic rifles. The one exception to this rule Airborne units and Army Special Forces, which were armed primarily with Type 41s. In contrast to the Type 38, which was mainly used in the Meridian campaigns, use of the Type 41 was mainly confined to Hemithea.
In October of 1944, Haeju was firebombed by Allied forces, and the No.2 Arms Factory sustained heavy damage. While the Army's procurement office managed to salvage much of the tooling for submachinegun production, they declined to reactivate the Type 41 production line, as by that time the priority had shifted entirely to large-scale production of cheap and simple weapons for homeland defense units. After the war, most Type 41 self-loading rifles were captured by Tyrannian forces during Operation Henhouse, but some would survive in insurgent hands until the end of the Menghean War of Liberation.
Patent infringement lawsuit
In 1942, the MAS factory in Sieuxerr learned that Columbian forces advancing in Themiclesia had recovered Menghean rifles using their proprietary gas piston arrangement. While such copies were not uncommon in wartime, they became a prominent public issue in Sieuxerr. At the end of the war, representatives of MAS contacted the Allied occupation authorities in Menghe, hoping to level a lawsuit against the little-known "Mun and Bak Arsenal," which they assumed was a major state arsenal like Hwasŏng and Insŏng.
Unfortunately for MAS, the war's development had ruined the rifle's designers. When the Army declined to expand production or even fulfill its 100,000-unit contract, Mun Gyŏng-sŏn and Bak Jun-yŏng were unable to repay their start-up loan, and without a legally incorporated firm they fell into personal debt. Both had lost their homes in the firebombing of Haeju, and Bak Jun-yŏng had lost his immediate family. With no money to pay a settlement, Mun and Bak were extradited to Sieuxerr, where they served prison time instead. Investigations intended to link them to broader war crimes turned up nothing, and in 1955 they were released and allowed to return to the Republic of Menghe.