As the Second World War loomed, a need to update the venerable Lee Enfield rifle in British service saw the design modernized into the new #4 Rifle, with a series of improvements on the same core principals.

The Japanese Type 44 Arisaka was a specialized variant of the Type 38 rifle intended for use by cavalry and other mounted troops, incorporating a folding bayonet.

The standard issue rifle of the Imperial German Army during the Great War, the Gewehr 98 is the quintessential “German Mauser”; the progenitor of the most successful bolt action rifle of all time.

Canada’s first indigenously produced infantry rifle was a straight pull design made with match grade accuracy in mind. When brought to the conditions of the Great War’s Western Front its deficiencies in other areas became alarmingly apparent.

The most modern rifle in Ottoman inventory during the Great War was an example of the excellent Mauser 98, with some special features. These rifles would serve as a pattern during the interwar Turkish upgrade program, in addition to receiving minor modifications themselves.

Despite adopting a new Mauser 98 pattern rifle, as the Second World War loomed Belgium also undertook a program to upgrade existing stocks of the older Model 1889 rifles to the same pattern.

The straight-pull Mannlicher M.95 was the standard issue service rifle of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the Great War, with millions produced and serving on the Eastern Front and in northern Italy, as well as other Fronts. It would continue in service to the the Empire’s successor states through the Second World War.

The French MAS36 was intended as a stopgap until a suitable semi-automatic rifle could be developed, but this was not to be. The Fall of France in 1940 led to it being the final rifle adopted by the Third Republic, as well as the last bolt action rifle standardized by a major power.

The Kingdom of Italy would wisely chose a rifle within their industrial means with the M1891 Carcano, a rifle that would, despite it’s shortcomings, serve on through both the First and Second World Wars.

The Japanese Type 99 rifle was intended to replace the Type 38 as the standard issue weapon to the Imperial Japanese Military during World War Two, but was never able to supplant its older brother.

The German Kar88 was the first smokless powder carbine adopted for the Kaiser’s armies, and was a counterpart to the Gewehr 88. It would serve well throughout the Great War.