Roth-Steyr M7 and its battle story

[Douglas Jr.]

Hi everybody,

Here I am sharing some pictures of this old lady who saw a lot of action during the World War I. Let me present you my Roth-Steyr M7 (or Repetierpistole 1907), serial number 6631, made by the Waffenfabrik Steyr. Note that the gun does not have the visible pin on the right side, which is typical of early production guns. The M7 is marked "DR 15 182" on the right grip?s disc, which means 15th Dragoon Regiment, weapon number 182.

The M7 Roth Steyr was adapted by the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1907 and manufactured by ?sterreichische Waffenfabrik-Ges. in Steyr, Austria and by Fegyvergyar in Bupadest Hungary from 1908 to 1914. It has a locked breech rotating barrel type of action. The trigger requires a hard pull to cock and discharge the gun. It is 10 shot and is loaded with a stripper clip. Small parts made by Fegyvergyar are marked with an ?R? and those made by Steyr are marked with a ?K?. According to Wilson(page 137,149) these pistols were initially issued to the Imperial and Royal Cavalry and Flying core (a variety of unit markings on the grip disks indicates more extensive issue). The reported serial range of the Austrian Manufactured pistols is 223-51683 for an estimated production of 60,000. That for the Hungarian manufactured pistols is 51-31706 for an estimated production of 30,000. These were all manufactured for the Austro-Hungarian military.

[Douglas Jr.]

I was fortunated enough to track its battle story, which is very interesting. At this point I?d like to thank the Members of this forum as well Mr. Glenn Jewison from the Austro-Hungarian Army Forum (http://www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk/index.htm ). Here we go!

The complete name of the unit was Dragoner Regiment Erzherzog Joseph (Archduke Joseph) Nr 15 and the regimental Headquarter before the War was Wiener-Neustadt. until the late summer of 1916 Dragonerregiment Erzherzog Joseph Nr.15 was an integral part of the 21st Cavalry Brigade of the 4th Cavalry Division. As usch it was deployed exclusively on the Galician front against the Russian Army. It took part in the great cavalry battle at Jarowslawice on the 21st of August 1914 when it came into action against the Russian 10th Cavalry Division.

It saw further action at Zlocz?w from the 26th to 28 August, the Gnila Lipa on the 29th and 30th August, Rawa-Ruska - Lemberg from 6th to the 11th of September followed by the withdrawal behind the River San and further to the River Dunajec. It advanced to the San again from 4th to 12th October and at Przemysl from the 10th Oct to 4th November. Following the action at Lawr?w the division withdrew to the Carpathian Mountains, saw further fighting on the upper Dunajec and at the battle of Limanowa-Lapan?w in the first two weeks of December 1914.

[Douglas Jr.]

The regiment spent the winter of 1914/15 in the Carpathian Mountains and then took part in the Gorlice-Tarn?w offensive in May, the engagemant at Sanok and the pursuit of the Russian forces to the East seeing fighting at Luck and at Rowno in the late summer. It remained on the Southern Sector of the Eastern Front throughout the remainder of 1915 and the first part of 1916.

At some stage either in late 1916 or early 1917 the the 15th Dragoons were detached from the 21st Cavalry Brigade and became utilised as Divisional Cavalry Squadrons. A summer 1918 Order of battle shows squadrons under command of the following divisions:

1. Schwadron - 25th Infantry Division

2. Schwadron - 4th Infantry Division

3. Schwadron - 13th Sch?tzen Division

4. Schwadron - 46th Sch?tzen Division

Wartime Regimental Commanders:

Oberstleutnant/Oberst Otto Graf von Huyn: Dec 1910- Sep 1914

Oberstleutnant/Oberst Alfred Br?sch Edler von Fohraheim: Sep 14-Dec 17

Oberstleutnant/Oberst Franz Neusser: Dec 17 - Nov 18

[Chris Boonzaier]

A nice history... but a bloody ugly looking weapon !!

[medalman90]

Awesome history. That's pretty cool you were able to find all of that out.

[Chip]

Chris,

This is a bit off topic, but trying to read this information brought my frustration back regarding how this website changes ASCII created German vowels with Umlauts into question marks. What's up with that? I don't see this happening on any of the many other website forums I read.

Chip