The Mars Automatic Pistol, also sometimes known as the Webley-Mars, was a

semi-automatic pistol A semi-automatic pistol (also called a self-loading pistol, autopistol, or autoloading pistol) is a repeating firearm, repeating handgun that automatically ejects and loads cartridge (firearms), cartridges in its chamber (firearms), chamber afte ...

developed in 1900 by the

Englishman The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common ancestry, history, and culture. The English identity began with the Anglo-Saxons, when they we ...

Hugh Gabbet-Fairfax and distributed by the Mars Automatic Pistol Syndicate Ltd. of Birmingham. It was manufactured first by

Webley & Scott Webley & Scott is an arms manufacturer founded in Birmingham, England. Webley produced handguns and long guns from 1834 to 1979, when the company ceased to manufacture firearms and instead turned its attention to producing air pistols and air ...

and later by small gunmakers in Birmingham and London. Manufacture ceased in 1907. The Mars Automatic Pistol is noted for being available in a variety of calibers: 8.5 mm, 9 mm and .45. These were all

bottleneck Bottleneck may refer to: * the narrowed portion (neck) of a bottle Science and technology * Bottleneck (engineering), where the performance of an entire system is limited by a single component * Bottleneck (network), in a communication network * ...

cartridges with a large charge of powder, making the .45 version the most powerful handgun in the world for a time. It used a unique long recoil rotating bolt action which ejected spent cartridges straight to the rear, and the feed mechanism is unusual in that it pulls cartridges backwards out of the magazine and then lifts them up into the breech face. The Mars Automatic Pistol was rejected by the British

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as a possible replacement for the Webley & Scott revolvers, then in service with the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

, because of the unacceptably powerful recoil, considerable muzzle flash, and mechanical complexity. The captain in charge of tests of the Mars at the Naval Gunnery School in 1902 observed, "No one who fired once with the pistol wished to shoot it again". Shooting the Mars pistol was described as "singularly unpleasant and alarming".Geoffrey Boothroyd, ''The Handgun'', Crown Publishers, 1970, pp. 410–412. It has since become a collectors' item because of its rarity and as an example of the earliest developments in semi-automatic pistols.

In popular culture

The Mars is obtainable in the 2015 video game, Assassin's Creed: Syndicate despite the game being set in 1868, 32 years before the firearm was produced. However, the gun is shown once again in a historically-accurate manner in the game's

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

section, where it is wielded by the protagonist Jacob Frye's granddaughter, Lydia Frye. The Mars Automatic Pistol can be used by the Scout class in the 2016 video game

Battlefield 1 ''Battlefield 1'' is a 2016 first-person shooter game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. It is the tenth installment in the ''Battlefield'' series and the first main entry in the series since ''Battlefield 4'' in 2013. It was ...

. The Mars Pistol is in Sniper Elite: Resistance as of late April 2025, as part of the DLC Striking Range. The Mars is described in Brian Catling's 2012 novel, '' The Vorrh''.

Notes

# filed on Oct 15, 1900 #Only around 80 pistols were made between 1897 and 1905. (Standard Catalog of Firearms) #An example of the Mars can be seen at the

Royal Armouries The Royal Armouries is the United Kingdom's national collection of arms and armour. Once an important part of England's military organization, it became the United Kingdom's oldest museum, and one of the oldest museums in the world. It is als ...

Museum in

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. Two are in the collection of the WTS museum in Koblenz, Germany #A near-perfect Gabbet-Fairfax Mars sold at auction in 2002 for $35,250. #On December 16, 1996, the Mars was cited as an example of a heritage arm during a debate in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

gun control Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms and ammunition by civilians. Most countries allow civilians to own firearms, bu ...

following

Dunblane Dunblane (, ) is a town in the council area of Stirling in central Scotland, and inside the historic boundaries of the county of Perthshire. It is a commuter town, with many residents making use of good transport links to much of the Central Be ...

References

External links

* {{youTube, RBKqvLpxpU4, Mars Automatic Pistol at Forgotten Weapons 19th-century semi-automatic pistols Long recoil firearms Semi-automatic pistols of the United Kingdom Trial and research firearms of the United Kingdom Victorian-era weapons of the United Kingdom