Tyranny of Steel

Having agreed to Adela ’s request about letting her older sister stay in the royal palace, Berengar quickly turned his attention to his work, in particular the Iberian theatre. Over the past few years, urban warfare had become a significant problem that German troops faced during peacekeeping operations within the Kingdom of Portugal.

Recently, with the death of the previous Sultan, and the political purges under way, the scope of urban warfare now encompassed the entirety of the Iberian Peninsula. As a result of this, one thing became abundantly clear: the tools used by the German soldiers simply did not meet the demands of the job.

Thus, Berengar was forced to create a new weapon to contend with this new threat. Immediately, only one weapon design came to mind. The shotgun was among the most useful tools Berengar had ever encountered in his past life, especially in combat.

During the Great War, the American soldiers used the shotgun not only as a means of clearing enemy trenches but also as a way to shoot enemy grenades out of the air. It was so effective in trench warfare that Germany had protested its use and tried to get it banned after the war was over.

However, by the time Berengar entered combat nearly a century later, the weapon had been relegated almost exclusively to the role of the breaching buildings in urban warfare. Because of this, Berengar knew just how effective the weapon was in that role, as he had personally witnessed it.

The problem Berengar was having was deciding on a single shotgun design for use in his armed forces. Shotguns were a classification for a variety of weapon designs. Among these various designs were single shot shotguns, double barrel shotguns, pump action shotguns, lever action shotguns, semi-automatic shotguns, and even automatic shotgun designs.

Naturally, at the moment, The German Army did not have enough smokeless powder stockpiled to make a reliable semi-automatic, or automatic, shotgun. Thus, Berengar decided to use a pump-action shotgun as the basis of his new Trench Gun. However, there were dozens, if not hundreds, of pump action designs that came to mind. He was personally familiar with a few of the more popular pump-action tactical shotguns, as he owned a few during his past life.

Ultimately, after careful deliberation, Berengar decided on the model 870 shotgun that was manufactured by Remington in his past life. The 870 was a shotgun used around the globe by militaries and police forces alike. It was also licensed and copied by other companies. What made Berengar endeared to the 870 was its durability and reliability. Unlike many of its competitors, its receiver was made of steel, not aluminum, and he had never suffered a malfunction using the ones he owned during his past life.

The difference between Berengar ’s Model 1425 Trench Gun, and the model 870 was that although he used the mechanism of the 870 as the basis for the gun, the aesthetics were based upon the Winchester Model 12 Trench Gun, which was used by American forces in WWII. After all, it wasn ’t a proper trench gun if it did not have a barrel shroud, and a bayonet lug. Naturally, he designed the bayonet using the Model 12 ’s bayonet as the basis.