They called it the "War to End All Wars," and sadly, they were wrong. That said, it's easy to understand why people thought so: World War I was a tremendously bloody conflict that saw the introduction of tanks, poison gas, and the endless purgatory of trench warfare. Many European nations were caught out with armies that still used 19th-century tools and tactics, like horse-mounted cavalry and single-action wheelguns. It was that latter that became a real problem for the French army.
They also say that war forces innovation, and sadly or not, they're right. Semi-automatic arms were (relatively) new on the scene, and the French government needed to get handguns capable of firing more than five or six shots into their soldiers' holsters as soon as possible. France reached out to gunmakers in Spain's Eibar region for stopgap solutions ... and the gun they settled on would be made in huge numbers and is known today as simply the "Ruby."
For today's Throwback Thursday, we're highlighting this excellent episode of American Rifleman's "I Have This Old Gun." In it, you'll learn more about what made the Ruby the "most popular handgun you've never heard of" (and whether this 110-year-old pistol still works)!
