Vetterli-Vitali M1870/87 (Codex Entry)

Vetterli-Vitali M1870/87 is a Codex Entry featured in Battlefield 1, introduced in the Battlefield 1: In the Name of the Tsar expansion. It is unlocked upon obtaining ten kills with the Vetterli-Vitali M1870/87.

Transcript


''When the Swiss army adopted Johann-Freidrich Vetterli’s cartridge-based bolt-action rifle in 1869, it was one of the most modern and advanced rifles in existence. The Vetterli rifle fired a 10.4x38mm rimfire black powder cartridge and fed from an 11-round tubular magazine. In 1870, the Italian army adopted a modified version of the weapon, which became known as the Model 1870 “Italian Vetterli”, with the main differences being that it was converted to single-shot and rechambered for the 10.35x47mmR centerfire black powder cartridge. Within a few years the Italian army realized the mistake of not having a magazine fed rifle, and in 1887 the Italian Vetterli’s started to be converted to using a Lee-inspired four-round magazine invented by the Artillery Captain Giuseppe Vitali. The new magazine still fed the same 10.35x47mmR cartridges, but now from a Mannlicher-style metal and wood stripper clip, which after loading was withdrawn using a “pull-string” attached to the wooden top-part of the clip. Up until 1896 virtually all of the Modello 1870 long rifles and Truppe Speciale carbines’s were converted, and got the new name Vetterli-Vitali M1870/87. By 1915, when Italy joined WW1 on the side of the Allies, the Vetterli-Vitali’s were officially obsolete, but like most other belligerents Italy faced a severe shortage of weapons, and the M1870/87 rifles were issued to second-line- and colonial troops, but the rifles were still on the frontline on many occasions. In 1916, a large number of M1870/87 rifles were sent to Russia where they also saw plenty of combat. After the Russian Revolution, the Soviet Union got rid of all of its old black powder rifles, and the Russian Vetterli-Vitali’s were sent to the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39.''