11 x 41 mm R Werndl

11 x 41 mm R Werndl –a full-metal military rifle cartridge, adopted by the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1867 for the M1867 Werndl-Holub single-shot rifle. In 1866, Austria lost the war with Prussia. One of the factors in the defeat was the Lorenz M1854 and M1862 rifles, which were front-loading rifles. The Prussians were equipped with Dreyse system rear rifles (both guns were loaded with paper cartridges). Immediately after losing the war, the Lorenz rifles were converted to Wänzel system rear rifles (loaded with 14 x 33 mm R Wänzel full metallic cartridges). Eventually about 70 thousand rifles were converted. This was a temporary solution until the army was rearmed with the M1867 Werndl-Holub rifles. After the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, the Austro-Hungarian army issued a request to modify the 11 x 41 mm R Werndl cartridge, which led to the introduction of the 11 x 58 R Werndl cartridge in 1878. Both types of cartridges, despite their obsolescence, were still in active service until the First World War, and Werndl rifles were even allocated to Sokol organisations during the 1938 mobilisation in Czechoslovakia. Werndl-Holub rifles were also used as hunting weapons until the beginning of World War II. At the sites investigated by the Silesian Museum, cartridges of this type may therefore come either from hunters or from members of the Volksturm (Home Guard) from the very end of WWII. The markings on these cartridges are the same as on the younger 8 x 50 mm R Mannlicher cartridge. That is, quarter separated by lines, with the month of manufacture in Roman numerals at 12 o'clock, the year of manufacture at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock, and the maker's mark at 6 o'clock.

Mark of "eagle" – K. u K. (I. and R. – imperial and royal) Munitionsfabrik Wöllersdorf, Austria. See cartridge 8 x 50 mm R Mannlicher.