Atlas Trail
From Pike Square to Battle Rifle: How the Infantryman Was Armed
This path follows the weapons an ordinary foot soldier carried, from the long spear that held back cavalry in the Late Middle Ages to the battle rifles of the Cold War. Each stop shows one change in how infantry fought: first the pike and the early firearm side by side, then the bayonet that merged them, then automatic fire, the self-loading pistol, and finally the compact submachine gun and the 7.62x51mm NATO rifle.
Stop 1 of 8.
Weapons Systems
Start with the pike, a very long thrusting spear used in dense squares by Swiss, Landsknecht, Spanish and French troops, which could hold off cavalry and infantry alike but left a pikeman exposed if separated from his formation.
Stop 2 of 8.
Weapons Systems
The matchlock arquebus lowered a slow-burning match cord into a priming pan, and Spanish tercios paired arquebusiers with pikemen; its coordinated volleys broke a cavalry charge at Nagashino in 1575.
Stop 3 of 8.
Weapons Systems
The socket bayonet of the 1680s let a musketeer fire and then present a spear point without changing weapons, which is why dedicated pike formations were obsolete across European armies by the early eighteenth century.
Stop 4 of 8.
Weapons Systems
Patented in 1884 by Hiram Maxim, this recoil-operated, water-cooled gun was the first fully automatic machine gun, and its effect on massed infantry was shown at Omdurman in 1898 and again on the Western Front in World War I.
Stop 5 of 8.
Weapons Systems
John Browning designed this short-recoil, .45 ACP semi-automatic pistol, adopted by the United States military in 1911 and kept as the standard sidearm until the Beretta M9 replaced it in 1985.
Stop 6 of 8.
Weapons Systems
The Israeli Uzi put its magazine inside the pistol grip of a compact stamped-metal submachine gun; over 2 million were made and it was exported to more than 90 countries before the Israel Defense Forces retired it in December 2003.
Stop 7 of 8.
Weapons Systems
The Belgian FN FAL, designed by Dieudonne Saive and in production from 1953 in 7.62x51mm NATO, was adopted by more than 90 countries, while the United States chose the M14 instead.
Stop 8 of 8.
Weapons Systems
The roller-delayed G3, developed from a CETME design and adopted by the Bundeswehr in January 1959, passed 7.8 million built and served as West Germany's primary infantry rifle until the G36 replaced it.
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