[null and void]

I want one...

[PAR35]

Periscope Gun – A German “Trench Mauser” From World War I
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3366775/posts

[balk]

I’d imagine there’d be large recoil when fired due to the leverage.

[2banana]

The Germans had semi-automatic rifles with magazines in WWI?

[dainbramaged]

A friend has a pair of trench binoculars that his grandfather took from a dead kraut in WWII. Same principle, tall and strange but functional.

[jaydee770]

Looks like it could be a big lever to multiply recoil muzzle-flip but it seems to have been tolerable by the Nazi’s. Necessity is the mother of invention!