Tarras rifle

Tarras rifle as plumb rifle of medium caliber with reinforced chamber

A Tarras rifle is a smaller late medieval cannon from the 15th century.

term

The concept of the Tarras rifle is proven from 1411. It is traced back to the Czech term tarras (= bulwark, screen) or the French expression terrace for earth wall. The spelling was varied (tarras sockets, taras sockets, tarraßpüchsen, terris-büchsen, törris püchsen ...) and the resulting corruptions (e.g. Daressenbüchse). The term is derived from the use of these cannons on earth walls, whereby they were partially covered by umbrellas (large wooden shields) (umbrella box). However, they were also used on walls and towers.

History and Development

At the beginning of the 15th century, the Tarras rifle was designed as a small stone rifle and later developed into a large plumb rifle.It was larger and heavier than manual rifles (especially: Wall rifles ) but could be transported over short distances by the operating team, so that the location was also during a battle changed and the rifle could be realigned. Later on, mobility was improved by adding small disc wheels and then slightly larger spoked wheels. In contrast to cart or wagon rifles, the Tarras rifles with small wheels also had to be loaded onto rifle wagons for further transport, as they were not all-terrain and too slow. The Tarras rifles had shorter tubes (1 m to 1.3 m) with a diameter of 40 to 46 millimeters and could be cast from iron or bronze. The rifles had a range of about 250 meters. The weight of the balls is given as 100 to 500 grams.

Firearms, including an early form of the Tarras rifle ( Tarasnitze ), were first used on a large scale by the Hussites and then also by the imperial and imperial troops in the Hussite Wars . Tarras rifles were used throughout the 15th century.

literature

• Office of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen (publisher): Early New High German Dictionary , p. 39 Google digitized version with limited access
• P. Sixl: Development and use of small arms . In: Zeitschrift für Historische Waffenkunde, 1902, pp. 44–48 in the Internet Archive
• P. Sixl: Development and use of small arms . In: Journal for historical weapons, 1902, pp. 77–79 in the Internet Archive

Web links

Commons : Tarras rifles etc.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Entry tarrasbüchse on early New High German dictionary; accessed on May 27, 2019
• Entry tarras rifles. In: Pierer's Universal-Lexikon, Volume 17. Altenburg 1863, p. 260.
• Entry tarras rifles. In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, Volume 19. Leipzig 1909, p. 329.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ see Sixl p. 44
2. ↑ see Pierer
3. ↑ Iron balls or pieces of iron coated with lead as projectiles. See Pierer.
4. ↑ see Sixl p. 79
5. ^ Stefan Sacharjew: The warlike incursions of the Hussites into the Margraviate of Brandenburg and Lusatia with special consideration of the campaign in April 1432, Berlin 2010, p. 31 pdf; accessed on May 28, 2019
6. ↑ see www.geschichtsforum.de; accessed on May 28, 2019
7. ↑ see Sixl p. 77