Bring out the big guns

(Taken from Wikipedia)

The Model 1897 was popular with American troops in World War I, and the Germans soon began to protest its use in combat. "On 19 September 1918, the German government issued a diplomatic protest against the American use of shotguns, alleging that the shotgun was prohibited by the law of war." A part of the German protest read that "it is especially forbidden to employ arms, projections, or materials calculated to cause unnecessary suffering" as defined in the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare. This is the only known occasion in which the legality of actual combat use of the shotgun has been raised. However, the United States interpreted its use of the shotgun differently than Germany. The Judge Advocate General of the Army, Secretary of State Robert Lansing, promptly rejected the German protest. France and Britain had double-barreled shotguns available for use as trench warfare weapons during World War I; however, unable to obtain high-powered ammunition and judging reload speed too slow for close combat, these countries did not field them.

In their initial protest, Germany threatened the execution of any POW caught with a shotgun or ammunition thereof. This led to the United States issuing a retaliation threat, stating that any measures unjustly taken against captured American soldiers would lead to reprisals by the United States. However, Tom Laemlein, in his article entitled The Trouble with Trench Guns noted that "there are no photos of trench guns in combat [during World War I]. None." He believed that in spite of retaliation threats, the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) ordered that photos of trench guns in combat be censored, and ultimately eliminated to prevent leaking among the press that would give Germany a reason to portray U.S. troops as "undisciplined and barbaric" and "incapable of using proper rifles." Another reason is that there were also seemingly concerns by General John J. Pershing and his staff that French and British commanders might exert control of American forces over public relations with the combat use of trench guns, as America was considered a junior partner among the Entente Powers. Laemlein concluded that "the trench guns would remain in France and continue to do their deadly, effective work, but there would simply be no photographs allowed to document it."