Geweher 7.7 281(e)

[Mk VII]

There is a documentary film made shortly after the war re-enacting battles of the 1914 campaign, of which there was very little genuine footage due to the all-pervading spy mania, with British troops providing the 'Germans' and naturally using their own smallarms for the purpose. Pieces of this can get cut together with other stuff, and generations of writers just copy the attribution.