The Mysterious and Enigmatic Direx Assault Rifle 1956.

[klem]

The mysterious and enigmatic Direx assault rifle 1956 "In the early 1950's, there existed a firm known as Rexim S.A., with offices in Geneva. While CETME, of Spain, was developing the unfinished German Sturmgewehr 45 (M) the Rexim company began an parallel development of another assault rifle called DIREX DUG, produced by an unnamed designer. Following the basic principle of the StG 45 (M), the DIREX was of retarded blowback operation using twin roller-locks. Although there were minor differences from the CETME rifle, such as the location of the charging handle and recoil spring, the close relationship between it and the DIREX is apparent. The DIREX was made for the U. S. caliber .30 T65 (7.62×51mm NATO) cartridge. However, it is likely that no more than one or two prototypes were made, and the project was abandoned."(The World's Assault Rifles : Gary Paul Johnston -Thomas B.Nelson). "Dipl-Ing Heynen, head of the CETME assault rifle programme, says it should be mentioned, somewhat as a curiosity, that in one of the Spanish military factories a competitive weapon was developed that, however far removed from the possibility of living up to the required conditions, was nevertheless conscientiously tested and compared by a Commission which the War Ministry had named, under the guidance of the EMC, interestingly, even though the final conclusions of this Commission stated that while neither weapon could be regarded as fully developed, they had to concede that the CETME possessed certain essential advantages." (Full Circle : A Treatise on Roller Locking-R Blake Stevens-Collector Stade Publications.2006)

 

[Petrus]

'Full Circle : A Treatise on Roller Locking' offers only scarce info on the rifle:

Rate of fire: 600 rpm
Rifled length of the barrel: 490 mm
Rear sight graduated from 200 to 1000 m
Magazine capacity: 30 T65 (i.e. 7.62x51) rounds.

The overall length may by estimated as 1170 mm.

From picture 03 it may be deduced that the rifle fired from the open bolt.
The upper drawing's caption says "Fusil prél au tir" (Rifle before firing). In the drawing there is the bolt (with the charging handle) in back position and a lever within the trigger mechanism holds the bolt in such a position.
The lower drawing ("Fusil, position de feu" - Rifle, the firing position) shows the bolt in forward position (as well as the charging handle forward, so it must have been reciprocating) with the hammer striking the fire pin and the bullet may be seen in the barrel (above the bipod mounting).

Piotr

 

[Scapaflow]

The progress made by the German sturmgewehr rifles all variants and with the introduction of the intermediate bullet the fondamentals were laid and opened the way after the War to later improvements.The gun of the post-war armies was to be without protest the assault rifle.After the War the first countries to have seized the opportunity were the URSS,Belgium,Spain,Argentina and East-Germany.

 

[Grzesio]

From picture 03 it may be deduced that the rifle fired from the open bolt.

Fairly strange, considering presence of the hammer. But I wonder, if the rifle fired from a closed bolt in semi-automatic mode and from an open bolt in full auto? The lever holding the bolt open seems to have its axle common with the fire selector, so it could be easily activated by the selector switched to full auto setting.

 

[Petrus]

From picture 03 it may be deduced that the rifle fired from the open bolt.

Fairly strange, considering presence of the hammer. But I wonder, if the rifle fired from a closed bolt in semi-automatic mode and from an open bolt in full auto? The lever holding the bolt open seems to have its axle common with the fire selector, so it could be easily activated by the selector switched to full auto setting.

You are quite right that the rifle might have fired from an open bolt in full-auto and from a closed bolt in semi-automatic.

Rexim apparently tried to build a truly universal rifle (as the names they used might imply: “Fusil Automatique Universel”, “Direx Universal Gun”). Its versatility lied in that the rifle was to perform functions of the rifle (semi-auto), the automatic rifle (shoulder-fired short bursts) and the light machine gun (automatic fire from a bipod). Below you’ve got a cut-out from the “Full Circle” quoting a brochure on the DUG rifle, where you’ll see how important to the rifle’s designers was its automatic-fire capability.

The emphasis on automatic fire could be the reason that the bolt operation method could switched depending on the firing mode.

 

[Get_Em_Puppy]

produced by an unnamed designer.

The designer may have been Paul Favier, a French intelligence agent who did the design work for the Rexim Favor submachine gun. The use of a hammer is similar to the Favor SMG.

 

[Grey Havoc]

As a side note, the Swiss War Ministry was more formally known from 1848 onwards as simply the 'Military Department' (though the older name was still widely used), and from 1979 as the Federal Military Department. Since 1998 it has been the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (probably related to as to why Switzerland's defences are not in the best of shape these days!).