The Trench Gun was the primary shotgun in use by American and Commonwealth soldiers during World War II. It had a maximum ammunition capacity of 6 shells.
Medal of Honor and Underground[]
The Model 1897 Trench gun is available for use in both Medal of Honor and Underground. It is a very powerful weapon, capable of killing an enemy in 1 shot to the head or chest at close range. It's unique among the weapons that appear in both original Medal of Honor games because it has different skins in these two games. However, they still have same behavior, including sound.
In the Panzerknacker Unleashed mission, the shotgun bares the same skin as in the original game.
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Spearhead and Breakthrough[]
The M1912 Shotgun returns in Allied Assault and it's expansions (referred to as Winchester Riot Shotgun by Manon Batiste, and called simply as Shotgun in-game). It is the most powerful gun in the game, only being eclipsed in power by the 2 rocket launchers.
Campaign[]
In Singleplayer, the player only gets to use the Shotgun in two levels: it is a starting weapon in both "The Command Post" and "Storming Fort Schmerzen". In Breakthrough, it is found in the harbor level (incognito) laying by a crate. It can be also used in Spearhead. It does high damage at close range, but beyond that it is outclassed by other weapons due to its slow rate of fire and inaccuracy.
Multiplayer[]
In Multiplayer, the M12 Shotgun is available to all factions. It is alarmingly powerful, it's damage is very high at close range. But at medium range it is likely to only heavily injure the enemy, not kill them, and the M12 will do very scarce damage at longer range. In Breakthrough the Shotgun is replaced by the DeLisle Carbine for the British soldiers and the K98 Rifle Grenade for the Germans.
Medal of Honor: Frontline[]
The M1897 Trench Gun returns in Frontline, though this variant as opposed to the other variants, is the M1897 Trench Gun version, with a hammer at the back of the gun. It is seen in the hands of a Dutch Resistance member in Several Bridges Too Far before he is killed by multiple German snipers. It is visually similar to the Allied Assault version, bearing the skin differences and the 8 shell capacity instead of 5. It is capable of getting an 1-hit kill on most enemies. It is usable in the missions "Needle in a Haystack" and "Several Bridges Too Far". The Frontline version probably has the tightest pellet spread radius of all shotguns in the franchise, even tighter than the ones in European Assault and Airborne (with barrel choke), so it is hard to kill enemies without aiming, something that was possible in early games. It is interesting to note that the reload time is not shell based and all 8 rounds are loaded at once, resulting in a shorter empty reload, but a theoretically longer reload when few shells have been expended.
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun[]
Called the M12 Trench Gun, it is easily the most powerful firearm at close range. At long range however, its power and accuracy diminishes. The Trench Gun is available to use in the missions: "In Search of Yamashita's Gold" and "A Bridge on the River Kwai" and also in multiplayer as part of in a few loadouts. The Trench gun has fairly high rate of fire compared to other versions of it, and it is a usefull weapon against charging enemies.
Medal of Honor: European Assault[]
The M1897 "Trench gun" appears once again and is now more deadly at close range as well as long range and is quite accurate at both, things that shotguns usually lack. It is one of starting weapons in levels Operation: Blindfold, Operation: V2 Silence, and can be found in level Farmhouse Liberation next to a Christmas tree. The Trench Gun is a great close range weapon, and can damage multiple enemies with a single shot.
Medal of Honor: Airborne[]
This is a selectable weapon in Medal of Honor: Airborne. It is a very powerful weapon, with a medium rate of fire and high power, but low magazine capacity. It can be a one-hit kill even at medium-long range with the barrel choke attachment. It's primary limiting features are its large hip-fire spread and slow reload. The upgrades for the shotgun are:
- Barrel choke: Tighter pellet spread
- Buckshot rounds: Increased damage
- Bayonet: Increased melee damage and distance, kills all regular troops with one stab.
Medal of Honor: Heroes and Heroes 2[]
The Trench Gun returns in both games; the Trench Gun's stats are very similar and there are only minor differences.
In Heroes the Trench Gun can be found in a couple of levels, but replacing a much higher ranged weapon like the Thompson or the BAR for the Trench Gun can be a mistake. The Trench Gun is a good close range weapon with the same stats of European Assault.
In Heroes 2 the Trench Gun is a good replacement for the M1911 pistol and is the best weapon for close-quater encounters. The Trench Gun's ADS animation in Heroes 2 is much slower than in Heroes and it has a new pumping animation as well when it is fired from the hip. In both games' multiplayer it can be choosen as a starting weapon for both sides.
Trivia[]
- In the original Medal of Honor, Underground, Frontline and Rising Sun, the gun is fully reloaded in a second. In other games, the gun is reloaded one shell at a time.
- In Rising Sun, the Instruction Booklet refers to the Trench Gun as the Model 1897 Trenchgun when in game the model is clearly the M1912 variant.
- In Airborne, the weapon is oddly reloaded using the right hand; other weapons were reloaded using the left hand, but still, the Trench Gun is still held using the right hand.
- In Airborne, it can kill a Nazi Storm Elite 1 to 3 times in the head via melee.
- In the original game and Underground, if killed by the shotgun at very close distance, enemies will die in a very special manner: the power of the pellets will throw out their head and chest so their fall bares much resemblance to a Fosbury Flip, an athletic move used by high jumpers. This can sometimes be done by a Bazooka, but the players should be very careful and aim for the head.
- Oddly, shotgun is the most often found weapon in original game: it is starting weapon in 10 levels (in Attack Impenetrable Fort Schmerzen, Sabotage the Rjukan Hydro Plant and Escape from the V2 Rocket Plant mission) and is found in level Sewer Chase.
- Also, if dogs are killed by a shotgun in first two games, they will die with a howl that sounds like 'pooy'.
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