Greetings all -

Well, that went much more quickly than anticipated, so now I am back.

Concerning German small arms, the standard Mauser rifle as used in World War I, was deemed too long and bulky for actual combat use, there fore Mauser elected to shorten their standard military rifle and redesignated it the K98k, which ended up becoming the legendary K98 in World War II which was the standard issue rifle used by German troops in World War II.

I currently own five of these rifles. They are year dated 1940, 1942, 1943, and two 1944's. The one that I have pictured at the top of the thread is my DAK issue "dou43", "dou" being the code used by the Mauser firm at their plant in Bystrica, Czechoslovakia. It still has remnants of DAK tan paint on the butt plate, and the firing pin extractor which is located in the stock. This was the first K98 that I bought of the five.

The second photo shows my G43 with scope mount and scope. This was the second generation semi-automatic rifle that the German arms firms produced after previously creating the G41, and came before the more commonly located K43. It is the only G43 that I have ever owned, having owned a K43 previously. The G41-G/K43 series semi automatic rifles operated on a gas piston system where by the spent gases from the round fired previously forced the next round in to the chamber from a ten round box magazine that clipped in to the rifle from underneath. What is also interesting is that G43 marked magazines do not come up all that often most of them being maker marked as K43. I have three clips for this rifle. The one with the rifle is a G43 marked clip. The other two are K43 marked clips. I also have a rare original operators manual that slips in to a hollowed out compartment in the butt stock of the rifle.

The three pistols are fairly self explanatory. One, is the P-08, or Luger. It was used extensively by the German military during World War I, betwen the wars, and early on in to World War II, being phased out of production around 1942, although examples of this pistol were still used up until the end of hostilities. The P-38, was also a 9mm pistol that was used to replace the P-08 Luger as it was much easier to manufacture, required less maintenance, and was not as prone to malfunctioning if and when dirt, or other substances got in to the mechanisms of the pistol. The P-08 Luger, although popular with German troops as a symbol of German military heritage, could not say the same. The third pistol, manufactured by Sauer u. Sohn, is the 7.65 semi-automatic pistol that was popular with Luftwaffe pilots, and tank crews. Small, light weight, and accurate, it was easy to carry on the hip, and did not cause problems to the owner in tight spaces.

The Mg34 was the first modern fully automatic machine gun used by Germany's forces in World War II. It component parts were lathed, and precision was the key. Accurate, and able to with stand a lot of punishment, it was the secondary armament on aircraft, armor, and even ships of the capital fleet. Even with the advent of the Mg42 in later years, it would "soldier on" until the end of the war, and even be issued to other countries after the war for their own armies. This weapon, as mentioned before, and I repeat now, is NOT FUNCTIONAL, and is considered to be a display piece only for educational purposes.

The Mg42 was the replacement for the Mg34 as Germany found itself needing to manufacture a weapon system that did not require the finesse of the former lathed parts of the Mg34, as well as keeping manufacturing costs down. It would be an air cooled, system, with a cyclic rate of fire that would give many an Allied soldier nightmares.
Considered by many to be the most advanced machine gun design of the twentieth century, it was the design used to base the West German Mg3, and later the U.S. M60 weapon system on. It was being used still in the recent Bosnian-Croat civil war during the 1990's. As with the Mg34, the weapon could be belt fed using 50 round link belts, or drum fed using the same link belt system. As with the Mg34, the Mg42 pictured here is NOT FUNCTIONAL, and should be considered used for educational purposes only.

I hope you enjoy this quick educational thread on German small arms, and if you have any questions, please drop me a pm directly. Thank you.

Be good to each other.

Bill

[ 28. June 2003, 06:32 PM: Message edited by: Bill Smith ]