Another Mauser Chinese K98k Divert to Kriegsmarine

[bruce98k]

Bob Landies had this gun come into his shop as part of a larger collection.
The third documented Chinese contract K98k rifle diverted to the German Navy from Mauser Oberndorf.

Refer to the thread below that iced the validity of my initial find.

Sorry for the low image quality, but these are scans of digital photos.

The known North sea property marks are as follows: N 31015, N 31025, and N 31087. As you can see all fall within a narrow range.
In retrospect, I would bet that there were less than 500 of these contract rifles shipped from Mauser.

The last 2 images are from the initial post of Sn.2832c.

http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?15869-Kreigsmarine-Mauser&highlight=Chinese+K98k

 

[mdarnell19]

Man that is a cool rifle. Very cool history. Thanks for sharing.

 

[my66coupe]

Very cool. I'd love to have a KM Oberndorf!

 

[jbmauser]

Yeah me too.

Very cool!

 

[heavy_mech]

Very interesting rifle! If you had to guess, these were diverted in '39? That would make the most sense to me.

 

[RyanE]

I wonder why these rifles have the KM MWa acceptance, but other KM rifles do not? Maybe it was unnecessary on factory E/M marked rifles, but there are lots of rifles that have Naval property numbers and no acceptance at all.

 

[BMWMilhist]

Very nice Bruce! Great stock on that one.

-Brandon

 

[USCS03]

What a true gem. Shows just how much the Germans underestimated their need for small arms or just how much MO underestimated their production capabilities. Spectacular example.

 

[bruce98k]

Current thread

Ryan you bring up a good point.
From the standpoint of Mauser these would have been commercial goods and not "military" per se, as they were originally built and supplied under a commercial contract with the Chinese.
Perhaps the depot (M/3) marking was applied as a defacto inspection/approval of these commercial rifles.

Normally there were inspectors located within Mauser from the Kriegsmarine that were responsible for final approval of weapons supplied under a military contact (ie. the E/M final acceptance on
Navy rifles in this period).

It is likely that this order bypassed the Naval inspectors at the Oberndorf factory. That may explain this unusual inspection protocol for these rifles.

 

[mauser99]

As we proved back then this stamp is seen on other naval equipment and I think I posted the photos from a binocular case.
This is the only other place I have seen this stamp used. Im sure it was used elsewhere as well but, I haven't seen it.

 

[mauser99]

As we proved back then this stamp is seen on other naval equipment and I think I posted the photos from a binocular case.
This is the only other place I have seen this stamp used. Im sure it was used elsewhere as well but, I haven't seen it.


The only other thing I cant think of these rifles were used by the KM in east Asia ? There was an interesting thread on WAF of Japanese made KM awards as some KM ships were used over there. Mine sweepers ect. Very interesting thread over there.

These could have been captured in China and diverted to the German's via the Japanese. Just a thought. I knew nothing of the KM in Japan till I read the thread over on WAF.

 

[heavy_mech]

..I knew nothing of the KM in Japan till I read the thread over on WAF.

Me either. Never even heard of it in fact but thanks for sharing that nugget. The minesweeper part, their location in the photos and the importance of keeping Uraga Channel open all make perfect sense. From the US Navy unclas website - "The most effective use of mines by the United States was against the Japanese Empire in World War II. U.S. aircraft laid over 12,000 mines in Japanese shipping routes and harbor approaches, sinking 650 Japanese ships and totally disrupting all of their maritime shipping."

 

[Peter S]

Some of the Mauser HSc pistols that were delivered to the Navy had commercial proofs and the only thing that identified them as being Navy was the M/III marking on the trigger guard.

 

[my66coupe]

Yes, interesting the Hsc had eagle N and the Mauser banner, but also had the M III/8, E/655 or E/135 on the trigger guard. Earlier versions have the standard Eagle M that we see on KM 98s in front of the Mag well.

 

[CanadianAR]

Very cool rifle! I'm currently in the Nordsee area. Haha