Polish used and refurbished French Berthiers

[tokarev38]

3 Polish Berthiers. They were most likely bought by Poland from France during Polish-Russian war 1920-1921. Poland didn't manufacture any weapons at that time yet and all they had were either WWI leftovers or purchases. Later in 1936 these rifles went through refurbishing process in Warsaw Armory. ZW stamps on stock indicate that. Two of them also have "Z" marks on receivers and barrels applied by armory. Serial numbers were applied Poles as well on barrels, bolts and stocks. They seemed not to care about matching magazines. Serial 3082 was refurbished in January 1936 and 3871 in May 1936. They both are matching. The third one 4539 in mismatched, with stock dated to November 1936.

 

[Pat]

Nice! These are usually forgotten when it comes to pre-war Polish small arms, but they are very well documented in the photographic record and in some documents. A lot of collectors attributed their presence in Poland to Haller's 'Blue Army' bringing them back to Poland, but far more were acquired in the interwar years through simple open market purchase.

 

[Absolut]

I have a Polish Arsenal overhauled MLE-M-16 myself. It has a stock stamp with date from 1936. See the attached pictures, might be of interest for comparison.

 

[tokarev38]

One more

 

[krukster86]

Always good stuff in your collection Tokarev38! Thanks for sharing!

 

[krukster86]

Here is a photo I have been seeing for sale on eBay, showing Polish troops with Berthiers (carbines I believe).

 

[tokarev38]

Few from my collection

 

[krukster86]

I had the distinct pleasure of grabbing the last Polish Berthier from Tokarev38. What drew me to this one was the crisp stock stamps and mostly matching numbers. A real beauty!

Additional photos provided below. I didn’t want to create a new post for this.

 

[Stan]

Very nice! At one time the Berthier rifles were pretty common on the imported surplus market. Most I've ever owned had no sign of the 1930's French upgrade to Balle-N, so must have come from other nations surplus obtained in the interwar years. No definitive evidence of Polish use on mine.