I’m guessing there were German members of the Legion fighting in Indochina for the French using German rifles made by Germans for the French in French occupied Germany. Busy, busy, busy.
There are also remnants of IJN troops fighting the french for the Viet Mihn. in the 60's Vietnam War, there was a certain IJN official under the soviets(?) training viet troops in the north (forgot the name)
"So you may be thinking it's German, but ha! It's not, it is French, of course." Gotta love the delivery of this line. Ian sounds so proud of himself with that one.
Thank you. This explains a strange rifle my cousin brought back from Vietnam in the early days of the war (Special Forces). It was a Vietnamese capture K98 with German, French, and Vietnamese markings. We thought it was some kind of late model German made gun (we were kind of close) captured (not made for French by the Germans) as illustrations and other books were very vague about this model. There was some inscribing similar to this rifle, but with extra markings on the stock (French unit markings), several markings on the receiver (German, French MB markings, and couple of symbols that we believe were Vietnamese). The gun was probably captured by the Vietnamese during the Indo-China war in 1946-54. We know it was still in 8mm as we checked the barrel and chamber and fired some WWII surplus German ammo I had on hand in the 70's without issue. We don't have the rifle anymore as his son "lost it" during a move across country in the early 90's. I wish we had taken pictures of it to show the markings.
Reminds me of the story I read where an SF officer in early 1960s was fired upon by a machine gun. After organising his men and taking the enemy position, they found they were being shot at by...an MG08 with both French and German markings.
Czechoslovakia did something similar. _Zbrojovka Brno_ was producing K98s for the Germans and by the end of the war, there was a pile of parts laying around, so the Czechs took them and assembled the final rifles. They were later shipped to Israel to take part in the first Arab-Israel war. I own two of them, K98 with beautiful big Czechoslovak lion crest and of course the Star of David acceptance marks, though quite "used" by the time they became surplus. If only they could speak.
I have two Brno manufactured K98s. Both great shooters. One built in 42 is lovely. The one built in 45, was later shipped to Israel. It is most definitely a "last ditch" model. Very rough. Somewhere during it's time in the Holy Land it was rechambered for 7.62 NATO. I agree, if only that rifle could speak. Problem is, I'm not sure it would be speaking in German, Czech or Hebrew.
For a bolt action rifle that was obsolete, the K98 really did go a lot of places. Between its simplicity and the sheer volume of production, almost everyone seemingly repurposed them in some way, between second tier militaries and hunters. It was a cheap, simple, rugged rifle that shot an 8mm bullet, and they were everywhere - for anyone that just needed a rifle after the war and didn't care if it was the latest, greatest semi automatic, nor a machine gun - what more could you want, and why look anyone further? Practically no one did look further, it seems.
This video has one of my favorite phrases ‘we’ll be talking about *that* soon enough” means we have a french p38 video in the pipeline. (And probably one of them was at auction too)
@@beargillium2369 Yes, I can. I spent most of my working life in engineering and I can run a lathe, so I reckon they were running the tool over that area once, taking off more than the tool could really cope with, rather than doing 2 or more finer cuts, and they were not stopping to change it when it got blunt. Maybe the lathe operator would get into trouble for having too much "down time" ? Maybe they were paid by how many pieces they produced so they kept going to make more money ?
I didn't even know they were made. I had about 20 98k DWM, Brno, Radom Mausers in my life. But this is the first I heard of a French made one. Thank you
I like how Ian brings history into this one, fascinated with WW1 & 2 right now, rather never been able to face it directly but recent political events have forced me to better understand the overall mechanics of those conflicts. As a fellow lefty, I tend to dislike the cheek burns that can be had from ejected cartridges of bolt-action rifles.
An easy way to summarize the causation of both wars is a series of failures and poor choices by the governments of the world that continue to echo into the modern day.
It doesnt surprise me that a leftist or liberal has little understanding of a large historical event and only studies it once they realize how severely the party that abandoned them has fallen from grace that a populist right wing president gets elected. Be careful , those who study history in earnest often end up as independent voters or are radicalized even more, alienating the further from their contemporaries. I'm a democratic socialist that votes libertarian , weird seemingly contradictory behaviors are indicative of leftists that truly understand their history.
@ForgottenWeapons the sling (on the butt end ) has a brass retainer with an IDF property mark (the letter צ), there were Check made k98 in the IDF purchased in the late 40s early 50s, not sure regarding these French ones.
I thought the Mauser factory packed up and left on a train prior to this, or was this after the train was found and they put everything back? Just curious.
Starting in 1943 to 1945 Mauser-Oberndorf began using a letter suffix per month, they were the only manufacturer to do so. A C block would be April, January was no suffix. This is why you'll see 5-digit Oberndorf rifles, they kept numbering them past the 10k mark until the beginning of the next month. This is a known fact in the K98k collecting community.
Modern rifles have all kinds of different set ups and versions that are all different and ww2 rifles all just be the same thing with minor details and different markings on them
Good luck then ! I'm French, I've seen tons of 98K here in my country since nearly 40 years I collect ancient weapons, but never saw one of these post-war 98K made for our army. Seems most of them went to Indochina and never came back !
Yep, that looks like late-war machining. Surface finish looks like they ran out of lathe inserts and just machined the surface with the lathe tool holder itself, or a screwdriver.
Another great vid thanks! May I put in a request? The Mariette Pepperbox - everyone seems to have one in their collections, but there's not a lot of info out there.
But it worked, ja? These are beautifully fit and finished compared to stuff like the VG98 or a last of the last ditch Type 99s. Plus, they had, like Ian said, literally hundreds of tons of parts waiting to be assembled into working rifles. No one is going to waste the time taking finished Kriegsmodell parts to go refinish them like a Standardmodell.
France also used German Panther tanks after the war. Why let a excellent tank go to waste ? The French were very smart to use the excellent weapons they acquired right after the war.
It's a little insane to think that the French were producing rifles around an idea that the Germans would win the war and that they'd be supplying the French/German troops with German made weapons for a post-war era.
Was not having two different 8mm rifle (8mm/57 Mauser and 8mm/50 Lebel) ammunitions logistically complicated for the French army? Could the Lebel ammunition be accidentally chambered in the Mauser rifles?
How surprised would you guys be if we found out that Ian has simply made an exact replica of Morphy's and RIA in his basement. We think hes showcasing for sale pieces. Little donwe know..... Hes been buying thes guns in secret.
@@HarryFaber-z7l The Free french forces from North-Africa fought much of the Italian campaign with WW-I produced Springfields M-1903, tin hats and assorted WW-I leftovers. Some was national pride to have "our own" weapons, some is that the french were at the bottom of priorities.
@@fabiogalletti8616 indo china from what i've seen in news reels there was a crap load of us equipment available to french forces, and nare a k98 in sight
@@flypaper2222 After 1945, there was a lot of things going on. French forces in Indo-China had a mixed bag of weapons but were trying to standardise to overcome logistical issues. It was not an instant change. Sadly, the veterans I knew from the start of that war are not around to tell us. The return of equipment went on over a very long period, in the 70's, RR Griffon engines were being marinised to be fitted in British built boats to allow the removal and return of Packard built engines, Jeeps were being returned and replaced with Jeeps that US forces had abandoned. Components of abandoned Dodge weapons carriers were being recovered to build tractors. If you study the aircraft used by French forces (and Dutch forces) included Japanese. Where did the Enfield revolver that one of my friends has come from? What I said was 'if it could be returned, it was'. Implicit in that is 'if it couldn't be returned, it wasn't'. Where did the Lancasters used by the French come from? Where did the Spitfires used by the IDF come from? Where did the AFVs used by the French forces liberating Royon come from? Without checking the serial numbers against inventory we do not know. It is an interesting period of history, and the answer is not always 'America'.
If the spammers had any sense they would program the bots to generate comments in French, and drop tantalising hints that they had a stockpile of 32 French Longue they wanted to share.
12:37 IF C-suffix was march 45 - than it would have been before liberation by the French of Mauser/Oberndorf at april 20 (hitler's birthday btw.). Unless it was ground off and re-serialized later (doesn't look like that to me) that theory is implausible. Edit: Note to myself - watch the whole video before commenting. Ian mentions it later.
Man, if rifles could talk "Oh man, I thought I was gonna get sent to the Eastern Front, I was certain id be left to freeze in the tundra; huh whats up with these French dudes and why am I being shipped to a place called Vietnam?"
Dont say France was "out of the war". Allied bombing was intense, food supply was limited, resistance, guerrilla warfare and consecutive bloody reprisals were common place, etc, etc.
Given the number of weapons they must have had captured from the Germans it is susprising that they felt the need to produce new ones. Did Tulle or any of the other French arsenals produce the Kar98k under German control?
There was a huge pile of captured weaponery, but it was a mixed bag of good, bad, damaged, and who knows. Those are brand new, out of the factory, known quality, ready-to-use guns. On the long run, some countries like Norway actually put the efort to sort out and refurbish the stockpile of old captured rifles, but a kar98k post-war was barely worth the expense to clean and fix it.
@@fabiogalletti8616 fair point, but I would have thought it would have been easier to check / repair those weapons, plus do it in France as a way to get their own economy going again. Some (such as from La Rochelle) would have been captured very late with little time to degrade.
@@katywalker8322 Could be, in a way. But on the other hand, inspecting/repairing is a specialized work: need more people with knowledge. A production line is monkey work: just push the button and good rifles came out. If french wanted 50000 good rifles pronto, new ones are faster than finding specialized workforce to set up french armouries to fix the stash.
@@fabiogalletti8616 a lot of armourers cable of doing much of the work, and possibly safer than trusting a conquered workforce (added to which they were building weapons where quality had been driven down to the minimum the Germans thought they could get away with, plus in 7.92mm so incompatible with French weapons from pre war, and their post war plans). There are issues either way, and given the French have a habit of ploughing their own furrow I find it still find it surprising that they continued production of German weapons in Germany after the war (I would be less surprised if they had taken the machine tools back to France to make them there).
All those ones lying around probably needed refurbishment, or at least a good inspection and here the French had the whole factory with tons of parts that they could assemble into guns they knew were good to go.
Wow! A French Mauser!
Ian: HEAVY BREATHING
As well as a shot from his "Forgotten Weapons" whiskey glass.
😂
I’m guessing there were German members of the Legion fighting in Indochina for the French using German rifles made by Germans for the French in French occupied Germany. Busy, busy, busy.
Probably the French did allow it…. Even when they were not supposed to.
and being shot at by soviet made weapons again
I'm gonna need a flowchart for this comment.
There are also remnants of IJN troops fighting the french for the Viet Mihn. in the 60's Vietnam War, there was a certain IJN official under the soviets(?) training viet troops in the north (forgot the name)
Yes German weapons were used in the Indochina War on both sides.
"So you may be thinking it's German, but ha! It's not, it is French, of course."
Gotta love the delivery of this line. Ian sounds so proud of himself with that one.
he realy is.
ngl he got me there LMAO
How I feel when I'm about to explain why this Albini-Enfield rifle is Japanese
Look at him. The French fiend can barely contain himself.
“…must have gotten into some *Onions.* Now - were those onions cooked in Oil, as per “Song of the Onion?”
Thank you. This explains a strange rifle my cousin brought back from Vietnam in the early days of the war (Special Forces). It was a Vietnamese capture K98 with German, French, and Vietnamese markings. We thought it was some kind of late model German made gun (we were kind of close) captured (not made for French by the Germans) as illustrations and other books were very vague about this model. There was some inscribing similar to this rifle, but with extra markings on the stock (French unit markings), several markings on the receiver (German, French MB markings, and couple of symbols that we believe were Vietnamese). The gun was probably captured by the Vietnamese during the Indo-China war in 1946-54. We know it was still in 8mm as we checked the barrel and chamber and fired some WWII surplus German ammo I had on hand in the 70's without issue. We don't have the rifle anymore as his son "lost it" during a move across country in the early 90's. I wish we had taken pictures of it to show the markings.
Yeah! Lost it! 😩
Reminds me of the story I read where an SF officer in early 1960s was fired upon by a machine gun. After organising his men and taking the enemy position, they found they were being shot at by...an MG08 with both French and German markings.
Czechoslovakia did something similar. _Zbrojovka Brno_ was producing K98s for the Germans and by the end of the war, there was a pile of parts laying around, so the Czechs took them and assembled the final rifles. They were later shipped to Israel to take part in the first Arab-Israel war. I own two of them, K98 with beautiful big Czechoslovak lion crest and of course the Star of David acceptance marks, though quite "used" by the time they became surplus. If only they could speak.
I have two Brno manufactured K98s. Both great shooters.
One built in 42 is lovely. The one built in 45, was later shipped to Israel. It is most definitely a "last ditch" model. Very rough.
Somewhere during it's time in the Holy Land it was rechambered for 7.62 NATO.
I agree, if only that rifle could speak. Problem is, I'm not sure it would be speaking in German, Czech or Hebrew.
Well, that rifle has "mysteriously" found itself inside Ian's house forever more
I already have one ;)
@@ForgottenWeapons But you need three. For stacking purposes.
For a bolt action rifle that was obsolete, the K98 really did go a lot of places. Between its simplicity and the sheer volume of production, almost everyone seemingly repurposed them in some way, between second tier militaries and hunters. It was a cheap, simple, rugged rifle that shot an 8mm bullet, and they were everywhere - for anyone that just needed a rifle after the war and didn't care if it was the latest, greatest semi automatic, nor a machine gun - what more could you want, and why look anyone further? Practically no one did look further, it seems.
I also noticed that the action screws had had the notches cut for the small locking screws that were eliminated. Thanks Ian, another great video!
This video has one of my favorite phrases ‘we’ll be talking about *that* soon enough” means we have a french p38 video in the pipeline. (And probably one of them was at auction too)
Another example of Ian explaining a little-known facet of firearms history which I, for one, certainly did not know of before. Thank you, Ian.
French K98k appears: "It is I, LeClerc!"
The French in 1945: “Well if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. Keep churning out them Mauser rifles!”
I have no idea what they used to do to those wooden stocks, but the finish looks fantastic.
Laminated I believe
Thanks Ian, i am a Mauser fan. 4 so far of various types but then i am in South Africa where aquisition and licensing is a long process, cheers mate.
Morphys Video are always great!
So much History.
cant spell Morphys without Ian voice in my head like "Morphyyyys!"
That is some rough lathe work.
Indeed. They didn't even have time to sharpen their cutting tools.
Looks roughly ground to me, I wonder if there was a marking on that receiver ring that the French didn't care for.
Looks a lot like 1941 Mosin production. The lathes just chattered down those receivers at lightning's pace.
@@Kevin-mx1vican you imagine how fast they were working? 😮
@@beargillium2369 Yes, I can. I spent most of my working life in engineering and I can run a lathe, so I reckon they were running the tool over that area once, taking off more than the tool could really cope with, rather than doing 2 or more finer cuts, and they were not stopping to change it when it got blunt.
Maybe the lathe operator would get into trouble for having too much "down time" ? Maybe they were paid by how many pieces they produced so they kept going to make more money ?
French also produced the Mauser 98 .22LR trainer as the MAS45.
I didn't even know they were made. I had about 20 98k DWM, Brno, Radom Mausers in my life. But this is the first I heard of a French made one. Thank you
you can tell he's happy with this one
Looking forward to seeing the P38 video
Thank you Ian for another insight to the K98.
I like how Ian brings history into this one, fascinated with WW1 & 2 right now, rather never been able to face it directly but recent political events have forced me to better understand the overall mechanics of those conflicts. As a fellow lefty, I tend to dislike the cheek burns that can be had from ejected cartridges of bolt-action rifles.
An easy way to summarize the causation of both wars is a series of failures and poor choices by the governments of the world that continue to echo into the modern day.
It doesnt surprise me that a leftist or liberal has little understanding of a large historical event and only studies it once they realize how severely the party that abandoned them has fallen from grace that a populist right wing president gets elected.
Be careful , those who study history in earnest often end up as independent voters or are radicalized even more, alienating the further from their contemporaries.
I'm a democratic socialist that votes libertarian , weird seemingly contradictory behaviors are indicative of leftists that truly understand their history.
@ForgottenWeapons the sling (on the butt end ) has a brass retainer with an IDF property mark (the letter צ), there were Check made k98 in the IDF purchased in the late 40s early 50s, not sure regarding these French ones.
I think Ian should do a video on the Chinese type 24 chiang kai shek rifle
Seems strange they would bother with continued production when by this time there must have been hundreds of thousands of captured K98ks piled around.
The French also had Mauser HSC Pistols made in 32 Auto and Walther P38s.
I have several TTA 47 and early TAP uniforms that were made in the occupation zone.
Im a simple man, I see ian with a french rifle I click to watch his happiness
Nice video
Once again great video Ian 👍
I thought the Mauser factory packed up and left on a train prior to this, or was this after the train was found and they put everything back? Just curious.
From old Mauser buildings in Oberndorf only socalled Schwedenbau / swedish building ( build for production of swedish rifles) is still existing.
The train only contained Prototype and cutting Edge stuff
@@Hohenstaufen90 Thanks, I thought it was the entire factory but this makes much more sense.
really great writeup. Thank you. I would have guessed wrong. I thought these came from Liege but you'rve made your case well.
Nice !!!
Ian, Do you know did france rechamber any of these rifles into 7.5x54mm ?
that's what I want to know as well.
No, they did not. These were all in 8x57.
Starting in 1943 to 1945 Mauser-Oberndorf began using a letter suffix per month, they were the only manufacturer to do so. A C block would be April, January was no suffix. This is why you'll see 5-digit Oberndorf rifles, they kept numbering them past the 10k mark until the beginning of the next month. This is a known fact in the K98k collecting community.
Modern rifles have all kinds of different set ups and versions that are all different and ww2 rifles all just be the same thing with minor details and different markings on them
Now I have to buy one
Get ready to spend all of your money. Ian is a serious competitor.
Good luck then ! I'm French, I've seen tons of 98K here in my country since nearly 40 years I collect ancient weapons, but never saw one of these post-war 98K made for our army. Seems most of them went to Indochina and never came back !
Yep, that looks like late-war machining. Surface finish looks like they ran out of lathe inserts and just machined the surface with the lathe tool holder itself, or a screwdriver.
Before I even get to any kind of explanation, the first thing that popped up is there are no barrel band springs, just screws.
It‘s 106th anniversary of the Armistice of World War I,so will u offer a new weapon video about it?
IDK whether I've ever seen one of those, but the French-made P-38's are pretty common.
I always enjoyed the stories of post-war k98k’s-especially these French produced ones and the Czech produced ones.
Another great vid thanks! May I put in a request? The Mariette Pepperbox - everyone seems to have one in their collections, but there's not a lot of info out there.
A little production compare with Soviets war spoiled entire factories, you name what...
It's too bad France didn't have Mauser return to its pre-war finish on the rifles. That thing looks crude as heck.
But it worked, ja? These are beautifully fit and finished compared to stuff like the VG98 or a last of the last ditch Type 99s.
Plus, they had, like Ian said, literally hundreds of tons of parts waiting to be assembled into working rifles. No one is going to waste the time taking finished Kriegsmodell parts to go refinish them like a Standardmodell.
Good morning everyone
Early gang assemble
Allo Allo :D
Yeeeeaaaaaaaaahghgg🎉🎉🎉🎉 #621944
Ah yep!
Early gang member #42756 reporting for duty!
Eyyo
This is why my GunBroker watch list notifications take me an hour to go through it.
"..it's French, of course" had me choking on my morning coffee....🤣🤣🤣
He can't keep getting away with this
I have a French P1 question. Does anyone know the significance of a 3 over crossed cannons 34 proof mark on the right side of the slide?
Dr.Disrispect: Heavy breathing*
When you gonna do the VZ24?
Why in the world would they need to make more rifles in 1945? I notice the German Honor guard units today use plastic Mauser replicas.
I'm rarely this early for a video!
I had one of these 12 years ago and stupidly sold it. 😱
France also used German Panther tanks after the war. Why let a excellent tank go to waste ? The French were very smart to use the excellent weapons they acquired right after the war.
Looks pretty rough-arse turning on the receiver, there again it is more or less wartime production.
For the AlGoreRhythm
This, beside a pristine pre-war 98k, which would Ian rather have?
And how many of these do you have in your collection, sir?
Probably the best French service rifle ever made 😹
Ian’s least favorite French rifle and most favorite German rifle…
Oh dear, he got his hands on a French rifle again, he had a full relapse into his addiction xD
Where’d the Czech combat videos go?
Did French factories (presumably making MAS rifles) stay in production under German occupation?
It's a little insane to think that the French were producing rifles around an idea that the Germans would win the war and that they'd be supplying the French/German troops with German made weapons for a post-war era.
What about that recoil lug?
Didnt they have large numbers of MAS36 rifles in unused condition, Why didnt they use those ?
Very good video ! Is the sling Israeli ? 😮
Was not having two different 8mm rifle (8mm/57 Mauser and 8mm/50 Lebel) ammunitions logistically complicated for the French army? Could the Lebel ammunition be accidentally chambered in the Mauser rifles?
No lebel 8mm left.
In the 30s, what's was left in depots of WWI Lebels and Berthies were all rechambered for the new 7,5mm ammo.
Good morning
Was that a common Vietnam war trophy rifle?
Were they chambered in 8mm?
How surprised would you guys be if we found out that Ian has simply made an exact replica of Morphy's and RIA in his basement. We think hes showcasing for sale pieces. Little donwe know..... Hes been buying thes guns in secret.
Yes, absolutely; Ian is the consummate gun nerd.
Yet again, here we are 😆
I wonder if Ian will be bidding on this French-German oddity?
The only thing not "Ian" is that it is in 8mm Mauser, not 7.5 French ...
Why did Germany and France have that type of sling attachment on the side or through the stock?
German had the slot, France had the scallop+bar.
Did he even say what cal. it was.
Quite a spoil. New production of a 50 year old rifle? Sign me up!
Ian's "But it's not! It's French, *of course*" sounds like me when I'm about to explain why an Albini-Enfield rifle is Japanese
12:20
Guys, I think the gun's ancestry is taking over
Interesting, but why would they need them when the free french armies was full equiped with allied small arms?
Many of the 'allied small arms' were on Lend Lease and if it could be returned it was.
@@HarryFaber-z7l The Free french forces from North-Africa fought much of the Italian campaign with WW-I produced Springfields M-1903, tin hats and assorted WW-I leftovers.
Some was national pride to have "our own" weapons, some is that the french were at the bottom of priorities.
@@fabiogalletti8616 indo china from what i've seen in news reels there was a crap load of us equipment available to french forces, and nare a k98 in sight
@@HarryFaber-z7l then where did the us arms come from in the indo cghina campaign, mi carbines, grease guns, armor, landing ships, aircraft.......
@@flypaper2222 After 1945, there was a lot of things going on. French forces in Indo-China had a mixed bag of weapons but were trying to standardise to overcome logistical issues. It was not an instant change. Sadly, the veterans I knew from the start of that war are not around to tell us. The return of equipment went on over a very long period, in the 70's, RR Griffon engines were being marinised to be fitted in British built boats to allow the removal and return of Packard built engines, Jeeps were being returned and replaced with Jeeps that US forces had abandoned. Components of abandoned Dodge weapons carriers were being recovered to build tractors. If you study the aircraft used by French forces (and Dutch forces) included Japanese. Where did the Enfield revolver that one of my friends has come from?
What I said was 'if it could be returned, it was'. Implicit in that is 'if it couldn't be returned, it wasn't'. Where did the Lancasters used by the French come from? Where did the Spitfires used by the IDF come from? Where did the AFVs used by the French forces liberating Royon come from? Without checking the serial numbers against inventory we do not know. It is an interesting period of history, and the answer is not always 'America'.
The "hot chick bots" seem to be out at full force again.
If the spammers had any sense they would program the bots to generate comments in French, and drop tantalising hints that they had a stockpile of 32 French Longue they wanted to share.
My question is: Did France get their guns captured by Germans back?
Yes, wrapped in gift paper.
@@brittakriep2938 You British or something? It was a genuine question and you act like a knob head
Let's be honest, Ian will bid for this at the auction
I already have one...
@@ForgottenWeaponsain't no such thing as too many French rifles.
12:37 IF C-suffix was march 45 - than it would have been before liberation by the French of Mauser/Oberndorf at april 20 (hitler's birthday btw.).
Unless it was ground off and re-serialized later (doesn't look like that to me) that theory is implausible.
Edit: Note to myself - watch the whole video before commenting. Ian mentions it later.
Lemme guess: BYF menat "Bismarck is Your Friend" and SVW meant "Screwed Very WEll"
Fifteen minutes of looking at serial numbers
12:20 Angry German Ian: Nein! Nein! Nein! Nein!
Man, if rifles could talk "Oh man, I thought I was gonna get sent to the Eastern Front, I was certain id be left to freeze in the tundra; huh whats up with these French dudes and why am I being shipped to a place called Vietnam?"
2:17 dispite that... 🧀 🍽️ 🤷♂️ 🐒 😅
Guess it's time to sell mine
Dont say France was "out of the war". Allied bombing was intense, food supply was limited, resistance, guerrilla warfare and consecutive bloody reprisals were common place, etc, etc.
I think he means the government was no longer fighting the Nazis to any extent.
Given the number of weapons they must have had captured from the Germans it is susprising that they felt the need to produce new ones. Did Tulle or any of the other French arsenals produce the Kar98k under German control?
There was a huge pile of captured weaponery, but it was a mixed bag of good, bad, damaged, and who knows.
Those are brand new, out of the factory, known quality, ready-to-use guns.
On the long run, some countries like Norway actually put the efort to sort out and refurbish the stockpile of old captured rifles, but a kar98k post-war was barely worth the expense to clean and fix it.
@@fabiogalletti8616 fair point, but I would have thought it would have been easier to check / repair those weapons, plus do it in France as a way to get their own economy going again. Some (such as from La Rochelle) would have been captured very late with little time to degrade.
@@katywalker8322 Could be, in a way. But on the other hand, inspecting/repairing is a specialized work: need more people with knowledge.
A production line is monkey work: just push the button and good rifles came out.
If french wanted 50000 good rifles pronto, new ones are faster than finding specialized workforce to set up french armouries to fix the stash.
@@fabiogalletti8616 Exactly. And as anyone whose seen a number of the Soviet and Italian post-war refurb jobs-it could be pretty half-assed.
@@fabiogalletti8616 a lot of armourers cable of doing much of the work, and possibly safer than trusting a conquered workforce (added to which they were building weapons where quality had been driven down to the minimum the Germans thought they could get away with, plus in 7.92mm so incompatible with French weapons from pre war, and their post war plans).
There are issues either way, and given the French have a habit of ploughing their own furrow I find it still find it surprising that they continued production of German weapons in Germany after the war (I would be less surprised if they had taken the machine tools back to France to make them there).
That receiver ring looks like it was cut by hand with a dull potato by a blind cobbler.
With Parkinson's.
Ian cant help himself when it comes to anything French haha.
pretty French take of an Mauser
14:20 how very…French.
There were literally millions of these things in big heaps all over Europe going for free and they have to make new ones
Millions of them were surrendered to the Russians, Americans, and the British, not so many to the French.
All those ones lying around probably needed refurbishment, or at least a good inspection and here the French had the whole factory with tons of parts that they could assemble into guns they knew were good to go.