Is this a mistake? Kar98AZ M1891 Used in WW2 as Baltic German Allies' Rifles

skirsons

skirsons

CGN frequent flyer
Rating - 99.4%
178   1   1
Location
Ontario
I bought this book from the Canadian War Museum and I've always wondered if the author mistakenly used a Kar98az and a Mosin-Nagant 1891 instead of a Kar98k and a Mosin-Nagant 91/30 as a model. The text does not distinguish between the two.

All period photographs I've seen show the foreign SS legions with modern weaponry but all the drawings in this book have them armed with World War I weaponry. I know its conceivable that this was true but I think this may be the artist's mistake. Then again it seems unlikely that in a book where detail of uniforms etc is so important that the artist would make a glaring error like this.

What do you think?

BalticAxis1r.jpg


BalticAxis2r.jpg
 
Last edited:
Well, first off, its nice to see the Kar98a being used post war. My 1918/1920 Danzig has a couple Third Reich marked parts on it but many are Imperial in origin. I always wondered if it had served in some capacity during WW2 but was told it was most likely in a training or reserve role. She is still in her Imperial trim with bolt in the white too. My understanding is that older weapons, especially as the war went on, were increasingly pressed into some form of service and possibly re-worked to bring them up to certain standard. Isn't it more cost effective to re-work and replace a few parts on an older rifle than to make a new one from scratch ? I've never seen evidence to the contrary so who can say if it is true or not ?

From the pictures, it looks like two Kar98as, an MP40, an SVT 40 (might be a 38 but by 1942, I would bet on SVT 40), and what looks like a Russian M1891 with a leather sling and dog collars.
 
most likely the artist was using reenactors or models ,supplied by the company making the book. they are trying to make money .not be perfectly historicly correct
 
Actually, the SS where always next in-line to the Werhmacht for weapons procurement in the German Forces. Having to use second line weapons or even manufacture their own in Concentration Camps. Ukrainian and Baltic Volonteers were even lower on the food chain, re-using any Soviet weapons they could capture or dig-up in former Soviet Depots. A few photos of these Units serving in Normandy show them using SVT-40's on the Atlantic Wall Bunkers.
 
Official rifle of the Latvian Army in the 1920s was the Ross-Enfield: the 1910 Ross.

Likely Mother Russia got all those when they so kindly "protected" the Baltic Republics.

They would have bee glad of anything they could get their hands on.
 
smellie said:
Official rifle of the Latvian Army in the 1920s was the Ross-Enfield: the 1910 Ross.

Likely Mother Russia got all those when they so kindly "protected" the Baltic Republics.

They would have bee glad of anything they could get their hands on.
Click to expand...

They were also generously supplied with Pattern 14s

LatvianwithP14.jpg
 
On Page 120 of the 3rd edition of Ludwig Olson's Mauser Bolt Rifles, there is a photograph of an SS soldier having his full-length 98 rifle being examined by an officer. It does have the newer style rear sight.
 
I think JP nailed it. It looks like the author of the book was trying to illustrate the hodge podge of weapons that the SS had at the start of the war due to their procurement problems with the Wehrmacht.

That said, by the dates shown in the illustration ('43-'44), the SS should have had ready access to the modern Wehrmacht equipment, not the WW1 leftovers.
 
Just got an interesting book, a history of the Soviet Army.

One of the photos was taken in Berlin during the German surrender and shows a Kar98a which has just been tossed onto the heap.

Germans are being covered by a guy with a PPD, not the much more common PPSh or PPS. Interesting.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom