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Beretta MAB 38/42 vet history

Hambone

Community Organizer
Staff member
Sgt. Hubert Weaver served with the 119th Inf. Regt., 30th Infantry Div. They fought 1st SS, and took St. Lo, fought in the Ardennes, into Germany. Sgt. Weaver died in 1992. When he was x-rayed during surgeries during that time the doctors told his family that his chest was still filled with shrapnel from WW2. Sgt. Weaver was awarded a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. Here is his pic, dogtags (the ones he wore all through combat have religious medals on them), and some pics from his photo album
 

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Among the items Sgt. Weaver captured from the same German soldier was a camera and a Beretta MAB38/42 submachine gun. He finished out the roll on the camera, taking pictures of him and his men. The camera and MAB were turned over to military intelligence, which developed the film, determined it had no intelligence value, and returned same to Weaver at some point with a letter to that effect.

What is interesting is that the first pictures that the original German owner took shows that German soldier with the very MAB38/42 submachine gun taken by Weaver, also identified in Weaver's 1946 registration document. The pics are original, old and sequential, all from the same album. He inscribed information on the back of most of them.
 

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The Beretta MAB 38/42 he brought back. Approximately 250,000 MAB.38/42s were made for use by German forces to supplement submachine gun production as Erma, Steyr, and Haenel began to cease MP.40 production and tooled up for the MP.44/Stg.44. The Germans referred to the Beretta MAB 38/42 as the MP 738(i). This example has a 4UT 43 (1943) inspection date on the stock. Variations of this weapon were manufactured and sold by Beretta up through the 1970s. It is an exceptional submachine gun and superior to the MP.40 IMHO. There is a little surface/air closet rust in the pics, but this is all clean now ;)
 

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Hambone- this is the type of stuff we want to put in the other volumes. The bonus of having collectors write a book and do all the publishing and editing is we can add stuff that we think is cool, and that is way cool. I'll have to figure out how to connect Beretta to the 98k.....much like the 5th Degree of seperation of Kevin Bacon.
 
That is a great one! A friend of mine knows a WW2 vet who has one that he personally picked up in Italy (along with a K98 and Luger). It is '68 registered, and he is leaving it to my friend. They are awesome weapons, and I have had the pleasure of firing the vet's example.
 

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Tks Klink. Now if that ain't a great range day I don't know what is ;)

Below is the order / notice dated July 14, 1944 notifying HQ that Sgt. Weaver was awarded the Combat Infantry Badge and this entitled to an extra $10.00 per month. This was graciously provided by the site owner of the 30th ID website, "Old Hickory". It's a great site!:
http://www.oldhickory30th.com/
 

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provenance

Among the items Sgt. Weaver captured from the same German soldier was a camera and a Beretta MAB38/42 submachine gun. He finished out the roll on the camera, taking pictures of him and his men. The camera and MAB were turned over to military intelligence, which developed the film, determined it had no intelligence value, and returned same to Weaver at some point with a letter to that effect.

What is interesting is that the first pictures that the original German owner took shows that German soldier with the very MAB38/42 submachine gun taken by Weaver, also identified in Weaver's 1946 registration document. The pics are original, old and sequential, all from the same album. He inscribed information on the back of most of them.


That is so interesting about the camera catching the images of the German soldier who used this MP. The only way to get better provenance is maybe have the SN show in the picture. It would be interesting to have a site where the Germans could look through these type of pics and maybe identify a loved one.

This maybe the coolest grouping I have ever seen....machine gun...real combat soldier...photos of enemy with item...:hail::hail::hail::hail::hail::hail::hail::hail::hail::hail:
 

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