Erma K98k, factory made cutaway

Recently receiving a friends request for pictures of such a rifle for a book on Erma, I borrowed the pictured rifle from a friend of mine. Since it might also be of interest to others here, also attached a small selection of the pictures made.

The most interesting fact about this rifle is the origin. The current owner is the second owner of this cutaway model. He bought it somewhat 30 years ago from the Landespolizeidirektion Linz, who was the first and original owner of this cutaway. Considering the year on the receiver and this origin, my assumption is that after the occupation of Austria they gave these cutaway models to foreign police units, to train them with the - for them - new K98k rifle.

Note the rifle is stamped in several places with a "U". While some suggest this would mean "Übung", I highly doubt this. If it were, they would had stamped it "Ü". But they used the "U". And therefore the most possible explanation for me means "Unterricht" ("instruction"). The known rifles range in a very certain serial range, it appears that this was a whole block of these rifles being done. The highest serial I could find was 492. Does anyone have a higher serial number for those?

Some more pictures of this rifle. Note the U stamp on various pieces, such as bolt, rear sight and magazine floorplate.

I'm sure German entities got these, not just foreign ones. We have photos of #492 in Vol.1, it's marked exactly like this one, looks the same. As to the U markings, not just trainers use the U marking - other parts on commercial rifles also have U markings cancelling out the Waffenamts on parts used in functioning rifles. Some swp45 rifles have U marking crossing out barrel waffenamts, barrels that were pulled from use but later returned to use. So, it's possible your explanation may work for these cutaway rifles, but it's not universal.

For what it's worth, ERMA was the only company that made serialized training rifles from all of my research, but other factories did make cutaway rifles for training. Problem with those rifles is determining authenticity, with the ERMA rifles it's easier.

Anybody know if any of these "Erma Erfurt" receivers ever made it without being cut up into an instructional rifle?

What an awesome piece to have in a collection! Imagine a time when this was the latest in technology and they needed a cutaway to explain how it worked. Good stuff!


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That rifle pegs the cool meter.


KJ

Interesting that a similar “U” has popped up before on P38s and there was that G43 that was posted here a while back. Not cutaway models in those cases though...

Fantastic rifle! There's always something new here.

The "U" on late P.38 mags signifies that the metal hasn't been heat-treated.

It has also been seen on the pistols themselves. I think Ive seen pics of it stamped on FG42s as well.

Well, then U could also mean "unbrauchbar" what translates as "unuseable" if it is only found with non-functional (= cutaway) weapons and very late ones where the demand for a weapon was higher than the demand for a certain quality level..

Or maybe unbehandelt?

cut away ...

... i was able to pick-up a group of photos' from aberdeen proving grounds that were taken either during or right after the war. mostly 41 and 43 pics. this copy of one picture is not very good, but obviously they were studying rifles mechanics. judging by several aspects of this pic;. i go with the rifle is a G41w and the only visible serial number is # 5182. this from having a hardwood stock, triangular rear sight, ground rear band with number, and notched recoil rod. however;;.. some of the other pics show numbers and parts swapping when re-assembled....