Third Party Press

Interesting video of 98k's being preserved

Definitely carcinogenic. I'd have such a headache doing that
 
Very cool. When you win, you own the battlefield and everything on it, which includes captured rifles all about on the ground, in piles, etc. That's diesel fuel, kerosene, or gasoline. Those K98ks have probably been out in the rain, on the ground, etc., for days, maybe weeks. That's the quickest, dirtiest, and easiest way to do a quick wash down of blood, mud, removal of some moisture and some degree of preservation prior to palletizing and shipment to rear area, warehouse, depot, etc. We likely have rifles that went through this "process". As an aside, I had to stop the rust and corrosion of a collection of about 30 Mausers from Katrina which had been under water. I took them apart and dumped the parts into diesel filled buckets first; actions in one bucket, bolts in one, etc., as an initial clean. Diesel has chemicals in it which are bad for you, so I wore rubber gloves.
 
Thanks for the video. Just watching it left me wondering how many different codes were in those batches of 98s. Little did the soldiers know how valuable those guns would be today.
 
Some of the other videos show black GIs and German POWs burying the Germans who carried many of those rifles.
 
Hambone said:
Very cool. When you win, you own the battlefield and everything on it, which includes captured rifles all about on the ground, in piles, etc. That's diesel fuel, kerosene, or gasoline. Those K98ks have probably been out in the rain, on the ground, etc., for days, maybe weeks. That's the quickest, dirtiest, and easiest way to do a quick wash down of blood, mud, removal of some moisture and some degree of preservation prior to palletizing and shipment to rear area, warehouse, depot, etc. We likely have rifles that went through this "process". As an aside, I had to stop the rust and corrosion of a collection of about 30 Mausers from Katrina which had been under water. I took them apart and dumped the parts into diesel filled buckets first; actions in one bucket, bolts in one, etc., as an initial clean. Diesel has chemicals in it which are bad for you, so I wore rubber gloves.
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Hambone, please take care of yours k98.....i'm so sorry:facepalm:
 
Hambone said:
I had to stop the rust and corrosion of a collection of about 30 Mausers from Katrina which had been under water. I took them apart and dumped the parts into diesel filled buckets first; actions in one bucket, bolts in one, etc., as an initial clean.
Click to expand...

Make sure you put the matching bolt back in each rifle. I've ready many stories here about G41 carrying soldiers who sat around the kerosine bucket, soaking muzzle nuts and gas cylinders with front sights, and when the time came to put the rifles back together, they always seemed to end up with parts from another soldier's rifle. Don't be that guy.
 
Great video! Other than their use by other armies, it's a probable explanation as to why slings were scarce during the 50"s and 60"s.
 
Wasn't my collection, that of a friend, and yes, as a collector, all of the parts went back to the rifles they came off of as a result of the parts having matching serials. Cleaning a rifle properly after a day at the range is somewhat of a PITA. However, think of having to clean 30 rifles that have been in water. You're going to use the same methods those GIs used.
 
A very interesting clip! I wonder, after all the efforts to preserve these rifles if they still eventually ended up being dumped into the channel!
 
Looks like a film documenting activities of a Quartermaster Battalion. Ordnance Company processing the captured equipment . (I noticed that they stack some of the rifles with the bolts open and some with bolts closed. My guess is that they are using benzene.) Ammo company processing what looks to be US 4.2" mortar rounds for delivery from an Ammo Supply Point (ASP) to forward units. (Illumination rounds?) Graves Registration Company with the KIAs.
 
Hambone said:
Some of the other videos show black GIs and German POWs burying the Germans who carried many of those rifles.
Click to expand...

It's interesting to see how to army treated black soldiers back when, they were the equals of POWs in terms of job assignments. They were also in construction battalions, etc, dirty jobs. I knew one old man who loaded bombs into B-17s in England, presumably because it was dangerous and dirty.
 
I would have worked those POWs 5x as hard cleaning up the mess they created before I put a single American on such a detail. Having to do that alongside POWs is not right and destructive for morale.
 
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