Stephan98k
aka 8x57IS
For years we've been trying to figure out what the LK5 marking means and we still haven't found an answer to this question.
Some of these rifles are in American collections, bringbacks without import marking, and another hotspot is France. From my observations the most of these rifles was manufactured in Germany (K98k 25% and M98 16,67%). French rifles have 33,33% and Czech, Yugoslavia, Greece and Russia share the remaining 25%. Of course it's important to know where these rifles were made and you can draw a lot of conclusions from that. In the same way important is, where these rifles were found or even better, where these rifles were captured and unfortunately this is known only in very rare cases. Some weeks ago I saw another LK5 marked K98k, this time a byf 41 and it's reported where this rifle was captured.
On September 16, 1944 the German Major General Botho Henning Elster surrendered with nearly 20,000 soldiers at the Loire bridge of Beaugency and this LK5 marked byf 41 was captured during the Elster passage. That made me curious, and I wanted to know where the Major General came from and where he was stationed before. From April 1943 to April 1944 Major General Elster was Feldkommandant (Field Commander) in Marseille and from April to August 1944 he was Feldkommandant in Mont-de-Marsan. On August 15, 1944 started the Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of Southern France. There was the danger of being kettle by this military Operation, and on August 16, 1944 Adolf Hitler ordered that Armeegruppe G (Army Group G) withdraw from southern France. During Operation Dragoon many German troops got kettled and surrendered to the American and French troops, but a lot tried to escape.
I have made a map:
At the bottom is the Feldkommmandantur in Marseille and in western direction the Feldkommmandantur in Mont-de-Marsan, were Major General Elster was stationed. The path of Elsters withdraw is marked in red color. The withdraw of other German units is marked in blue color. The black dots are places were bigger German units surrendered and I didn't marked the withdraw route of these capitulating units, otherwise it would have become too confusing.
You can see, at Major General Elster withdraw route is a captured LK5 rifle and at the other main withdraw route are several captured LK5 rifles. I would say the unit were the LK5 rifles belong to, was stationed in Southern France. We always assume the LK5 have something to do with the Luftgaukommando 5, but maybe we should think about an other possibility. In this area served also a lot Ostlegionen (Eastern Legions), as example Indian Legion and Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division (Regular Volunteer Division) with Freiwilligen (Kosaken) Stamm-Regiment 5. Legion Kosaken 5 ? I don't think so. Maybe somebody has a good idea and we can finally get a answer to our question.
Certainly I forgot something important, but I'm busy now and I will write later more about this topic. I'm curious about your opinion.
Regards,
Stephan
Some of these rifles are in American collections, bringbacks without import marking, and another hotspot is France. From my observations the most of these rifles was manufactured in Germany (K98k 25% and M98 16,67%). French rifles have 33,33% and Czech, Yugoslavia, Greece and Russia share the remaining 25%. Of course it's important to know where these rifles were made and you can draw a lot of conclusions from that. In the same way important is, where these rifles were found or even better, where these rifles were captured and unfortunately this is known only in very rare cases. Some weeks ago I saw another LK5 marked K98k, this time a byf 41 and it's reported where this rifle was captured.
On September 16, 1944 the German Major General Botho Henning Elster surrendered with nearly 20,000 soldiers at the Loire bridge of Beaugency and this LK5 marked byf 41 was captured during the Elster passage. That made me curious, and I wanted to know where the Major General came from and where he was stationed before. From April 1943 to April 1944 Major General Elster was Feldkommandant (Field Commander) in Marseille and from April to August 1944 he was Feldkommandant in Mont-de-Marsan. On August 15, 1944 started the Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of Southern France. There was the danger of being kettle by this military Operation, and on August 16, 1944 Adolf Hitler ordered that Armeegruppe G (Army Group G) withdraw from southern France. During Operation Dragoon many German troops got kettled and surrendered to the American and French troops, but a lot tried to escape.
I have made a map:
At the bottom is the Feldkommmandantur in Marseille and in western direction the Feldkommmandantur in Mont-de-Marsan, were Major General Elster was stationed. The path of Elsters withdraw is marked in red color. The withdraw of other German units is marked in blue color. The black dots are places were bigger German units surrendered and I didn't marked the withdraw route of these capitulating units, otherwise it would have become too confusing.
You can see, at Major General Elster withdraw route is a captured LK5 rifle and at the other main withdraw route are several captured LK5 rifles. I would say the unit were the LK5 rifles belong to, was stationed in Southern France. We always assume the LK5 have something to do with the Luftgaukommando 5, but maybe we should think about an other possibility. In this area served also a lot Ostlegionen (Eastern Legions), as example Indian Legion and Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division (Regular Volunteer Division) with Freiwilligen (Kosaken) Stamm-Regiment 5. Legion Kosaken 5 ? I don't think so. Maybe somebody has a good idea and we can finally get a answer to our question.
Certainly I forgot something important, but I'm busy now and I will write later more about this topic. I'm curious about your opinion.
Regards,
Stephan