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E/135

ac4142

Well-known member
did this waffenampt appear on late byf 41 rifles? when did mauser oberndorf start using this WaA135?
 
I have a byf 41 144ff. The right side of the receiver is marked E/655x2 and E/135. The stock which is matching is Luftwaffe and E/655x2.

Ski
 

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thanks ski, do any other experts know if any ff, gg, or hh block rifles had any receivers with 2 E/135s or 3 E/135s?
 
FWIW, my limited research indicates 655 left Mauser Oberndorf sometime in late 1941 and was replaced by 135, since 1942 rifles are all marked 135 or have 135 predominant, and he stayed until the end of the war.

Jim
 
thanks jim, i guess that's what i really needed to know. did 135 start in jan 42 or nov or dec 41
 
An ff block would be late in the year, since the normal practice was to roll back to 1 at the start of the year. Maybe someone knows the exact month, but I don't.

Hi, ac4142,

On the WaA numbers and dates, it would take a lot of rifles and a lot of research to say just when one inspection team leader left and the new guy showed up with his stamps. Perhaps that research has been done, but I don't recall seeing anything on it. Maybe someone else can provide better help, although I am not sure why such a detail is important.

Jim
 
One thing that adds to the confusion is that many collectors think the WaA number was assigned to a factory and try to come up for reasons it changed. The code (byf, or ac) was assigned to a factory, but the WaffenAmt number represents a man, the leader of the inspection team at a factory or sometimes a group of small factories. Like any other officer, he could die, be reassigned, be transferred, or leave the service for one reason or another.

Obviously, he did not personally inspect every part that had his number on it. He was primarily an administrator and to some extent was like the American "Contracting Officer's Representative" or COR. He could make decisions about minor changes in manufacturing or marking, but of course could not alter a contract in any major way. In German factories, most of the real inspection and stamping work was done by contractor employees, under the loose supervision of military team members, usually low ranking officers or NCO's. In occupied countries, where the possibility of sabotage was high, inspection was more rigid and the scrutiny more intense.

When a team leader (say 655) left, he took his stamps with him; they had been given him when he graduated the inspectors' course, and they represented him, not a team or a factory. The new man (say 135) brought his own stamps. The team members did not move, the only thing that changed was the leader and the number. Of course, there was enough overlap in the transfer that no time was lost swapping stamps. Any parts already marked with the previous officer's number were perfectly acceptable. But assemblers had instructions not to use any part that had not been approved and stamped, if a stamp was required. Needless to say, all that inspecting and stamping slowed production. Worse, it seems to have been done not out of necessity, but purely from tradition. By the late 1930's tooling in all major industrial nations had progressed to the point that checking every part simply was not necessary. (U.S. inspection was by spot check and by the assembler reporting any problems with parts, as well as by periodic interchangeability checks among manufacturers.)

Yet, the Germans kept hammering those eagles on anything big enough to stamp. One thing it did. It served to keep Major Schulz or Hauptman Weisskopf in a nice safe factory, far away from the Östfront. Until the Östfront came to the factory.

Jim
 
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James K:

Nice post! :hail:

My two matching Oberndorff produced K98s (byf '42 6137l and Portuguese contract '41 G19383) have WaA135 receiver stemples only.
 

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