Footage of the Mauser Oberndorf factory in June 1945

[Kintepro]

Its amazing to see how different their reactions are to a camera than what we see today since they were so much less common back then.

 

[Mikegermany]

I have been on this site before, there is much more interesting stuff by keyword search like "Mauser".

 

[Scharf]

Bonsoir M. D'Orange,

Very cool video indeed ! This is the kind of stuff I'm always on the hunt for, stills, videos that show atypical equipment in use. They speak volumes !

 

[Guillaume d'Orange]

I have been on this site before, there is much more interesting stuff by keyword search like "Mauser".

Right, are you hinting at the contents of the attachment ? Have you already seen those photos ? I plan to pay a visit to ECPA soon, they are close to Paris.

 

[Fal Grunt]

Right, are you hinting at the contents of the attachment ? Have you already seen those photos ? I plan to pay a visit to ECPA soon, they are close to Paris.

This would be a very interesting research trip. Somewhere in France there should be piles of Mauser documents if they have not all made it to the shredder/incinerator by now. Or, if like the US, lost to somewhere that no one knows.

 

[Guillaume d'Orange]

This would be a very interesting research trip. Somewhere in France there should be piles of Mauser documents if they have not all made it to the shredder/incinerator by now. Or, if like the US, lost to somewhere that no one knows.

Probably some Mauser original documents (what was not burnt or hidden by employees). More probably, reports on how the factory was run in 1945/1946, what were the machines sent to France before the substantial destruction of the facilities and the disarmament under the rule of the GMZFO ("Gouvernement Militaire de la Zone Française d'Occupation") managed by Emile Laffon.
The place to go would be the "Centre des Archives de l'Armement et du Personnel Civil" or CAAPC, it is in the old manufacture in Chatellerault :

Chatellerault Centre des Archives de l’Armement et du Personnel Civil | Service historique de la Défense

www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr

If you look up "Mauser" in the search engine of the "Service Historique de la Défense", there's a file about German weapons :

Service Historique de la Défense | Ministère des Armées

Le Service Historique de la Défense est le centre d'archives du SGA et de la sécurité nationale, du ministère de la Défense et des forces armées françaises.

www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr

The best way to know what is in the archives is to contact CAAPC: dmpa-shd-caapc.recherches.fct@intradef.gouv.fr

Reports about the machines in the Interallied Reparation Agency Archives: https://francearchives.fr/fr/facomponent/aab92a0ee095637f7d62e99ad00c6685cd2bac87#tree-hierarchy

If only I had more free time...

 

[Fal Grunt]

Thanks for the leads. I dont have a lot of free time, but I will put these on the list of places to explore as i have time.