North Africa Capture Piles

PMKS

PMKS

Senior Member
From a Facebook Page;

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Pictures in this group, but un-related to 98K's;

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I like the GI wearing the German Helmet, lol.
 
Great photos,plenty of cupped butt plates,bolts are still in Rifles.What year do you think.My father served in North Africa
 
I cringed a little when I saw the picture where the soldier was throwing the rifles from the truck. I really like the picture of the G41.
 
Notice how almost none (do any?) still have their cleaning rods; was that a popular accessory to ditch? I can see they'd bend easily and get in the way...
 
not afrika

but captured gear picture nr4 is crazy that amount of money right there
 

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!!!

Those GIs are CLEANING those weapons...why?? That pic looks too ordered to be trophy hunters giving their new acquisitions some love, and only the soldiers in the last two pics have any unit/divisional insignia on their uniforms. That brings up a number of questions beyond the obvious, but offers at least an additional scenario for explaining bolt-only mismatches.
Pat
 
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iron bender said:
There's two super early mg42's in the pile of 34's in pic 2.....
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I see four. This is better than "Where's Waldo".

The Axis capitulated in mid-May, 1943, so pics may date from about that time. The vast piles seen are what it looks like when entire units surrender, not just battlefield pick ups.
 
If they only knew what value they were sitting on for years to come. I noticed the cleaning of the weapons as well. Odd picture.
 
Pat said:
!!!

Those GIs are CLEANING those weapons...why?? That pic looks too ordered to be trophy hunters giving their new acquisitions some love, and only the soldiers in the last two pics have any unit/divisional insignia on their uniforms. That brings up a number of questions beyond the obvious, but offers at least an additional scenario for explaining bolt-only mismatches.
Pat
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They probably cleaned, oiled and placed them in storage so they could be reissued to our allies ie; Free French troops or shipped to China [ Chinese were using 8mm Mausers as their standard rifle ] or even sent to the USSR.
 
DaveDavis said:
They probably cleaned, oiled and placed them in storage so they could be reissued to our allies ie; Free French troops or shipped to China [ Chinese were using 8mm Mausers as their standard rifle ] or even sent to the USSR.
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Well, I was wondering, and that sounds like a good explaination. A good explaination too as to what happened to these piles of weapons. I thought maybe they were simply distroyed (burned, buried, who knows).
 
It could have been to keep the soldiers busy? I could just see myself in that situation, I get finished cleaning and neatly stacking my pile and a guy behind me throws diesel on the pile and lights it up.
 
You think any of the soldiers were looking for in certain code in the k98k rifles? I'm guessing no most likely grab the nicest one too send home. Now the soldier with the g41m I think he knew he had something special. Most likly thinking "what the help is this weird looking rifle that looks super cool that I'm wanting too keep." I would love too own one of those pieces myself if you can find one.
 
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