What happened to the post WW1 Central Powers Firearms

[IdahoSkies]

One portion of the treaty of Versailles is a disarmament, limit on military personnel and material. Its pretty limiting, and included a reduction in the number of rifles and other small arms. (loopholes leading to the development of the Kar98k (carbine) as rifles were limited, but not carbines).

What happened to all those rifles? Where they destroyed, or were they surplussed to other markets, like the U.S.?

 

[Onmilo]

Yes

 

[g.willikers]

Might have gone to other countries for their armies.
Japan, China, Africa, South America maybe?
There's always a war.
One ends and another begins.
International weapons trade seems to be an ongoing business.

 

[alsaqr]

Numerous Gewehr 98 rifles were converted to shotguns and sold in the USA under several names. Remo And GEHA were probably the most popular.

http://readingbreak.com/features/JohnG/1/GEHA.htm

 

[g.willikers]

And folks wonder why we find the world of guns so fascinating.
There's always new surprises.

 

[tark]

A lot of them ended up in my gun safe.

 

[Sergei Mosin]

They were destroyed, several million of them, under the auspices of the Inter-Allied Military Control Commission.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Rifles? Not just rifles. Under post-war treaty a lot of "military" Mauser and Luger pistols were de-militarized to under 100mm barrel length (usually down to 3.9" or 99mm) with fixed rather than adjustable sights. These were police or civilian models, often exported as military/police weapons. The post-WWI short Mausers (model 1920) were popular with the Soviet Russians or Bolsheviks.

 

[wojownik]

Back to the OP's original question, yes, Article 165 was supposed to limit the maximum number of arms to match the reduced size of the German army, as specified in Article 160 (basically down to 100,000 men after March 1920).

And Article 165 was basically ignored almost immediately.

Not sure offhand what happened to the Austro-Hungarian and Italian rifles/pistols. As for Germany, I would call it "the great scattering" ...

- a good number stayed in German arsenals, regardless of Article 165

- some were modified by the post-war govt (re-stamped, turned down bolt handle, some shortened, sights replaced)

- some were converted to shotguns, others were rechambered for wildcat "sporting purpose" civilian use cartridges - 8×60, 8×64, 9×57

- some went to Turkey and elsewhere. Poland had a number of Gew. 98 rifles in its early postwar military (from both Germany and Austria-Hungary), along with various of Steyr Mannlichers (Austria Hungary). Turkey's rifles pretty much came via contract, Poland's rifles were "inherited" - Polish legions were formed in both the German and Austro-Hungarian armies (Russian as well).

- some went home with returning doughboys.

 

[caribou]

New country's were being formed and armed, Finland, Poland Lithuania, Estonia, Czechoslovakia, etc, as well as victorious country's redistributing the booty. Surplus sales and plenty of culling, chopping and smeltering too I suspect...

 

[barnbwt]

I suspect a lot of machine guns were recycled during reconstruction; whole lotta high grade steel in those first gen machine guns. Technology was rapidly advancing, so a lot of stuff went into storage and never came out, even during WWII.

TCB

 

[Mk VII]

Many Central and Eastern European nations acquired ex-German and Austro-Hungarian arms. Italy took some as reparations, and France took some machine guns. Poland acquired the machinery of the entire arsenal at Danzig.

Some Schwarzlose MGs turned up in the recent Yugoslavian civil wars

 

[Jim Watson]

I think a lot of them were used in training for Round II.

 

[Dr. Sandman]

That's funny, right there, Tark!