What WWII Arms Are Still Out There?

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Speedo66

Speedo66

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Seeing the thread here on the MP44 made me remember an incident I had some years back. I was in Sweden and admired a kid's Volvo C303, a Swedish military surplus jeep type vehicle. Seeing I was interested in old military equipment, he invited me into his home and showed me his WWII MP40, AKA Schmeisser, illegal no doubt.

Sweden was neutral during the war, yet this gun showed up there. One has to wonder how many battlefield pickups are quietly still in homes all over Europe?

Wonder if there's a flourishing underground trade still in WWII weapons?
 
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In the 70's I knew of one cache,,,

In the 70's I knew of one cache,,,
He was an older German man who had spent 3 years in Indiana as a prisoner of war.

Anyways I was a young Airman stationed there,,,
Alfred and I became good friends.

One time we were well into our wine bottles,,,
He took me into his garage where he showed me the false wall.

He must have had over 75 rifles, pistols, sub-machine guns, mortars, and even a bazooka.

And a sizeable stash of ammo for everything,,,
Even the Bazooka. :eek:

I couldn't believe he showed it to me.

Alfred told me that after the war it was hard to walk across a field without finding something,,,
Of course one was supposed to turn all that found armament in,,,
But for some reason he decided to amass all he could find.

That was 45 years ago so Alfred would be well over 100 years old,,,
I wonder what happened to all of that stuff when he passed.

The buyer of his house might have gotten a huge surprise.

Aarond

.
 
As has been speculated many times here on THR, there are many illegal and un-papered WW-II items in attics and cellars both in Europe and the United States. We forget that the NFA registry was viewed with a 'nudge and wink' up until the GCA of 1968 and the creation of the ATF in the early 70's. Except when such items turned up in crimes no one gave them much thought or concern. Prosecutions for mere possession of such weapons were rare. Since it became utterly impossible in 1986 to pay the tax on non-registry machine guns, such items have become more of a criminal taboo among most law-abiding gun collectors--and rightly so. As I'm fond of saying, friends don't let friends drive drunk -or- brag about illegal NFA items they might own or know about. While I have no doubt an underground trade in such items exists, it's well-hidden to be sure. If you want a measure of how much off-the-books WW II NFA items are still around, talk to an auctioneer who handles estate auctions--they almost always have stories about having to contact authorities about bring-back munitions and weapons found among personal belongings. Our best hope is to get the NFA reopened for machine guns and a new amnesty registration process in place.
 
DO keep in mind that there are a fair number of WWII 'chine guns around that are perfectly legal in the US. Paper work, done taxes paid, and stamp affixed to paperwork.

MP-40s used to not be all that uncommon in the US, no where near as common as say Military Thompsons though.

A fair number of Thompsons came into the market in the 1970's thanks to LEOs upgrading. For instance most Florida Highway Patrol cars in the early 1970s had a Thompson in the trunk. No Fooling. When the State decided to upgrade the Feds had not started giving M-16A1 s away at cost to agencies (still trying to figure out what the 80 man sheriffs department south of here was going to do with the 120 they got) So FHP decided they wanted Colt AR15s and did a let for bids. They ended up giving a Thompson (and here they made no distinction between M1928, M1, or M1A1) and $100 for an AR15. Guy named Doug Powers in Perry Florida got them all. His Western Auto store already had one of the better gun racks in north Florida, but walking into his 8x10 office and seeing Thompsons stacked three high on three walls was a bit of a rush. He also had a bunch of Ingrams I believe the M6 models that Jacksonville PD also ditched cheap along with a few of their Thompsons.

He also had a registered FN-FAL that Rexter ended up with that had belonged to Mad Mike Hoore and featured a welded on US M85 scope.

The good news for me was that those Police agencies also dumped to him a boat load of 230 Grain FMJ .45ACP which I bought in large quantities and have shot up. It was actually cheaper for me to buy it from him than reload, NOT COUNTING MY TIME. A good bit of it was the old Peters Yellow and blue box with the pretty nickeled cases. Wish I still had a foot locker full of that!

If I had known then what I know now I would have spent all my pay that year to buy Tommy guns and ammo!

-kBob
 
I had a friend in England (passed away now) who had a pretty fair collection of British arms. He was about 10 or 11 when the War started, and the Army came around hiding caches of weapons. His collection was one of those caches they forgot about and never picked up.

He told me the local mayor picked the homes for the caches, and was the only person who knew where they all were -- and he passed away before the war ended.

He also told me that the people who had charge of the caches had special orders to be opened when the Germans invaded. The orders said, "Shoot the mayor."
 
Quite a number of those WW2 German MG42s and other stuff that were turned over to the US and British after the war were sold back to the FGR Bundeswehr in the late 1950s.....

Sam Cummings made some money off that deal....
 
Heard an old Russian joke . ..

"Why do Lithuanians pour oil on their gardens?"

"To keep the machine guns from rusting."
 
What WWII Arms Are Still Out There?

OK,I didn't buy Al's house, but I have seven. (Please see above OP).
All are legit WWII pieces : Walther P-38, Astra 400, Russian TT-33, Mosin/Nagant 91/34, 1895 Russian Nagant (2), Mauser M98 8mm (sporterized - sorry, it was a gift).

I have owned and shot many other American, German, Italian, Japanese, and British arms of WWII vintage throughout my buying, trading, and selling lifetime. Man, those were the days. Ah, memories. They don't go away.

I really enjoyed your input aarondhgraham.:)
 
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......he invited me into his home and showed me his WWII MP40, AKA Schmeisser, illegal no doubt.
Sweden was neutral during the war, yet this gun showed up there. One has to wonder how many battlefield pickups are quietly still in homes all over Europe?
Click to expand...

Speedo:
While the Swedish Crown was legally neutral during WWII there were lots of Swedish troops involved in fighting.
As I am sure you know, at least 10,000 Swedish military personnel walked across the border into Finland in 1939-1940 in full uniform and gear, so they could fight the Soviets during the Winter War.
Later in 1941 the Russians were at it again as the Continuation War. Once again between 1,700 to 2,500 Swedes fought in Finland against the Commies until late 1944.

Since the Germans ALSO had troops in Finland until late 1944, there were lot of chances that Swede, Finn and Wehrmacht troops fought along side each other.

Additionally: A few Swedes fought in the Waffen SS. Most I have seen in photos were either senior NCOs or officers. The numbers vary between 175 to 300. There was at least one unit of mostly Swedes fighting in Berlin in the last days of the war. They often ended up as Officers in units made up from the 6,000 Norwegian Waffen SS volunteers.

So there are all sorts of possible routes that the MP-40 may have taken into Sweden.
 
military personnel walked across the border into Finland... ...in full uniform and gear, so they could fight the Soviets...
Click to expand...
Seems like this happens a lot, doesn't it :D

TCB
 
as a 15 year old boy i mowed lawns for a living, not much of a living. 1.25 for a small lawn and 3.00 for a large one. one of my customers had several machine guns in his man cave, i don,t know if they were legal or not or what ever happened to them. that was in the early 50,s and it didn,t seem like a big deal then. eastbank.
 
Float Pilot said:
Speedo:
While the Swedish Crown was legally neutral during WWII there were lots of Swedish troops involved in fighting.
As I am sure you know, at least 10,000 Swedish military personnel walked across the border into Finland in 1939-1940 in full uniform and gear, so they could fight the Soviets during the Winter War.
Later in 1941 the Russians were at it again as the Continuation War. Once again between 1,700 to 2,500 Swedes fought in Finland against the Commies until late 1944.

Since the Germans ALSO had troops in Finland until late 1944, there were lot of chances that Swede, Finn and Wehrmacht troops fought along side each other.

Additionally: A few Swedes fought in the Waffen SS. Most I have seen in photos were either senior NCOs or officers. The numbers vary between 175 to 300. There was at least one unit of mostly Swedes fighting in Berlin in the last days of the war. They often ended up as Officers in units made up from the 6,000 Norwegian Waffen SS volunteers.

So there are all sorts of possible routes that the MP-40 may have taken into Sweden.
Click to expand...
My late father-in-law was in the Swedish Coast Guard for 5 years during WWII. He was assigned to coastal defense weapons.

He told me before the war the Swedish professional officer corps, including many scions of the nobility, was trained by the German military, and had a certain allegiance to them. Conscripts such as he were told if during the war their officers ever ordered them to aid or join the Germans, they were to shoot them on the spot.
 
I used to spend a fair amount of time over in Norway and Sweden back when I was still working. A Norwegian colleague took me home for dinner one night and showed me some of his collection, which I clearly recall including not only a Sten SMG, but a half-dozen live hand grenades.

From what I've heard, this same type of situation with "illegal" guns exists/existed with people over the border in Sweden.

Sweden, although supposedly neutral during WWII, supplied much of the Nazi's iron ore. I always found interesting the explanation by one Swedish friend relative to that country's WW2 neutrality: "Well, we didn't expend either money or lives in the war but rather, just sat it out. And, the thing is, we were in an enviable positioin----if the Allies won, we were a democracy----and if the Nazi's won---well, in that case, we were Aryians."
 
HankB said:
Heard an old Russian joke . ..

"Why do Lithuanians pour oil on their gardens?"

"To keep the machine guns from rusting."
__________________
Click to expand...

That's funny...I have quite a few German relatives, and my told me of a few of them who would "go oil the garden" every now and again.
 
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