Weapons of the Wehrmacht in the service of Israel
An Israeli Defense Forces soldier with a Mauser rifle.
We are talking about the Mauser system rifle and, above all, the Karabiner 98k - the main and most popular rifle of the German Wehrmacht. True, these rifles ended up in Mandatory Palestine, and then in independent Israel, not from Germany itself, but from Czechoslovakia and Belgium. In these countries there were enterprises that, in one way or another, during the period of German occupation, were associated with the production of rifles for the Germans.
The Belgian Fabrique Nationale Herstal, or simply FN, did not produce rifles for the Germans inside and out. Until 1942, the Belgians did not produce anything related to Mauser rifles for the armed forces of the Third Reich. The Belgians also tried to actively put a spoke in the Germans' wheels, either by referring to the laws of the country, or to the decisions of the board of directors of the enterprise.
Only with the arrival of Albert Speer as Reich Minister of Arms and Ammunition in 1942 did the situation change. The Belgians began producing components for standard German Mauser carbines. At the same time, all flirtations with the occupation authorities stopped, qualified Belgian workers began to be sent to Germany, and Ostarbeiters were sent to Belgium.
All the variety of Israeli Mausers with Belgian roots. From left to right - a pre-war Belgian Mauser, an Ethiopian Mauser, a Lithuanian Mauser, a rifle issued under an official contract for independent Israel and a training rifle made in Belgium chambered for .22 LR.
The Czech Republic became a real forge for the Germans. Unlike the Belgians, the Brno plant produced entire rifles. True, at first it was the Czechoslovak pre-war model. Here changes also occurred with the advent of Speer. In 1942, the plant in Brno (or Brünn in German) began producing the standard German 98k carbine.
Israeli Mauser, judging by the letter code, the rifle was originally released in Brno in 1945 under the Germans.
By the end of World War II, the Czech Republic and Belgium came in different forms.
The Czech Republic was among the victorious countries, suffered minimal damage from the war and retained all production and industrial capacity. The same bombings of Prague aviation Allies during the entire war can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The Brno plant, despite its importance and significant production volumes, weapons, was bombed only in 1944, and by the end of the war all the consequences of the bombing on production had been eliminated.
Belgium, which had long been a donor of resources for the Germans, also became the scene of fierce fighting in the winter of 1944–1945. The country was devastated and destroyed, recovery was slow. Although the Liege plant produced its first weapons products just 12 days after the Germans left it, they were simply pistols assembled from spare parts. Full production of weapons at the plant was restored only in 1946. For several years, the plant was only engaged in the production of canisters for the US Army and servicing weapons of the same American Army.
A large group of fighters who are still Haganah as seen by a LIFE journalist, 1948. British heritage is visible in uniforms, equipment, submachine guns, but the rifles and machine guns already have German roots and came from Czechoslovakia.
Actually, the countries came to cooperation with the agents of first the Haganah, and then of independent Israel, in different ways. The revived Czechoslovakia, in fact, became an instrument in a great geopolitical game and was supposed to support the force opposed to the British.
And the Belgians... The Belgians just really needed money. And then they literally threw cash at them in exchange for unnecessary weapon parts of the deceased Third Reich. There was only one small thing left to do – don’t give a damn about the arms embargo. But this was not the first time for the Belgians to do something contrary to the opinions of other countries. At one time, they successfully ignored Italy’s demand not to supply weapons to Ethiopia and a similar demand from Japan regarding supplies to China.
The Belgians did not officially cooperate with the Israelis until the formation of independent Israel. In fact, the collaboration most likely began earlier. An indirect confirmation of this may be the appearance of rather rare Ethiopian and Lithuanian rifles among the Israelis. These were rifles just produced in Belgium and, perhaps, the Belgians assembled a batch of weapons for the Haganah, using the old stock of receivers from pre-war orders. If Lithuanian rifles could have come from German stocks, then Ethiopia, itself at that time looking for an opportunity to purchase weapons, was unlikely to sell anything from its stocks.
Israeli paratroopers on the Sinai Peninsula after landing, 1956. The soldier in the foreground cleans his Mauser.
The Haganah was in such dire need of weapons, ammunition and equipment that absolutely no one cared about where they came from, in what ways they were obtained and to whom they belonged before. And given that there were a lot of German weapons, they were inexpensive, and they could be obtained semi-legally, they quickly became a priority.
Plus, under an agreement with Czechoslovakia, the Israelis received huge reserves of German ammunition. The fact that the rifles coming from Czechoslovakia and Belgium were full of marks of German acceptance - “chickens” with swastikas, was indifferent. Later, Israeli stamps were often placed on the same part as German ones. Literally, a swastika could be adjacent to the Star of David.
Swastika and Star of David on a rifle received from Czechoslovakia.
Although Belgium and Czechoslovakia at different times were the main suppliers of rifles to Israel, one way or another and in different ways, Romanian, Turkish and other Mausers ended up there.
At first, English weapons predominated in the ranks of the Haganah. But soon the flow of weapons from Europe, including Mauser rifles, became such that it was the German weapon system that they decided to make the main one in the army of the already independent Israel. The IDF approached the 1956 war with the Mauser rifle as its main weapon.
June 5, 1967, Israeli armored vehicles in the Sinai Peninsula, Six Day War. Belgian Mauser in the frame.
True, by that time the political situation had changed greatly, and Czechoslovakia as a supplier became unavailable to Israel, so the Belgians remained as the only supplier of German rifles to the Promised Land. Yes, and the rifles have undergone changes, they were re-barreled with different ammunition.
Although Israel entered into a contract with the Belgians in 1956 for the supply of Fusil Automatique Léger, the Mausers remained in service and were in frontline units even during the war in 1967. Some of the rifles remained in the army after 1967, albeit as sniper weapons.
Israeli sniper Mauser.
The Israelis remained true to themselves and used the weapons system they had to the fullest and to the last, squeezing everything out of it and not paying much attention to its roots.
An advertisement in one of the American weapons magazines. Mausers, withdrawn from service in Israel, are quite likely to find buyers in the American arms market.
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