The Soviet capture K98k Mauser,The Soviet Union by far was the largest player in World War II, takin

The Soviet capture K98k Mauser,The Soviet Union by far was the largest player in World War II, taking the largest brunt of the German military and playing the largest role in ensuring that the Third Reich crumbled into ashes and rubble.  The Eastern Front alone was a war of epic proportions.  In the Western Front, the total number of men from both sides that were engaged in military operations (United States, Germany, Britain, Free France, Free Poland, Italy) from 1944 to 1945 amounted to around 7 million men.  Around that same time the Soviet Red Army alone comprised of 7 million men engaged in active combat.To the victor goes the spoils, for the Soviet Union, such spoils typically consisted of arms, of which they would receive the lion’s share.  The main arm of the German Wehrmacht, the famed K98k Mauser was the most extensive weapon captured by Soviet forces.  After massive battles such as Stalingrad, Leningrad, Kursk, Konigsberg, and Berlin, the Soviets found themselves in possession of untold millions of K98k rifles.  I, peashooter, would go far as to say that by 1945, the Soviet Union was in possession of more K98k rifles than the German Army itself!Soviet captured K98’s are little different than other K98k Mauser rifles except for one thing: serial numbers.  Rather than store the rifles whole the Soviets found that it was much easier to store them disassembled, the parts coated in cosmoline (grease used to prevent rust) and piled in large crates.  When taken out of storage, they were were unconcerned with matching parts, after all they did not care about future collector’s value decades down the road.  Thus all Soviet capture K98’s have mismatched parts.  The only added markings that identifies them as Soviet capture is an “X” crudely electropenciled “X” on the receiver above the serial number. Soviet capture K98’s also have other typical features.  The cleaning rod, sight hood, and locking screws are often missing, considered unnecessary by Soviet ordnance officials and thus removed and melted down as scrap metal.  When re-arsenalled the bolt was commonly blued with a dull, thick black compound.  After World War II, the Soviets used their vast stocks of K98’s to arm their pro-communist buddies, either communist regimes in Eastern Europe or Asia, or pro-communist guerrillas in Africa or Latin America.  Thus, many have turned up in the Korean War and Vietnam War.  The lack of Soviet markings allowed the Soviet government to claim plausible deniability when questioned on the origin of such weapons.  Believe it or not, many of these rifles are showing up in modern day conflicts, most notably in the strife currently occurring the Ukraine.   -- source link

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