{"id":11675,"date":"2020-06-15T05:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T10:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/?p=11675"},"modified":"2020-08-21T13:37:51","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T18:37:51","slug":"foreign-rifles-of-the-spanish-republic-1936-1939","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/15\/foreign-rifles-of-the-spanish-republic-1936-1939\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign Rifles of the Spanish Republic, 1936-1939"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><b>Introduction<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>In the scramble to acquire small arms in the midst of a chaotic civil war and with the backdrop of a largely noninterventionist international political sphere, the Spanish Republic\u2019s difficulty of securing modern or at least relatively-modern weapons was such that only a few, disparate international sources were able to be reliably brokered \u2014 mainly originating from the Soviet Union, Poland, and Mexico, though other nations also committed material support to lesser extents.<\/p>\n<p>This article focuses on the nonstandard, foreign-supplied rifles in use by the Republican Spanish in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939, drawing on a number of primary and secondary texts and period photographs, with the aim of providing a comprehensive analysis of their direct international sources, front-line use, and postwar collection and surplus. As the effects of the Spanish Civil War are still internationally felt decades later, this article is presented from a politically neutral perspective, with respect to the complexity, nuance, and tragedy of the conflict and its aftermath.<\/p>\n<h3><b>Standard Rifles of the Spanish Army: Domestic Mausers<\/b><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12047\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12047\" style=\"width: 811px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12047\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2_Domestic-Mauser-rifles-in-Republican-use.png\" alt=\"Republican troops with Spanish Mauser rifles\" width=\"811\" height=\"551\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2_Domestic-Mauser-rifles-in-Republican-use.png 811w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2_Domestic-Mauser-rifles-in-Republican-use-300x204.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2_Domestic-Mauser-rifles-in-Republican-use-768x522.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 811px) 100vw, 811px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12047\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Republican troops armed with domestic 1893 pattern and 1916 Mauser rifles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The most prevalent rifles in use during the Spanish Civil War among both armies were that of the 1893 pattern Mauser and its 1916 short rifle variant; both standard arms of the prewar army chambered in 7x57mm. Initial production of the 1893 pattern rifle was undertaken at Mauser Oberndorf and Ludwig Loewe &amp; Co., as well as domestically at Fabrica de Armas Oviedo\u00a0 \u2014 these early production rifles bore the Spanish national crest and their stripper-clip fed, five-round staggered internal box magazine distinguished them from American Krag-Jorgensen rifles during the Spanish-American War of 1898.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[1]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Ludwig\u00a0 Olson, <i>Mauser Bolt Rifles <\/i>(Montezuma, IA: Brownell &amp; Son, 2002), 65-7.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> In the intervening period, the 7mm 1893 pattern Mauser rifle remained the standard rifle of the Spanish army, continuing service through the Rif War and up through the Civil War.<\/p>\n<p>The development of a short rifle variant in 1916 produced a rifle based on the 1893 action, but incorporating a turned-down bolt handle and a pair of front sight protector wings.\u00a0 Early variants were equipped with <i>lange vizier-<\/i>style rear sight, though most are encountered with standard, flat tangent sights.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_2');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_2');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_2\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[2]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_2\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Olson, 73.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Production of the 1916 short rifle was undertaken at Fabrica de Armas Oviedo up to and through the Civil War; as that arsenal remained under Nationalist control, a number of 1916 short rifles bearing a dated \u201cINDUSTRIAS DE GUERRA DE CATALUNYA\u201d or \u201cSUBSECRETARIA DE ARMAMENTOS\u201d rollmark on the receiver ring are evident of limited Republican production during the conflict.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_3');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_3');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_3\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[3]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_3\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Robert Ball, <i>Mauser Military Rifles of the World<\/i> (Iola, WI: F + W Media, 2011), 353.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12048\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12048\" style=\"width: 781px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12048\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/3_Cleaning-and-care-of-the-7mm-1893-Mauser-rifle.png\" alt=\"Cleaning a Spanish Mauser\" width=\"781\" height=\"572\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/3_Cleaning-and-care-of-the-7mm-1893-Mauser-rifle.png 781w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/3_Cleaning-and-care-of-the-7mm-1893-Mauser-rifle-300x220.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/3_Cleaning-and-care-of-the-7mm-1893-Mauser-rifle-768x562.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 781px) 100vw, 781px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12048\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">From a Republican instructional series, this image demonstrates proper cleaning of a Mauser rifle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As the initial coup ushering in the conflict originated from within the national army, the logistical chaos of the Civil War left Republican forces desperate for small arms; though domestic 1893 and 1916-pattern Mauser rifles were common, their numbers were not sufficient to arm either the remaining troops nor the ones recruited by political or regional militias. Consequently, the reorganization and consolidation of Republican militia forces and scattered loyal military units into the <i>Ej\u00e9rcito de la Rep\u00fablica Espa\u00f1ola <\/i>in 1937 helped to mitigate some organizational issues, but did little in the way of easing logistical strains or standardizing small arms.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_4');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_4');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_4\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[4]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_4\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Burnett Bolloten, <i>The Spanish Civil War: Revolution and Counterrevolution<\/i> (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1991),\u00a0 330.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> The Republic would be largely dependent on foreign weapons and supplies.<\/p>\n<h3><b>Rifles from Soviet Sources: Spanish gold for the Czar\u2019s broken toys<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>In the interest of securing arms and other military materials, the Republic\u2019s appeal to the Soviet Union was a logical one \u2014 aligned political ideologies and the Soviet Union\u2019s interest in unified international communist movements seemed ripe for the potential of direct material support for the beleaguered Republic. However, arms and other materials would not be supplied purely altruistically: in October 1936, transfer of the bulk Spain\u2019s gold reserves, valued at $500 million, to Moscow would cement Republican primary reliance on Soviet aid,<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_5');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_5');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_5\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[5]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_5\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Bolloten, 145\u201358.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> with additional purchases made on credit throughout the war.<\/p>\n<p>Early Soviet efforts in 1936 to collect and transport military material to the Republican Spanish came under the direction of the NKVD, resulting in a series of policies under the title \u201cOperation X,\u201d<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_6');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_6');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_6\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[6]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_6\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Stanley Payne, <i>The Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union, and Communism <\/i>(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011), 141\u201344.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> taking the form of six series of discrete voyages of Soviet freighters to Republican-held ports. Under the auspices of military assistance detailed in Operation X, logistical efforts to eliminate older, nonstandard weapons in Red Army inventory left over from Imperial efforts to source small arms abroad during the First World War,<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_7');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_7');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_7\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[7]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_7\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">John Sheehan, \u201cArming Ivan, Part II: The Bear Begs, Borrows, and Buys Guns to Stay in the Fight,\u201d Guns Magazine, April 2005<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_7').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_7', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> and those fielded in the subsequent fighting following the revolution of 1917 and the Russian Civil War.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_8');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_8');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_8\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[8]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_8\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\"> Payne, 156\u201357.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_8').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_8', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Generally, these weapons were obsolete and in poor condition; however, their arrival throughout the late fall of 1936 permitted much-needed weapons for desperate Republican troops.<\/p>\n<p>Gerald Howson\u2019s analysis of Soviet shipping manifests associated with Operation X details the variety and obsolescence of ex-Imperial Russian weapons; small arms delivered by Soviet voyages from September of 1936 to January 1937 mostly consisting of obsolete foreign types originally purchased abroad during the First World War.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_9');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_9');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_9\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[9]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_9\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Gerald Howson, <i>Arms for Spain<\/i> (New York: St. Martin\u2019s Press, 1999), 136-39, 278-85.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_9').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_9', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Among these foreign types, taken into Soviet inventory following their use in the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922, were the following: 3,658 Austrian 8x50R Mannlicher rifles of all types; 10,000 11mm French Gras rifles along with 1,821 1878 Gras-Kropatschek rifles in the same caliber; 1,242 French 8mm Lebel and Berthier rifles; 13,357 Italian 10.4x47R 1870\/87 Vetterli-Vitalis; 6,000 7.92 German Mauser rifles of all types; 3,202 .303 Lee-Enfield rifles of the older Magazine Lee-Enfield and more-modern Short Magazine Lee-Enfield varieties; 9,000 American-contracted Winchester 1895 lever actions chambered in 7.62x54R, and unknown quantities of .303 Canadian Ross Mk.III rifles and 6.5&#215;50 Japanese rifles of all types.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_10');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_10');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_10\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[10]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_10\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 138.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_10').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_10', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12051\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12051\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12051\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/4_Gras-rifle-in-use-by-a-Republican-grenadier.jpg\" alt=\"A Republican soldier with a Gras rifle\" width=\"550\" height=\"752\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/4_Gras-rifle-in-use-by-a-Republican-grenadier.jpg 550w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/4_Gras-rifle-in-use-by-a-Republican-grenadier-219x300.jpg 219w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12051\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In this image by Constantino Suarez, a Republican soldier prepares to throw a hand grenade. Note his French 1874 Gras rifle, likely provided by the Soviets from ex-Imperial Russian stocks, as well as the loose cartridges he carries in his belt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Of the rifles supplied to Republican Spain, those of French origin made up the remainder of shipments sold to the Czar\u2019s government during 1915 through 1917; the 11mm single-shot black powder 1874 Gras rifles and the tube-fed 1878 Gras-Kropatshek were long obsolete, having been consigned to French reserve stockpiles in the prewar era. Sheehan cites the initial sale of 450,000 Gras rifles and 150,000 Gras-Kropatsheks in 1915;<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_11');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_11');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_11\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[11]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_11\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Sheehan, \u201cArming Ivan, Part II: The Bear Begs, Borrows, and Buys Guns to Stay in the Fight.\u201d<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_11').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_11', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> the comparatively low numbers retained in Soviet reserve and subsequently sold to the Republic in 1936 may be a result of wartime attrition during the First World War and Russian Civil War or perhaps because of their limited utility in comparison to more modern designs. These rifles were among the first to reach Republican ports in the autumn of 1936; allegedly shipping with only 385 cartridges each,<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_12');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_12');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_12\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[12]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_12\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 139.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_12').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_12', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> the utility of these 11mm black powder rifles would wear thin quickly, and photos of their use seem to only date from late 1936 and early 1937.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12052\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12052\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12052\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/5_Berthier-rifles-in-militia-use-1024x705.png\" alt=\"Republican troops with French Berthier rifles\" width=\"1024\" height=\"705\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/5_Berthier-rifles-in-militia-use-1024x705.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/5_Berthier-rifles-in-militia-use-300x207.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/5_Berthier-rifles-in-militia-use-768x529.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/5_Berthier-rifles-in-militia-use.png 1217w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12052\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Armed with Berthier rifles, Republican troops move up to the frontline fighting in Asturias, 1937.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Of greater use \u2014 but certainly in little better shape \u2014 would be the French 1886 Lebel and Mle. 07\/15 Berthier rifles. The former, incorporating a Kropatshek-style tube magazine and chambering the revolutionary 8mm Balle D smokeless round would turn the military small-arms world on its head in 1887, inspiring other nations to quickly adopt competitive designs. However, its modernity had been surpassed by the declaration of war in 1914, and the development of the three-shot, en-bloc fed Mle. 07\/15 Berthier infantry rifle from a series of prewar cavalry and colonial carbines helped to supplement the 1886 Lebel in French wartime frontline use. Initial Russian shipments of both rifle types totalled 86,000;<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_13');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_13');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_13\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[13]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_13\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Sheehan, \u201cArming Ivan, Part II: The Bear Begs, Borrows, and Buys Guns to Stay in the Fight.\u201d<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_13').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_13', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> service in Republican hands would be extensive, though greater numbers of Berthier rifles and carbines would additionally be sourced from Poland.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12053\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12053\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12053\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/6_Two-Republican-soldiers-with-Vetterli-Vitali-rifles-1024x716.png\" alt=\"Republican troops with Vetterli-Vitali rifles\" width=\"1024\" height=\"716\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/6_Two-Republican-soldiers-with-Vetterli-Vitali-rifles-1024x716.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/6_Two-Republican-soldiers-with-Vetterli-Vitali-rifles-300x210.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/6_Two-Republican-soldiers-with-Vetterli-Vitali-rifles-768x537.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/6_Two-Republican-soldiers-with-Vetterli-Vitali-rifles.png 1168w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12053\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scenes from the front \u2014 two Republican soldiers armed with Italian M1870\/87 Vetterli-Vitali rifles at ease, 1937.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Sourced by the Imperial Russians from the Kingdom of Italy in 1916, the large-bore 10.4x47R Vetterli-Vitali rifles had the advantage over the single-shot Gras in that they fed from a four-round, charger-loaded box magazine, but they were still scarcely modern at the turn of the century, having been largely replaced by the 1891 Carcano rifle in Italian service. Howson erroneously speculates the Russian source of these rifles as having been captured from Turkey in the 1877 Russo-Turkish War,<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_14');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_14');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_14\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[14]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_14\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 139.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_14').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_14', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> but in reality, Sheehan cites 400,000 taken into Imperial Russian service during the First World War.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_15');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_15');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_15\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[15]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_15\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Sheehan, \u201cArming Ivan, Part II: The Bear Begs, Borrows, and Buys Guns to Stay in the Fight.\u201d<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_15').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_15', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Surviving Vetterli-Vitalis would be sold to the Republican Spanish in late 1936 with a scant total of 185 cartridges per rifle, making photographed examples very uncommon <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_16');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_16');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_16\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[16]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_16\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 139.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_16').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_16', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> \u2014 however, the 6.5&#215;52 1870\/87\/15 conversions would also appear in the conflict, albeit in Nationalist service.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12055\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12055\" style=\"width: 801px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/7_Winchester-1895s-in-combat-in-Madrid.png\" alt=\"Winchester 1895 rifles in Republican hands\" width=\"801\" height=\"565\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/7_Winchester-1895s-in-combat-in-Madrid.png 801w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/7_Winchester-1895s-in-combat-in-Madrid-300x212.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/7_Winchester-1895s-in-combat-in-Madrid-768x542.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 801px) 100vw, 801px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12055\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Russian-contract Winchester 1895 rifles in use during the Siege of Madrid, 1937.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Having been contracted in 1915 from American arms manufacturer Winchester Repeating Arms, the contract of 293,818 delivered 1895 Winchester lever action rifles chambered in Russia\u2019s standard 7.62x54R cartridge marked one of two contracts for newly-manufactured arms in the United States, the other of which being contracts for Model 1891 Mosin-Nagant rifles with New England Westinghouse and Remington.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_17');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_17');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_17\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[17]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_17\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Luke Mercaldo, Adam Firestone, and Anthony Vanderlinden, <i>Allied Rifle Contracts in America <\/i>(Greensboro, NC: Wet Dog Publications, 2011), 65\u201388, 11-64.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_17').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_17', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Russian use of the 1895 Winchester lever action, outfitted with a full, musket-length stock and half-handguard, stripper clip guides, and blade bayonet was extensive, tending to be favored by Latvian battalions, many of whom fought for the Bolsheviks during the later Civil War.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_18');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_18');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_18\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[18]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_18\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Mercaldo, Firestone, and Vanderlinden, <i>Allied Rifle Contracts in America<\/i>, 81.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_18').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_18', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Despite chambering the standard 7.62x54R cartridge fed from a standard stripper clip, remaining Russian-contract Winchester 1895s were placed into reserve following the end of the Russian Civil War; 9,000 of which were sold to the Spanish Republic in 1936 as detailed above. Curiously, George Orwell implies that these rifles arrived or were issued without stripper clips, stating in <i>Homage to Catalonia <\/i>that \u201cThere were also a few Winchester rifles. These were nice to shoot with, but they were wildly inaccurate, and as their cartridges had no clips they could only be fired one shot at a time.\u201d<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_19');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_19');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_19\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[19]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_19\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">George Orwell, <i>Homage to Catalonia<\/i> (Boston, MA: Mariner Books\/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015), 35.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_19').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_19', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> These rifles would have been among the first to arrive from Soviet Operation X shipments, and photos from late in 1936 and through 1937 distinctly represent these rifles in the thick of the fighting. Those that survived Spanish use would be offered on the American mail-order surplus firearm market by Sam Cummings\u2019 Interarmco in the late 1950s and early 1960s; ad copy of the era definitively establishing their Spanish Civil War histories.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12057\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12057\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12057\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/8_Japanese-Type-38-rifle-pictured-in-a-Nationalist-inventory-1024x660.png\" alt=\"A captured Republican Type 38 rifle\" width=\"1024\" height=\"660\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/8_Japanese-Type-38-rifle-pictured-in-a-Nationalist-inventory-1024x660.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/8_Japanese-Type-38-rifle-pictured-in-a-Nationalist-inventory-300x193.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/8_Japanese-Type-38-rifle-pictured-in-a-Nationalist-inventory-768x495.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/8_Japanese-Type-38-rifle-pictured-in-a-Nationalist-inventory.png 1130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12057\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pictured in a postwar Nationalist catalog of captured small arms titled P<em>rontuario De Armamento<\/em>, compiled by artillery captain Mariano Villoslada Mi\u00f1on, this Japanese Type 38 rifle was purchased along with obsolete Type 30 and 35 rifles by Imperial Russia during the First World War, later sold by the Soviets to the Spanish Republicans.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Imperial Russian purchasing commissions secured 600,000 rifles from Japan in 1915 and 1916, the majority of which being surplus Type 30 Arisaka \u201chook safety\u201d rifles; though smaller numbers of improved Type 35 and modern Type 38 rifles were also acquired, all in 6.5&#215;50 \u2014 along with this order, the Japanese included an additional 34,400 Type 38 rifles in 7x57mm from a defaulted Mexican contract.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_20');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_20');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_20\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[20]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_20\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Sheehan, \u201cArming Ivan, Part II: The Bear Begs, Borrows, and Buys Guns to Stay in the Fight.\u201d<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_20').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_20', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> The Russians would go on to purchase a further 128,000 Type 30s and 38s from Great Britain in 1916, previously used as second-line rifles in order to free up Lee-Enfields for use in France.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_21');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_21');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_21\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[21]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_21\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Sheehan, \u201cArming Ivan, Part II: The Bear Begs, Borrows, and Buys Guns to Stay in the Fight.\u201d<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_21').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_21', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> These rifles would have featured a series of \u201ccancellation\u201d markings in the form of the stacked cannonballs symbol of the Koishikawa District of the Tokyo Artillery Arsenal overstamped over the Imperial chrysanthemum; Type 30 rifles with Russian provenance may\u00a0 also feature a bent steel retaining clip securing the triggerguard magazine floorplate release. Ex-Japanese rifles would see extensive use in Russian service, and would consequently be scattered throughout the reaches of the old empire during the Russian Civil War \u2014 those that survived to be taken into Soviet inventory would be drawn from for sale to Spain in 1936, though the exact numbers of these are unknown. There is evidence of Spanish-used Type 30 and 38 rifles undergoing caliber conversion; in separate conversations with the author, researchers Fred Honeycutt and Francis C. Allan independently cite primary source documents as well as two surviving examples in the collection of the military museum in Toledo suggesting widespread conversion of Japanese rifles to the more-commonly available 7.92&#215;57. Japanese rifles do not appear in many contemporary Republican photographs, though they are extensively represented in Nationalist surveys of captured small arms, and evidently survived in substantial enough numbers to have potentially been offered for limited sale on the American surplus market of the late 1950s.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12058\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12058\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12058\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/9_A-captured-Canadian-Ross-Mk.III_-1024x662.png\" alt=\"A captured Republican Ross Mk.III\" width=\"1024\" height=\"662\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/9_A-captured-Canadian-Ross-Mk.III_-1024x662.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/9_A-captured-Canadian-Ross-Mk.III_-300x194.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/9_A-captured-Canadian-Ross-Mk.III_-768x496.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/9_A-captured-Canadian-Ross-Mk.III_.png 1145w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12058\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Canadian-produced Ross Mk.III rifle, supplied by the Soviets from stocks given as aid to the White Russians during Allied intervention efforts during the Russian Civil War. Note that it is incorrectly identified as a Lee-Enfield.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Of the remaining types of nonstandard rifles sold by the Soviets to the Republican Spanish, the comparatively low numbers and varied types suggest that these rifles were miscellaneous variants used, inventoried, and stored following the end of the Russian Civil War. For instance, the number of Austro-Hungarian Mannlicher and German Mauser rifles cited by Howson are not specific to one individual model; all types in their respective chamberings are accounted for under Soviet categorization.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_22');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_22');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_22\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[22]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_22\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 138.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_22').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_22', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Additionally, the number of .303 English Lee-Enfield and Canadian Ross Mk.III rifles enumerated in Howson\u2019s list were likely sourced from ex-White Russian stocks, having fallen into Soviet hands following the defeat of the Whites in 1923, who had received them as aid earlier in the Russian Civil War during Allied intervention efforts.<\/p>\n<p>These initial arms shipments, while desperately needed by Republican troops, largely came as an opportunity to offload obsolete and nonstandard weapons retained in Soviet inventory following the end of the Russian Civil War. The bulk of these shipments would continue through early 1937, when more modern Soviet weaponry would begin to end up in Republican hands.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12060\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12060\" style=\"width: 588px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12060\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/10_Three-Line-M91-Mosin-Nagants.png\" alt=\"Republican use of the M91 &quot;Three-Line&quot; Mosin-Nagant\" width=\"588\" height=\"828\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/10_Three-Line-M91-Mosin-Nagants.png 588w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/10_Three-Line-M91-Mosin-Nagants-213x300.png 213w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 588px) 100vw, 588px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12060\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Republican soldiers armed with Russian \u201cThree-Line\u201d M91 Mosin-Nagant rifles, in action during the Huesca Offensive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Having largely exhausted stocks of obsolete, nonstandard weapons as sold to Republican purchasing commissions, Operation X records note the first shipments of standard Soviet small arms on January 16, 1937, with the arrival of 25,500 M91 Mosin-Nagant rifles and 20 million 7.62x54R cartridges on the ship <i>Sac-2 <\/i>and a further 24,580 rifles and 30 million cartridges on the <i>Mar Blanco.<\/i><span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_23');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_23');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_23\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[23]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_23\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 285.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_23').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_23', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Though in the process of being replaced in Soviet service by the more-modern M91\/30 pattern, the vast numbers of M91 \u201cThree-Line\u201d\u00a0 rifles in reserve \u2014 ranging anywhere from worn examples dating from 1892 up to fairly new rifles produced at Tula and Izhevsk in 1926 \u2014 were a perfectly serviceable option for Republican issue.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12061\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12061\" style=\"width: 462px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12061 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/11_A-unit-armed-with-M91-Mosin-Nagants.png\" alt=\"A Republican unit armed with M91s\" width=\"462\" height=\"824\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/11_A-unit-armed-with-M91-Mosin-Nagants.png 462w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/11_A-unit-armed-with-M91-Mosin-Nagants-168x300.png 168w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12061\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Republican troops armed with Soviet-supplied M91 rifles; at a lull during the Huesca Offensive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The configuration and condition of the M91 rifles as shipped to Spain in early 1937 would have been varied; as with other types discussed above, many rifles saw hard service through the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War, the First World War, and the subsequent Russian Revolution and Civil War. The general characteristics of this rifle were an overall length of 51 \u00bd inches; weighing 9 \u00bd pounds; chambering the 7.62x54R cartridge in a five-round, stripper-clip fed magazine; having a full-length stock and handguard; making use of a socket-style spike bayonet, and incorporating the Konovalov rear sight graduated out to 3200 <i>arshin, <\/i>with a barleycorn front sight blade.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_24');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_24');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_24\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[24]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_24\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Luke Mercaldo, Adam Firestone, and Anthony Vanderlinden, <i>Allied Rifle Contracts in America<\/i> (Greensboro, NC: Wet Dog Publications, 2011), 54.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_24').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_24', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Through their production life, the \u201cThree-Line\u201d M91 rifle would be manufactured domestically by Russian arsenals (both under Imperial and later Soviet direction) at Tula, Izhevsk, and Sestroryetsk, and under contract abroad early in production by Chatellerault in France, and by New England Westinghouse and Remington Arms in the United States during the First World War.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_25');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_25');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_25\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[25]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_25\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Mercaldo, Firestone, and Vanderlinden, 25-40.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_25').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_25', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12062\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12062\" style=\"width: 406px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/12_Dos-soldados-republicanos-de-pie-con-la-culata-de-los-fusiles-apoyada-en-el-suelo-y-la-balloneta-calada.jpeg\" alt=\"Republican troops with M91 rifles\" width=\"406\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/12_Dos-soldados-republicanos-de-pie-con-la-culata-de-los-fusiles-apoyada-en-el-suelo-y-la-balloneta-calada.jpeg 406w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/12_Dos-soldados-republicanos-de-pie-con-la-culata-de-los-fusiles-apoyada-en-el-suelo-y-la-balloneta-calada-203x300.jpeg 203w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 406px) 100vw, 406px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12062\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two Republican soldiers on the Ebro front armed with M91 Mosin-Nagant rifles. In addition to Soviet sources, these rifles would be supplied by Mexico and Poland to lesser extents.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Spanish Republic would receive Soviet shipments of the \u201cThree-Line\u201d M91 rifle definitively totalling 104,630 rifles, with a supplemental 25,000 potentially also delivered.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_26');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_26');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_26\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[26]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_26\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 285-95.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_26').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_26', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> M91 Mosin-Nagant rifles would make up the bulk of delivered small arms from January to August of 1937, after which Soviet deliveries to the Republic would be made up of new production M91\/30 variants of the Mosin-Nagant. However, M91s would be numerous in Republican use, as the Soviet Union was not the only country to provide the old \u201cThree-Line\u201d rifles \u2014 both Poland and Mexico would also sell them to Republican purchasing commissions, albeit in lesser numbers.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12063\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12063\" style=\"width: 529px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12063\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/13_Stacked-Soviet-M91-30-Mosin-Nagant-rifles.png\" alt=\"Stacked M91\/30 rifles\" width=\"529\" height=\"790\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/13_Stacked-Soviet-M91-30-Mosin-Nagant-rifles.png 529w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/13_Stacked-Soviet-M91-30-Mosin-Nagant-rifles-201x300.png 201w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12063\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stacked M91\/30 Mosin-Nagant rifles of the 45th Division of the Republican Ej\u00e9rcito Popular in 1937. Note the wire sling hanger on the rear stock escutcheon of the rifle to the left.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Soviet deliveries of M91\/30 Mosin-Nagant rifles would begin alongside that of the final shipment of M91s in August of 1937 aboard the <i>Cabo San Augustin, <\/i>with 10,450 accompanying the 39,550 \u201cThree-Line\u201d rifles and 52,696,000 rounds of 7.62x54R also listed on the Operation X shipping manifests for this voyage.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_27');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_27');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_27\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[27]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_27\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 293-94.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_27').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_27', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> The M91\/30 rifle was the Soviet Union\u2019s most modern update of the Mosin-Nagant action, shortened to an overall length of 48 \u00bd inches, weighing slightly less than 9 pounds, and equipped with an updated rear tangent sight graduated up to 2000 meters and an easier-to-acquire globe front sight, this new weapon was the Red Army\u2019s most modern bolt action infantry rifle.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_28');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_28');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_28\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[28]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_28\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Aleksandr Sergeyevich Yushchenko, <i>Vintovka obraztsa 1891\/1930 g. i yeye raznovidnosti<\/i>.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_28').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_28', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Production of the M91\/30 would be undertaken at Tula and Izhevsk.<\/p>\n<p>Though the majority of rifles supplied by the Soviet Union were obsolete weapons held in reserve following inventory efforts following the Russian Civil War, the supply of M91\/30 Mosin-Nagant rifles was unique in that they were new production rifles \u2014 many M91\/30s with Spanish Civil War provenance display 1936 and 1937 dates of production. Shipments of these rifles continued through 1937 and 1938, with a total deliveries reaching 112,050 rifles along with bayonets and hundreds of millions of rounds of ammunition.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_29');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_29');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_29\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[29]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_29\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 296-300.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_29').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_29', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> These rifles regularly appear in frontline photographs, generally adapted to use domestic Mauser slings with the addition of a pair of bent wire sling swivels,\u00a0 and are also frequently detailed in Nationalist captured weapon documentation.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12064\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12064\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12064\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/14_Two-Republican-soldiers-armed-with-M91-30-Mosin-Nagant-rifles-1024x746.png\" alt=\"Republican troops with M91\/30 rifles\" width=\"1024\" height=\"746\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/14_Two-Republican-soldiers-armed-with-M91-30-Mosin-Nagant-rifles-1024x746.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/14_Two-Republican-soldiers-armed-with-M91-30-Mosin-Nagant-rifles-300x219.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/14_Two-Republican-soldiers-armed-with-M91-30-Mosin-Nagant-rifles-768x559.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/14_Two-Republican-soldiers-armed-with-M91-30-Mosin-Nagant-rifles.png 1112w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12064\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two soldiers armed with M91\/30 shelter in a trench. Note that the rifle in the foreground has the older \u201chexagonal\u201d style of receiver, whereas the one in the background has the simplified \u201cround\u201d receiver produced from 1936 onward.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An additional curiosity is the Spanish Civil War provenance of the so-called \u201cStable rifles,\u201d a limited production trials rifle variant of the M91\/30 developed in the mid-1930s. These rifles differed from standard M91\/30s in that they featured a Mauser-style front band, blade bayonet, and a set of winged sight protectors in lieu of the M91\/30\u2019s globe.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_30');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_30');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_30\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[30]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_30\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Yushchenko, <i>Vintovka obraztsa 1891\/1930 g. i yeye raznovidnosti<\/i>.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_30').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_30', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> In the collector\u2019s market, these rifles frequently appear with signs of Spanish issue and postwar Nationalist inventory and arsenal refurbishment; though no examples have turned up in wartime photos. Curiously, a possible hint to their transport is recorded in Operation X shipping manifests, as Howson cites a quantity of 8,400 \u201cRifles M34\u201d recorded alongside 26,500 standard M91\/30 Mosin-Nagants in the cargo of the <i>Bonafacio, <\/i>arriving in a Republican port on February 7, 1938.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_31');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_31');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_31\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[31]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_31\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 298.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_31').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_31', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> However, this quantity exceeds that of the estimated production of the Stable rifles, of which 5,000 are thought to have been produced at Tula in the 1936-1937 timeframe.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_32');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_32');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_32\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[32]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_32\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Yushchenko, <i>Vintovka obraztsa 1891\/1930 g. i yeye raznovidnosti<\/i>.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_32').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_32', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Whatever the status of these \u201cRifles M34,\u201d they certainly were not standard M91\/30 rifles, and further research is needed to definitively establish their identity.<\/p>\n<h3><b>Rifles from Polish Sources: Secondhand arms from SEPEWE<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>Having gained nationality in the political tumult following the First World War and consequently caught up in the Polish-Soviet War of 1920, the military forces of the Second Polish Republic were armed with numerous rifle types left over from Imperial German, Russian, and Austro-Hungarian service. Efforts to standardize on rifles chambered in 7.92&#215;57 in the late 1920s resulted in the gradual disposal of older, nonstandard types in both military and border guard service \u2014 foreign weapons not conforming to this standard were collected, refurbished, and held in reserve in a number of military arsenals beginning in 1928.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_33');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_33');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_33\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[33]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_33\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Piotr Koz\u0142owski, \u201cUzbrojenie I Wyposa\u017cenie Ma\u0142opolskiego Inspektoratu Okr\u0119gowego Sg W Przemy\u015blu,\u201d<i>Biuletyn Centralnego O\u015brodka Szkolenia <\/i>no. 29 (2004), 53\u20135.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_33').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_33', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Among these nonstandard weapons were French Lebel and Berthier rifles and carbines, varieties of Austro-Hungarian Mannlicher straight-pull rifles in 8x50R, old German 1888 Commission rifles, English P14 Enfields in .303, and worn M1891 \u201cThree-Line\u2019 rifles, potentially candidates for conversion to the Polish 7.92&#215;57 caliber wz.91\/98\/28 pattern.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_34');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_34');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_34\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[34]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_34\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Tomasz Juszkiewicz, \u201cUzbrojenie W Karabiny I Karabinki Powtarzalne, Korpusu Ochrony Pogranicza W Latach 1924-39.\u201d <i>Biuletyn Centralnego O\u015brodka Szkolenia<\/i> 1\/98 (1998), 55-69.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_34').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_34', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_35');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_35');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_35\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[35]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_35\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Koz\u0142owski, 54.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_35').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_35', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> These rifles would largely remain in Polish reserve until representatives of the Spanish Republic would approach the Polish government through intermediaries in 1936.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12067\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12067\" style=\"width: 794px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12067\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/15_SEPEWE-ad.png\" alt=\"A period ad for the SEPEWE syndicate\" width=\"794\" height=\"560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/15_SEPEWE-ad.png 794w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/15_SEPEWE-ad-300x212.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/15_SEPEWE-ad-768x542.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 794px) 100vw, 794px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12067\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A period advertisement for the Polish arms syndicate SEPEWE, published in the 25 January, 1939 issue of the engineering and trade journal <em>Przegl\u0105d Techniczny.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Interwar Polish commercial interests in foreign military contracts were largely brokered through SEPEWE, an ostensibly-private (though in reality,\u00a0 government-sanctioned) arms export syndicate. Sales to Republican Spain began in the autumn of 1936; as the Polish government was officially subject to an arms embargo against both factions in the Spanish conflict (an agreement that it did not abide to, selling to both throughout the war), traffic of arms to Republican ports was necessary to disguise through a series of assumed destinations.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_36');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_36');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_36\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[36]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_36\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Marek Piotr Deszczy\u0144ski, \u201cEksport Polskiego Sprz\u0119tu Wojskowego Do Hiszpanii Podczas Wojny Domowej 1936-1939.\u201d <i>Kwartalnik Historyczny<\/i> 104, no. 1 (1997), 49.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_36').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_36', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Like initial Soviet shipments, SEPEWE first brokered a series of sales of obsolete, nonstandard, and\/or unserviceable weapons to Republican purchasing agents, before later supplying a number of modern, standard-issue domestic or license-built weapons \u2014 curious, as Poland was in the midst of a military modernization and rearmament program and somewhat lacking for modern arms for its own use.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_37');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_37');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_37\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[37]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_37\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 259-77.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_37').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_37', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Citing interwar SEPEWE export records, Polish researcher Marek Piotr Deszczy\u0144ski notes the dizzying variety of covers provided to arms exports destined for Republican Spain \u2014 shipments from 1936 through 1938 ostensibly delivered to ports of destination in France, Mexico, Uruguay, Greece, Haiti, Venezuela, and Peru.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_38');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_38');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_38\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[38]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_38\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Marek Piotr Deszczy\u0144ski, \u201cPolski eksport sprz\u0119tu wojskowego w okresie mi\u0119dzywojennym (Zarys problematyki).\u201d <i>Przegl\u0105d Historyczny<\/i>, no. 85\/1-2 (1994),\u00a0 106-10.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_38').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_38', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Deszczy\u0144ski cites the total types and amounts of rifles exported to the Republican Spanish by SEPEWE during this period as numbering up to 88,001 new-production wz.29 Mauser carbines; 24,500 wz.98a Mauser rifles; 50,000 Berthier rifles and carbines; a mixed shipment of 7,000 Mannlicher M.88, M.88\/90, and M.95 rifles, and 5,000 Mannlicher M.95 rifles.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_39');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_39');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_39\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[39]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_39\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Deszczy\u0144ski, 106-10.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_39').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_39', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p>\n<p>However, this data does not fully correspond with that which Howson provides in his analysis of individual shipping manifests; establishing that quantities of Polish small arms to arrive in Spain only during 1936 and 1937 would total 25,100\u00a0 new-production wz.29 Mauser carbines;\u00a0 37,400 Berthier rifles; two mixed shipments of old Austro-Hungarian M.88, M.88\/90, and M.95 Mannlichers totalling 12,000 rifles; 10,000 Mannlicher M.95 carbines along with 10,000 rifles; around 2,000 1888 Commission rifles; 2,930 \u201cRussian rifles and spare parts,\u201d and a further 10,000 otherwise-unidentified 8mm rifles.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_40');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_40');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_40\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[40]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_40\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 259-77.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_40').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_40', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12069\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12069\" style=\"width: 476px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12069 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/16_A-Republican-soldier-on-the-Ebro-front-armed-with-a-Polish-wz.29.png\" alt=\"A Polish wz.29 Mauser on the Ebro front\" width=\"476\" height=\"707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/16_A-Republican-soldier-on-the-Ebro-front-armed-with-a-Polish-wz.29.png 476w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/16_A-Republican-soldier-on-the-Ebro-front-armed-with-a-Polish-wz.29-202x300.png 202w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 476px) 100vw, 476px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12069\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Republican soldier armed with a Polish wz.29 Mauser rifle, taken sometime during the Ebro Offensive of 1938.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As the only modern rifles supplied to the Spanish Republic by Poland, the wz.29 Mauser was a domestically-produced short rifle chambered in 7.92&#215;57, with an overall length of 43.4 inches and weighing 9 pounds unloaded.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_41');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_41');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_41\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[41]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_41\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Olson, 187.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_41').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_41', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Generally, the receiver rings of wz.29 rifles would feature a Polish national eagle over a dated manufacturer\u2019s marking, either \u201cP.F.K. WARSZAWA\u201d or \u201cF.B. RADOM,\u201d\u00a0 but most rifles with known Spanish provenance lack these crests. However, there is the question of whether the rifles provided to the Spanish Republic originally featured them, or if they were supplied \u201csanitized.\u201d Interestingly, Nationalist documentation seems to suggest that wz.29 and other Mauser rifles supplied by Poland indeed featured the national crest \u2014 granted, this may have been only of note due to most captured examples appearing without them. Regardless, most wz.29 rifles on the collector\u2019s market lack Polish crests.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12070\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12070\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12070\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/17_A-captured-crested-Polish-wz.29-1024x760.png\" alt=\"A captured, crested wz.29\" width=\"1024\" height=\"760\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/17_A-captured-crested-Polish-wz.29-1024x760.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/17_A-captured-crested-Polish-wz.29-300x223.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/17_A-captured-crested-Polish-wz.29-768x570.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/17_A-captured-crested-Polish-wz.29.png 1103w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12070\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Though many Polish rifles with Spanish Civil War provenance appear on the collector\u2019s market without crests, this photograph of a captured wz.29 (as well as postwar Nationalist enemy small arms surveys) seem to suggest that some portion of rifles supplied to the Republic by SEPEWE retained them.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In addition to wz. 29 models, the older wz. 98a was also supplied in quantity to Republican forces. This rifle was produced on Gewehr 98 tooling from the former Danzig arsenal, differing only from the older pattern in its incorporation of a flat tangent rear sight instead of the <i>lange vizier <\/i>pattern, and Polish markings. Additionally supplied were a number of Polish-produced Model K.98 carbines; nearly identical to the Kar.98az produced by Imperial Germany save for an updated and strengthened stacking hook. Examples of each appear in wartime Republican photos, but not as frequently or as distinctively as the wz.29 models.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12071\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12071\" style=\"width: 592px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12071\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/18_A-Berthier-Mle.-07-15_M-16.png\" alt=\"A captured Berthier Mle. 07\/15-M16\" width=\"592\" height=\"832\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/18_A-Berthier-Mle.-07-15_M-16.png 592w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/18_A-Berthier-Mle.-07-15_M-16-213x300.png 213w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 592px) 100vw, 592px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12071\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A French Mle.07\/15-M16 Berthier rifle likely supplied by Poland, from the same series of captured Republican weapons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Though French-made Berthier rifles supplied by the Soviets were mainly of the three-shot Mle. 07\/15 pattern, numbers supplied by the Polish were of multiple variants; Tomasz Juszkiewicz cites three-shot Mle. 92 carbines and Mle.07\/15 rifles as well as updated five-shot Mle. 92\/16 carbines and Mle. 07\/15-M16 rifles in prewar Polish service.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_42');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_42');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_42\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[42]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_42\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Juszkiewicz, 66-8.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_42').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_42', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> As these rifles were drawn from Polish reserve stockpiles, it is likely that no attempt was made to consistently issue like models \u2014 indeed, the above photo shows multiple Berthier variants within the same unit.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12072\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12072\" style=\"width: 633px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12072\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/19_A-Republican-soldier-with-a-Mannlicher-M.88-90.png\" alt=\"A Republican soldier with Mannlicher M.88\/90\" width=\"633\" height=\"921\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/19_A-Republican-soldier-with-a-Mannlicher-M.88-90.png 633w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/19_A-Republican-soldier-with-a-Mannlicher-M.88-90-206x300.png 206w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 633px) 100vw, 633px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12072\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In this image by Constantino Suarez, a Republican soldier armed with a Mannlicher M.88\/90 rifle keeps watch during the siege of Oviedo in October of 1937.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Polish issue of inherited ex-Austro-Hungarian arms was varied, with numbers of earlier M.88 and M.88\/90 straight-pull rifles less than those of the more modern M.95s. Incorporating a wedge-locking, straight-pull action, M.88s and M.88\/90 rifles (the latter updated to use Austria-Hungary\u2019s smokeless 8x50R loading), fed from an innovative five-round en-bloc packet; revolutionary for the 1880s, this design had been largely surpassed by Mauser action rifles and served as a frontline, secondary standard rifle during the First World War.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_43');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_43');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_43\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[43]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_43\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Paul S. Scarlata, <i>Mannlicher Military Rifles<\/i> (Lincoln, RI: Andrew Mowbray Publishers, 2004), 51-64.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_43').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_43', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> These rifles, while common in the reaches of the old Autro-Hungarian empire, were far from modern, and the Poles elected to keep them in reserve rather than issue them; and naturally, the opportunity to offload them onto the Republican Spanish proved to be just the thing to clear them out of inventory.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12074\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12074\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12074\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20_Captured-Mannlicher-rifles-1024x659.png\" alt=\"Captured Mannlicher rifles\" width=\"1024\" height=\"659\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20_Captured-Mannlicher-rifles-1024x659.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20_Captured-Mannlicher-rifles-300x193.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20_Captured-Mannlicher-rifles-768x494.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/20_Captured-Mannlicher-rifles.png 1151w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12074\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Nationalist catalog of captured Austro-Hungarian M.88\/90, M.95, and Romanian 1893 Mannlichers, all produced by OEWG Steyr. The source for the latter rifle is currently unknown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Ferdinand Mannlicher\u2019s updated straight-pull design, the M.95, was adopted for Austro-Hungarian service in 1896 following a series of trials exploring innovations on his earlier designs. Produced both at OEWG Steyr and at Budapest in Hungary, the M.95 rifle had an overall length of 50.1 inches and weighed 8.3 pounds, and incorporating a rear sight graduated up to 2600 <i>schritt, <\/i>these rifles still chambered 8x50R but fed from an improved en-bloc packet. These rifles served as the standard arm of the Austro-Hungarian empire throughout the First World War, seeing service against both the Italians and the Russians.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_44');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_44');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_44\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[44]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_44\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Scarlata, 74-86.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_44').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_44', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Poland inherited large numbers of these rifles following independence and the Polish-Soviet War, electing to export them from reserve stocks throughout the 1930s, providing numbers to Bulgaria and Romania in 1932, China and Abyssinia in 1934, and Hungary in 1936 in addition to those sold to the Spanish Republicans.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_45');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_45');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_45\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[45]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_45\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Deszczy\u0144ski, \u201cPolski eksport sprz\u0119tu wojskowego w okresie mi\u0119dzywojennym (Zarys problematyki),\u201d 105\u20137.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_45').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_45', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12075\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12075\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12075\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/21_A-Polish-M.95-Mannlicher-carbine-1024x770.png\" alt=\"Republican soldier with a Polish M.95 carbine\" width=\"1024\" height=\"770\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/21_A-Polish-M.95-Mannlicher-carbine-1024x770.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/21_A-Polish-M.95-Mannlicher-carbine-300x226.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/21_A-Polish-M.95-Mannlicher-carbine-768x578.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/21_A-Polish-M.95-Mannlicher-carbine.png 1130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12075\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Republican soldier of the 5th Division, missing a hand, takes aim with a Mannlicher M.95 carbine in May of 1937. This carbine is likely of Polish origin, as evidenced by the rifle-length rear sight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A carbine variant was also developed and produced, though Polish-supplied M.95 carbines appear to have been domestically shortened from full-length long rifles, incorporating renumbered rifle-length rear sights and underslung sling swivels \u2014 though some surviving examples appear to have originally featured a bottom swivel repurposed as a wrist swivel, later plugged and reverted to the original underslung configuration. Note these features on the above carbine.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12076\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12076\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12076\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/22_Gewehr-1888-Commission-rifles-at-the-barricades-1024x680.jpg\" alt=\"Gewehr 1888 Commission rifles at the barricades\" width=\"1024\" height=\"680\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/22_Gewehr-1888-Commission-rifles-at-the-barricades-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/22_Gewehr-1888-Commission-rifles-at-the-barricades-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/22_Gewehr-1888-Commission-rifles-at-the-barricades-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/22_Gewehr-1888-Commission-rifles-at-the-barricades.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12076\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photographed by Constantino Suarez, Republican militiamen armed with Gewehr 1888 Commission rifles man a barricaded building during the siege of Oviedo in early 1937.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Developed in response to the French 1886 Lebel rifle and its 8mm smokeless cartridge, the German 1888 Commission rifle used a split-bridge Schlegelmilch action and incorporated a Mannlicher-style en-bloc clip, originally chambering the .318 bottlenose M\/88 7.92&#215;57 cartridge developed alongside it, though later updated to the .323 <i>S Patrone <\/i>spitzer loading in 1905.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_46');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_46');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_46\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[46]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_46\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Olson, 40-2.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_46').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_46', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Despite military adoption of the Mauser-designed Gewehr 98, the 1888 Commission rifles would remain in inventory and conversions to accommodate the new ammunition and stripper clip loading would result in the 1888\/05 variant; these rifles would serve as German reserve weapons throughout the First World War. The relatively low number retained in postwar Polish service and subsequently provided to the Republican Spanish makes photographic evidence scarce; though limited, frontline use of the 1888 Commission rifle was surely superior to that of older, single-shot blackpowder rifles dug out of Soviet reserve stocks.<\/p>\n<h3><b>Rifles from Mexican Sources: Modern Mausers, Ammunition, and the Allure of the \u201cMexicanski\u201d Mosin-Nagants<\/b><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12078\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12078\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12078\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/23_A-captured-Mexican-1910-Mauser-1024x656.png\" alt=\"A Republian-issued Mexican 1910 Mauser rifle\" width=\"1024\" height=\"656\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/23_A-captured-Mexican-1910-Mauser-1024x656.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/23_A-captured-Mexican-1910-Mauser-300x192.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/23_A-captured-Mexican-1910-Mauser-768x492.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/23_A-captured-Mexican-1910-Mauser.png 1142w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12078\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Though based on the improved 1898 action, the overall pattern of the Mexican 1910 pattern Mauser is the same as the standard Spanish 1893 rifle, making them very difficult to distinguish in combat photographs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Mexican aid to the Spanish Republic came early, initially in the form of 20,000 domestically-produced Mauser 1910 rifles and 20 million rounds of 7&#215;57 ammunition as a gesture of goodwill from President L\u00e1zaro C\u00e1rdenas aboard the <i>Magellenes <\/i>in September of 1936.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_47');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_47');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_47\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[47]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_47\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson. 103.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_47').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_47', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> In addition to these rifles, a reported 7,000 others along with 10 million cartridges would arrive through late 1936 and early 1937.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_48');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_48');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_48\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[48]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_48\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Mario Ojeda Revah, <i>Mexico and the Spanish Civil War <\/i>(Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2015),\u00a0 114.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_48').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_48', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Despite being based on the general pattern of the Spanish 1893 Mauser, these rifles were built on the improved Mauser 98 action; however, there was no practical difference in use beyond that of the standard Spanish rifle, including chambering the same 7&#215;57 round. In appearance, the two rifles are near identical, making identification very difficult in period photographs.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12079\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12079\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12079\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/24_Captured-Mexican-7mm-Mauser-cartridges-1024x760.png\" alt=\"A Mexican 7x57 ammunition crate\" width=\"1024\" height=\"760\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/24_Captured-Mexican-7mm-Mauser-cartridges-1024x760.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/24_Captured-Mexican-7mm-Mauser-cartridges-300x223.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/24_Captured-Mexican-7mm-Mauser-cartridges-768x570.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/24_Captured-Mexican-7mm-Mauser-cartridges.png 1057w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12079\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supplied alongside 1910 Mauser rifles, Mexican-produced 7&#215;57 ammunition was apparently coveted for its quality and reliability.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In terms of contemporary discussion, there is little comment on the quality or issue of Mexican 1910 pattern Mausers \u2014 Mexican researcher Mario Ojeda Revah only cites <i>Manchester Guardian <\/i>correspondent Frank Jellinek qualifying them as \u201cExcellent, lighter than the Spanish Mauser type\u2026\u201d<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_49');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_49');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_49\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[49]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_49\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Revah, 110.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_49').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_49', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> \u2014 dialogue on the quality of Mexican produced 7&#215;57 Mauser ammunition is better known due to George Orwell\u2019s praise of it in comparison to poor quality Spanish ammunition. In reference to the issue of ammunition among the POUM militias, he states that:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cAmmunition was so scarce that each man entering the line was only issued with fifty rounds, and most of it was exceedingly bad. The Spanish-made cartridges were all refills and would jam even the best rifles. The Mexican cartridges were better and were therefore reserved for the machine-guns. Best of all was the German-made ammunition, but as this came only from prisoners and deserters there was not much of it. I always kept a clip of German or Mexican ammunition in my pocket for use in an emergency.\u201d<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_50');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_50');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_50\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[50]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_50\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Orwell, 35-6.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_50').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_50', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Mexican domestic production of the 7&#215;57 Mauser cartridge began in 1906 at Fabrica Nacional de Cartouches following military commission review of cartridge production facilities and methods at Winchester and Union Metallic Cartridge Co. in the United States, and those of D.W.M. in Germany.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_51');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_51');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_51\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[51]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_51\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">James B. Hughes, <i>Mexican Military Arms: The Cartridge Period, 1866-1967<\/i> (Houston, TX: Deep River Armory, 1968), 120.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_51').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_51', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Supply of domestically produced rifles and ammunition in the standard form and caliber to the Spanish Republicans served as both a logistically and ideologically considerate gesture; as initial shipments of both were done at no cost, though the Mexican government eventually consented to accept a payment of 3,500,000 pesos for them.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_52');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_52');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_52\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[52]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_52\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 103.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_52').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_52', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12081\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12081\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12081\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/25_Crate-marked-Mexique_Vera-Cruz-1024x797.png\" alt=\"A Mexican-marked crate\" width=\"1024\" height=\"797\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/25_Crate-marked-Mexique_Vera-Cruz-1024x797.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/25_Crate-marked-Mexique_Vera-Cruz-300x234.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/25_Crate-marked-Mexique_Vera-Cruz-768x598.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/25_Crate-marked-Mexique_Vera-Cruz.png 1084w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12081\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">American-made M91 Mosin-Nagants allegedly supplied by Mexico\u2014 the fabled \u201cMexicanski\u201d rifles \u2014 are supposed to have arrived in crates similar to this one, \u201cwrapped in Mexico City newspapers and oozing cosmoline.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An enduring curiosity of Mexican aid to the Spanish Republic is that of the so-called \u201cMexicanski\u201d Mosin-Nagant rifles; U.S.-manufactured M91s allegedly supplied to members of the International Brigades from Mexican-marked crates. Cecil Eby relates the issue of these rifles in <i>Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War, <\/i>stating:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIn the chill February evening they lined up behind a supply truck and unloaded heavy boxes about the size of coffins. Breaking them open, they found new bolt action rifles, each wrapped in Mexico City newspapers and oozing cosmoline. With each came a small cloth bag stuffed with cleaning brushes and small tools but no rags. \u2018Clean them,\u2019 came the order. \u2018With what?\u2019 came a plaintive voice. \u2018Use your shirttails,\u2019 barked Seacord. The rifles were Remingtons, some barrels stamped with the Czarist double-eagle, others with the Soviet hammer and sickle. The latter were seven centimetres shorter and a few ounces lighter, but their bolts were prone to jam when overheated. (Some rifles were stamped \u2018Made in Connecticut.\u2019) The men nicknamed their rifles \u2018Mexicanskis\u2019 and the story passed into local folklore that they had been manufactured in the United States, sent to the Czar in 1914, copied by Bolshevik artisans, sold to Mexico for revolutionary work and then donated to the Spanish Republic.\u201d<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_53');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_53');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_53\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[53]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_53\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Cecil D.Eby, <i>Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War<\/i> (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007), 47.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_53').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_53', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Note that Eby reports the simultaneous issue of rifles marked with the \u201cSoviet hammer and sickle,\u201d and \u201cseven centimeters shorter and a few ounces lighter\u201d in comparison to the American-manufactured M91 \u201cThree-Line\u201d rifles; this no doubt erroneously refers to M91\/30 rifles, which could not possibly have been \u201ccopied by Bolshevik artisans\u201d nor sold to Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>However, at least one instance of attempted Mexican supply of American-produced Mosin-Nagants (as well as Winchester Model of 1917 rifles) is documented in the manifest of the <i>Mar Cantabrico, <\/i>a Republican vessel bound from Veracruz but intercepted before reaching a friendly port by the Nationalist cruiser <i>Canaris <\/i>on March 8, 1937. Among the military cargo were 990 Remington-manufactured M91 Mosin-Nagants and 967 Winchester Model of 1917 \u201cEnfield\u201d rifles, accompanied by 376,000 rounds of Winchester-produced 7.62x54R, 2,249,000 rounds of mixed-manufacture 30.06 (1,378,200 in bandoliers), 36,000 rounds of Winchester .303 British, and 9,428,000 rounds of 7&#215;57 Mauser.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_54');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_54');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_54\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[54]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_54\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Xos\u00e9 Manuel Su\u00e1rez, \u201cLa Tragedia Del Mar Cant\u00e1brico y Otros Apresamientos Navales En La Guerra Civil\u201d (<i>Drassana<\/i> no. 18, 2010), 76.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_54').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_54', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Though this instance is not fully indicative of widespread Mexican supply of American-produced M91 Mosin-Nagants, the proximity of the Lincoln Battalion\u2019s apparent issue of Remington-manufactured examples and the <i>Mar Cantabrico\u2019s <\/i>capture at sea suggests that many Remington or New England Westinghouse rifles in Republican hands in early 1937 may likely have had a Mexican source.<\/p>\n<h3><b>Minor Sources: Paraguay, Estonia, Czechoslovakia, Belgium<\/b><\/h3>\n<h4><b>Paraguay<\/b><\/h4>\n<p>According to Gerald Howson, Republican purchasing agents sourced a number of surplus weapons from Paraguay. These weapons, largely in poor condition as a result of hard service in the 1932-1935 Gran Chaco War, were of both Paraguayan and captured Bolivian origin. Among the cargo of the <i>Ploubazlanec \u2014 <\/i>which had arrived at port in Tallinn, Estonia on September 25, 1937 in order to take on Paraguayan arms shipped from Buenos Aires by way of Poland\u2014 were 7,119 Mauser rifles chambered in 7.65&#215;53, the standard caliber of both belligerent nations of the Gran Chaco.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_55');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_55');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_55\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[55]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_55\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 276.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_55').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_55', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12083\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12083\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12083\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/26_A-captured-Paraguayan-1927-Mauser-1024x659.png\" alt=\"A Republican-used Paraguayan Mauser\" width=\"1024\" height=\"659\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/26_A-captured-Paraguayan-1927-Mauser-1024x659.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/26_A-captured-Paraguayan-1927-Mauser-300x193.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/26_A-captured-Paraguayan-1927-Mauser-768x494.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/26_A-captured-Paraguayan-1927-Mauser.png 1148w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12083\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Republican purchasing agents were able to acquire a number of arms used in the 1932-1935 Gran Chaco War from Paraguay, including a quantity of Oviedo-produced Paraguayan 1927 Mauser rifles curiously converted from their original 7.65 to 7.92&#215;57.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Initially purchasing export pattern Mauser 1898s from DWM in 1907, Paraguay contracted further numbers of an updated rifle pattern in 1927 from Oviedo in Spain following increased tensions with Bolivia.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_56');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_56');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_56\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[56]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_56\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Paul S. Scarlata, \u201cLa Guerra Del Chaco: The Bloodiest Latin American War of the 20th Century: Part I.\u201d <i>Shotgun News<\/i>, April 20, 2014.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_56').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_56', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> When fighting would commence in the Gran Chaco in 1932, these rifles evidently did not give a good account of themselves; compounding issues with poor-quality Belgian Caulille powder used in the production of 7.65&#215;53 ammunition would result in receiver failures, leading Paraguayan troops to nickname them \u201cmata paraguayos\u201d \u2014 \u201cParaguayan killers\u201d \u2014 and exchange them for the Czechoslovakian-produced Vz.24 rifles of their Bolivian adversaries whenever possible.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_57');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_57');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_57\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[57]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_57\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Bernardo Neri Farina, <i>Jose\u0301 Bozzano y La Guerra Del Material<\/i> (Asuncio\u0301n, Paraguay: El Lector, 2011).<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_57').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_57', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Examples of Paraguayan 1927 rifles appear in post-Spanish Civil War Nationalist inventories; no accounts of similar failures are documented in this context, though examples with Spanish provenance seem to have been curiously converted to 7.92&#215;57.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12084\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12084\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12084\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/27_A-captured-Bolivian-Vz.24-Mauser-1024x655.png\" alt=\"A captured Bolivian Vz.24\" width=\"1024\" height=\"655\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/27_A-captured-Bolivian-Vz.24-Mauser-1024x655.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/27_A-captured-Bolivian-Vz.24-Mauser-300x192.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/27_A-captured-Bolivian-Vz.24-Mauser-768x491.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/27_A-captured-Bolivian-Vz.24-Mauser.png 1145w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12084\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Favored by Paraguayan troops over their own 1927 Mausers in the Gran Chaco, the Spanish Republic purchased captured Czech-made Bolivian Vz.24s in 7.65&#215;53 from Paraguay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In 1926, Bolivia contracted for 36,000 Czechoslovakian-produced Vz.24 rifles and 6,000 carbines, a contract brokered through English firm Vickers-Armstrong as part of military modernization efforts.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_58');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_58');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_58\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[58]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_58\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Scarlata, \u201cLa Guerra Del Chaco: The Bloodiest Latin American War of the 20th Century: Part I.\u201d<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_58').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_58', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Further rifle contracts with Ceskoslovenska Zbrojovka Brno would number up to 101,000 from 1928 to 1938, with post-Chaco War purchases aimed to replace weapons lost in the conflict.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_59');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_59');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_59\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[59]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_59\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Ball, 59-60.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_59').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_59', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Other than displaying the Bolivian national crest on the receiver ring and the 7.65&#215;53 chambering, these rifles were identical to the Vz.24 rifles of the Czechoslovakian military; with an overall length of 43.3 inches and an unloaded weight of 9.2 pounds. In Spanish use, postwar documentation suggests that these rifles remained in their original chambering, unlike the Paraguayan 1927 Mausers.<\/p>\n<h4><b>Estonia<\/b><\/h4>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12086\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12086\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12086\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/28_A-Republican-unit-armed-with-P14-Enfield-rifles-1024x743.png\" alt=\"Republican soldiers with P14 Enfields\" width=\"1024\" height=\"743\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/28_A-Republican-unit-armed-with-P14-Enfield-rifles-1024x743.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/28_A-Republican-unit-armed-with-P14-Enfield-rifles-300x218.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/28_A-Republican-unit-armed-with-P14-Enfield-rifles-768x557.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/28_A-Republican-unit-armed-with-P14-Enfield-rifles.png 1075w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12086\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Though supplied in relatively small numbers, direct support from Estonia came in the form of .303 P14 Enfield rifles, pictured here in the hands of militiamen in 1937. Estonia also supplied unknown types of German Mauser rifles as well.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Though Howson cites a number of voyages from Tallinn under SEPEWE direction \u2014 notably, that of the\u00a0 <i>Ploubazlanec \u2014 <\/i>he does not discuss any direct Estonian support. However, Estonian researcher Toe N\u00f5mm cites limited numbers of small arms sales to the Spanish Republicans, numbering a total of 725 rifles; 475 of which were \u201cold German rifles\u201d used by the Prison Service, and the remaining 250 being .303 P14 Enfield rifles.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_60');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_60');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_60\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[60]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_60\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Toe N\u00f5mm, \u201cEesti S\u00f5jap\u00fcssid 1918\u20131940\u201d (<i>Laidoneri Muuseumi Aastaraamat<\/i>, 2005), 46.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_60').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_60', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> In addition to these, Estonia sold the Republicans 11.4 million scrap 7.62x54R cartridges originally purchased from Finland, as well as quantities of 8mm Lebel cartridges in the low millions.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_61');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_61');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_61\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[61]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_61\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\"> N\u00f5mm, 46.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_61').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_61', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Though scarcely a major contribution, N\u00f5mm does provide evidence that Estonia forwarded at least some material support to the Republic.<\/p>\n<h4><b>Czechoslovakia<\/b><\/h4>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12087\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12087\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12087\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/29_The-crest-of-a-captured-Czech-Vz.24-1024x757.png\" alt=\"The crest of a captured Czech Vz.24\" width=\"1024\" height=\"757\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/29_The-crest-of-a-captured-Czech-Vz.24-1024x757.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/29_The-crest-of-a-captured-Czech-Vz.24-300x222.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/29_The-crest-of-a-captured-Czech-Vz.24-768x568.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/29_The-crest-of-a-captured-Czech-Vz.24.png 1153w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12087\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Though somewhat blurred, this Nationalist image of a captured Czech Vz.24 rifle displays its \u201c\u010cESKOSLOVENSK\u00c1 ZBROJOVKA BRNO\u201d crest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the efforts to secure arms abroad, Republican ambassador Luis Jim\u00e9nez de As\u00faa was able to purchase quantities of weapons and ammunition in Prague in November of 1936; owing to delays and Soviet obstinance, this material would not be shipped until March and April of 1938.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_62');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_62');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_62\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[62]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_62\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 144.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_62').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_62', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Consequently, as shipping was arranged by Soviet agents, these weapons appear in Soviet \u201cOperation X\u201d manifests. Among them were 50,000 Vz.24 rifles in 7.92&#215;57 sold directly from Czechoslovakian military reserves.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_63');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_63');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_63\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[63]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_63\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 298.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_63').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_63', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script>\u00a0 Unlike many wz.29 rifles sold from Polish stocks, these rifles retain either their \u201clion rampant\u201d or identifying \u201c\u010cESKOSLOVENSK\u00c1 ZBROJOVKA BRNO\u201d crests, but seem to have had Czech military acceptance marks on the left wall of the receiver ring stippled over.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_64');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_64');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_64\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[64]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_64\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Ball, 116.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_64').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_64', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> These rifles were shipped alongside Czech-made machine guns and ammunition, totalling 474,200,00 rounds of new Czech manufacture and 30 million of older French 7.92&#215;57 ammunition.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_65');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_65');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_65\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[65]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_65\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 298-300.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_65').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_65', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p>\n<h4><b>Belgium<\/b><\/h4>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12088\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12088\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12088\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/30_A-captured-Belgian-1889-Mauser-1024x625.png\" alt=\"A captured Belgian 1889 Mauser\" width=\"1024\" height=\"625\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/30_A-captured-Belgian-1889-Mauser-1024x625.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/30_A-captured-Belgian-1889-Mauser-300x183.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/30_A-captured-Belgian-1889-Mauser-768x469.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/30_A-captured-Belgian-1889-Mauser.png 1148w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12088\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Republican efforts to secure a \u201cgrand lot\u201d of modern infantry small arms were spoiled by a royal decree restricting Belgian arms exports to the Spanish belligerents; nevertheless, a cargo of 6,000 Belgian Mausers were able to be transferred from a Belgian vessel to a Spanish one at sea.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Republican attempts to source arms in Belgium in 1936 were largely thwarted by a royal decree banning the export of arms to Spain\u2019s belligerent factions on August 19 of that year; effectively nullifying the purchase of a \u201cgrand lot\u201d of arms including 50,000 new Mauser rifles produced by Fabrique Nationale and 15 million cartridges, 30,000 old Mausers and eight million cartridges, and 16,000 Mannlicher rifles.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_66');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_66');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_66\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[66]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_66\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 86.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_66').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_66', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> However, at least one small arms shipment evaded internment by Belgian authorities in autumn 1936 after which 6,000 Mauser rifles, 100 machine-guns, and 500,000 cartridges were transferred from the Belgian coaster <i>Alice <\/i>to the Basque vessel <i>Iciar <\/i>en route to Bilbao.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_67');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_67');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_67\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[67]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_67\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 87.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_67').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_67', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> This shipment ostensibly was able to pass due to the <i>Alice\u2019s <\/i>\u201ccover\u201d destination of England, with the cargo allegedly being returned as \u201cunsaleable\u201d to British arms dealers. This enterprise would have remained undetected if not for the vessel\u2019s collision with the <i>Royal Scot <\/i>at the neck of the Thames estuary and the subsequent discovery of the transfer of arms to the Spanish vessel.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_68');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_68');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_68\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[68]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_68\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Howson, 87.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_68').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_68', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Despite the lack of detailed descriptions of this cargo, postwar Nationalist inventories note captured examples of the Belgian 1889 Mauser, the first adopted smokeless Mauser military rifle, additionally the first to be chambered in 7.65&#215;53.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_69');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_69');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_69\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[69]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_69\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Ball, 22-9.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_69').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_69', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p>\n<h3><b>Capture, Display, and Refurbishment<br \/>\n<\/b><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12090\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12090\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12090\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/31_Captured-arms-1024x757.png\" alt=\"Captured arms\" width=\"1024\" height=\"757\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/31_Captured-arms-1024x757.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/31_Captured-arms-300x222.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/31_Captured-arms-768x567.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/31_Captured-arms.png 1149w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12090\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Following Republican defeats, Nationalist inventory and issue of captured weapons fell under the authority of the <em>Servicio de Recuperaci\u00f3n de Material de Guerra.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Following Republican defeats through 1937 and 1938, collection and refurbished of captured war material by Nationalist forces resulted in large numbers of these arms being reissued, resulting in the production of a series of documents for the issue and use of weapons of foreign origin formerly in use by the <i>Ej\u00e9rcito Popular <\/i>or regional\/political militia units. The first of these, produced in 1938 by the Jefatura De Movilizaci\u00f3n Instrucci\u00f3n y Recuperaci\u00f3n and titled <i>Armas Autom\u00e1ticas y Fusiles De Repetici\u00f3n, <\/i>detailed the operation of a number of captured automatic weapons and infantry rifles. Among the latter are the Mannlicher M.95 family; the Mosin-Nagant (in both M91 and M91\/30 form); Polish wz.29 and K.98 Mausers, alongside Imperial German Kar. 98a carbines; the Japanese Type 35 rifle; the Czechoslovakian Vz.24, and the French Berthier Mle.07\/15-M16 variant \u2014 which the text refers to as the \u201cSaint Etienne\u201d rifle.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_70');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_70');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_70\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[70]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_70\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\"><i>Armas Autom\u00e1ticas y Fusiles de Repetici\u00f3n<\/i> (Burgos: Jefatura De Movilizaci\u00f3n Instrucci\u00f3n Y Recuperaci\u00f3n, 1938), 85-107.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_70').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_70', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> This text, more accessible than surviving examples of the significantly-more-rare Republican instructional documentation, appears to have been among the first efforts to catalog captured foreign weapons, an undertaking that would take on a greater propaganda importance in the autumn of the same year.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12091\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12091\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12091\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/32_Displayed-arms-at-the-San-Sebastian-exposition-1024x736.png\" alt=\"The 1938 San Sebastian exposition\" width=\"1024\" height=\"736\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/32_Displayed-arms-at-the-San-Sebastian-exposition-1024x736.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/32_Displayed-arms-at-the-San-Sebastian-exposition-300x216.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/32_Displayed-arms-at-the-San-Sebastian-exposition-768x552.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/32_Displayed-arms-at-the-San-Sebastian-exposition.png 1169w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12091\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An image from the 1938 San Sebasti\u00e1n exposition, featuring a gallery of French Berthier rifles and carbines flanked by First World War-vintage German 7.58 cm <em>minenwerfers.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On August 29, 1938, the Nationalist Servicio de Recuperaci\u00f3n de Material de Guerra would organize a \u201ccaptured enemy material exposition\u201d in the town of San Sebasti\u00e1n, displaying a series of captured artillery pieces, armored vehicles, aircraft, munitions, and infantry small arms in that city\u2019s Gran Kursaal exhibition venue. Framed as an expos\u00e9 of international conspiracy against the people of Spain, Nationalist commentary on the selection of foreign-supplied armaments was detailed in a series of published photographic programs; modern reproductions and synthesis of these materials reprint images from the exhibition as well as notes on the operation and quality of\u00a0 foreign arms.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12092\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12092\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12092\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/33_Displayed-Polish-and-French-arms-at-the-San-Sebastian-exposition-1024x691.png\" alt=\"Displayed arms at San Sebastian\" width=\"1024\" height=\"691\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/33_Displayed-Polish-and-French-arms-at-the-San-Sebastian-exposition-1024x691.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/33_Displayed-Polish-and-French-arms-at-the-San-Sebastian-exposition-300x203.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/33_Displayed-Polish-and-French-arms-at-the-San-Sebastian-exposition-768x518.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/33_Displayed-Polish-and-French-arms-at-the-San-Sebastian-exposition.png 1262w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12092\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Polish wz.98a, K.98, and wz.29 Mausers on display at the San Sebasti\u00e1n exposition, separated by a captured artillery piece from a display of French Berthier, Lebel, and Gras rifles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Commentary on rifles of German, Belgian, and some of Polish origin noted the age of many of them; but the modernity and ease of operation of captured wz.29 and Czech Vz.24 rifles was praised.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_71');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_71');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_71\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[71]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_71\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Jose\u0301 Mari\u0301a Manrique Garci\u0301a, and Lucas Molina Franco. <i>Arms of the Spanish Republic: A Nationalist Overview, 1938<\/i> (AFV Collection, no. 3. Valladolid, Spain: AF Ediciones, 2007), 69.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_71').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_71', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> All examined Russian rifles, of either M91 \u201cThree-Line\u201d or modern M91\/30 construction were qualified as \u201cgood and reliable, and although looking obsolete&#8230;gave a good account of themselves in the conflict.\u201d<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_72');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_72');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_72\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[72]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_72\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Manrique Garci\u0301a and Franco, 69.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_72').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_72', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> As expected, Mexican Mauser rifles were noted for their similarity to Spanish models; and interestingly, commentary on captured Japanese rifles noted that some of them had undergone conversion to 7.92&#215;57.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_73');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_73');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_73\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[73]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_73\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Manrique Garci\u0301a and Franco, 69.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_73').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_73', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Evidently, Austro-Hungarian Mannlicher rifles \u201calways gave trouble with the ammunition,\u201d and featured \u201cexcessive erosion of the barrels,\u201d giving an overall impression of unreliability.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_74');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_74');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_74\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[74]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_74\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Manrique Garci\u0301a and Franco, 69.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_74').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_74', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> American and English weapons were seemingly reliable weapons, some of the former are noted as having \u201ccome via Mexico,\u201d potentially in reference to American-contracted M91 Mosin-Nagant rifles; and French weapons, largely inherited from ex-Imperial Russian stocks, were \u201cobsolete and little effective.&#8221;<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_75');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_75');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_75\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[75]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_75\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Manrique Garci\u0301a and Franco, 69.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_75').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_75', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12093\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12093\" style=\"width: 963px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12093\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/34_Stored-captured-arms.png\" alt=\"Stored arms\" width=\"963\" height=\"701\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/34_Stored-captured-arms.png 963w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/34_Stored-captured-arms-300x218.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/34_Stored-captured-arms-768x559.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 963px) 100vw, 963px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12093\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inventory, refurbishment, and storage efforts of nonstandard, captured foreign small arms would occur after Nationalist victory in 1939.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Following the Republic\u2019s defeat in 1939, Nationalist efforts to fully survey captured small arms with the aim of determining origin and operation of these weapons resulted in a survey of inventoried examples titled <i>Prontuario De Armamento, <\/i>compiled by artillery captain Mariano Villoslada Mi\u00f1on. This text, numbering 351 pages, is a complete index of Republican infantry arms, surveying both domestic and foreign-produced weapons, including photographs and functional descriptions, many of which appear throughout this article.<\/p>\n<p>As nonstandard weapons, foreign rifles used by the defeated Republicans would be inventoried by the Servicio de Recuperaci\u00f3n de Material de Guerra and placed into military reserves; evidence suggesting that some more-modern rifles would undergo refurbishment and repair programs. These weapons would remain in postwar stockpiles until sale on the American sporting market through Sam Cumming\u2019s Interarmco in the late 1950s.<\/p>\n<h3><b>\u201cShootin\u2019 Goodies from General Franco:\u201d Importation and Commercial Sale of Spanish Civil War Surplus<\/b><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12095\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12095\" style=\"width: 544px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12095 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/35_-March-1957-ad.png\" alt=\"Guns Magazine ad copy, March 1957\" width=\"544\" height=\"592\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/35_-March-1957-ad.png 544w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/35_-March-1957-ad-276x300.png 276w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 544px) 100vw, 544px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12095\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Following Sam Cummings\u2019 acquisition and sale of Spanish Civil War surplus arms in the mid-1950s, large numbers of these rifles appeared on the American sporting market. This ad, dating from the March 1957 issue of Guns magazine, advertises Russian-contract Winchester 1895s while acknowledging their Spanish Civil War use.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the years following World War Two, the development of a surplus arms market arose from the worldwide obsolescence of older military small arms. In the United States, chief among the surplus trade was Sam Cummings, operator and founder of Interarmco in Alexandria, Virginia. Cummings\u2019 efforts to purchase stocks of surplus military weapons across the globe to offer on the American commercial market through mail-order retail outlets would see him broker deals with a variety of governments, among them the Franco regime.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_76');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_76');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_76\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[76]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_76\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Patrick Brogan and Albert Zarca, <i>Deadly Business: Sam Cummings, Interarms, and the Arms Trade<\/i> (New York: Norton, 1983), 126-27.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_76').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_76', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Weapons with possible Spanish origins would begin appearing in ad copy for Interarmco\u2019s \u201cYe Olde Hunter\u201d outlet in 1956; arms with definite Spanish Civil War histories would be advertised in 1957.<\/p>\n<p>A canvas of contemporary ad copy in Guns magazine reveals a number of Spanish Civil War rifles sold through Ye Olde Hunter and the rival Golden State Arms Corporation, the first major offerings occurring in the spring of 1957 with \u201cconfiscated \u2018MN\u2019 Russian\u201d M91\/30s and \u201cFrench Foreign Legion\u201d Berthier Mle. 07\/15-M16 rifles.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_77');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_77');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_77\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[77]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_77\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Golden State Arms. Corp, Advertisement<i>. Guns Magazine , <\/i>May 1957, 2.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_77').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_77', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> More rifles would be offered through Interarms mail-order outlets and affiliated vendors throughout the late 1950s, with (at various times) Russian-contract Winchester 1895s (curiously identified in period advertisements as having come from Spain); M91 and M91\/30 Mosin-Nagants; M.88, M.88\/90, and M.95 Mannlichers; Polish K.98 and wz.29 Mausers; Vetterli-Vitali M1870\/87 and 6.5&#215;52 M1870\/87\/15 rifles; French Gras and Berthier rifles, and domestic Spanish 1893 and 1916 Mausers.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-11675 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-large'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/15\/foreign-rifles-of-the-spanish-republic-1936-1939\/36_-august-1960_1\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"673\" height=\"892\" src=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/36_-August-1960_1.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"Guns Magazine August 1960 ad copy, 1\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-12096\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/36_-August-1960_1.png 673w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/36_-August-1960_1-226x300.png 226w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 673px) 100vw, 673px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-12096'>\n\t\t\t\tOne side of a two-page spread in the August 1960 issue of Guns magazine, this ad features Vz.24s, Russian-contract Winchester 1895s, and \u201cEl Tigre\u201d carbines \u2014 all rifles with certain or likely Spanish origins.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/15\/foreign-rifles-of-the-spanish-republic-1936-1939\/37_august-1960_2\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"672\" height=\"893\" src=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/37_August-1960_2.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"Guns Magazine October 1960 ad copy, 2\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-12097\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/37_August-1960_2.png 672w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/37_August-1960_2-226x300.png 226w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 672px) 100vw, 672px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-12097'>\n\t\t\t\tThe second page of the spread features M91 Mosin-Nagants, Mle.07\/15-M16 Berthiers, and 6.5&#215;52 M1870\/87\/15 Veterlli-Vitalis.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>In most cases, Cummings\u2019 typically flippant ad copy does not refer to the sources of the weapons, but that of partnered retailers occasionally does; notable instances early in the first stage of imports include the above Martin B. Retting, Inc. advertisement from the March 1957 issue of Guns magazine, and a Ma Hunter ad from the June 1957 issue of the same magazine running with the tagline \u201cLook what I got from General Franco, shootin\u2019 goodies!\u201d<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_78');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_78');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_78\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[78]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_78\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Ma Hunter, Advertisement, <i>Guns Magazine, <\/i>June 1957, 56.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_78').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_78', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Though most Spanish weapons seem to have been offered through Interarmco\u2019s \u201cYe Olde Hunter\u201d mail order operations,\u00a0 they seem to have offered items of lesser quality or quantity\u00a0 through their Potomac Arms Corporation outlet in August of 1960, with 7.62x54R Winchester 1895, Spanish \u201cEl Tigre\u201d Winchester 1892-copy, and Czech Vz.24, barreled actions for sale, as well as a limited number of Japanese Type 30 rifles.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_79');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_79');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_79\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[79]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_79\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Potomac Arms Corp., Advertisement. <i>Guns Magazine, <\/i>October 1960, 41.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_79').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_79', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> These offers appear alongside other weapons of Spanish origin in Ye Olde Hunter copy earlier in the same issue, pictured above.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12098\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12098\" style=\"width: 535px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12098\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/39_August-1960_3.png\" alt=\"Guns Magazine August 1960 Potmac ad copy\" width=\"535\" height=\"579\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/39_August-1960_3.png 535w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/39_August-1960_3-277x300.png 277w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 535px) 100vw, 535px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12098\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The same issue features Japanese Type 30 rifles from Interarmco\u2019s Potomac Arms outlet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Brogan and Zarca state that Cummings made two purchases of the obsolete arms stockpiles in Spain; their assertion that these purchases took place first in 1959-1960, and again in 1965-1966 seems to defy the offerings of weapons with an undeniably Spanish origin throughout the late 1950s. Examining Ye Olde Hunter and Potomac Arms advertisements from the 1965-1966 era shows few rifles dating to the period of the Spanish Civil War; circumstantial evidence suggests that it is more likely that the first sale occurred in 1955-1956, and the second in the 1959-1960 timeframe.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_80');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_80');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_80\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[80]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_80\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Brogan and Zarca, 126.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_80').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_80', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script> Regardless, they cite both sales as totalling over one million weapons and nearly 250 million rounds of ammunition of various calibers.<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_81');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_11675_1('footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_81');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_81\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[81]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_81\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Brogan and Zarca, 106.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_81').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_11675_1_81', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p>\n<h3><b>Identifying Features of Spanish Civil War Small Arms<\/b><\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_12101\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12101\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-12101\" src=\"http:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/40_MP8-bomb-1024x576.png\" alt=\"MP8 marking\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/40_MP8-bomb-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/40_MP8-bomb-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/40_MP8-bomb-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/surplused.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/40_MP8-bomb.png 1116w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12101\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Though the exact meaning of this marking is unknown, it is a definite feature of Spanish Civil War-issued small arms, though certainly applied postwar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As the Republic sourced its weapons from across the globe in varying states of serviceability from prior use, many of these small arms bear more easily-identifiable signs of their countries of initial origin. However, a number of features and markings have been recorded that appear unique to weapons that saw service in the Spanish Civil War. Not all of these features are specific to weapons in the service of the Republic; rather, many of them appear to have been applied postwar in Nationalist storage or rebuild programs. One such example is the above cartouche, a uniquely-Spanish mark that seems to have been applied to rifles present in postwar inventory \u2014 nonspecific to Republican or Nationalist origin, the exact meaning of this mark is as of yet unknown, though some researchers have suggested that it denotes storage and refurbishment at \u201cMaestranza y Parque de Artiller\u00eda,\u201d facility number eight.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, weapons imported from Spain by Interarmco bear a series of import marks determining country of origin in the form of capital, serif letters. For example, Spanish Civil War Mosin-Nagant rifles may either bear a \u201cMADE IN USSR\u201d or an erroneous \u201cMADE IN URRS\u201d stamp in this style; many French weapons sold to the Republicans from both Polish and ex-Imperial Russian stocks will bear a \u201cMADE IN FRANCE\u201d mark; Italian rifles (those used by both Republican and Nationalist forces) will read \u201cMADE IN ITALY,\u201d and ex-Austro-Hungarian Mannlicher rifles will be stamped \u201cMADE IN AUSTRIA.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Curiously, Polish Mauser rifles do not feature this type of marking; generally having a scrubbed receiver ring and featuring a large \u201cA\u201d enclosed in a circle on the left side of the stock. In collector\u2019s circles, this marking is often described as signifying Anarchist issue, but this is completely without evidence. Additionally, Polish Mausers may feature a small \u201c8mm\u201d caliber stamp applied on the barrel upon import by Interarmco. Czech Vz.24 rifles also feature this importer-applied caliber mark, as well as having stippled-over Czechoslovakian acceptance marks as discussed in prior sections.<\/p>\n<p>Unique to Spanish-used Mosin-Nagant rifles is the addition of a pair of wire-loop sling swivels in the sling-slot escutcheons; these differ from Finnish sling swivels, which are attached with screws. Spanish-used Mosin-Nagants may also feature rough domestic replacement stocks that generally do not feature metal handguard reinforcements. As a large portion of 1936 and 1937-dated M91\/30 rifles were diverted to Spain as part of \u201cOperation X\u201d sales, these dates will be commonly encountered; though earlier dates may also appear. To date, no M91\/30 rifles dated after 1937 have proven to be definitively issued to the Republic.<\/p>\n<h3><b>Acknowledgments<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>Special thanks to Dave Carlson for directing me to valuable primary source documents, to Othais McCarthy for the use of the Spanish \u201cMP8\u201d cartouche image, and to Fred Honeycutt and Francis Allan for information regarding Spanish Civil War use of Japanese rifles.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of the groundwork for this article was laid by <a href=\"https:\/\/scwmosin.weebly.com\/\">Gunboards member Ithilsdorf and his information webpage on Spanish Civil War Mosin-Nagant research.<\/a> Much of his research and survey data helped to establish provenance for other types of rifles used in the conflict.<\/p>\n<p>All images were used as per the terms and conditions of their copyright holders, either attributed within the image, or shared via Creative Commons license. Photographs attributed to Constantino Suarez are sourced via a collection of his images, <i>Constantino Sua\u0301rez, foto\u0301grafo: 1920-1937, <\/i>available online courtesy of the Museum of the Asturian People.<\/p>\n<div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_11675_1();\">References<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_11675_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_11675_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_11675_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">References<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Ludwig\u00a0 Olson, <i>Mauser Bolt Rifles <\/i>(Montezuma, IA: Brownell &amp; Son, 2002), 65-7.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_2');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_2\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>2<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Olson, 73.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_3');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_3\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>3<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Robert Ball, <i>Mauser Military Rifles of the World<\/i> (Iola, WI: F + W Media, 2011), 353.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_4');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_4\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>4<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Burnett Bolloten, <i>The Spanish Civil War: Revolution and Counterrevolution<\/i> (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1991),\u00a0 330.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_5');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_5\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>5<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Bolloten, 145\u201358.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_6');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_6\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>6<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Stanley Payne, <i>The Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union, and Communism <\/i>(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011), 141\u201344.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_7');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_7\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>7<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">John Sheehan, \u201cArming Ivan, Part II: The Bear Begs, Borrows, and Buys Guns to Stay in the Fight,\u201d Guns Magazine, April 2005<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_8');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_8\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>8<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"> Payne, 156\u201357.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_9');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_9\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>9<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Gerald Howson, <i>Arms for Spain<\/i> (New York: St. Martin\u2019s Press, 1999), 136-39, 278-85.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi\" ><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_10\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_10');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>10,<\/a> <a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_22\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_22');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>22<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Howson, 138.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi\" ><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_11\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_11');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>11,<\/a> <a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_13\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_13');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>13,<\/a> <a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_15\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_15');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>15,<\/a> <a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_20\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_20');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>20,<\/a> <a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_21\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_21');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>21<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Sheehan, \u201cArming Ivan, Part II: The Bear Begs, Borrows, and Buys Guns to Stay in the Fight.\u201d<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi\" ><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_12\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_12');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>12,<\/a> <a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_14\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_14');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>14,<\/a> <a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_16\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_16');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>16<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Howson, 139.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_17');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_17\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>17<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Luke Mercaldo, Adam Firestone, and Anthony Vanderlinden, <i>Allied Rifle Contracts in America <\/i>(Greensboro, NC: Wet Dog Publications, 2011), 65\u201388, 11-64.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_18');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_18\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>18<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Mercaldo, Firestone, and Vanderlinden, <i>Allied Rifle Contracts in America<\/i>, 81.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_19');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_19\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>19<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">George Orwell, <i>Homage to Catalonia<\/i> (Boston, MA: Mariner Books\/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015), 35.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_23');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_23\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>23<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Howson, 285.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_24');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_24\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>24<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Luke Mercaldo, Adam Firestone, and Anthony Vanderlinden, <i>Allied Rifle Contracts in America<\/i> (Greensboro, NC: Wet Dog Publications, 2011), 54.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_25');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_25\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>25<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Mercaldo, Firestone, and Vanderlinden, 25-40.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_26');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_26\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>26<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Howson, 285-95.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_27');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_27\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>27<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Howson, 293-94.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_28');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_28\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>28<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Aleksandr Sergeyevich Yushchenko, <i>Vintovka obraztsa 1891\/1930 g. i yeye raznovidnosti<\/i>.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_29');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_29\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>29<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Howson, 296-300.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi\" ><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_30\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_30');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>30,<\/a> <a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_32\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_32');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>32<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Yushchenko, <i>Vintovka obraztsa 1891\/1930 g. i yeye raznovidnosti<\/i>.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi\" ><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_31\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_31');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>31,<\/a> <a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_63\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_63');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>63<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Howson, 298.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_33');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_33\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>33<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Piotr Koz\u0142owski, \u201cUzbrojenie I Wyposa\u017cenie Ma\u0142opolskiego Inspektoratu Okr\u0119gowego Sg W Przemy\u015blu,\u201d<i>Biuletyn Centralnego O\u015brodka Szkolenia <\/i>no. 29 (2004), 53\u20135.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_34');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_34\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>34<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Tomasz Juszkiewicz, \u201cUzbrojenie W Karabiny I Karabinki Powtarzalne, Korpusu Ochrony Pogranicza W Latach 1924-39.\u201d <i>Biuletyn Centralnego O\u015brodka Szkolenia<\/i> 1\/98 (1998), 55-69.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_35');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_35\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>35<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Koz\u0142owski, 54.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_36');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_36\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>36<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Marek Piotr Deszczy\u0144ski, \u201cEksport Polskiego Sprz\u0119tu Wojskowego Do Hiszpanii Podczas Wojny Domowej 1936-1939.\u201d <i>Kwartalnik Historyczny<\/i> 104, no. 1 (1997), 49.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi\" ><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_37\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_37');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>37,<\/a> <a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_40\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_40');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>40<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Howson, 259-77.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_38');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_38\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>38<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Marek Piotr Deszczy\u0144ski, \u201cPolski eksport sprz\u0119tu wojskowego w okresie mi\u0119dzywojennym (Zarys problematyki).\u201d <i>Przegl\u0105d Historyczny<\/i>, no. 85\/1-2 (1994),\u00a0 106-10.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_39');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_39\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>39<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Deszczy\u0144ski, 106-10.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_41');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_41\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>41<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Olson, 187.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_42');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_42\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>42<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Juszkiewicz, 66-8.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_43');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_43\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>43<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Paul S. Scarlata, <i>Mannlicher Military Rifles<\/i> (Lincoln, RI: Andrew Mowbray Publishers, 2004), 51-64.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_44');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_44\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>44<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Scarlata, 74-86.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_45');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_45\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>45<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Deszczy\u0144ski, \u201cPolski eksport sprz\u0119tu wojskowego w okresie mi\u0119dzywojennym (Zarys problematyki),\u201d 105\u20137.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_46');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_46\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>46<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Olson, 40-2.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_47');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_47\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>47<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Howson. 103.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_48');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_48\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>48<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Mario Ojeda Revah, <i>Mexico and the Spanish Civil War <\/i>(Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2015),\u00a0 114.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_49');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_49\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>49<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Revah, 110.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_50');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_50\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>50<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Orwell, 35-6.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_51');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_51\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>51<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">James B. Hughes, <i>Mexican Military Arms: The Cartridge Period, 1866-1967<\/i> (Houston, TX: Deep River Armory, 1968), 120.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_52');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_52\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>52<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Howson, 103.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_53');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_53\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>53<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Cecil D.Eby, <i>Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War<\/i> (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007), 47.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_54');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_54\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>54<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Xos\u00e9 Manuel Su\u00e1rez, \u201cLa Tragedia Del Mar Cant\u00e1brico y Otros Apresamientos Navales En La Guerra Civil\u201d (<i>Drassana<\/i> no. 18, 2010), 76.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_55');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_55\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>55<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Howson, 276.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_56');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_56\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>56<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Paul S. Scarlata, \u201cLa Guerra Del Chaco: The Bloodiest Latin American War of the 20th Century: Part I.\u201d <i>Shotgun News<\/i>, April 20, 2014.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_57');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_57\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>57<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Bernardo Neri Farina, <i>Jose\u0301 Bozzano y La Guerra Del Material<\/i> (Asuncio\u0301n, Paraguay: El Lector, 2011).<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_58');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_58\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>58<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Scarlata, \u201cLa Guerra Del Chaco: The Bloodiest Latin American War of the 20th Century: Part I.\u201d<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_59');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_59\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>59<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Ball, 59-60.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_60');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_60\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>60<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Toe N\u00f5mm, \u201cEesti S\u00f5jap\u00fcssid 1918\u20131940\u201d (<i>Laidoneri Muuseumi Aastaraamat<\/i>, 2005), 46.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_61');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_61\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>61<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"> N\u00f5mm, 46.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_62');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_62\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>62<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Howson, 144.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_64');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_64\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>64<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Ball, 116.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_65');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_65\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>65<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Howson, 298-300.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_66');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_66\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>66<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Howson, 86.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi\" ><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_67\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_67');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>67,<\/a> <a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_68\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_68');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>68<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Howson, 87.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_69');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_69\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>69<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Ball, 22-9.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_70');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_70\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>70<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"><i>Armas Autom\u00e1ticas y Fusiles de Repetici\u00f3n<\/i> (Burgos: Jefatura De Movilizaci\u00f3n Instrucci\u00f3n Y Recuperaci\u00f3n, 1938), 85-107.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_71');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_71\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>71<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Jose\u0301 Mari\u0301a Manrique Garci\u0301a, and Lucas Molina Franco. <i>Arms of the Spanish Republic: A Nationalist Overview, 1938<\/i> (AFV Collection, no. 3. Valladolid, Spain: AF Ediciones, 2007), 69.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi\" ><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_72\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_72');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>72,<\/a> <a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_73\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_73');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>73,<\/a> <a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_74\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_74');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>74,<\/a> <a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_75\" class=\"footnote_backlink\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_75');\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>75<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Manrique Garci\u0301a and Franco, 69.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_76');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_76\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>76<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Patrick Brogan and Albert Zarca, <i>Deadly Business: Sam Cummings, Interarms, and the Arms Trade<\/i> (New York: Norton, 1983), 126-27.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_77');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_77\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>77<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Golden State Arms. Corp, Advertisement<i>. Guns Magazine , <\/i>May 1957, 2.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_78');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_78\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>78<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Ma Hunter, Advertisement, <i>Guns Magazine, <\/i>June 1957, 56.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_79');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_79\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>79<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Potomac Arms Corp., Advertisement. <i>Guns Magazine, <\/i>October 1960, 41.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_80');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_80\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>80<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Brogan and Zarca, 126.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_11675_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_11675_1_81');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_11675_1_81\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>81<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Brogan and Zarca, 106.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_11675_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_11675_1').show(); 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jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction In the scramble to acquire small arms in the midst of a chaotic civil war and with the backdrop of a largely noninterventionist international political sphere, the Spanish Republic\u2019s difficulty of securing modern or at least relatively-modern weapons was such that only a few, disparate international sources were able to be reliably brokered \u2014&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/15\/foreign-rifles-of-the-spanish-republic-1936-1939\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Foreign Rifles of the Spanish Republic, 1936-1939<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":12046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89,60,63,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content","category-text","category-user","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11675"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16509,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11675\/revisions\/16509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surplused.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}