Quote:
Originally Posted by Ducimus
That is one beautiful rifle you have there. Looks like it's in excellent shape. I wonder if "never fired and only dropped once" applies here.
|
I was told it was taken on Okinawa from Japanese reinforcement landings but it's a third hand story. These guns can't be specifically dated but the experts that looked at it said likely late 1943 or early 1944. I have two bayonets for it but they are not well matched.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ducimus
That is my understanding as well. The way i heard it, towards the end of the war the Japanese removed all the Emperor's marks on all weapons before turning them in. Which I think means that, as a war trophy, this particular rifle may have been retrieved from the field.
|
The mums were ground off, or otherwise defaced on most surrender weapons, by the Japanese to mark them as no longer the Emperor's property and save face.
I had the luger evaluated by Krausewerks. They claimed the totenkopf doubled the guns value over it's conditional value. It's likely a rework mark from the 1930's and not a WW1 unit marking, or WW2 SS marking.
http://krausewerk.com/
__________________
"However vast the darkness, we must provide our own light."
Stanley Kubrick
"Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming."
David Bowie