Mauser Patrone Serial Numbers4/23/2021
Because these rifles were only marked with serial numbers, they were known as bez oznake puka, or BOP (Serbian for without crest).The soldier on the right is carrying a Yugo M48A Mauser rifle.But the Serbs could not stand against the might of the Ottoman Empire, and at the 1389 Battle of Kosovo the Serbian army was destroyed, resulting in almost 500 years of Turkish domination in the region.
In 1914, Bosnian-Serb nationalists, who were financed and armed by Serbia, assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. While Serbia ws occupied by the Central Powers, the Serbian army was evacuated by the Allies, reequipped and continued to see service on the Thesalonikii front in northern Greece until 1918, After the defeat of the Central Powers, Serbia formed the core of the new Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, or Yugoslavia. The new kingdom had a mixed population of Serbs, Albanians, Macedonians, Croats, Slovenes, Bosnians and Montenegrins who coexisted in a tense atmosphere acerbated by centuries of tribal and religious distrust. In 1880, they adopted the Puka 7880, a variation of Mausers Infanteriegewehr M.71 rifle. Mauser Patrone S Series Of RiflesThis was followed by a series of rifles based on Mausers M95 and M98 actions and chambered for the 7x57mm cartridge: the Puka 1899, the Puka 9907 and the Puka 1910. Supplemented with French, Russian and captured Austrian weapons, these were the rifles the Serbs fought with in the Great War. In an attempt at standardization, Yugoslavia decided to adopt the 7.9x57mm cartridge, and the most suitable rifles were re-barreled for this round. Beginning in the early 1920s, the Yugoslav army sought new Mauser rifles, but Allied restrictions prevented their traditional suppliers in Germany from providing them. However, Fabrique Nationale (FN) of Herstal, Belgium, and Ceskoslovenska Zbrojovka (CZ) of Brno, Czechoslovakia, were both producing 98-type Mausers and were only too happy to sign contracts with Belgrade. Between 1924 and 1927, the Yugoslavs contracted 100,000 Fusil Ml3 1924 rifles from FN. It was decided that rifle production would being locally, and the necessary machinery was ordered from FN and then installed at he state arsenal at Kraguyevac by 1927. In the meantime, an order for 40,000 vz. Mausers was placed with CZ. The rifle produced at Kraguyevac, the Peadisjka Puka M.1924 (Infantry Rifle Model of 1924), was a copy of the FN Fusil Mle 1924. Both groups apparently spent as much time and energy fighting each other as they did the German and Italian occupiers, who were aided by various ethnic and religious groups seeking revenge for past wrongs (real and imagined). The Partisans gained the support of the Allies and performed a vital service by tying down many divisions of German troops that were sorely needed on other fronts. With the end of the conflict, the Communists, under Marshall Tito, were recognized as the leaders of liberated Yugoslavia. Unlike most of the new communist states of Eastern Europe, the Yugoslavs displayed an independent streak and refused to adopt Soviet-pattern small arms. Instead it was decided to restart production of 98-type Mausers at Kraguyevac. The rear sight and the bayonet were the same as those on the Puka M.1924. The Puka M48A was introduced in 1952 and designed to reduce costs by replacing some forged steel parts, such as the buttplate and magazine floorplate, with parts made from stamped steel. The Yugoslavs also produced the Puka M.48B, which made even wider use of stamped parts. The easiest way to tell them apart is to look for the M.48Bs stamped steel triggerguard. Besides being used by the Yugoslav army and reserves, numbers were sold to Burma, Syria, Egypt, Algeria, Iraq, Indonesia and Chad.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |