5000 STG-44 rifles discovered in a cache in Syrian desert

[jbett98]

I would just like to know how all the rifles got stashed in the middle of nowhere so long ago.

 

[The Heretic]

The Nazis were big on that kind of thing.

Stashes of gold and art and other things.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of secret plan they had to come back, dig them up and start another war.

Towards the end, they were burying all kinds of stuff, and to this day they are still finding it in various places.

 

[Brutus57]

It wasn't perfect, and it wasn't anywhere near as popular as the AK, but it was manufactured in the thousands and used in several conflicts decades before the STG-44.

That is my point - not that it was as good as the STG-44 or AK, but rather that it was around and used long before anybody thought about designing the STG or AK.

I.E., there was little that was innovative or unique about any of the Assault Rifles that followed it - they were just improvements on the original idea.

Bear with me as I am retyping this from an actual book: Infantry Weapons by John Weeks

In the chapter entitled Assault Rifles-The true history of the emergence of the assault rifle is purely German, but there is one oddity which, had it survived, would probably have been accepted as the first one of the breed. In 1916 the well known Russian designer, Federov , produced and automatic rifle which he called the Automat....

Brutus Out

 

[The Heretic]

The point is that there is a lot of history that people ignore, especially pundits of any given area of expertise - and a lot that they simply repeat.

If you read just about any article about Assault Rifles, you will hear about the AK, and possibly about the STG-44, as if these were new innovations that no one had ever thought about before.

 

[skikir]

The Nazis were big on that kind of thing.

Stashes of gold and art and other things.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of secret plan they had to come back, dig them up and start another war.

Towards the end, they were burying all kinds of stuff, and to this day they are still finding it in various places.

Or.... They were sold as surplus on the international arms market and just wound up in Syria and had not been distributed yet. In the video it looks like they were in a semi trailer. What would the Nazis being doing stashing 5000 rifles in Syria at that time of the war. One would think if the E. Germans and Yugoslavians kept them in service after the war then there should have been stocks of ammunition on the surplus market too. Probably they were sent to the middle east for use in Arab/Israeli conflicts. I'm trying to remember but I think the Israelis were using German Messersmitts (can't spell) and K98 Mausers and the Egyptians were using Spitfires so why not surplus STG-44s?

 

[David Bowman]

http://www.wearethemighty.com/uncat...a-fought-with-rare-expensive-nazi-made-rifles

They are not sure what happened to them after they discovered them.

I know what would have happened to them if I had discovered them. I would have found a way for Nazi rifles to kill ISIS terrorists.

And then a couple of them would have been sent home in a covert way to reside in my safe.

 

[kilimanjaro]

The rifles were Russian captures shipped to their client state of Syria in the 1950s. If I recall, at least 8,000 were shipped, and the figure may be much higher.

 

[jbett98]

The rifles were Russian captures shipped to their client state of Syria in the 1950s. If I recall, at least 8,000 were shipped, and the figure may be much higher.

That right there tells you how much the Russians really like the Syrians.
"No Ak-47's for you"

 

[JeremyK]

I know what would have happened to them if I had discovered them. I would have found a way for Nazi rifles to kill ISIS terrorists.

And then a couple of them would have been sent home in a covert way to reside in my safe.

Just a couple??

 

[Sgt Nambu]

They probably made jewelry out of the damned things... desert gangsta-ghetto.

OK!!! If they can shrink them down to 1" OAL, I'll take one on a neck chain!
Really, finding them and losing them again is a tragedy! I could never afford one, but still.

 

[The Heretic]

A Syrian rebel with an StG 44 mounted to a remote control gun setup in September 2013.

A Syrian rebel with an StG 44 mounted to a remote control gun setup in September 2013. The rebels obtained a stockpile of roughly 5,000 of these WW2-era rifles and 7.92×33mm Kurz ammunition in 2012.

www.northwestfirearms.com