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O/T but, there is a Mosin in the barracks museum at Bastogne (where the Nuts memo was written). Not a clue which side used it, was dug up out of the ground and put on display along with StGs, M1s etc.

Charlotte the flyer wrote:O/T but, there is a Mosin in the barracks museum at Bastogne (where the Nuts memo was written). Not a clue which side used it, was dug up out of the ground and put on display along with StGs, M1s etc.

There's photographic evidence that German rear line troops used mosins, and the SS have been photographed using PU rifles so unlikely but plausible. By Dec '44 the German supply chain was so knackered that any weapon for rear echelon troops would do.

snayperskaya wrote: The bolt is in "the white" as it would have left the factory....

Thank you, that's very informative. Now I'm wondering if other nations/manufacturers did similarly - I have a Winchester P14 where the bolt looks like it was never blued (I had assumed it would have been). I've been thinking about (re)bluing it (thank you Ovenpaa!) but will procrastinate some more while I do a bit more research!

-daman

Charlotte the flyer wrote:O/T but, there is a Mosin in the barracks museum at Bastogne (where the Nuts memo was written). Not a clue which side used it, was dug up out of the ground and put on display along with StGs, M1s etc.

The German army had numerous Ostlegionen or "Eastern Legion" troops that were units made up of conscripts, volunteers or raised from POW's from various Eastern European countries including Romania and the USSR etc.
Many were sent to France, Belgium and Holland as occupying troops to free up front line German units to fight on the Eastern Front where prior to the 6th of June '44 the bulk of the fighting was taking place.Many of these Eastern Legion troops were equipped with captured Mosins so it wouldn't be surprising that Mosins sometime get unearthed across Western European battlefields.

It is also worth noting that earlier Imperial M91 Mosin's can turn up on WW1 battlefields in France and Belgium as the German Army issued large numbers of captured rifles to rear-echelon troops so it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that the rifle in the Bastogne museum could be of WW1 vintage.

dave_303 wrote:

Charlotte the flyer wrote:O/T but, there is a Mosin in the barracks museum at Bastogne (where the Nuts memo was written). Not a clue which side used it, was dug up out of the ground and put on display along with StGs, M1s etc.

and the SS have been photographed using PU rifles so unlikely but plausible.

I'd say this is the most plausible reason, if you look at the make-up of troops used by the Germans in Army Group B for the Bulge battle. Most of the make up of the troops of Army Group B hadn't been near the Eastern Front apart from one significant element.....LSSAH, which were part of the 6th Panzer Army.
There were still enough veterans from their over 2 years fighting on the Eastern Front remaining in the LSSAH for there to be enough SS snipers to have brought PU Mosins west with them.
Especially as the SS had to supply their own kit from their own sources.....which is why any SS sniper K98 rifles were all sourced from Steyr in Austria, often using commercial scopes obtained from civilians, they were not from standard Wehrmacht supplies to the Heer etc. and also why you see examples of the SS using converted Gew98/K98a as sniper rifles as well, which is why captured PU Mosins were indeed popular with SS snipers.

In relation to bolts being in the white - there are a number of Finn reworked 91/30 rifles that pop up now and again with blued bolts. During the last Great Unpleasantness (before the Finns decided to show Ivan that they weren’t really chums with the Wehrmacht and chased Jerry out of Finland during the Lapland War) the Finns bought thousands of rifles and parts from Germany. Most were buggered but a number of them had been through German arsenals and had blued bolts. As with all things Finn it’s complicated.

As you can see the landser were a bit miffed about the whole arrangement.