Was the Mauser C96 carbine used at all in WW2?

[13yearsold]

I may buy one in the Christmas time if so.

[13yearsold]

And I mean an airsoft one just to clear that up.

[zzs8mm]

I know China used the C96 extensively, but not carbine. They did use the stock attachment.

From the wikipedia article, there was very little "military interest" of the carbine back in 1899, and the ones made were used for limited sporting. So, it doesn't seem they were used in WWII.

[oberst42]

some SS officers carried them, only in pistol form though

[Fusilier]

VERY rarely,if ever.

[13yearsold]

I saw somewhere that some artillerymen carried them. I'm not quite sure though...

[Sgt_Tom]

Yea they generally were not used, or hardly used at all in WW2.

[badmoon]

Since all Mauser c96 pistols had the stock attachment groove on the rear of the handgrip as standard they could all be used as carbines. Also since at least 150,000 of them were rechambered for 9mm parrabellum ammo by order of the German Government, I'd hardly call them rarely issued!

On the other hand if you are talking about the airsoft gun that is called a "C96 Carbine" or the "Box-Cannon" it is safe to say that none at all were ever issued to German troops in WW2. (Not quite the same as "never used").

This particular gun is based on a very limited production run of a customised Mauser M712 Schnellfeuer. These were not produced as part of a military contract and would only be seen in service if they had been bought as a private purchase firearm by a Military Officer.
The normal detatchable stock M712 was however issued in Germany, primarily to Waffen SS units. Not mainly to officers but to personell whose combat role prevented them from carrying a rifle, eg. gunners, drivers, signallers etc.

The C96 was mildly popular as a private purchase firearm by British officers, and extensively used by Soviet, Spanish and Chinese forces.

BTW. the C96 was a semi-automatic weapon with a fixed magazine loaded from stripper clips. The M712 was a select fire, both semi and full auto, weapon loaded from detatchable 10 or 20 round box magazines with a rate-of-fire of 1000 rounds per minute!.

[CptJericho]

Just imagine the firepower a unit would have if all were equip with those.

[huxy]

I've seen the C96 used several times. By tankers, propagandaists, officers, etc..

[mischief]

Jul 29, 2010 18:06:48 GMT -5 huxy said:

I've seen the C96 used several times. By tankers, propagandaists, officers, etc..

Pic's?

[huxy]

Oh I can't find any at the moment. I study WWII pretty much every day (I am a guide too) and look trough several new pictures a day. Seeing the C96 is quite rare, but I see it every now and then.

[badmoon]

Here you go, here's a couple.......
multeweb.com/images/Mauser C96 -.jpg[/img]
multeweb.com/images/Mauser C96 -2.jpg[/img]

Please note that both photos seem to be of Waffen SS units.

[mischief]

This thread is about the carbine not the pistol. Yes I've seen those kinds of pics before. You can find Russian and Chinese pic aswell. But "13yearsold" wanted to know about the carbine. Do you have any shots of those? Hope I'm not coming off as a harda*s but that was the original question.

[Adler69]

OK so you guys stop being confused , the C96 Mauser CARBINE and the C96 Mauser PISTOL are 2 different things , for one , the PISTOL uses it's holster as a stock and has a short barrel , the stock can be removed and you still have a pistol to fire.
The CARBINE on the other hand cannot be fired without it's stock since the stock attaches to the body at the wrist , once you remove the stock all you have is a club.
Plus the barrel on the CARBINE came in different lengths.
The CARBINES where custom made and made by oreder only , they where not an issue firearm , so you will not see them being used by German troops , the CARBINES where more for small game hunting and competition target shooting.
Again the CARBINE was not a Military issued firearm.
You cannot use it as a weapon on an impression unless your impression is that of a High Society Officer who is out for a day trip to the range or going to hunt small game.

[CharleyNovember]

What about clubs can I just use it as a club as suggested?

[Adler69]

Jul 31, 2010 1:57:03 GMT -5 CharleyNovember said:

What about clubs can I just use it as a club as suggested?

Yes you can.

[huxy]

Jul 31, 2010 1:53:03 GMT -5 Adler69 said:

The CARBINES where custom made and made by oreder only , they where not an issue firearm , so you will not see them being used by German troops ,

It was not an issue weapon, no. But how do you know absolutely no German military personell ever used it trough six years of war? Heck, many civillian weapons were used by military personell..

-Huxy

[Adler69]

Jul 31, 2010 11:31:18 GMT -5 huxy said:

Jul 31, 2010 1:53:03 GMT -5 Adler69 said:

The CARBINES where custom made and made by oreder only , they where not an issue firearm , so you will not see them being used by German troops ,

It was not an issue weapon, no. But how do you know absolutely no German military personell ever used it trough six years of war? Heck, many civillian weapons were used by military personell..

-Huxy

Because the CARBINE was too expensive for a regular soldier to afford.
Yes many civilian weapons where used , but those shotguns , pistols and hunting rifles where a lot cheaper than the CARBINES.

[starkweather]

just to add fuel to the fire...

Volkstrum? Would they not "acquire" any weapon necessary to fight the red menace? Would it work in such circumstances?

[Sgt_Tom]

The thing is the weapon was rare and expensive, not something a Volkssturm would have. A kar98, panzerfaust, or maybe a captured weapon would be better for that.

[starkweather]

Yeah, I know, I understand that. What about stolen...tho the rarity would counter that.

I'd go with a k98 in any case for German weapon of any impression. They are readily available and actually more historical.

[Sgt_Tom]

Well they are not exactly readily available other then the Tanaka Kar98 which is a bit price for many people.

[huxy]

There were Volksturm groups that were better equipped than most other military divisions. Volksturm used any weapon you can imagine, and even had own Volksturm weapons manufactured.

[werekiss]

Aug 1, 2010 7:58:32 GMT -5 huxy said:

There were Volksturm groups that were better equipped than most other military divisions. Volksturm used any weapon you can imagine, and even had own Volksturm weapons manufactured.

But that still doesn't mean that they would have a expensive custom made weapon...

[huxy]

No, now I was talking about regular military issue weapons. But I can easily imagine myself some guy during the war bringing his own C96 once... Why not? You have no proof for it, nor against it. It's a grey zone.

[Adler69]

The best book on Volkssturm weapons is called "Desperate Measures" it covers the weapons they used.
No mention of the CARBINE is made on the list of available weapons to them.
The Germans are very anal about keeping records of everything and if CARBINES where used there would have been some kind of record of it.

[huxy]

If it was an issue weapon, it would be documented yes. There was even an officer on the eastern front, northern sector who used a flintlock pistol. This isn't mentioned in any german documents, because there is really nothing to mention.
As said, so far there are no proof for or against the Carbine ever being used by a human serving in the German military forces 1939-1945.

[CharleyNovember]

This is an assinine argument. I'm gonna wear a bowtie with my M36's they had them then. Someone somewhere might have you have no proof against it....FFS...

[Sgt_Tom]

Yea, but we generally try to portray the most common.