Hi Guys,
Does anyone have any idea's / photos on what may have been the standard Sryian infantry / armoured crew sub machine guns in the late 50's / early 60's??

Any help would be greatly appreciated
Mike

Hi Mike

According to a caption I've found, this picture of Syrian Girl scouts may have been taken in 1956...Maybe someone could ID the guns ?



H.P.

Czechoslovak 9 mm vz. 23 (or 24) submachine guns. Vz. 25 or 26 had folding stock...

I'd agree on the weapon ID. I wonder in how many countries the Girl Scouts are given SMGs though....

I have seen an article (can't remember where)that among weapons used by Syrian rebels are quite a few German ww2 Sturmgewehr 44. It says they were provided by Russia in the 50's for the regular Syrian army in amounts of 5000+. It does make sense since there was also a lot of German armor used by the Syrian army.

Eric

All true, but that isn't a submachine gun, but an assault rifle.
Probably not as standard, but the PPS was also used...

oops! yes sub machine gun was the question. bad bad me

The pps is plausible, huge quantities laying around, short enough and also used all over the world.
Until Syria declared war on Germany in 1945 they have being fighting on the side of Germany through the Vichy French called Army of the Levant. So how big is the chance that there are other German weapons used into the 50's and or french made personal weapons? MP's maybe? surplus German WW 1 weapons. If you search for leads the variation of weapons popping up is enough to fill a museum with.

Sorry, the more you look at it the more questions seem to pop up.
But like american forges in Korea at the time, it seems that you can assume Syria was also using what was available to them during ww2.

Thanks very much, I am guessing that if the infantry had the PPS, it would also have been issued to AFV crews?? A la grease guns for US, MP40 German in WW2 etc etc

StuG crews may have had handguns instead...



H.P.

Hello Henri,
Lol that is the photo that inspired me, but I know in german service their was a MP40 or two stored inside the vehicle & that is what I am trying to replicate / replace as I don't believe they would have been using, stugs, mg34 & mp 40's, would be to simple??
I think the helmets are American, not sure on the origins of the tanker uniforms, and I think I read somewhere that the radios were also replaced?
Cheers Mike

That weapon in the Rundumfeuer mount in HP's picture certainly looks like an MG34 to me. Don't know if the Russkis captured enough to make them worth rebarreling to 7.62mm but they may well have captured enough 7.92 to make it unnecessary.

Hi Robert,
Yeah it is def a MG34, but it is more the crew issued weapons I am trying to prove, what I meant earlier was it would be to simple if all of it was ex German issue I. The Stug, mg34's & then them also supplied with MP40.
I thinking the pistols could be either Russian or Italian, not sure on uniform origin either, but think the helmut scare def US. Hence I believe maybe issued with PPS's & am thinking they may have changed out the fig 5 radios, for a later soviet type??
Cheers Mike

The tankers uniforms and helemt look more French to me. Would make sence since France was the "colonial" ruler over Syria, wouldn`t it?

Hi Herman,
A very valid & reseaonable thought & as commen sense was still allowed back then, I would say very very likely.
I will have to do some more uniform searches
Cheers Mike

French makes sense since they also bought German armour directly from France and Spain, so maybe that was part of the deal.

Well I have checked out what I could find on WW2 French Tankers gear & nothing looks the same not the helmets & not the uniform.

So back too looking again
Mike

http://alexdhelmet.free.fr/charbef45/m35-js.html

to me, it looks like french tanker helmet

Hi Marko,
Now that I put my glasses on the right way I can see that what I thought was a shadow line is the "front bumper"
Many thanks!!
Mike