Norwegian K98K's and accessories.

[BMF]

Last summer when I had a few hours alone in the house, I pulled some of my stuff out of the attic, and made a small display. I've been collecting some norwegian accessories for my Homeguard issued K98's. That also includes uniforms and fieldgear from the Homeguards "Mauser era" ( 1950's through the '70's). And of course anything Mauser related from the norwegian armed forces. The army used a lot of different stuff after ww2. British, german and US field gear, uniform items, weapons etc... The Home guard always got the leftovers every time the army got new gear. What you see here is the typical gear a Home guard soldier was carrying around. Both my k98's are marked HÆR (army), but they were never issued to the army, they were used by the Homeguard. The army got Garands around 1950 or so, and the K98K's were rebarrelled to 30-06 in 1955 - '58.
I have lots of more stuff I forgot to add, and lots of these things come from surplus stores.
Some of the stuff displayed:
M51 uniform ( M51 was a copy of the US M1943 uniform. I have several unissued ww2 dated hoods. Strange thing: every hood I've ever seen have been US made, and all the uniforms made in Norway. The Homeguard used this uniform until the end of the '90's).
E - tools: I have one marked US Ames 1944 in a Tulsa canvas co. 1943 carrier. The other two are german. One is marked agv 41, the other is covered in much thicker olive green paint, so I can't make out the code.
Mess kit: German, also covered in olive green. I have several of these.
Canteen: US. mint cover, marked loockwood 1941. Have several canteens. Costs 5$ at the armymuseums souvenir shop.
Tents: German "zeltbahns" were used at least into the 80's, but they are not interchangeable with the norwegian ones, wich are diamondshaped. So if issued, the whole unit had to have them. Older norwegians have camo pattern, while the newer are plain green.
Helmets: German and british helmets were reissued with new paint and decals. The M1 helmet were introduced as the M58 in 1958. The german helmets were worn by the homeguards into the 70's.
Energa rifle grenade launcher: Made by Mecar in Belgium. I have 2 different kinds of poches. One has hooks for the US pistol belt, while the other has a leather loop. The homeguard used lots of british webbing early on, so I guess it's made for that. I found the practice grenade after I made this display.
Slings: I have two different norwegian made slings. One is dark brown plain leather, the other in a tan colour with false seams along the edges.
Stock: Norwegian made k98k stock. Only marking is the crowned K of the Kongsberg armory. It's unissued and doesn't have a hole for the bayonetlug pin.
ZF41 "Sniper": About 300 or some were reissued as the Homeguards first sniper rifle. This was a stopgap until something better could be found. Original german zf 41 rifles / scopes setups were reissued. The serial numbers on these start on "HÆR 150 000" and onwards, scopemounts got a tag riveted in place with the rifles serial number.. My rifle is a DUV 41. The scope wich is currently on it is a replica. My original scope is foggy, so I need to get it fixed.
Medic bag: Britsh "Shell dressing" bag. Marked "Rove 1941" Tons of these around. The civic defense had these until recent times. Unfortunately the red cross has claimed copyright on the red cross symbol, so now the surplus stores sell these with a clod of olivegreen paint on the red cross. I also have some german and british bandages. When I was in the army in the mid 90's we had lots of these. They were used for practice. Wish I kept some more.
Boots and gaiters: the last model of low boots were the M66. Used by the Homeguard until late 90's.

Edit: For some reason, the pics. won't show in the right order.
BTW, this is my first post here, my name is Bernt, and I'm from Norway.

Information

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[BMF]

Some more items:

A instructional poster from around 1950. K98 drawing is in 1:1 scale.
The Homeguards K98K manual from 1956. 104 pages.
My Energa practice grenade.
A target from 1950's - 1980's. (+ my US cartridgebelts)

[Jfred]

Excellent first posts! I probably butchered this because my Norwegian is awful, but takk for bildene!

[Calif-Steve]

Superb stuff.

[Promo]

There are also rifles which are claimed to be Norwegian snipers, see the attached picture (caliber 8x57IS, should have been done somewhen in the 60s). However, I've never seen any reference so far. If I had the time, would be worth a request to Karl Egil Hanevik, he should know it.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Wow and welcome. You have indeed set the bar rather high for a first post.

[BMF]

Wow! Now , that's an interesting rifle !!! Do you know what scope it used to have? I have tried to find documentation myself, about the use of K98K snipers in postwar Norway. The zf 41's issued to the Homeguard are mentioned in Haneviks book (about norwegian armyrifles after 1867). I asked him about other snipers when I ordered his book. He sayed they wasn't availeable in any significant numbers (except the zf41's) to be issued. He owned a high turret (if I remember correctly) wich came from the Homeguards NCO school at Torpo. It was rebarrelled to 7,62 nato. In another book about the Homeguards school at Dombås,it's a little chapter about their first sniper courses in the mid '50's. The school received 32 k98k's in 7,92 mm cal. with various german scopes. These later got US made M82 scopes. That's the only info about those rifles, no pictures or anything.
Do you have any other information about that rifle? Any norwegian markings?

[Promo]

Sorry, I do not have any further Information. But you might send those to Mr. Hanevik and ask him.

[BMF]

Thanks guys!

Promo: I sent Mr. Hanevik an e-mail. Also to a couple of other sources.
We'll see if any info shows up.

BTW, the A in a circle mark on your rifle could be the stamp of Hardy Algren, controllofficer at Kongsberg. I have the same stamp, in the same location, on both my rifles.

[Promo]

Would be interesting to know, please feel free to forward the above shown pictures to him. BTW, I have Kongsberg M1914 frame S/N 28 around, it's one of the 50 which were assembled by the Armorer school right after WWII. Also, I have one of the rare .22 Kongsberg conversion, where a .22 bullet is placed in a .45 dummy round.

Would be interested to find out more about the Norwegian ZF41. Can you post a picture showing the Norwegian markings?