MG42 use during the Soviet era of the 1980s in Afghanistan.

[Flying10uk]

Last Sunday night I was watching a programme about the Cold War on the Quest channel and part of the programme looked at Afghanistan in the 1980s after the Soviets invaded to "help" the then government of the country. I couldn't help but notice when it showed some footage of the insurgents/freedom fighters using an MG42 or a clone of this M.G..

I was wondering if anyone has any knowledge of the MG42 or one of it's clones use in Afghanistan during the 1980s, please, and who may have supplied them? Would they be chambered for 7.92 Mauser or 7.62 Nato ammunition? The most obvious source would have been the Pakistan version from that country's military but I'm not at all sure if this would have been politically possible at the time.

I'm not so interested in the more recent conflict in Afghanistan with regards this post but I am interested specifically during the 1980s period, part of the Cold War period.

Thanks for any information.

[Sentryduty]

I never encountered them in my time there, but since it is the crossroad of the old spice route as it were, these guns could have come from a number of sources. For example how did Canadian made Long Branch rifles end up in the country for use by anti-governmental forces?

Or how did S&B headstamped Czech ball end up fired against us on patrol? It was very much a collecting ground for all manner of odds and sods.

[Flying10uk]

I've never heard any mention of them being used there before but it was achieve film footage and as the saying goes, "the camera doesn't lie".

[mrclark303]

I would have thought they were more likely Pakastan made MG3's supplied to the tribal areas to fight the Soviets, they probably didn't last too long in country because I wouldn't have thought 7.62x51mm was as easily acquired in quantity.

[Lee Enfield]

...snip... For example how did Canadian made Long Branch rifles end up in the country for use by anti-governmental forces?
...snip...

Simple, we gave up to 25,000 from war stores to the CIA for Afghanistan in the early 80's.



The cover story (??)was that they were stolen for the Quebec independence army, but they showed up in the Afghan insurgent forces.

[mrclark303]

I would imagine all done in a deniable way via shadowy third party arms dealers...

So the Canadian and US Government's could say nothing to do with us if it all went wrong

[Peter Laidler]

Oh no............... Back to the so called 'Irish Army' No4's that ended up there.......... Hundreds and hundreds of them................... Ooooooooops

As we had an intelligence interest in captured small arms for reasons best known to those on a higher up the food chain than me, I never saw an MG42 or MG3 or MG42/59 on the capture lists

[mrclark303]

'Irish Army' No4's

Don't mention the Spanish inquisition Peter

[Flying10uk]

It would have been handy to have been able to go through the film footage frame by frame because of what else we could have picked out. I think that there may have also been one or two K98s and or Mosin Nagants but the camera panned round far too quickly for me to be sure. There was definitely at least one MG42 or a derivative captured on film. What I don't know is to what extent this weapon was used in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the exact models or the origin.

It is the conflict in Afghanistan involving the Soviets that I am interested in because that is when the film footage in question was taken.

[Sentryduty]

It is also possible that the documentary chose to roll in other footage from "similar" conflicts to fill a gap in visuals. It is not uncommon for TV documentary producers to use this tactic when a scene calls for it.

It is very hard to say without looking at the film clips and verifying the source.