Interesting he says Germany continued Airgun production through WW2 until 1945? I always read Airgun production ceased as it did in Britain?
Interesting he says Germany continued Airgun production through WW2 until 1945? I always read Airgun production ceased as it did in Britain?
Walther, Anschütz and Weihrauch all started in Zella-Mehlis.
Must have been the German equivalent to the gun quarter in Birmingham.
I would love to see how a war torn country with its back against the wall, could still find the resources to make of all things airguns. No disrespect to airguns of course, but I struggle to see their utility in times of war.
Vintage Airguns Gallery
..Above link posted with permission from Gareth W-B
In British slang an anorak is a person who has a very strong interest in niche subjects.
Training young soldiers?
Oberndorf-am-Neckar has a similar pedigree. It is a big village with a railway station. Home to the once massive Mauser factory it also became the home of Feinwerkbau and Heckler & Koch.
I can believe that Germany continued airgun production long into the war. I have read several times that the Nazis continued producing consumer goods and failed to put their economy on a war footing as effectively as Britain did. They did not get as many women into the workforce, for instance although they did make massive use of slaves and conscripted foreign workers. They used airguns for youth training so perhaps some production made sense.
Vintage Airguns Gallery
..Above link posted with permission from Gareth W-B
In British slang an anorak is a person who has a very strong interest in niche subjects.
There was a very interesting research article by Jim Stonely on this very topic back in 1986 (Guns Review, Dec 1981, pages 1020-1023), entitled “Production of German Airguns, Sporting Guns and Ammunition in World War II”. Using official UK-USA reports (CIOS) and UK reports (BIOS) based on seized Nazi industrial records he found that Haenel, Diana and Venuswaffenwerk. EM-GE and Langenhan were all producing substantial numbers of airguns during the war years. The reasons for this included the need for training guns, and a desire by companies to be in a viable manufacturing position once the war ended. The individual figures for each company are surprising, and for example Diana alone was producing up to 200,000 airguns a year at one point, and Haenel 85,000 air pistols. Hard to believe I will admit, as where are they all now?
It may be that many persons who owned airguns thought they had better get rid of the airguns rather than be found in possession of what looked like a real weapon and risk arrest or whatever.
If substantial training airguns were made for the armed forces, then I would think that they were kept in barracks and duly destroyed when Germany was over-run or perhaps they had already been melted and machined into powder burners when materials became scarce in the closing stages of the war.
I am no historian but just guessing.
As far as I know, the German armed forces did not use air guns as trainers. Some were used by the Hitler Youth for marksmanship training.
I believe the “military trainer” thing was started after the war by dealers as a way to boost interest in secondhand German bolt action ball firers.
Incase you're not aware of this book, it's in German only though.