During the colonial years, Italy didn't have a lot of money with which to equip troops there. But after WW1, they did have a lot of equipment from Austria which had been given as partial war reparations.
Most of this equipment was sent to East Africa. Thousands of M.95 long rifles were cut down to carbine length. I've closely compared my Budapest to M.95/34s and they appear identical. Did Italy also receive the templates to do that or the machinery? I can't say for certain, but it sure looks that way. Notice how the Budapest short M.95 wears n Italian Vetterli bayonet. Austria sent thousands of rifles as reparations but few bayonets. Italian armorers altered Vetterli bayonets to fit the Steyrs and Budapests.
Also sent to East Africa were thousands of old Vetterlis. Shown is an 1870/87 in 10.4x47r caliber. The 6.5 Vetts were also sent, but I have yet to acquire one.
My spies tell me hundreds of Gew88 rifles were given the AOI brand, and wouldn't I like to find one of those! Hundreds of Austrian Schwarzlose MGs were sent. My friend with whom I wrote the Carcano book has one. He sez if I ever visit, he will have it padlocked in a safe. Good plan!
Some of the M.95 long rifles were issued to Italian units, and those will have a tiny 'CE' stamped somewhere on the metal. This mark is very easy to overlook and something for the die hard collector to have in mind.
Shown in addition to the AOI rifles is a 1914 Terni M91 long rifle with the RE brand for Regio Esercito = Royal Army. The rifles were branded to prevent theft, but thieves are always pretty crafty. The M.95 long rifle had something covering the AOI brand... possibly a piece of leather made to look like a sling attachment point. I cleaned up the brand with acetone to make it more apparent, and whatever the native used sure stunk!
Camel hoof glue? I'm sure I don't want to know.
If any of you folks find such an item as described here, please keep me in mind if it's not in your collecting genre. SW
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Greater detail of the long rifle. These were taken apart and assembled using the best parts from big piles.
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The AOI mark is obscure on this one. Much wear is a positive indicator it was actually used by native levies.
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The unit marking is still present = Austrian 49th infantry regiment.
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Here we see why so many AOI rifles are beat all to heck. After the Brits invaded from Kenya, captured arms were just thrown into piles as shown. And wouldn't I like to root through that pile for a day or two!!!
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