Yesterday's Weapons Forums

Not a great pic but this one is unusual. It went from Italy to Russia in the dark days of WW1. As far as I know, most were used by the Russian navy. During the interwar years, the Italian rifles were warehoused until the Spanish Civil War.

Spanish communists appealed to Stalin for aid. Bad move! Kindly Uncle Joe Sold them these old Vetterlis and included 100 rounds of ammo per rifle. Gee! What a swell deal! He also hosed them with the tanks he sent. Without spare parts or service manuals in Spanish. No advisors, either. Idealistic Spanish farm kids who had no experience at all with machinery quickly tore the clutches out of 1/3 of the tanks... but I can babble for a long time on this topic & had better just shut up about it.

Also unusual is the handguard. Did Spanish armorers add them? Hard to say, but I have a 6,5 Vetterli with an identical handguard. This will be in an Italian rifle book that should be in print by May or June.

I love this obscure stuff!! SW


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Slava Ukraini!!

interesting rifle as always

A little more on the Russian tanks sent to Spanish communist Republicans by Joe ( no checks - just cash) Stalin. They were gassers. Yes, Spain had refineries in the 30s, but Spanish gasoline was crappy & quickly fouled spark plugs on the tanks.

Sometimes while said tank was clattering into battle! What to do? Rock - paper - scissors to see who climbs out to clean & re-gap the spark plugs? No - everybody bailed and beat feet! The tanks then became artillery targets.

Further compounding the tank trouble was what Franco's Nationalists got as aid from Germany and Italy. Tanks? Nope - anti tank guns! The commies only had three tanks still in service when the civil war ended.

The commies were idealistic and dedicated to their cause, but the Nationalists had the military. One of the first things the commies seized was the banks. Stalin was quick to perceive this and got them to pay for their aid in gold. Like the gold from the new world = Mexico and South America. All those Spanish treasure ships that made it back to Spain had actual tons of gold.

Stalin drained them of it, and Spain is poor to this very day for that reason. The gold lays shining and collecting dust in Russian vaults.

Once again, I should leave well enough alone. I researched the topic for an article I wrote for "ARMI e' TIRO", an Italian gun magazine & still have my notes. The publisher sent copies & it was an odd feeling to see my name at the top & not be able to read it! I doesn't speak Italian. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

Neat stuff.....your variety amazes me........


Marc n tomtom

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Very cool. Thanks for the history of the rifle. Are you going to shoot it?

Probably not. I have 6 others, and one is a real tack driver. I should actually sell a couple of them. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

If you need any help with Spanish translations, lemme know.
BRGDS, A

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In the end, there can be only ONE

That might be needed someday. I hear actual Spanish and Mexican are very different. Not to mention the different dialects in Spain like Catalan. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!