“All is fair in love and war” is an idiom in English that refers to the practice of otherwise questionable actions being considered acceptable under exceptional circumstances. When talking about weaponry in general, one example to illustrate the aforementioned saying would be the direct use of an enemy’s arms of war to forward one’s own agenda. Anti-Communist Afghan Mujahideen fighting their Soviet enemies with Soviet-made weaponry, Islamic State attacking regional adversaries with US M4’s and M16’s or the post-war US government employing former German and Japanese scientists and technologies for their fight against the Red Menace are all examples of this common practice. The Israeli Defense Forces‘ hexagram emblem on Nazi Mauser-manufactured Kar98k carbines is another interesting manifestation of this idiom.
Germany
Smuggled MG-34 Seized in a Raid by Egyptian Security Forces in Sinai
While reviewing old articles on smuggled weapons and munitions to Egypt and to Sinai specifically, I came across an article on ”ONewsAgency” published on the 16th December, 2014, about the seizure of five hundred kilograms of Bango (a type of marijuana) and a variety of small arms in “South Sinai Governate”. One of the weapons photographed was the Second World War-vintage MG-34, 7.92 × 57 mm, general purpose machine gun.
Safety in Numbers: Atatürk’s Linguistic Reforms in Gewehr 88/05 Rear Sight Ladders
This guest article was contributed by Omer Sayadi, a researcher who studies symbols, weapon markings, and vexillology of the MENA region. He holds a Master’s degree in Arabic & Islamic Studies from KU Leuven. His work can be found on Twitter, and on his website.
The Gewehr 1888 is a 19th century German bolt-action rifle designed by the German Rifle Commission in the late 1880s. The rifle was developed in the wake of the introduction of smokeless powder in an effort to keep pace with European rivals. The German army immediately adopted this rifle for military service under the colloquial name of ‘Reichgewehr’, or commission rifle. Pressured by the French development of the Lebel Model 1886 rifle, firing 8 mm cartridges with a smokeless propellant, the Germans developed a similar type of ammunition to be used with their new commission rifle, resulting in the creation of the M/88 8 mm cartridge, loaded with a round-nose bullet.
Tokagypt: Egypt’s Forgotten Handgun
In 1957, the Hungarian conglomerate “FEG” (Fegyver- és Gépgyár-Arms and Machine Manufacturing Company) received a contract from the Egyptian Armed Forces requesting 30,000 Tokarev handguns. The Tokarevs would be in 9mm Parabellum instead of the 7.62 Tokarev round, magazines would have finger supports, a one-piece plastic grip, and a safety catch on top of the left side of the receiver.