MG34 and MG42 in Norway, Post WW2

摘要

As the Second World War ended, large quantities of small arms became surplus material in the countries where they had been brought by the fighting armies. In the author's native country, Norway, the number of small arms were according to the more than 350,000 German soldiers that surrendered in May of 1945. These soldiers had brought Russian, Belgian, French, Dutch, Polish, Czech and other captured weapons as well as large quantities of German infantry weapons. In addition to this came the Norwegian weapons from the pre war period, weapons air dropped or smuggled in to supply the resistance forces, as well as weapons brought from Sweden and England by the returning Norwegian soldiers when the fighting was over. As if this was not enough, the Norwegian army received quantities of British weapons in the late 40s and early 50s as well as a full scale re-arming after Norway received yet another large quantity of weapons in the U.S. weapons aid program of the 1950s.