Small Arms on U-Boats

[Gordon Williamson]

I'm in the final stages of collating material for a book on U-Boats for Roger Bender and want to include something on small arms carried on these vessels. There does not appear to have been a hard and fast laid down number of weapons carried but they seem to have had a small number of Pistols, Rifles and Machine Pistols with a few carrying machine guns too.

I have found photos of crewmen onboard U-Boats with the MP40 and the Kar98k. When it comes to pistols its harder to find photographic evidence. My guess is a handful of P.08 and/or Mauser HSc. This is the only photo I have found so far and its clearly a small calibre pistol though the details aren't totally clear.

Anyone have any further info on the types of weapon carried on board?

[Matt Weber]

Great looking photo! It appears to be a Mauser HSc or 1934. Both were probably the most widely used pistols by the KM.

Once the u-boat fleet was moved to the West coast of France the KM began to recieve more French and Spanish pistols such as the Astra series, Star, and the MAB model D. There is really no way in dertermaning how many went to U-boat crews. However, due to the fact that u-boat fleet was stationed in France, I feel that most of them probably did!
I'll search though some of my books, and see if I can find any photographic evidence of these types?

Matt

[merdock]

Hi,

I have a double barrelled Mauser flare pistol that came from a vets son that say's it came from a sub.no evidence but is it possible.
Merdock