Mystery rifle in RM Museum

[Dangermouse]

Last week I had the good fortune to take the cadets down to the Royal Marine museum in Southsea Hampshire. The Royal Marines had put on a extra day of activity so as well as the normal museum their were several displays going on throughout the day in the arena as well as several guns and vehicles to be pawed over.

In the museum, in the Korean display was a rifle that looked very like a Garand - of which there was an example in the display, but I have a feeling was not a Garand. Sadly it had no tag with it to say what it was. Any ideas? Defiantly a semi auto action.

DM

[Dangermouse]

Two of my favourites which sadly did not make it back to the units armoury despite promises of promotion to the cadet who managed to sneak it out.
Neither need introduction but it was nice to have a play, even if their was no ammunition to hand.





Chatting to one Royal Marine, he said that he was amazed at the kids knowledge of the weapon systems, not just their names and abilities but actually how to operate them. He mentioned the Javelin missile system which has a computerised sight, which has to lock on to a target before firing. He said that the kids knew all about it and despite not knowing which buttons did what, they knew the sequence that the weapon had to be operated in before being fired. This was all down to computer games, which appear to be getting more accurate in portraying weapon capabilities and functions.

Although to prove a point of if you give enough monkeys enough type writers - To wards the end of the day one of the cadets who was up on a patrol boat managed to start the thing much to every bodies amusement and panic. A large black cloud of diesel fumes drifted across the arena as the Marines scrambled for the cut switch. At that point I turned to the Sea King and pondered if they had left the keys in that?

DM

[huntervixen]

Morning Dangermouse,

The rifle you saw was the excellent FN Model 49, a gas operated, tilting bolt design with it's origins in a pre war fn design.

When Belgium was invaded in 1940, the designers grabbed all the research and blueprints for this rifle and fled to Britain, they set up camp at Enfield and quietly set about building prototypes with the assistance of Enfield engineers.

This prototype rifle was considered for British service, (had the war continued past 1945) it just might have been put into production.

In the event, the FN engineers went back to Belgium, refined the design and produced it as the Model 49, it saw service with numerous Armies around the world, Belgium, Venezuela, Egypt, Cuba among others in various calibers from .30-06 to 7.62x51.

The rifle had a relatively short shelf life because it was replaced in production by the superb fal, a direct descendant.

[Tower75]

Excellent pics, DM. Thank you for sharing. You've got me stumped on the rifle, though. My first thought was that it was a Pederen SLR. But upon closer inspection, it's not. :lol:

[huntervixen]

"The British .303 Cartridge: Helping Englishmen express their feelings since 1888." Thats cheered up my Thursday morning, very funny!

[Tower75]

It's a Belgium FN Model 49 rifle. Thank you, memory.

[Dangermouse]

Just found it myself with some "out of the box" thinking on Google

http://peashooter85.tumblr.com/post/364 ... 1949-was-a

The FN Model 1949,

The FN Model 1949 was a semi-automatic rifle popular with many countries around the world but produced in limited numbers. Made by Fabrique Nationale, it used a gas operated system that fed from a ten round box magazine and was chambered for many calibers, the most popular being 7.62 Nato, .30-06, and 7x57 Mauser, as well as some others.

Originally production of this rifle was set to begin around 1940. The German occupation of Belgium and seizure of its arms factories put a halt to these plans however. When World War II ended FN decided to make another attempt at production. In May 31, 1949 the first contract of Model 1949’s were delivered to Venezuela. The rifle was popular with many Latin American nations (most Latin American models were in .30-06) as well as Egypt, Belgium, Luxembourg, Indonesia, and Congo. The rifle also became the main arm of Belgian forces who fought in the Korean War.

While the design may have been advantageous and revolutionary before World War II, in the 1950’s warfare was moving on to the use of select fire assault rifles. Production ended in 1956 with 176,000 being produced. By then the FN M1949 was surpassed in popularity by the FN FAL.

[Dangermouse]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_Model_1949

Shame we did not get these in production during the WW2, I fancy it would have been a great addition to many an infantry section.

DM

[Tower75]

"The British .303 Cartridge: Helping Englishmen express their feelings since 1888." Thats cheered up my Thursday morning, very funny!

Thanks. I'd like to take credit, but I stole it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_Model_1949

Shame we did not get these in production during the WW2, I fancy it would have been a great addition to many an infantry section.

DM

Yup. There's that great what-if question, isn't there. The Germans had a self-loading "Luger" rifle, but it was only a prototype, and only a sporting rifle, if memory serves. We were playing around with SLRs, too prior to the war.

I've always found it odd that it was only the US who had na SLR as their primary infantry weapon. The technology was there.

[Burner]

The Germans had a self-loading "Luger" rifle,

The Germans did issue the G43 rifle in 7.92 x 57mm. A popular collectors item over here.
A bit rare and expensive but there were enough issued that they are available on the market.

G 43