Kaiserliche Schutztruppen G98 - for the German Camel Corps
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Germany established their colony of German South West Africa (Deutsch-Südwestafrika, now Namibia) in 1884, as part of its late attempt to become a colonial power to rival the United Kingdom. The soldiers deployed to protect German interests t here were the Kaiserliche Schutztruppen, and they were few in number and armed with a variety of rifles. Most had Mauser 1871 Jager rifles, single shot black powder arms. The best off, however, were outfitted with new Mauser 98 rifles when the German military adopted the G98. A special batch was made for these colonial troops, with a few distinctive features - a bent bolt handle and sights calibrated down to 200m. And yes - they were used by troops mounted on camels!
When World War One broke out, the fighting in Namibia ended fairly quickly, with the German forces soundly defeated by South Africans under General Jan Smuts in the summer of 1915. Fighting in the other German colonies (especially German East Africa, now Tanzania) would last much longer.
A slight correct to the video: 10,000 of these rifles were actually in German South West Africa by 1908, but 8,000 of them were destroyed by the German forces prior to surrendering in 1915. The German armed force was small, but extra troops had been deployed to the area in response to the Herero Wars in 1904, and they left their rifles behind when they returned to Germany afterwards.
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In the words of Cpt. Blackadder: “The British Empire at present times covers a quarter of the globe, while the German Empire consists of a small sausage factory in Tanganika.”
EdM240B Blackadder was a Captain not a sergeant my good man.
MrNewAbortion1 My word! You’re correct! Haven’t seen the series in awhile
DID SOMEBODY SAY SAUSAGE?
Sir I have a cunning plan...
He obviously forgot the brewery in Tsingtao.
I actually have our gewehr 98. My family comes from German South West Africa and my great great grandfather served with the schutztruppe their. Our rifle is a 1901 model and has a light coloured wood stock. Ours also has 2 stamps on the receiver of the union defence force of South Africa and the Kimberly regiment from when it was captured during the first world war. Even still have some original stripper clips. That rifle is my pride and joy. Best part is all serial numbers match and nothing was sportirised.
It was made in Spandau.
@@dbs4898 I have the same, light coloured wooden stock rifle, number 7372, Spandau 1901, with the UDF markings as well, numbers match down to the screw heads and I very regularly hand load ammo for it and shoot it.
I'll bet Ian mouth is watering 😆
Schutztruppen: Literally Guard or Protection Troops
Protectorate would be the best translation I think.
@@theodorkorner1497 I assume they functioned like a gendarmerie
@@Bitemis : There was Schutztruppe as light military force, and Kaiserliche Landespolizei as police force. In Togo there was only Kaiserliche Landespolizei. When ww1 started, the Landespolizei was transformed into Schutztruppe. Note: With exeption of black policemen, real german policemen had been up to early 1920s former soldiers, Unteroffizier or higher, so no problem for them, to serve as soldiers.
protecting the kaiser's interests and the german settlers, of course
I am so happy that camel corps existed. Just imagining them sees them such joy.
Next up: german storm troops riding giant rabbits
The US had a camel corps too in the late 19th century. There is still a herd of camels that roam the desert in the Southwest even today as the army abandoned them.
It wasn't fun in reality though. The first genocide of the 20th century was carried out by these very troops against the Herero and and Nama: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herero_and_Namaqua_genocide
As amusing it might be, I'd imagine it was rather less so when they were all charging at you through the desert.
Germans on camels is humourlessness squared!
If I am remembering correctly, there was one of these rifles in the old J.M. Browning Museum back when it was at the Rock Island Arsenal. I used to go there with my father every time we went to visit my grandmother in Davenport. We would walk across the bridge and go to the museum to see what was new several times a year up until it was moved from the Arsenal.
Wow Ian! You got pretty excited about this one. Sorry you didn’t get it. Awesome video though.
He was almost giddy at times
Yeah he was.
How about a "Forgotten History" on the exploits of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck? Now there's a good story.
id love it.
Jah...he was in charge when the germans were decapitating locals for "science"...sending pickled heads to berlin..He was also in charge when the germans killed off thousands of local folk, the burial sites make a fascinating fly-over at dawn( shadows ). Yip, the colonial germans were good . Oh,if you are going to build a railway NORTH to cairo, why would you start by heading WEST for a few hundred miles when you already had rail lines to nothern rhodesia? You don't like the brits, thats fine, but at least think.
Count me in for that one. One hell of a story.
Karl won the rifle, explaining why he unfriended Ian and went to Hard as Hell 2 Gun with KE Arms instead.
You can tell when Ian is truly excited by a find and when he is "just" providing historical retoric.
+Forgotten Weapons that letter following the serial number is neither an E nor a C, but a small letter L. The Kurrent letters e and c look substantially different.
Mirdarion - Hi and thanks! I looked at it for a while and my brian wouldn't accept c or e ... now i know why! First thought of going somehow france (C)aiser or (C)olonie or at least (E)xport or (E)xpedition - so what does (L) mean?
I think its just a part of the serial number. They only stamped four digits, so when reaching 9999 they would start over at 0001 and add a letter (abc...etc.)
Yeah it's a script type L, you still see it sometimes in some countries as a symbol for Liters/Litres.
@@stephanhan9729 Kaiser is allways written with K.
Those German colonies were enough to prevent the British from completing their colonial bingo and building a railroad from South Africa to Egypt. :P
Well..them and the Portuguese...and the Belgians.
and French
R C The Portuguese wanted to make a single colony going from the East coast to the West coast but the British wanted to build the railway so they threatened war if that ever happened. The Portuguese government ceded the land to the British, creating a lot of public outcry and making the monarchy look weak, which lead to the public assassination of king Carlos I and his son.
Diogenes D'Sinope Not really...it was just an opportune moment. The assassins were republicans and wanted to get rid of the monarchy. After Portugal ceded their territory to the British, they figured public opinion would turn against the royals (which it did) and would be a good time to assassinate them.
The Belgian Congo would be in the war, no? What was going on with that during this time-period?
It looks very similar to the Radfahrer gewehr (bicyclist rifle). The only differences being that the Radfahrer gewehr had a regular G98 rear sight, a side mounted sling and a screw instead of a spring holding the rear band on.
The use of those bucket - like scabbarts for holding the buttstock was not restricted to the tiny camel troop. All the Schutztruppe in South-West Africa used such buckets. The Schutztruppe there was mounted infantry, the soldiers called Reiter = riders. As their enemies there, the Herero and - even more so - the Nama were very proficient marksmen, the Schutztruppe needed long rifles for precision shooting.
I regularly shoot my Gew 98, KS4349 unit identification, and it still shoots to the point of aim where the front sight was registered in 1805 after rebarelling to 8.2 mm.
Very cool! What year and armory is the rifle? The hard core Mauser enthusiasts track that sort of info. Hope you find the matching bayonet some day!
@@vitis65 Manufactured at Spandau in 1901. Number 7372, numbers match even on the screw heads
Commiserations on not getting it, but thanks for making this back up video so we get to see it anyway!
200 meters is a much more sensible battlesight zero than 400, or even worse the US Springfield's 547 yard BZO.
Bob Rees I am pretty sure that the Springfield is a 347 yard battle zero still way too long for most actual combat or hunting applications.
How much difference does it make to the point of impact when you are aiming for the center of mass of a human target? My guess is that it doesn't make any practical difference at all. I think it's better to have the sites set at a point where you are going to make a kill over the widest possible range. 400 likely does that. Anything from 100 to 500 meters and you likely don't need to adjust your sites to hit the target. Shooting beyond 500 likely never (or very rarely) happened in action.
No need to quess, Minute Man. Any ballistics program will tell you. A 400m battlesight, at ranges up to that 400m, may indeed give you a hit on an enemy standing upright, true. However, not all targets are going to be standing up. An enemy in his foxhole @150m, showing only his head, is going to be a challenge with that 400m zero.
Good point, didn't think of that.
@@minuteman4199 god I love the civil discussions here
They also had some fancy uniforms imo
Best uniforms of german colonial forces was worm by troops in current Papua- Neuguinea.
Surprising many of these are still around. Bouncing around on a camel in Namibia must have been pretty rough use. But very nice to see one and learn about it.
Very cool! Condolences on your loss ;)
I feel bad for you. Such an awesome gun!
I love the videos with your own personal collection. I’m bummed that you didn’t win this one.
Very awesome rifle! Also never seen ian so excited!
I have found Ian a font of gun knowledge, certainly happy to donate 2 quid a month to the kitty in order to keep this chan going strong.
Cool history lesson, thanks Ian
Very interesting, thank you Ian.
As a Mauser fan this was a treat.
Such good information!!!
Never knew about these subtle differences now i am enlightened.
I shed a tear for your loss
this is the earliest i've ever been to any video
Well done, good research Ian, but there were more than just 2500 soldiers down there in Africa, I mean don't ever forget the Askari-Soldiers who did a great military service for the German empire, ok I agree that these men were surely involved in many cruel things, sadly, but I wanted to talk about their loyalty and bravery. It is also interesting that many (or most??) of those black soldiers were armed with a Mauser single loader even during the 1ww. That's very impressive.
I could buy into the wear spot being from service. Even if the stock was oiled repeatedly in service "as the rest of the stock appears to have been" the "finish" would always be thinner in that area. There's also wear at the wrist and were the support hand would be. One can also see built up "finish" in the divots on the left side. In short, I can just tell it wasn't done all at one time but over a period of time,,,,from here at least.
Am I the only person seeing the little skull on the upper screw on the lange vizier sight? This rifle is awesome.
You should do a series called "Forgotten battles", im sure alot of people would be interested in that, myself included.
So, what was the final hammer price?
I’m just going to pretend I didn’t just see one of those at a gun show in Virginia two weeks ago so I don’t feel bad for not buying it
That guy over there What was the asking price?
Bolt rifles took a while to gain popularity in the Wyoming mountains because of the scabbard issue. Our grandfathers stuck with large bore lever actions because of that. Your photo of the camel trooper is interesting- that scabbard arrangement looks awkward, and was never meant for forests.
5:15 Speaking of which, did you ever do a video on the K98AZ? It always struck me as a sort of "granddaddy" to the K98k, but with a stacking hook and a better handguard.
I’m just curious how many other Mauser Variations are out there?
Approximately all of them...
doktormusmatta best answer ever
Ian did a book review on one of the collectors books thats actually affordable, the Paul Mauser biography is also probably going to be interesting if this stuff is up your alley.. www.forgottenweapons.com/book-review-mauser-military-rifles-of-the-world/
One MILLION models
3 or 4 variations for every south american country, dozens in africa and asia, millions in germany
how much did the rifle go for?
War Zone for something that rare I wouldn’t be surprised if it went for $15000 or even $25000
@War Zone No way good condition Gew 98s already go for north of $1-1.5k... This is exponentially rarer.
WOW....how rare ....tough luck Ian
I hate that you weren't able to get this one for yourself Ian.
Thank you for a great rifle
Poor Ian this is like a video last will.
During WWI South Africa was already independent. The Union of South Africa was formed in 1910. The Prime Minister of South Africa was the man who had captured Churchill during the Boer War.
Semi-independent, it was still a Dominion by WWI
The Union was still a dominion of the British Empire. Full independence was obtained when it became a Republic in 1961.. the same level the two Boer republics were at.. before they were annexed.
Had Churchill dies in WW2 Jan Smuts would have been a (small) possibility to replace him as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
No.
In regard to the rear sight, KS rifles weren't special in that sense, they just never received the conversion due to their remote location. The change in the rear sight came with the adoption of the spitzer bullet. This is evident in that 99.9% of rifles made prior to 1904 will have that have a 200 meter sight base but a 400 meter sight leaf. In fact your only chance of owning an original example is a KS rifle, or a pre-1904 rifle made for the commercial market. Arguably the fact this gun has no firing proof means the bolt was never updated either lacking the the lugged firing pin and retaining narrow gas ports. This is really a once in a lifetime rifle.
Interesting. What do you mean by it has no firing proof? It is marked S indicating it was updated for the new spitzer bullet.
This feels like some sort of weird time travel video. Reminiscent of Total Recall (which ironically involves no time travel).
Why do they have the barrels and not the stocks uppermost inn their holsters? Seems a good way to get rain/sand etc in the barrel?
So do we know the price realized? Curious what it went for.
What really makes this kraut rifle valuable is the serial number beginning with "Nein! Nein!"
Hi, Ian, ever looked at the Portuguese colonial wars? Lots of weird mixed firearms.
I love it when Ian tries to pronounce german words 😂
“So what does the german camel corp do?” “Schutztruppen!”
I'm mildly curious, as you've given book reviews, have you written any, yourself, Ian?
I am working on my first one right now.
Could you recommend a good resource to learn more about Camel Corps or German Southwest Africa in general? 19th century European colonies fascinate me. Especially those in Africa and the Middle-east.
British Osprey book company has a small book about german colonial forces, in english language.
In my mind the KS stands for KamelSonderabteilung, Camel force. You can convince me otherwise if you point THAT exact weapon at me.
@5:28 I can't be the only one who thinks the bolt head on the side of the sight looks like a little skull.
I feel a special Patreon is required so Ian can get this gun.
If I were to buy an example of each American available k98 how many variants would I have?
Maybe C&Rsenal got it, and their video on it will be out tomorrow?:)
I have a GEW98 with amberg 1918 and S/42K marking 1937 waffenamt. Came with a KAR98, 1916 erfurt both for $100 from CIA during the mid 90's. those were the best days for curios.
Any rifle with a g98’s Lange Vizier = godly
Fun fact: After WWII, during the era of Konrad Adenauer, first chancellor of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland aka West Germany, a diplomatic delegation from Kamerun came to Bonn (the former capital of West Germany). In Bonn, they asked the direction for the Bundestag (parliamaent). They wore suits and one wore a tigers skin on top of it. After they arrived at the parliament, they demanded to be heard and as members of parliament were curious, they let them present their cause. They told the govenrnment and the lawmakers that soon the UN mandate of England to govern Kamerun would end and that the people of Kamerun wished that the Germans retake the reigns of KAmerun as they did so well before WWI...Of course the Germans were not flattered, but hugely embarrassed. Ruling over an african nation shortliy after the brutal submissions of European staes during WWII... No way... Whic h was a pity as I am sure, Kamerun would be one of the most prosperous African nations today with the help and infrastructural investmanet of Germany..
Intersting... I guess Imperial Germany did say somthing you are now all subject to the Kaiser and theoretical they still was subject of (west) Germany. French Guiana show that a "colony" can be treated fair, the native have full citizenship and rights.
Well, the "Prussians" built railways and schools and put all the children to school... Not sure whether the belgian treate kongolese similarly...
Imperial Germany was probably a cruel master, and the locals would be happy to get rid of them, but I can see ther point in being a "colony" to a democratic west Germany.
Actually, the delegation told the members of parliament that the people of Camerun remembered fondly the time when Imperial Germany was their master. Tehy were severe and strict, but not cruel, punishment occured only for misdoings. This may sound patronising, but they saw german colonists as better colonists than english or french... Hard to believe, but nevertheless, the situation was so embarrassing for the german politicians that the delegation was ushered out of the "Bundestag" and were told that Germany would never take the role of a colonial master. They would try to help in any way possible, but no meddling in foreign ruling....
Belgian Congo was a genocidal nightmare.
Who bought this rifle? Gun Jesus should be allowed first pick on everything 😉.
Wait. Ian made a video reviewing the gun as if he has failed to buy it, be he did not know yet at the time? That is inception.
desertkun I’m sure he shot the video hoping he would never use it....kinda like...if you watching this video I’m probably dead...in the movies
Karl probably won it, and that's why he and Ian are no longer friends!
I have a similar video on my 1918 Chauchat, which will never air because I did win it. :)
Forgotten Weapons you should put it in a "Victory" playlist 😉
Its cool to see ian excited about a gun. Thats how you know its rare
Who’s that background voice at 5:23 that says “yep” after Ian says “so you can grasp the bolt to cycle it”
That's Gun Gabriel, Gun Jesus' cohort.
Sorry that you didn't get the rifle Ian.
Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen, you have all just witnessed a FAIL SAFE video. If he had won it at auction, then Ian would have let that tape self destruct, in a safe and friendly manner. As it was, Ian cried 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war, upon us all.
It almost looks like someone engraved a skull marking on the front sight.
csmaster65 Glad I'm not the only who who sees it
Jesus, I’m sorry you couldn’t snag the Camel Corps rifle.
I love all your videos and nothing could ever turn me off of them. But damn am i glad you picked up the proper pronounciation for the Langvisier on your recent travels, the "lunch visier" in older videos was kinds distracting and kinda funny :D
Gutted for you,would of been cool to add to the wall. Delighted for us, cause we get to see it, #mixedfeelings lol
Rock Island Auctions a mighty good line?
Did the Askari from Schutztruppe used those rifles? They made a very good work in the time of Great War under the commander of Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck and defended the colony of German East Africa very wisely.
The Askari were mainly armed with Mauser 71/88. It was a common use to give native troops older weapons than the european units.
...The 'Sturm Abteilung' uniforms of Hitler were the surplus uniforms from the German South West Africa Corps...
why would Ian not have made a video/uploaded the video if he would have won the action? I just don´t understand that point?
Ian got really upset that he could not buy tge rifle :( i know this pain Ian, I feel you brother.
Back in the days where my country wasn't the junkyard of humanity
Sorry to hear you didn't scoop this one up Ian. But I have to wonder, just how many of these exist in private ownership in the US? At this point in my life, I've still got much less rare things to acquire than this rifle, but there is going to come a day where I will want/need to own one.
About 4-5 that are matching would be my guess. (Judging from internet gun forums and public auction results) Plus a few more "mixmasters".
Great video! I do have a question though. The sights start at 200m and go up to presumably 2000m. That range seems very unlikely even for an area target. Are the units for the sights correct here?
Hey ian you should start reserching in the south american small civil and nations wars .lots of guns from all the world there . Y know you have covered some of them like the Dorvitis mauser of uruguay and other contracts of smgs of dominican republic . Ecuador and others but theres a lot more ..
we all want this
Hello! As always, a very interesting video. Now I wonder: Why would you NOT show the video if you had managed to purchase this rifle?
And the rifle brought $ ?
every Mauser has its place 👌🏻
I wonder if one of his subscribers won it, and would let Ian borrow it on the range? (same for a lot of the rifles Ian Shows)
It seems Spandau made these rifles in 1901, and Erfurt made them in 1902.
(monster voice) FOR THE EMPEROR (monster voice off)
The k98 will always be my favorite rifle. I could listen to that bolt for ever. This still gave me a stiffy too though.
tommy you say that because u dont know about, or own a swiss K31 ;)
Try the Retornados, Portuguese that were forced out from Angola. You never know WHAT they brought back...
The Germans had a further colony Ruandaurundi, now the countries of Rwanda and Burundi.
thank you ian herzliche grüße aus deutschland
What were these chambered in?
8mm Mauser.
Scary to think that the rifle was used in the Herero wars and the Genocide that took place there.
you have an excellent knowledge of the Boer War,Ian. Namibia is the best African country to visit,period!
Namibia is 2.5 times the land mass of Germany but had a minute population, which is why they didn't need that many soldiers.
Why did they not adapt that sight for all the othe G98 when they realized what the war was really like?
In response to Ian's unsure-ness on how to pronounce the name of that sight, langevizier is pronounced "Lan-guh-fitz-ear".
Depends on grammar case and singular or plural :-): Das lange Visier, des langen Visiers, dem langen Visier/ die langen Visiere, den langen Visieren, der langen Visiere.
So what was the hammer price 😊
If you're seeing this video it means I have been murdered LOL!