The StG-44 assault rifle was probably the most advanced German infantry firearm of WWII. Surprisingly, some of these weapons ended up on the continent of Africa after WWII.
(Top: A soldier of the 28th Waffen-SS division “Wallonien” with a StG-44 during WWII. Bottom: A female Somali guerrilla with a StG-44 in 1977 during the Ogaden War.)
The Moschetto M95 carbine is a modification of the Mannlicher-Steyr 95 rifle, as used by the Austro-Hungarian Empire during WWI. Italy captured a number of these guns during WWI, and received many more after the armistice. Meanwhile the collapsed empire’s neighbors inherited some, especially Bulgaria, which adopted it as it’s main carbine in the inter-war period. The M95 was a standard carbine of the Italian colonial forces and Bulgarian army during WWII, and also saw some use by the German army which acquired them via overrunning Poland and Greece; who had themselves previously captured or inherited them from the Austro-Hungarians. The Yugoslav and Hungarian armies also used it to a smaller extent during WWII. Finally, the USSR had some left over from Imperial Russian stockpiles of WWI.
(A Somali militiaman with a M95 carbine.)
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