Czechoslovakia - Forgotten Weapons

Bren MkI: The Best Light Machine Gun of World War Two

February 24, 2021 Ian McCollum 102

In the years after World War One, the British military wanted a new machine gun, and they wanted it to replace both the Lewis and the Vickers. Through the 1920s the British would tinker with […]

Czechoslovakia Recycles Mosins: The vz.54 Sniper

December 2, 2020 Ian McCollum 57

Czechoslovakia adopted a whole new slate of small arms in the 1950s, including the vz.52 pistol vz.52 rifle, and vz.52 light machine gun. They also adopted a new sniper rifle, developed by a Moravian designed […]

Kohout & Spol 7.65mm Mars Pistol

July 15, 2020 Ian McCollum 18

The “MARS” pistols made in Czechoslovakia began with the “Slavia” line, designed by one Antonin Vilímec in 1920 or 1921. Those were basically simple copies of the vest-pocket Browning pistols, and were made until 1935. […]

Samopal vz.58: The Czechoslovakian Answer to the AK

June 19, 2020 Ian McCollum 114

Among the nations of the Warsaw Pact, only Czechoslovakia designed and produced its own infantry assault rifle – everyone else used the Kalashnikov. The Czech vz.58 is often mistaken for an AK because it has […]

Last of the Czech Mausers: the East German TGF1950 Goes to Ethiopia

February 26, 2020 Ian McCollum 12

The last batch of Mauser K98k rifles made by Brno after World War Two was a run in 1950 for East German border guards. These rifles have receivers marked “tgf 1950” in a style just […]

A Unique Partnership: Czech Mausers for Ethiopia after WWII

February 19, 2020 Ian McCollum 13

After World War Two, the Czech economy was in serious need of money to recover from the ravages of war. The arms factory at Brno was not bound by the same restrictions as German manufacturers, […]

Czechoslovakia’s First Pistol: Praga Model 1919

November 24, 2019 Ian McCollum 34

Having gained independence after World War One, Czechoslovakia looked to standardize and improve its armaments. Václav Holek went to work for the Zbrojovka Praga factory in Prague in 1918, and they introduced the Model 1919 […]

Last Gasp of the ZB26: Czech vz 52/57 LMG

July 1, 2019 Ian McCollum 40

Czechoslovakia adopted the 7.62x45mm cartridge after World War Two, introducing both a vz.52 rifle and vz.52 light machine gun using the round. It was about 200 fps faster than the Soviet standard 7.62x39mm. It was […]

CZ-2000 “Lada” – AK Czechnology in 5.56mm

December 31, 2018 Ian McCollum 28

Development of the CZ-2000 began in the 1970s as a replacement for the vz.58 rifle. The project was named “Lada”, and was essentially an improved AK-74 rifle chambered for the 5.45x39mm cartridge. The new rifle […]

Book Review: Cold War Pistols of Czechoslovakia

August 12, 2018 Ian McCollum 17

Recently, we have been looking at a selection of books on Cold War eastern bloc pistols – and James D. Brown’s “Cold War Pistols of Czechoslovakia” is the best of them. While its scope is […]