I wouldn’t want to run into this guy in a dark alley…
Vintage Saturday: A Modern-Day Samurai
Bolt Action Rifles
RIA: Japanese Type 100 Paratrooper
The Type 100 (sometimes called the Type 0) was one of the initial Japanese experiments in paratroop rifles. Manufactured from standard Nagoya Arsenal Type 99 rifles, the Type 100 used a set of interrupted lugs […]
Flare gun
Japanese Army 35mm Type 10 Flare Pistol
The Japanese Army and Navy of the 1920s and 30s often used quite different equipment, and had a substantial interservice rivalry. Flare guns were one example of this separation, with the services using not just […]
Anti-Tank Rifles
Japanese Type 97 20mm Anti-tank Rifle
Today’s article comes to us from, Christopher Bailey, who is particularly interested in finding information and photos of these kinds of antitank weapons. He is especially interested in high-quality photos, both period and modern. If you […]
Isn’t that a Steyr mp 34 (Solothurn SI 100)?
Not according to my new copy of Max Popenker and Tony William’s book. The Japanese bought a Swiss-made Bergmann with a side cocking handle and bayonet lug – looks exactly like the one in this photo.
Well they bought Bergmann 1920’s, but this has a hooded/protected front sight and although both the si 100 and bergmann have a left side magazine this pic shows the gun with a cilinder shaped ” thingy” on top of the barrel just before the magazine housing and there is that hole in the housing for recharging a magazine.
I don’t want to run into him in a well lit alley!
No way a Bergmann, not with this perpendicular hinge across the upper receiver. There were as many as three MP 34s in Germany: EMP 34 (a factory designation), MP 34/I Bgm (a factory designation) and MP 34 o(official captured materiel designation), the latter being a Steyr S1-100. Maxim isn’t the first author to mix all three 🙂 Steyrs were exported to China – where this one was probably captured by the samurais.
I defer to Leszek’s subgun expertise, and have changed the caption. Thanks!