During the war, the Allies-especially Britain, supplied many thousands of Bren's, Stens, and other weapons to partisan groups in various occupied countries. Within the last few years a MP40 with several loaded mags was discovered between the walls of a house being renovated in, IIRC, Holland. Which brings me to a question: Whatever happened to all those weapons? Were they mostly rounded up by the post-war governments or are many of them still "out there"?
There are probably a lot of "just in case" stashes scattered around. But simply erosion would have eliminated most of them by now.
Many of them are still out there and used by re-enactors and can be bought and sold on the open market I used to live not far from here - 24e bourse militaria et antiquités militaires - SAINT-MARCEL (...) - Site officiel de l'Union Française des amateurs d'Armes and every year there is a sale of all sorts of militaria. They also have many anniversaries where old WW2 bits & bobs appear TD Have a look through some of the images here saint marcel bourse militaria - Google Search
I'm sure there are stashes out there too. Do the local people know about them or has their existence and location died with the people who stashed them? I doubt erosion has washed away all of them or even a majority. I suspect they're still out there and if they were stored in waterproof containers and well oiled, they're probably still workable. Since it's almost certain that the post-war governments called for a turn in, I find it interesting that many people in many countries decided to not comply!
good question ...wouldn't the Russians have collected whatever in the occupied countries?...not to say that they were all turned in? ....if the group thought they might be needed later, wouldn't they hide them?..especially in rural areas? ..I would also think there would've been orders to turn in weapons ...?
I didn't mean conventional erosion, I meant losing them in dribs and drabs as the years go by. Someone pilfers a few, somebody else "borrows" one and loses it, someone else is short on cash and they're saleable and untraceable. Those kind of things.
In France, the French Forces of the Interior were amalgamated into the regular army as the Allies advanced across France, so most of their weapons went "on the books" and would eventually have been replaced by standard issue arms or turned in at demobilization. Not to say that some groups or individuals might not have kept a stash; the FFI comprised many factions, not all of whom were committed to de Gaulle's self-established regime. Similar situations probably existing in other occupied nations, although many of them were not liberated until the war was over.
Just cause. Post WWII surplus of armored cars and trucks on the meadows of Deelen, the Netherlands : TankPorn
I would say hard to say. In Finland hundreds of guns are still returned to police yearly. In Finland we also cleared the bombs from land and see so I was surprised that in Continental Europe this might not be the case?? So I would not be surprised there were guns up in the attic.
