some relics from the cold North.

**metho31** · 07-20-2012, 11:08 PM

it is a M1 mag, used by the danes

**JD666** · 07-20-2012, 11:10 PM

Excellent thread and pictures,thanks for sharing

**Datrus** · 07-20-2012, 11:15 PM

by metho31

it is a M1 mag, used by the danes

When saying "used by the Danes" do you mean the army? Does anything point in the direction that it's of newer date? It is not a commonly issued rifle in the Danish army like the M1 Garand.

**metho31** · 07-20-2012, 11:23 PM

Bad answar from me ! no the danish resistens, i know they were wery active i that area during the war.....

**Scout** · 07-21-2012, 12:41 AM

To the best of my knowledge, the M1 Carbine was never used by the 'official' Denmark i.e. Army etc, but it was often to be found in the hands of members of the Resistance Movement. Many were air dropped in containers from England.
I have seen many mint condition M1s, which hark back to the air drops in Denmark (stacks of mags still in grease paper decades after WWII too). Most often encountered are the ubiquitous General Motors - Inland Division carbines. The Danish police used the M1 carbine to great effect for a long time too (nobody had told them, that the .30 calibre was no manstopper), but the majority of the carbines are on hunting permits (or were before the the Danish hunting laws were changed and sort of made the carbine obsolete).
How ever, it must be mentioned, that the Germans also used the M1. There are pics from, amongst other places, France with Germans wielding captured carbines (The Germans used any and all weapons, they could lay their mitts on. Though they of course did it for reason (shortage of weapons to feed the machine), it must have been a logistic nightmare; Sitting in the Demjansk Kessel an needing a firing pic for an Astra must not have been heaps of fun. They might not have had Astras there - just trying to prove a point).
Though whether or not the Germans in Denmark used the M1, I do not know.
Most likely this mag is from a 'Danish' M1.

**Datrus** · 07-21-2012, 01:13 AM

Good points. I will not completely rule out that the M1 carbine could have been issued to special units/forces post WW2. I simply do not know and have so far not been able to find info on it. This is why i made the assumption that if it was a M1 Carbine mag, it must have been from the R M guys. I doubt that the Germans adopted the M1 Carbine in Denmark. There was practically no fighting going on. As far as i remember they called Denmark for "the whipped cream" front. Flødeskumsfronten in Danish.

Regards, Lars

**herrzark** · 07-21-2012, 09:18 AM

great pics

**Scout** · 07-21-2012, 09:52 AM

by Datrus

Good points. I will not completely rule out that the M1 carbine could have been issued to special units/forces post WW2. I simply do not know and have so far not been able to find info on it. This is why i made the assumption that if it was a M1 Carbine mag, it must have been from the R M guys. I doubt that the Germans adopted the M1 Carbine in Denmark. There was practically no fighting going on. As far as i remember they called Denmark for "the whipped cream" front. Flødeskumsfronten in Danish.

Regards, Lars

Agreed, its most likely a mag from the RM. Though the Danish police used the MI post war, its much more likely, that the RM dropped the mag at that specific location.
There is no way to find out of course; the carbines and mags that the RM and later the police used were all from the same source. The police made use of the vast quantities of left over RM carbines.
As for the German angle: Its not a matter of what was issued. As you say, Denmark was the German holiday resort, when they had to take some time off from, amongst other places, the Eastern Front. Until late August '43 it was a relatively peaceful place. Many different soldiers from many different divisions sifted through there.
In the case of the STG, I have heard that these were left behind with the fighting troops, as there were simply not enough to go around on the Eastern Front.
I would assume but do not know for sure, that the M1 would have been used mostly in areas where it was captured in numbers i.e. France and other countries in Western Europe. Whether the soldiers there went on leave in Denmark, I doubt very much. Presumably, it was mostly soldiers on leave (or transit) from the Eastern Front, who went to Denmark.
The soldiers of the occupation forces in Denmark were of course all armed, though it was peaceful there for a while.
I doubt that they were armed with the M1 though. There is simply no photographic evidence or other documentation to support it. It might not have been used to any great extent by the German forces any where.
Maybe the few pics of the M1 in German hands are of rarely used guns. Again, a logistic nightmare (to rely on enemy dropped weapons, spares and ammo).

**metho31** · 07-21-2012, 09:23 PM

I know the resistance was active down there the last dayes of the war and , there was made a prison camp for the germans, that was guarded by the resistance and CB (civil beredskab) and they used the M1 .
im pretty sure the mag. came from those guys