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This is your source for English translations of original German gun manuals for rifles,
pistols, machineguns, accessories, and German military training and equipment
manuals for reenactors and historians. If you need a German weapon manual or want
to learn about the German military but don't read German, you've come to the right
place.
Original German weapon, field, training, and accessory manuals are tough to find,
expensive, and of course, written in German. With WWII and earlier manuals, they are
often written in the old style German. If you collect manuals that's fine, but if you want
or need the operating and troubleshooting information, or are interested in the German
army and how it operated, you've been out of luck unless you could read German or the
old German (Fraktur font - see old German), and tracked down a 60 to 90 year old
manual.
114 German manuals have been translated to English. A few of these have been
combined into single volumes, and two are available in the original German as well as
English. All are now for sale on the Manuals and Reenacting pages. I'm currently
working on translating other manuals, and I still have many more waiting to be done
ranging from a 1905 Maxim operator's manual to a 1944 Instruction Manual for the
Panzertroops, plus other manuals that will be of interest for reenacting and general
history lovers. All will be translated as my time allows. I do have a full-time job to pay
the bills, so these things always take longer than I would like.
The German language is difficult to translate because of the loose and multiple meanings
of many words. Accurate translations of gun manuals are usually only possible with the
manual's subject item available for inspection and disassembly. Members of the
collector community have been very supportive in lending their hardware or providing
access to their guns and manuals so that I can accurately complete the translations.
Great care has been taken in providing the most accurate and easy to understand
translations, as well as the best quality graphics possible.
Most manuals are 5.5”W x 8.5” H, with a heavy paper cover (exceptions are noted).
These manuals are high quality, professionally printed on acid-free paper and are not the
usual poor quality photocopied photocopies often found on the web. I've bought a few
of those, and I was disappointed too. I go to great lengths to produce a quality product.
The original manuals are the only source for the information they contain, are very rare,
and of course, expensive. The thick collector books for some of these guns are great for
history, development, production statistics, and pictures of the accessories, but lack
useful details or don't even mention the actual hands-on operation, training, repair and
troubleshooting for the guns themselves. If you've wanted an original "owner's manual"
for your German MG or other German gun, or wanted to know the fine points of
German army training, these books and manuals that have never been translated before
are now available in English.
Click on the Gun Manuals and Reenacting links to see a listing of the available
translations. All prices include U.S. postage (either first class, or priority mail). If
you want more than just a few manuals, inquire about a postage discount. When the
package weighs more than 13 ounces, I may be able to send it cheaper by using a
priority mail flat-rate package. Foreign orders are welcome, please email me for the cost
of the additional postage. The larger the order, the bigger the discount. Often, about 8-
10 manuals can be sent overseas for no extra postage fees, but larger orders may require
customs fees for the buyer. Decide what works best for you, then contact me to work
out any details. You may prefer to have your order sent in a few separate packages. U.
S. postage to other countries is very reasonable.
New manuals are always wanted. I'd especially like to find the manuals - HDv 181/1
through 4, and HDv 488/3, but all other manuals will be considered. Let me know
what you have. If it is worth the work, I'll translate it. I don't need to buy it, or even
borrow it. It can be scanned and emailed to me, or as some people have done, the book
can be loaned to me and I'll return it promptly after I scan it. Of course, this means you
get a copy in English for free when it's finished.
If you're looking for a German manual you don't see here, I may have it or know where
I can get it. Ask and I'll let you know what I can do. I've emailed scans of a few pages
to those in need of something I don't have translated yet, and found manuals for some
very rare pieces that aren't in demand enough to translate.
If you'd like to know about a manual for something in particular, send me an email with
your request. Email addresses will not be used for any other purpose, shared with
anyone, nor made public.
To give you an idea of the amount of work involved in translating the old German,
click for a picture of an original page from an MG 08/15 manual. You'll see why
translating these manuals can take a ridiculous amount of time to complete.
This webpage was updated on Feb. 8, 2012.
The East German armorer's manual for the Russian DP machinegun is now in English.
After several requests, I've translated the modern German night vision scope
manual for the recently imported German night vision optics for the G3 rifle and
MG3 machinegun. TDv 5855/013-13 FERO-Z51 ZUB is ready now.
The Denckler manuals "How do I Become a Marksman" and "Correct Marching"
are now in English. See the Reenacting page.
The latest manual is the Mauser manual for the HSc Pistol - See the Gun Manuals
page (at the bottom).
Did you ever try to figure out how to set up your MG34 or MG42 MGZ or MGZ
40 lafette telescopic sight, or how to use an aiming circle, or wonder about aiming
stakes and how to use the aluminum measuring triangle or
deckungswinkelmesser? How about why the scope needs to be able to turn so far
to the side? The 1942 indirect fire manual explains it all. See the MG42 section
of the Manuals page.
The new Close Combat training manual from an SS school is done. This one even
shows using the MG34 on horseback, shovel fighting, self-defense, grenade
practice, and more. See the Reenacting page for details.
1943 Reibert: The paperback and hard cover editions have been discovered by the
reenactors and history buffs. 448 pages means this is an extremely thorough
instruction book, with details previously unknown by those who don't read
German. If you've liked the other training manuals, this book is a must have.
See the full description and scans of some of the pages on my Reenacting page (at
the bottom).
See the Gun Manuals or Reenacting pages for details.
An Explanation
It's Not Easy
These manuals have been translated the hard way, one word at a time by manual labor.
There is no computer program I've found which produces an accurate, or even
understandable translation for the old German. The results from a $400 translator
program are OK (sometimes) for modern German, but are incoherent when translating
60+ year old military books. I have 24 German/English military dictionaries, one
German-only military dictionary, and three standard German/English dictionaries, all
dated from 1925 to 1945, as well as a standard modern German/English general
dictionary, a German/English technical and engineering dictionary, and two sets of
English dictionaries (one old, one modern) to help determine the correct translation of
the text. I often have the actual gun or equipment sitting next to me for examination in
order to be sure that I choose the correct meaning from among the several different
English possibilities for translating the German word. The manuals were written for
people with the gun at hand, so a lack of clear, concise text is understandable for the
originals. I do my best to make it fully understandable for readers who don't have the
$30,000 gun in front of them to see how it works.
The guns and equipment which I don't have are either loaned to me by other collectors,
or I'm allowed access to them for examination and disassembly. Sometimes I've had to
translate the German to English, then look up the English definition in a World War II
era English dictionary because the English word is not in common use anymore and I
want to be sure I get it right. It all takes a ridiculous amount of time..
This is not a "type it in and hit the Translate button" job. I've tried computer translation
programs, both online and on disk. They may be adequate (at best) for modern
German, but of course were not designed to properly work with a 60 year old manual
with special vocabulary and uncommon meanings. The results are useless, so the hard
way is the only way for this job to be done right. A barrel used to be a "lauf", but
modern German uses the word "rohr". "Lauf" in modern German can mean "run". The
bullet is hurled "by the run" rather than the correct "through the barrel". It is much
worse sometimes.
.
The words used for different parts of the gun, and even the meanings of some of the
words, have changed in the 60 to 90 years since these manuals were first published.
Each word of the original manual has been translated and typed in, and each illustration
has been scanned and usually enhanced, touched up, or cleaned of the old "freckles"
and crease-line flaws that have appeared through the decades.
I do not speak German, nor do I write it. I have learned to read it, and can read the old
German font so that I can translate these manuals. Speaking and reading/writing any
language are actually two separate things. Children learn to speak years before they
learn to read and write. I learned to read German, and then the old German. Maybe
some day I'll learn to speak the language too.
Graphics Quality
Every effort has been made to keep the picture and diagram quality as high as possible,
but most of these fragile old manuals were printed on low quality, rough surface paper
which wasn't intended to last for decades and certainly didn't preserve well. Some
pictures were poor quality to start with, and have steadily deteriorated since being
published. The pictures in the translated manuals in many cases have been improved
from the originals, but there is only so much that can be done with an original, poor
quality picture. If a picture isn't what it ought to be, the original was likely a lot worse.
On some manuals, I've spent more time working on the pictures than doing the actual
translation, and I even have a few manuals that I won't translate because the pictures are
so bad they can't be restored. Producing a quality product is important to me, so I make
every effort to reach that goal. You're not going to find a 3rd generation copy of a bad
photocopy in the manuals I've produced.
Printing
All manuals are printed on acid-free paper directly from the computer files by a high
resolution printer. Bulk printing from photographic plates or using a photocopier is
cheaper, but degrades the quality (I tried), especially when the graphics were marginal to
begin with. Those methods are just copies of an original print, and can't be as good as
the actual original. Printing each page directly from the computer ensures that each page
is the best it can be, but the limiting factor is the original manual. Some manuals for sale
will have better quality graphics than others because of the source material.
A Very Limited Market
These manuals fill a need in an extremely small market. If a fortune was waiting to be
made by translating and selling these manuals, someone else would have done it 50
years ago. The expense to acquire the original manuals for translation is high because
the manuals are very collectible and more rare than the guns themselves. My most
expensive purchase of an original manual so far is $275, but recently I saw an original
HDv241 for the MG42 sell for over $700. Fortunately, that excellent manual was
scanned and emailed to me a few years ago by a collector in Oklahoma (thanks Brad).
The manuals are very time consuming to scan, translate, type in, reword, restore the
graphics and insert them in the text, and then set up for printing. When learning to read
the old style German script, just to determine the spelling was quite a task in itself. I
have 7 months of (part time) work in the 1940 Battalion Tactics manual alone, with
several others taking 3 months, and the Reibert taking 11 months. As my experience
has progressed in translating German, these manuals are finished much faster than they
used to be, but they are still very time consuming to complete. My real job and family
obligations limit the time I have for this hobby.
Printing a few thousand (or even several hundred) copies of each manual would
certainly lower the price per manual, but that's only if the copies would sell. The limited
number of buyers for a particular manual would mean a garage full of unsold copies,
and each new manual completed would result in a further investment that would take
years or decades to recover. For example, the question of how many MG26(t) (ZB-26)
automatic rifles are out there, and how many people will be interested in buying a
manual for one, has an effect on the price of the manual. If I work for 3 weeks and
only sell 50 copies in 4 years, the price for the manual has to reflect that. The ZB-26 is
a fine gun, and I have completed a 1940-dated 48 page manual, but I know that I can't
afford to sell 60 hours of work (plus printing costs) for $5 a copy. The cost for printing
100 manuals at a time is much higher per manual compared to the cost per manual for
printing a thousand or more. Buy a few hundred manuals and we can make a deal!
Pricing
You may notice I've reduced prices on some of the manuals. If I sell enough copies of
a particular manual, I can reduce the price as I recover some profit for my time and
expenses. The more I sell, the cheaper the cost to produce these manuals. Any
business has to make money to survive, but I'll try to keep the prices as reasonable as I
can. The more manuals I translate, the faster I get at it, which means I can sell the
more recently translated manuals cheaper. The initial cost of the original manual, weeks
or months spent translating it (the older it is, the harder it is to translate), the number of
pages, and if color printing is involved, all determine the selling price. U.S. first class or
priority mail postage is included in the price and I don't add "handling" charges to pad
the cost. I always hated buying something for $15 and having it cost $25 by the time I
got it, so I don't run my business that way. Let me know if you want several manuals.
When I save time, postage, and gas going to the post office, I can pass the savings on to
you. It may not be more than a few dollars, but it is only fair. The larger the order, the
bigger the savings. This especially applies to foreign orders, as I can send several
manuals for only a bit more cost than just one or two.
Please keep in mind that I'm not doing this because I have too much money and nothing
to do when I come home from my real job. By not copying the manuals for your
buddies, you enable me to sell more, which means I can afford to buy and translate
other manuals.
Thanks Guys
Members of the collector community have been very encouraging and supportive by
lending their manuals and allowing me to disassemble and examine some very expensive
hardware (such as the MKb and FG42). Their help is greatly appreciated, and keeps
these translations from being awkward and inaccurate. Some of the manuals have the
names of those who have allowed access to their collections or have loaned me their
original manuals, some from the U.S, and some from other countries. These guys
should be commended for their contributions to the gun collecting community. If you
recognize any of the names, be sure to tell them thanks for all of us when you see
them. Without their help, these manuals couldn't be as accurate as they are, some
wouldn't have been translated, and some I wouldn't even know about. I certainly
appreciate their help, and letting them know that others do too is good manners to say
the least. They share their collections in this way to advance the sport for the benefit of
us all. That's first class behavior. A life-long collector who gave me a great deal of
support and full access to his collection in the years before he died, once told me that he
didn't feel that his collection was his personal property; it belonged to History. He just
got to enjoy it for a while. Very nice.
As I've been translating non-gun and training manuals that are of special interest to
military historians and reenactors, I'm finding the same support I've had with the gun
community. I can only wish I had started doing this a few years earlier.
Your Support is Appreciated
When I started translating these manuals, I wondered why nobody in the last 90 years
had translated any of them. Certainly there was a need and interest for it. Now I know
why: it's hard, takes a ridiculous amount of time, and will never make enough profit to
be a full time job, or even pay a decent hourly wage like a real job. It is, however, a
great hobby. There are no other sources for the information contained in these aging
manuals. These are the original training, operating, and maintenance manuals for these
guns and accessories, and infantry instruction manuals that were the primary sources of
information for the German soldiers. This work needs done before the old books start
to crumble and are lost forever, or are hidden in collections where they will never be
seen by people who have an interest in the arms and training of the German military of
this turbulent time.
Your support is appreciated and allows me to continue the work.
To see how to place an order, click on the "Orders" link.
Contents of this page © 2012 by John Baum
pistols, machineguns, accessories, and German military training and equipment
manuals for reenactors and historians. If you need a German weapon manual or want
to learn about the German military but don't read German, you've come to the right
place.
Original German weapon, field, training, and accessory manuals are tough to find,
expensive, and of course, written in German. With WWII and earlier manuals, they are
often written in the old style German. If you collect manuals that's fine, but if you want
or need the operating and troubleshooting information, or are interested in the German
army and how it operated, you've been out of luck unless you could read German or the
old German (Fraktur font - see old German), and tracked down a 60 to 90 year old
manual.
114 German manuals have been translated to English. A few of these have been
combined into single volumes, and two are available in the original German as well as
English. All are now for sale on the Manuals and Reenacting pages. I'm currently
working on translating other manuals, and I still have many more waiting to be done
ranging from a 1905 Maxim operator's manual to a 1944 Instruction Manual for the
Panzertroops, plus other manuals that will be of interest for reenacting and general
history lovers. All will be translated as my time allows. I do have a full-time job to pay
the bills, so these things always take longer than I would like.
The German language is difficult to translate because of the loose and multiple meanings
of many words. Accurate translations of gun manuals are usually only possible with the
manual's subject item available for inspection and disassembly. Members of the
collector community have been very supportive in lending their hardware or providing
access to their guns and manuals so that I can accurately complete the translations.
Great care has been taken in providing the most accurate and easy to understand
translations, as well as the best quality graphics possible.
Most manuals are 5.5”W x 8.5” H, with a heavy paper cover (exceptions are noted).
These manuals are high quality, professionally printed on acid-free paper and are not the
usual poor quality photocopied photocopies often found on the web. I've bought a few
of those, and I was disappointed too. I go to great lengths to produce a quality product.
The original manuals are the only source for the information they contain, are very rare,
and of course, expensive. The thick collector books for some of these guns are great for
history, development, production statistics, and pictures of the accessories, but lack
useful details or don't even mention the actual hands-on operation, training, repair and
troubleshooting for the guns themselves. If you've wanted an original "owner's manual"
for your German MG or other German gun, or wanted to know the fine points of
German army training, these books and manuals that have never been translated before
are now available in English.
Click on the Gun Manuals and Reenacting links to see a listing of the available
translations. All prices include U.S. postage (either first class, or priority mail). If
you want more than just a few manuals, inquire about a postage discount. When the
package weighs more than 13 ounces, I may be able to send it cheaper by using a
priority mail flat-rate package. Foreign orders are welcome, please email me for the cost
of the additional postage. The larger the order, the bigger the discount. Often, about 8-
10 manuals can be sent overseas for no extra postage fees, but larger orders may require
customs fees for the buyer. Decide what works best for you, then contact me to work
out any details. You may prefer to have your order sent in a few separate packages. U.
S. postage to other countries is very reasonable.
New manuals are always wanted. I'd especially like to find the manuals - HDv 181/1
through 4, and HDv 488/3, but all other manuals will be considered. Let me know
what you have. If it is worth the work, I'll translate it. I don't need to buy it, or even
borrow it. It can be scanned and emailed to me, or as some people have done, the book
can be loaned to me and I'll return it promptly after I scan it. Of course, this means you
get a copy in English for free when it's finished.
If you're looking for a German manual you don't see here, I may have it or know where
I can get it. Ask and I'll let you know what I can do. I've emailed scans of a few pages
to those in need of something I don't have translated yet, and found manuals for some
very rare pieces that aren't in demand enough to translate.
If you'd like to know about a manual for something in particular, send me an email with
your request. Email addresses will not be used for any other purpose, shared with
anyone, nor made public.
To give you an idea of the amount of work involved in translating the old German,
click for a picture of an original page from an MG 08/15 manual. You'll see why
translating these manuals can take a ridiculous amount of time to complete.
This webpage was updated on Feb. 8, 2012.
The East German armorer's manual for the Russian DP machinegun is now in English.
After several requests, I've translated the modern German night vision scope
manual for the recently imported German night vision optics for the G3 rifle and
MG3 machinegun. TDv 5855/013-13 FERO-Z51 ZUB is ready now.
The Denckler manuals "How do I Become a Marksman" and "Correct Marching"
are now in English. See the Reenacting page.
The latest manual is the Mauser manual for the HSc Pistol - See the Gun Manuals
page (at the bottom).
Did you ever try to figure out how to set up your MG34 or MG42 MGZ or MGZ
40 lafette telescopic sight, or how to use an aiming circle, or wonder about aiming
stakes and how to use the aluminum measuring triangle or
deckungswinkelmesser? How about why the scope needs to be able to turn so far
to the side? The 1942 indirect fire manual explains it all. See the MG42 section
of the Manuals page.
The new Close Combat training manual from an SS school is done. This one even
shows using the MG34 on horseback, shovel fighting, self-defense, grenade
practice, and more. See the Reenacting page for details.
1943 Reibert: The paperback and hard cover editions have been discovered by the
reenactors and history buffs. 448 pages means this is an extremely thorough
instruction book, with details previously unknown by those who don't read
German. If you've liked the other training manuals, this book is a must have.
See the full description and scans of some of the pages on my Reenacting page (at
the bottom).
See the Gun Manuals or Reenacting pages for details.
An Explanation
It's Not Easy
These manuals have been translated the hard way, one word at a time by manual labor.
There is no computer program I've found which produces an accurate, or even
understandable translation for the old German. The results from a $400 translator
program are OK (sometimes) for modern German, but are incoherent when translating
60+ year old military books. I have 24 German/English military dictionaries, one
German-only military dictionary, and three standard German/English dictionaries, all
dated from 1925 to 1945, as well as a standard modern German/English general
dictionary, a German/English technical and engineering dictionary, and two sets of
English dictionaries (one old, one modern) to help determine the correct translation of
the text. I often have the actual gun or equipment sitting next to me for examination in
order to be sure that I choose the correct meaning from among the several different
English possibilities for translating the German word. The manuals were written for
people with the gun at hand, so a lack of clear, concise text is understandable for the
originals. I do my best to make it fully understandable for readers who don't have the
$30,000 gun in front of them to see how it works.
The guns and equipment which I don't have are either loaned to me by other collectors,
or I'm allowed access to them for examination and disassembly. Sometimes I've had to
translate the German to English, then look up the English definition in a World War II
era English dictionary because the English word is not in common use anymore and I
want to be sure I get it right. It all takes a ridiculous amount of time..
This is not a "type it in and hit the Translate button" job. I've tried computer translation
programs, both online and on disk. They may be adequate (at best) for modern
German, but of course were not designed to properly work with a 60 year old manual
with special vocabulary and uncommon meanings. The results are useless, so the hard
way is the only way for this job to be done right. A barrel used to be a "lauf", but
modern German uses the word "rohr". "Lauf" in modern German can mean "run". The
bullet is hurled "by the run" rather than the correct "through the barrel". It is much
worse sometimes.
.
The words used for different parts of the gun, and even the meanings of some of the
words, have changed in the 60 to 90 years since these manuals were first published.
Each word of the original manual has been translated and typed in, and each illustration
has been scanned and usually enhanced, touched up, or cleaned of the old "freckles"
and crease-line flaws that have appeared through the decades.
I do not speak German, nor do I write it. I have learned to read it, and can read the old
German font so that I can translate these manuals. Speaking and reading/writing any
language are actually two separate things. Children learn to speak years before they
learn to read and write. I learned to read German, and then the old German. Maybe
some day I'll learn to speak the language too.
Graphics Quality
Every effort has been made to keep the picture and diagram quality as high as possible,
but most of these fragile old manuals were printed on low quality, rough surface paper
which wasn't intended to last for decades and certainly didn't preserve well. Some
pictures were poor quality to start with, and have steadily deteriorated since being
published. The pictures in the translated manuals in many cases have been improved
from the originals, but there is only so much that can be done with an original, poor
quality picture. If a picture isn't what it ought to be, the original was likely a lot worse.
On some manuals, I've spent more time working on the pictures than doing the actual
translation, and I even have a few manuals that I won't translate because the pictures are
so bad they can't be restored. Producing a quality product is important to me, so I make
every effort to reach that goal. You're not going to find a 3rd generation copy of a bad
photocopy in the manuals I've produced.
Printing
All manuals are printed on acid-free paper directly from the computer files by a high
resolution printer. Bulk printing from photographic plates or using a photocopier is
cheaper, but degrades the quality (I tried), especially when the graphics were marginal to
begin with. Those methods are just copies of an original print, and can't be as good as
the actual original. Printing each page directly from the computer ensures that each page
is the best it can be, but the limiting factor is the original manual. Some manuals for sale
will have better quality graphics than others because of the source material.
A Very Limited Market
These manuals fill a need in an extremely small market. If a fortune was waiting to be
made by translating and selling these manuals, someone else would have done it 50
years ago. The expense to acquire the original manuals for translation is high because
the manuals are very collectible and more rare than the guns themselves. My most
expensive purchase of an original manual so far is $275, but recently I saw an original
HDv241 for the MG42 sell for over $700. Fortunately, that excellent manual was
scanned and emailed to me a few years ago by a collector in Oklahoma (thanks Brad).
The manuals are very time consuming to scan, translate, type in, reword, restore the
graphics and insert them in the text, and then set up for printing. When learning to read
the old style German script, just to determine the spelling was quite a task in itself. I
have 7 months of (part time) work in the 1940 Battalion Tactics manual alone, with
several others taking 3 months, and the Reibert taking 11 months. As my experience
has progressed in translating German, these manuals are finished much faster than they
used to be, but they are still very time consuming to complete. My real job and family
obligations limit the time I have for this hobby.
Printing a few thousand (or even several hundred) copies of each manual would
certainly lower the price per manual, but that's only if the copies would sell. The limited
number of buyers for a particular manual would mean a garage full of unsold copies,
and each new manual completed would result in a further investment that would take
years or decades to recover. For example, the question of how many MG26(t) (ZB-26)
automatic rifles are out there, and how many people will be interested in buying a
manual for one, has an effect on the price of the manual. If I work for 3 weeks and
only sell 50 copies in 4 years, the price for the manual has to reflect that. The ZB-26 is
a fine gun, and I have completed a 1940-dated 48 page manual, but I know that I can't
afford to sell 60 hours of work (plus printing costs) for $5 a copy. The cost for printing
100 manuals at a time is much higher per manual compared to the cost per manual for
printing a thousand or more. Buy a few hundred manuals and we can make a deal!
Pricing
You may notice I've reduced prices on some of the manuals. If I sell enough copies of
a particular manual, I can reduce the price as I recover some profit for my time and
expenses. The more I sell, the cheaper the cost to produce these manuals. Any
business has to make money to survive, but I'll try to keep the prices as reasonable as I
can. The more manuals I translate, the faster I get at it, which means I can sell the
more recently translated manuals cheaper. The initial cost of the original manual, weeks
or months spent translating it (the older it is, the harder it is to translate), the number of
pages, and if color printing is involved, all determine the selling price. U.S. first class or
priority mail postage is included in the price and I don't add "handling" charges to pad
the cost. I always hated buying something for $15 and having it cost $25 by the time I
got it, so I don't run my business that way. Let me know if you want several manuals.
When I save time, postage, and gas going to the post office, I can pass the savings on to
you. It may not be more than a few dollars, but it is only fair. The larger the order, the
bigger the savings. This especially applies to foreign orders, as I can send several
manuals for only a bit more cost than just one or two.
Please keep in mind that I'm not doing this because I have too much money and nothing
to do when I come home from my real job. By not copying the manuals for your
buddies, you enable me to sell more, which means I can afford to buy and translate
other manuals.
Thanks Guys
Members of the collector community have been very encouraging and supportive by
lending their manuals and allowing me to disassemble and examine some very expensive
hardware (such as the MKb and FG42). Their help is greatly appreciated, and keeps
these translations from being awkward and inaccurate. Some of the manuals have the
names of those who have allowed access to their collections or have loaned me their
original manuals, some from the U.S, and some from other countries. These guys
should be commended for their contributions to the gun collecting community. If you
recognize any of the names, be sure to tell them thanks for all of us when you see
them. Without their help, these manuals couldn't be as accurate as they are, some
wouldn't have been translated, and some I wouldn't even know about. I certainly
appreciate their help, and letting them know that others do too is good manners to say
the least. They share their collections in this way to advance the sport for the benefit of
us all. That's first class behavior. A life-long collector who gave me a great deal of
support and full access to his collection in the years before he died, once told me that he
didn't feel that his collection was his personal property; it belonged to History. He just
got to enjoy it for a while. Very nice.
As I've been translating non-gun and training manuals that are of special interest to
military historians and reenactors, I'm finding the same support I've had with the gun
community. I can only wish I had started doing this a few years earlier.
Your Support is Appreciated
When I started translating these manuals, I wondered why nobody in the last 90 years
had translated any of them. Certainly there was a need and interest for it. Now I know
why: it's hard, takes a ridiculous amount of time, and will never make enough profit to
be a full time job, or even pay a decent hourly wage like a real job. It is, however, a
great hobby. There are no other sources for the information contained in these aging
manuals. These are the original training, operating, and maintenance manuals for these
guns and accessories, and infantry instruction manuals that were the primary sources of
information for the German soldiers. This work needs done before the old books start
to crumble and are lost forever, or are hidden in collections where they will never be
seen by people who have an interest in the arms and training of the German military of
this turbulent time.
Your support is appreciated and allows me to continue the work.
To see how to place an order, click on the "Orders" link.
Contents of this page © 2012 by John Baum
| Knob Creek in April is cancelled due to bridge problems. I will be at Show of Shows in Louisville, KY on Feb. 23, 24, 25 |