Kb wz. 98a

Karabin wz.98a
Type	Service rifle
Place of origin	Poland
Service history
In service	1936 to 1940
Used by	Poland Germany as Gewehr 299(p)
Wars	World War II
Production history
Designed	1934
Produced	1936 to 1939
Number built	44,500
Specifications
Weight	4.36 kg (9.6 lb)
Length	1,150 mm (45 in)
Barrel length	740 mm (29 in)
Cartridge	7.92×57mm Mauser
Caliber	7.9 mm
Action	Bolt-action
Rate of fire	approx 15 round/min
Muzzle velocity	880 m/s (2,900 ft/s)
Feed system	5 rounds internal box

Karabin wzor 98a (Kb wz.98a) was a Polish bolt-action rifle based on the German Gewehr 98.

Design History

After regaining independence, the Polish Army was armed with Russian (Mosin), Austrian (mainly Mannlicher M1895) and German (Mauser M1898) rifles. Even French rifles (Berthier and Lebel) appeared along with Blue Army soldiers.

As a result, at the end of the Polish-Soviet War in 1921 the Polish army was armed with approximately 24 types of guns and 22 types of rifles, all firing different ammunition. Since such a combination of designs impeded training and logistics, work on one standard type of rifle was carried out starting in 1919. Initially it was assumed that the Lebel would be adopted, but it was quickly rejected as an obsolete design. Later on, proposals for adoption as a standard rifle included the Mannlicher M1895 or Mauser M1912 (produced in Austria for Mexico).

Finally, after the award of the Council of Ambassadors to Poland by the Gdansk branch plants Mauser, was admitted to the Military Rifle Gew98 (German version of the Mauser M1898) as wz.98. Machinery factory in Gdańsk to Warsaw, to the newly created National Rifle Factory. Production at the new plants started in July 1922.

In 1924, after approximately 22,000 rifles were manufactured, wz.98 production ended. They took the place of wz.98 rifles (as the Mauser M1898 was designated), and later carbines (short rifles) wz. 29.

In the first half of the thirties as a result of changes in Polish doctrine extended distance, which was to be driven to the fire of the infantry 1200–1500 meters. New requirements could not cope with kbk wz.29, so in 1934 decided to resume production of the wz.98 gun, or rather its improved version wz.98a (it was a new notch sight under the curve and not on the shoulder, and derived a new bayonet mount with wz.29).

Production started at the National Arms Factory in Radom in 1936; the two years' delay between adoption and the start of production was due to the need for seasoning wood bed rifles.

Until the outbreak of war in 1939 produced 500 rifles wz.98a. They accounted for (with kb kbk wz.98 and wz.98 and wz.29) basic armaments of the Polish army. Acquired copies wz.98 rifle were also taken to arms by the Wehrmacht as the Gewehr 299 (p).

Technical overview

The wz.98a rifle was mechanically identical to the German M1898 Mauser rifle. It was a bolt-action repeating rifle, using a rotating bolt turned 90 degrees to lock or unlock. Locking was by means of two locking lugs at the front of the bolt, with a safety lug at the rear. Ammunition was fed from a fixed box magazine holding five rounds in a staggered alignment. The safety was mounted on the rear of the bolt assembly. The rifle was fitted with iron sights, a tapered front sight blade and a tangent-type rear sight with a V-shaped notch, graduated from 100 to 2000 meters in 100 meters step. The rifle used the bayonets wz.22, wz.24, wz.25, wz.27, wz.28 or wz.29.

Bibliography

• Zbigniew Nail, Piotr Zarzycki, the Polish construction arms, SIGMA NOT 1993. ISBN 83-85001-69-7
• Roman Matuszewski, Ireneusz J. Wojciechowski, TBiU no. 91 Mauser rifle wz. 1898, WMON 1983. ISBN 83-11-06993-X
• Instruction on infantry weapons, repeating rifle Mauser wz syst. 1898, Publisher Bookshop Military Min Spr. Prov 1928