This little carbine was made by DWM in Berlin in July of 1897 - one of 2000 for the Zuid Afrikaanse Republik - basically, the Boers.
It was captured from its owner Pieter Huijsen, on May 10th 1901, after a two-day engagement with the New South Wales Mounted Infantry, who were scouts for a large column of troops. They started off the previous day by making a huge mistake - having seen a couple of Boer riders on a ridge overlooking the route, a bunch of them had ridden off like a Tom and Jerry cartoon up to the ridge with the intention of taking them prisoner. However, that is where the wheels fell off. There were a couple of hundred Boers waiting for them, and they got shot to sh*t.
Such success couldn't and didn't last, and the tide turned the following morning, and the Boers were beaten back, many having been taken prisoner - it was called the Battle of Korrannafontein - the name then, and now, of the large farmstead in that area.
Here - for some reason I've taken out the cleaning rod - maybe to clean it?
Pieter Huijsen's name crudely cut into the stock -
My serial number - 6991 -
Forgotten Weapons - Ian's demo example -
It is, of course, in 7x57 Mauser, that flat-shooting long round-nosed 175gr bullet that the Boers - a nation of farmers AND riflemen - could deliver with amazing accuracy at individual targets - sound familiar? Officers were prime game, and lasted as long as morning mist when engaging in long-range two-way shooting matches with Boer riflemen - some as young as twelve.
In the end, the butcher's bill was astonishing - and one sided, but not the way you think it was.
Around 2000 Boers died.
Around 6000 British Empire troops and auxiliaries died.
And around 26,000 women and children died in the 'concentration' camps invented by the British.
The shame of it lives on to this day.
PS - if anybody wants to know more, I've translated most of the archival material into English, for most of which I'm indebted to Mr Pieter De Jaeger of Korannafontein Farm, Natal, RSA.