The end of a decades-long partnership between German arms manufacturers and China was a small lot of Kar98k Mauser rifles sent to Chiang Kai-Shek’s armies in the late 1930s.

The Gewehr 98 had served the Imperial Army well in the Great War, but was showing its age by the 1930s. This would lead to a program of modernization, and its product would become the standard service weapon of the Wehrmacht in the Second World War.

Despite victory in the Spanish-American War of 1898, it was clear that the Krag rifles in American service were inferior to the Mausers used by their enemies. This prompt would lead to the development of a new universal short rifle that would serve in two world wars and beyond.

The standard issue rifle of the Imperial German Army during the Great War, the Gewehr 98 is the quintessential “German Mauser”; the progenitor of the most successful bolt action rifle of all time.

The most modern rifle in Ottoman inventory during the Great War was an example of the excellent Mauser 98, with some special features. These rifles would serve as a pattern during the interwar Turkish upgrade program, in addition to receiving minor modifications themselves.