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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.
This webpage was updated on Sept. 27, 2023.
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 weapon operating
and troubleshooting information, or are interested in the WWII German
army and how it operated, you've been out of luck unless you could read
the old German (Fraktur font - see some old
German here),
and tracked down a 50 to 100 year old manual. To see what others
have to say about these manuals, click on the link: WWW.MG42.US
17
US military manuals are now available on the US+Russian+British
page, and a full set of M1 Carbine blueprints.
Russian
blueprints for the AK47 are being worked on now, but it will be months
before they are ready.
222
German, 1 Swedish, 1 Yugoslav, 1 French, and a few Russian
manuals have been translated and are now available in English. See the
web pages (links are at the top of each web page) for the ever growing
selection of manuals for arms and training.
3 small German military dictionaries have been compiled into one volume
(two of them are German/English, all were published by the Germans). 14
U.S. Military manuals have been restored and are now available in lager
format (8.5" x 11") to read them more easily. A few manuals
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 MG
Manuals,
Reenacting,
Rifles/Pistols, and US+Russian+British
pages. I'm currently working on translating other manuals, and I
still have many more waiting to be done, ranging from machine pistols
to heavy weapons, and many 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 some of the
gun manuals are only possible with the manual's subject item available
for inspection and/or 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, high resolution
(1200dpi X 1200dpi), professionally printed (I used to work for a print
shop), 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, and regularly receive compliments on the quality of my manuals,
both for the clarity of the translation, text, and the quality of the
manual itself.
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 link buttons at the top of this page to see a listing of
the available translations. To
keep things simple, all
prices include U.S. postage (either
first class, or priority mail). I don't add "handling"
costs to pad the price. The price you see is the price you pay for U.S.
orders.
Foreign orders are welcome, please email me for the cost of the
additional postage.
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. The larger
the order, the bigger the postage savings. 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 to keep it under a certain
value per package.
New manuals are always wanted. All
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, either way, this means you get a copy
in English for free when it's finished. I have received at least 8 manuals
that the owners have sent to me, which I have scanned and returned in
a few days.
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.
The latest manuals are:
1. MG81 Aircraft machine gun operator manual. See the MG Manuals page.
2. Kavallerie-Fibel for the reenacting horseman. See the Reenacting page.
3. Granatbüsche 39 for the grenade launcher that was made from the rebuilt Panzerbøüsche.
See the Reenacting page.
4. Pak 38 Operator manual See the Reenacting page.
5, PPSh/PPS Repair for the fast-shooting Russian sub-machine gun. US/Russian/British
6. Panzerschreck x 3. Threee Panzerschreck manuals combined into one. Reenacting
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 70+ year old military books. I
have 30 German/English military dictionaries going back to 1826, 1 German-only
military dictionary, 3 standard German/English dictionaries, all dated
from 1925 to 1945, as well as a standard modern German/English general
dictionary, two German/English Technical and Engineering dictionaries
(one modern, one from 1884), and two sets of English dictionaries (one
pre-WWII era, one modern) to help determine the correct translation of
the text. I have used everyone of them, at one time or another.
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 (It's
good to have friends who lend me such things). The manuals were
written for people who had 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 a $30,000 gun in front
of them to see how it works, and understand the fine points of what is
in the manuals.
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.
I have had several people help me through emails with explanations
and descriptions. This allows me to provide concise wording in my
translations. Sometimes I've had to translate the German to English,
then look up the English word 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 text from a 80 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
"walk". The bullet is propelled "through the walk"
rather than the correct "through the barrel". A "libelle"
is defined as a butterfly or dragonfly, but obviously there are not two
butterflies on an MG42 lafette telescopic sight. My 1884 dictionary tells
me that "libelle" was also defined as a spirit level 135 years
ago, or as it is now called in English, a bubble level. I suppose an older
fellow wrote the manual, and a level used to be called a Libelle when
he was growing up in the early 1900's. Translating the old German get
even worse sometimes.
The words used for different parts of the gun, and even the meanings of
some of the words, have changed in the 50 to 100 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, but at this time, I have no
need, and little opportunity to use it.
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 produce.
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 simply photocopying them would be cheaper, but that 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
printing an actual original. Printing each page directly from the
computer ensures that each page is the best it can be, but the limiting
factor for graphics 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 some of the guns themselves. My most expensive
purchase of an original manual so far is $300, but recently I saw an original
MG42 repair manual sell for over $900, and an HDv241 for the MG42 sold
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, so results take far longer than they would
if this were a real, full-time job.
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 30 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 10 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
The
more manuals 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 become, 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. The cost of postage has gone up quite a bit since
I started selling manuals, and finally had to raise prices a bit to keep
up.
I always hated buying something priced at $15 and having it cost $25 by
the time I paid "shipping and handling" for 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 together
for much less than the cost of sending them one or two at a time.
Please keep in mind that I'm not doing this because I have too much money
and nothing else to do. 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 take care of it and 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
these types of manuals a few years earlier.
Your
Support is Appreciated
When
I started translating these manuals, I wondered why nobody in the last
100 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 that I enjoy.
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 military instruction manuals
that were the primary sources of information for the German armed forces.
This work needs done before the old books crumble and are lost forever
(many are very fragile now), or are hidden in collections where they will
never be seen by other people who have an interest in the arms and training
of the German military.
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 © 2023 by John Baum
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