1934-45 German Kar98K Rifle, Backbone of the Wehrmacht (Book Collector Grade Pubns, 1991)

The history of the K98k rifle :

The result of improvements made to the Mauser Gewehr 98 rifle after the end of the First World War,

 the weapon destined to become Germany's principal battle rifle of the Second World War evolved from the Mauser Standard Gewehr straight-breech rifle of the late 1920s,

 the code-named Gewehr für Deutsches Reichpost and the Original-Mauser-Standard-Gewehr of the early Nazi era.

The Karabiner 98k (abbreviated 98 Carbine) was officially adopted on June 21, 1935 as the standard service weapon of the rejuvenated German army.

By the end of the Second World War, in May 1945, over 14 million K98k carbines had been produced, in more than 100 combinations of maker codes and date markings.