Mauser C96 Pistol - Broomhandle Mauser
Production date
1896-1937
Country
Germany
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Object detail
Description
7.63mm calibre "Broomhandle" pistol (automatic). Black steel and dark wooden butt. Metal slightly marred. Lanyard ring on base of handle. Owners initials scratched on inside of butt. Re-blued at some stage (and re-cleaned).
Classification
CH classification ARMS & ARMOUR Firearms pistol
Maker
Production date
1896-1937
Production place
Measurements
L280 x W145 x H33 mm
Media/Materials description
Steel (Metals - Ferrous), Indeterminate (Woods)
Signature/Marks
WAFFENFABRIK MAUSER \ OBERNDORF A NECKAR \ 3191
History and use
This Mauser C96 Automatic Pistol was the property of Hilton Keith Smith, a soldier who died while a prisoner of war of the Japanese during World War II.
Hilton joined the Australian Army in May 1940, and was sent to Singapore. Apparently unimpressed with the security of Singapore, Hilton sent a letter home requesting that his mother take his pistol, dismantle it, bake the pieces into a cake and send it to him. To avoid the notice of the military censors who read all mail, he phrased the request in ways that would be meaningless to anyone outside the family.
Singapore surrendered to the Japanese on February 15th 1942. The mail with Hilton's cake had not arrived at Singapore when it fell, and after many months the package was returned to his family unopened. Hilton served as a P.O.W., labouring on the Burma Railway before being moved to Japan to work in a coal mine. There, along with several other prisoners, he was forced to stand at attention outdoors for 24 hours in the middle of winter because someone in the slave barracks had been smoking without permission. He caught pneumonia and died on 26th February 1943, two weeks after his 26th birthday.
Hilton joined the Australian Army in May 1940, and was sent to Singapore. Apparently unimpressed with the security of Singapore, Hilton sent a letter home requesting that his mother take his pistol, dismantle it, bake the pieces into a cake and send it to him. To avoid the notice of the military censors who read all mail, he phrased the request in ways that would be meaningless to anyone outside the family.
Singapore surrendered to the Japanese on February 15th 1942. The mail with Hilton's cake had not arrived at Singapore when it fell, and after many months the package was returned to his family unopened. Hilton served as a P.O.W., labouring on the Burma Railway before being moved to Japan to work in a coal mine. There, along with several other prisoners, he was forced to stand at attention outdoors for 24 hours in the middle of winter because someone in the slave barracks had been smoking without permission. He caught pneumonia and died on 26th February 1943, two weeks after his 26th birthday.
Registration number
H28489.1
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