ZB vz. 26

Description

The ZB vz. 26 is a Czech light machine gun which was developed in the 1920’s. So popular was it’s design, it would see service in many countries. In fact it was held in such high regard that the British Bren and Japanese Type 96 Light Machine Guns were both heavily influenced by its design.

During World War 2 the German’s occupied Czechoslovakia and immediately took over production of the VZ 26. It was primarily issued to troops of the Waffen-SS, who at the early stages of the war had a very limited budget in comparison to the Wehrmacht and often had source it’s own equipment.

Having been produced in such high numbers and having seen wide use in WW2, post war, amongst the chaos of the repatriations and clean-ups, weapons such as this readily found themselves in the hands of the criminal underworld and paramilitaries. Their presence in these organizations would last for decades and even today the odd example still appears in an obscure civil war or police seizure.