Dave-you are correct-the rifle cal. was std. at the 9mm (a friend has a Super Grade M54- 9mm- was redone into a M70 in .35 Whelen-most of the drillings I have seen were in 16 ga. and some-not all, were either in 7x57mm or 8x57mm-I am sure one in Mint condition with the aluminum case, cleaning supplies, issue ammo and papers would bring the figures you cited in today's gun market-If you want an insight- albiet bent by fiction a bit- read the book "The Eagle Has Landed" about a 'black ops" plan by Himmle and Rader (chief of the Abwehr then) to do an airborne drop into Northern G.B. and kidnap Churchill-rumored to have spent a week-end at some castle get-away- the Luftwaffe pilot who gets "volunteed" to fly the modified Junkers was twice passed over for the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves- even though he was a Jagstaffel (squadron leader) with 20 plus kills- because he told Herman "Fat Boy" Goring that the Brit's Supermarine Spitfire was a superior fighter to the ME-109's he flew into combat--also of interest to me was the accurate description of the difference in the parachute harness rigging used by the Germans, as opposed to the type used by the Allies- In my knife collection I have a WW11 Henkels "Falschirmjaeger" neck knife-release and gravity drop and lock the razor sharp blade to cut the risers free- very ingenious.. RWTF!!
