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There is an interesting story about those Israeli Mausers and the 6-day war. Before the war began Israel had purchased FN-FAL's to replace the mixed bag of mostly 98 Mausers in their arsenals. Their troops rode into battle on the tanks, and in the process the new rifles became so full of dirt and sand that when the fighting started the FAL's fired - once. Literally in the dark of night, the new rifles were pulled back and front line troops issued 98 Mausers, which went bang and didn't seem to care about little details like sand and dirt.
Then came the spin. The FAL's were cleaned up and issued to rear-area troops; the press was told that now Israel now had so many first line automatic rifles that they could even issue them to rear area soldiers. It was years before anyone outside the Israeli and U.S. military caught on.
Jim
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