by No1Mk3 » 07 May 2021, 2:57 am
G'day Folks,
The tgf mark is a strictly post war code, that has no actual meaning, used by the Czechs for weapons, including bayonets, machine guns, rifles etc, destined for export, particularly for other Communist occupied countries and the Middle East. It was used from 1947, perhaps 1946 but no proof of that exists that I have seen, until the last batch of 1950 contract rifles for the East German Border Guards. No credible examples of any weapon bearing the mark can be shown by proof or makers ID to be prior to 1946/7, I have a late 1944 made bayonet using Brno's German allocated code of dot, and a rifle from Brno's 2nd plant at Bystrica using their code of dou, nowhere in any German wartime literature can the mark tgf be found allocated to any factory at all, and we have almost everyone now, Terry Lapins book is a good source of reference for that. further, the long believed (by Americans) meaning of the letters is very poor German grammar according to native German speakers and was denied by people who actually worked at the plant during that time such as Zdenek Jakubec who posted extensively on Gunboards and other forums until his recent sad passing, and Pavel Zeman who worked at the plants, both Brno and CZ from 1940 until 1986. Cheers.
PS: I also have an E Lion 48 bayonet marked tgf