The Tokarev-designed weapons
relied on gas operation with a locking block
cammed downwards at the rear into a recess in the
receiver floor. The SVT38 was the first of the
Tokarev automatic rifles, replacing the Simonov
AVS, probably as being more simple, but it was
itself fragile.
A more robust version, the SVT40
shown here, was characterized by the removal of
the earlier rifle's externally mounted
cleaning rod, which was mounted instead, as per
convention, beneath the barrel. There was only a
single barrel band, beyond which a sheet metal
handguard extended forward. On the SVT40 it was
of wrap-around type as opposed to the metal and
wood forward guard of the SVT38. Air circulation
holes were drilled into the guard, and four
rectangular slots appeared through the wooden
continuation. Two variations in muzzle brake
design existed: the first had six slim baffles,
replaced in later production by a unit having
only two large baffles. Selected specimens of the
SVT40 were equipped with telescopic sights and
issued to snipers.
At the conclusion of WWII, the
Chinese and North Korean Communists inherited
large quantities of Japanese weapons from the
Soviets, who had taken them in
Manchuria/Korea.
North Korea began its assault on
the South well armed by the USSR. The
Chinese, however, were basically a querilla army,
with a wide variety of weapons and near
impossible logistics requirements. These Japanese weapons, supplemented
substantially by Soviet weapons like the PPSh
M-1941 7.62mm submachine gun (burp gun), and semi-automatic
rifles like the Tokarev SVT40 shown here, were
among the more commonly used weapons by the CCF
during the first several months of the war.
