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On the other hand, vast quantities of Wehrmacht equipment was readily available and Norway wisely chose to adopt most of it for its own use. When the war concluded, the Norwegian government had no organized armed forces to speak of, and even fewer arms than men, mostly outdated Krag Jorgensen rifles. It has been estimated that on the order of 300,000 to 350,000 K98k rifles were turned in to Norwegian authorities. When the surrender came there were no fewer than 400,000 German troops in Norway, which at that time had a population of barely 4 million. Norway was occupied by German forces throughout the bulk of the war and when the Reich surrendered to allied forces in 1945, General Franz Böhme announced the unconditional surrender of German troops in Norway on May 7, the same day as Jodl signed the unconditional surrender document on behalf of the Third Reich, Hitler having committed suicide several days earlier. The "k" is for Kurz, which means "short" in German. The K98k was the primary infantry rifle for the German Wehrmacht during World War II. Note: Pics of rifle provided courtesy of moderator Claven2. (26 picture virtual tour) Observations: (by "Claven2") Backbone of the Wehrmacht (The German K98k Rifle, 1934 - 1945) by Richard D Law" (1993) - ISBN: 0-88935-139-2 and Mauser Military Rifles of the World, 4th ed. 14,048,789 (Estimated 1934 - 1945 from Richard Law's calculations), though less than 250,000 are estimated to have been absorbed by Norway after 1945.