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" District Office, Misahohe, No 2 ". Misahohe is about 110 km inland from the coast in the former German colony of Togoland, West Africa. From what I can find out, it was annexed by Germany in 1884 and lost to British and French forces on the 6th Aug. 1914 at the very start of WW1. At this time there were no German military personnel in Togoland and only the police force which consisted on a Commander, deputy commander, 10 German sergeants, 1 native sergeant and 660 Togolese policemen deployed throghout the country.
I would like to think that this rifle is of high enough quality that it wouldn't been issued to native troops so that leaves it to one of the other 12 German personnel. Probably not right but I sure like the sound of it.

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Germany's African Askari (native police) were generally armed with M71 or M84 rifles in 11mm Mauser (until they started capturing sufficient supplies of .303 rifles and ammunition), later in the war while led by Von Lettow.

Togoland's acting governor in 1914, Major von Doering, was accused by the British of using 'soft point' ammunition. His defense was basically that the rounds were private-purchase and there's nothing he could have done about it. Seems to me that your rifle would fit that bill.

Read more here -

http://books.google.com/books?id=3sAOAQA...;sa=X&ei=1M

Page 27, first paragraph

The Europeans appeared to have used sporting rifles almost without exception, with hollow-nosed, lead-nosed, and other types of nickel-covered bullets of the worst possible kind.

A personally-owned rifle wouldn't have a Police property-inventory tag (if that's what it is). If it was police-issue, it may have been the weapon issued to the NCOIC of Togoland's Police Station #2 (wherever that might have been). The " District Office, Misahohe, No 2 " marking may be a Registration Number for a civilian weapon, similar to what was demanded of Commonwealth firearms owners at the same time.

In Togoland there were no German army Schutztruppe units but there were believed to be 800 armed police and 200 or more German civilians who had received some military training.
http://www.kaiserscross.com/188001/300143.html


Edited by Story (12/01/12 05:32 PM)

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