Infantry Weapons of the Sharfic Republic

The Type 49 Rifle, developed with the assistance of Songian engineers, was designed to equip the fast-growing People’s Army with a simple and durable modern firearm. Successive modernisations ensure the continued use of the Type 49 despite far outliving its original design mandate. Three variants were designed at different points in the twentieth century, in line with changing tactics on the modern battlefield.

During the War, the Type 49 was utilised by all sides of the conflict. Its ease of construction, maintainance and operation, together with its almost limitless supply (hundreds of thousands of rifles had been stockpiled by the state), ensured the Type 49’s almost total ubiquity on the battlefield. The Type 49A1, with its longer, more accurate barrel, was used primarily by Amayali and Kehmanik guerrillas in the high mountains and flat steppes of their territory. The shorter Type 49A2 found more favour in the intense urban fighting at Mai Dolum Gar/Freiburg, Yangiyer and Vorga itself. The Type 49B was scattered across all battlefields, versatile enough to either mount a telescopic sight or have its stock folded and used in a shelled apartment block.

Below are three wartime rifles from several Sharfic theaters, a small sample of the wide range of conditions and modifications jury-rigged onto these guns during the fighting. All were either captured by, or donated to, the Holy Republic that won the war. They are displayed, among numerous other wartime artifacts, in the Vorga Homeland War Museum.