In the closing days of WWII a number of German engineers from Mauser escaped to Spain. While they were there they were put to work at CETME (Centro de Estudios Técnicos de Materiales Especiales) now Empresa Nacional SANTA BARBARA. There they continued to refine some rifle designs started at Mauser during the war.
What would become known to many in the US as the CETME rifle was primarily designed by Ludwig Vorgrimler. Later when the Belgians would refuse to grant a license to manufacture the G1 (FN FAL) to the Germans, which after an order of 100,000 rifles really ticked off the Germans, they turned to the Spanish Government and CETME and negotiated to build the CETME rifle in Germany. They came to an agreement and eventually the HKG3 was born of this effort.
In the 1960s a small number of CETME rifles were imported by the Mars company in Chicago Illinois. Here is one of those rifles and an ad from an April 1966 Shooting Times advertising them. You have to love those prices when the dollar had real value. Oh for the good old days of mail order...
http://www.drzero.org/cetme/cetme.htm
What would become known to many in the US as the CETME rifle was primarily designed by Ludwig Vorgrimler. Later when the Belgians would refuse to grant a license to manufacture the G1 (FN FAL) to the Germans, which after an order of 100,000 rifles really ticked off the Germans, they turned to the Spanish Government and CETME and negotiated to build the CETME rifle in Germany. They came to an agreement and eventually the HKG3 was born of this effort.
In the 1960s a small number of CETME rifles were imported by the Mars company in Chicago Illinois. Here is one of those rifles and an ad from an April 1966 Shooting Times advertising them. You have to love those prices when the dollar had real value. Oh for the good old days of mail order...
http://www.drzero.org/cetme/cetme.htm