In 1958, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista ordered some 35,000 FAL rifles from FN, including both regular infantry rifles have heavy-barreled FALO light machine guns. Before any of them could arrive, however, Batista fled the country and his guns were delivered to Fidel Castro beginning in July 1959.
At this time, the FAL was still a fairly new rifle, having been first adopted by Venezuela in 1954 and Belgium in 1954/55. A few changes had been made by the time of the Cuban contract (like the slightly taller sights requested by the Germans), but these were still Type 1 receivers with early features.
The first consignment of rifles arrived from Belgium sun Havana July 9, 1959 and this consisted of 8,000 rifles and ten LMGs. A second shipment of 2,000 rifles arrived October 15th, and a third of 2,500 rifles and 500 LMGs on December 1st. The final ship bringing FALs to Cuba (the French freighter La Courbe) docked in Havana March 4th 1960, and suffered a pair of explosions while bring unloaded. Several hundred people were killed or injured, and Castro blamed the CIA for the event. In total, the Cubans received 12,500 FAL rifles and 510 FALO light machine guns.
The FALs were used, but many ended up being exported to other parties, as Cuba generally moved to Soviet bloc small arms starting in 1960 (when they began receiving weapons from the USSR and Czechoslovakia). These were often scrubbed of their Cuban markings before shipment, and can be found with a round hole milled in the magazine well where the Cuban crest originally was, similar to how some South African FALs were scrubbed before being sent to Rhodesia.
Thanks to Sellier & Bellot for giving me access to this pair of very scarce Cuban FALs to film for you!
Gotta advocate for hitting one of the links where the shooting videos are shown fully. Excellent visualization for just precisely why the idea of a full-auto 7.62 NATO individual weapon is, frankly, nuts.
https://playeur.com/v/JaPG13y-RMS
If that works, and won’t get Ian in trouble for having it here, I highly recommend a look at it.
Having fired an M14 on full (once), I can truthfully say that it instantly shows you the true meaning of Newton’s Third Law of Motion.
Of course, Woody Woodpecker found that out back in 1950.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaYQkV1n-wU
cheers
eon
“(…) full-auto 7.62 NATO individual weapon(…)”
In defense of FN FAL creators it should be pointed they reworked their design for .280 cartridge, see 3rd image from top http://modernfirearms.net/en/assault-rifles/belgium-assault-rifles/fn-fal-l1a1-c1-slr-eng/ to 7.62×51 due to political pressure, rather than developed it from scratch in 7.62×51 NATO.
The first FN FAL prototype actually was made for the German 7.9 mm assault rifle cartridge. Several images can be found in literature and FN displayed it in the visitor’s center.
“(…)Thanks to Sellier & Bellot(…)”
Wait, is that this well-known cartridges manufacturers? Do they maintain own collection of various fire-arms (which I presume they might use for ammunition testing)? Do others European cartridge manufacturers maintain own collections of odd fire-arms?
I would not call it a collection, because all guns have a limited lifespan when used for functional testing. But yes, in Central Europe serious functional testing beyond what the customer specification requires is done with the weapons the customer uses. Also for handguns.
Probably not all makers do it with the same thoroughness.
Fulgencio Batista’s regime was finally subject to a U.S. arms cut-off in March 1958. So between that date and his ouster 1 Jan. 1959 by the M-26-7 rebels, alternate sources of supply had to be found.
The British aircraft firm Hawker as contacted by Fidel Castro’s government and told that it would be preferred that they deliver Hawker Hunter jets, not the Sea Fury aircraft that had been ordered. Even though this is a fairly standard arms-trade practice, the UK deferred to the U.S. about the matter–revealing how the Atlantic Anglo-American alliance operated, as well as U.S. attitudes toward the sovereignty of nations in it’s putative “back yard.” Allen Dulles asserted that under no circumstances should Hawker Hunters be supplied. The British diplomats then mentioned that if Hunter jets were not shipped, then the new Cuban air force might, say, acquire MiGs. Dulles said that if that happened, that would be preferable, and noted that in the 1954 overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala, it had been a U.S. arms cut-off and provision of weapons by Czechoslovakia that occasioned “what was done,” i.e. “PBSUCCESS.” Of course, it was the Sea Fury aircraft that flew interdiction missions against the CIA’s flotilla at the Bay of Pigs/ Playa Giron in April 1961…
The decision of the Czechoslovak communist party to send vz52 she 7.62x45mm rifles and lmgs, as well as 9x19mm samopal 23 and 25 SMGs to the revolutionary state is declassifed and available here:
https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/communist-party-czechoslovakia-cpcz-politburo-resolution-enclosures-arms-transfers-cuba
https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/report-czechoslovak-politburo-regarding-military-assistance-cuban-government-16-may-1960
Quite a compressed time-frame: From May 1960 until April 1961 for the bulk of the MNR’s small arms, as well as the quad-DShK AA machine guns and other Czechoslovak weapons. Soviet SU-100’s, T-34/85s, artillery assets, mortars and very, very many Shpagin 7.62x25mm SMGs arrived during the same time frame, along with Hispano-Soviet officers, including relics from the Spanish Civil War like Enrique Lister.
Cuba’s conversion to the Soviet suite of small arms was not completed unril the late 1960s/ early 1970s. The first MiG 15bis aircraft did arrive the month after the Bay of Pigs, in May 1961.