The Pleter submachine gun is a submachine gun created in 1991, when the

Breakup of Yugoslavia The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...

left Croatia with few weapons to arm their yet to be formed military in the midst of the

Croatian War of Independence The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between Croat forces loyal to the Government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)—and the Serb-controlled Yugosl ...

. The embargo prevented the newly formed state from legally buying equipment abroad, so they chose to try to design and produce some new weapons locally, mostly based on second generation of submachineguns (like the British Sten gun or German MP40). The Pleter (named after the Slavonian town of Pleternica) was produced in the local factory OROPLET, heavily copied

Sten Gun The STEN (or Sten gun) is a family of British submachine guns chambered in 9×19mm which were used extensively by British and Commonwealth forces throughout World War II and the Korean War. They had a simple design and very low production cost ...

characteristics, despite having a vertical rather than a horizontal magazine. These include the removable barrel assembly, the bolt and recoil spring, and the open bolt firing mechanism. Prototype models had handle and trigger pack covers made from wood, but in the serial production it was decided to use ones made from plastic. Barrel assembly was simplified compared to the Sten gun, it was fixed by an inbus screw, and to further simplify the construction, the safety and fire selector was omitted. It was equipped with only a simple sear/trigger/spring combination, making it open-bolt full auto only, but due to the relatively low rate of fire, a skilled operator could fire single shots by quickly pulling and releasing the trigger. Like the Sten, the Pleter could also be fitted with a silencer, and there was a special model made with a permanently fixed silencer attached (called "Pleter 91 Prigušen", Prigušen = suppressed). Fixed front and back sights that could not be adjusted produced some criticism from the users. The magazine well was designed to accept a direct copy of the

Uzi The Uzi (; he, עוזי, Ūzi; officially cased as UZI) is a family of Israeli open-bolt, blowback-operated submachine guns and machine pistols first designed by Major Uziel "Uzi" Gal in the late 1940s, shortly after the establishment of the ...

magazine. This type of double-stack, staggered-feed type magazine is considered one of the improvements this gun has in comparison to the original STEN gun or similar ones that used double-stack, single-feed magazines, that are often more prone to jamming and harder to load. The butt stock shape was apparently influenced by another similar gun of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

vintage, the

Grease Gun A grease gun is a common workshop and garage tool used for lubrication. The purpose of the grease gun is to apply lubricant through an aperture to a specific point, usually from a grease cartridge to a grease fitting or 'nipple'. The channels behi ...

. Out of probably dozens of domestically designed and produced submachine guns from the 1991 conflict, the Pleter proved to be quite a good insurgency weapon, which somewhat filled in the gaps of the undergunned Croatian Army and was suitable for the combat environment of the Yugoslav Wars. Some examples may also have filtered into Kosovo to see action in the 1999 war. The exact number of the produced Pleter guns is not published, but the ones that were in the logistic reserves of the Croatian military were destroyed after the war in coordination with the military police, so today the weapon only exists in small numbers. One of these guns was found 2011 in the weapons arsenal of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Neonazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack ...

terrorist group A number of national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and fo ...

NSU. Up to this date (2018) it is unknown how the group obtained this weapon. It is believed that, when German Neonazis fought as

mercenaries A mercenary, sometimes also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any o ...

in the Croatian War of Independence, some of them may brought the guns they used back home and later offered them to the group. It is known that at least two

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

n Neonazis fought in the war and one of them had a connection to the group.

See also

References

Further reading