As we celebrate today the anniversary of the beginning of the Cyprus struggle for its unification with Greece, we present you with an almost totally unknown historic detail, which underscores the Greek-Cypriots’ determination to achieve their goal.

The lack of weapons necessary for the struggle made some freedom fighters to come up with improvised weapons. Although there were probably more than one such examples, only one in known, a gun, and is presented today as an exhibit.

The gun was made and used around the 1950s and it is very crudely made. It utilizes a spent 20mm cartridge which serves as the barrel of the weapon. Wire wrapping secures the “barrel” to a roughly carved wooden pistol grip. The gun lacks a trigger and firing the weapon requires the user to ignite the charge placed in the “barrel” via a hole cut into the top of the cartridge. As the weapon’s “barrel” is just a spent cartridge, it has no rifling whatsoever. This made the weapon have a low accuracy.

(Click to enlarge)