I was recently in Grenoble, France and had a chance to visit their local Museum of Resistance and Deportation. Among all the weapons that had been used in resisting the Germans and Italians initially, then the Germans and Vichy collaborators, was a pristine Marlin/United Defence Model 1942 9mm submachine gun, with all the trimmings.
This weapon was rejected by the US (mainly because it wasn't a .45) then sold to the British. They adopted the Sten and so the 5K or so they had were air-dropped to the various European resistance factions. I've talked to people in both Italy and France about the weapons their fathers and uncles used against the Nazis and other fascists, and the UD submachine gun was one of their very favorites. They VERY MUCH preferred it to the Sten (which was much more common) and even the MP-40. The Italians only liked their Beretta MP-38 better, and EVERYBODY wanted a Thompson and a Colt .45, although ammo was a problem. They didn't differentiate between real Colts and the Argentine Ballester-Molina .45s that the Brits also distributed.
The museum had a mad mixture of weapons from all over the place (even including France). Got to go to the Chasseurs Alpines (French Alpine Regiment) Museum, too (My Marine son served with those guys in Afghanistan some. Hard cases--knew what they were doing.).
My kinds of museums.....
