I'm sorry I have to cite wikipedia on this, but...
the serbian article says...
Translation:Крајем двадесетих година Војска Краљевине Срба, Хрвата и Словенаца је расписала међународни конкурс за набавку нових лаких митраљеза [...] На конкурсу је победила „Збројовка“ са моделом ZB Vz. 26. Поручено је 18.000 комада и уговорена је лиценцна производња.
Међутим, после примљених пет хиљада комада, уговор је отказан, јер је током употребе долазило до оштећења на скоро свим деловима, а на цевима је брзо долазило до стварања наслаг
According to the article, these guns were repaired and the order was fulfilled.In the late twenties, the Army of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes called for an international competition for the procurement of new light machine guns. [...] "Zbrojovka" won the competition with the model ZB Vz. 26. 18,000 pieces were ordered and licensed production was agreed.
However, after receiving five thousand pieces, the contract was canceled, because during the use damage occured on nearly al parts, and the barrel quickly wore out
Further:
Translation:Касније, током 1935. Године, „Збројовка“ је добила нову поруџбину за 12.000 пушкомитраљеза, а наредне године је Војнотехнички завод у Крагујевцу започео са прерадом модела 26 у модел 30
So Yugoslavia bought 30.000 zb 26 from Czechoslavkia, and then started producing their own.Later, in 1935, Zbrojovka received a new order for 12,000 machine guns, and next year the Military Technological Institute in Kragujevac started processing the model 26 into model 30
So in 1937 Kragujevac produced their own version, the MG37, which was basically the serbian zB 30. Production numbers were 2.500 in 1937 and 7.500 in 1938.Тек током 1937. Испоручено је 2500 „Збројовки“ најновије верзије Вз. 37 које су уведене у наоружање Војске Краљевине Југославије под ознаком „Пушкомитраљез 7,9mm модел 1937“. Током 1938. испоручено је још 7.500 комада
Translation:Пушкомитраљез 7,9mm M37 је произвођен у Војнотехничком заводу у Крагујевцу, са годишњом производњом од око 10.000 комада.
So yugoslavia bought 30.000 ZB vz. 26, and by 1937 produced their own licenced version. In 1937 they produced 2.500, in 1938 7.500, and in 1939 and 1940 they were able to produce 10.000 M37 per year.The LMG 7,9mm M37 was manufactured at the Military Technical Institute in Kragujevac, with an annual production of about 10,000 pieces.
So M37-production should have been 30.000-40.000. I guess they sped up the production when Italy attacked Albania and Greece, and Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria basically surrounded Yugoslavia after the Berlin Pact.
So yugoslavia must have had 70.000 of these.
The only source of this article is "Willbanks, James H. (2004). Machine Guns: An Illustrated History of Their Impact."
Can somebody confirm or debunk that?
70.000 is quite a large number. Poland only had 24.000 BAR's, and czechoslovakia had, at the time of the german occupation, 34.550 zb vz 26/30.
Then again what would make this high number of LMG's realistic is that the yugoslavian government knew that something was brewing around them.
Hungary made claims to the Backa and Baranja. Bulgaria made claim to Macedonia. Then there was the thread of the Soviet Union. Since the yugoslavians didn't have the facilities to build large numbers of armoured vehicles and airplanes, they had to put their faith in a large and well equipped army of foot soldiers.
All in all the standard armament of the yugoslavian infantry was probably/maybe 80.000 FN 1910-22 Pistols in 9x17, 824.000 Mauser K98, and 70.000 M37. Then of course the hodgepodge of weapons left over from WW1 and reworked.
