The Two Rifles

I have several questions regarding the kar98k, the gewehr 43, and their uses.

Did they serve the same purpose? Where they both intended to be the basic infantry rifle?

I have heard that gewehr 43 were used as sniper rifles while kar98k where used as regular carbines. To me it seems odd to have a bolt action rifle as a main battle rifle instead of a sniper rifle.

The roles have apprently been reversed!
What is up with that.

Take in mind I do not know THAT much about the German forces in world war 2 so don't be too harsh if seem likevery ignorant.

Any anwsers will be appreciated thank you.

 

The K98 was cheaper than the G43 and easier to use, so it was natural for the Germans to use them as standard firearms in the army, despite the G43's semi-auto capabilities.

Both were used as sniper rifles, although the G43 was FAR less common than the K98.

 

Half a million G43's were built.

By early-mid war, in many units, the Germans started integrating designated riflemen in their infantry companies, usually at one man per section. These were the best rifle shooters in the company. They were initially armed with the K98 and a "reflex sight". ~1.5 x or something close to that. When the G43 entered the fray, these designated riflemen were armed with the G43 with scope which proved highly effective. The scoped G43 was primarily a designated rifleman, rather than sniper weapon.

G43's not equipped with scopes were issued in large number to parachute and volksgrenadier formations, often to the better riflemen or NCO's.

 

The K98 was the primary sniper rifle and performed well in that role. As a designated marksman weapon, it was naturally inferior to the scoped G43. The small magnification 1.5x, etc. scope were deemed to be uncomfortable.

 

You might want to check out this thread.

http://www.ww2f.com/weapons-wwii/28...did-germans-consider-k98k-rifle-outdated.html

 

True that, but over 14 million K98s carbines alone were built...and none of those were in WWI. The G98 rifle, not the K98, was used in the first world war.

 

They were a basic infantry rifle much like the Springfield 'o3. The G43 was the Germans "equivelant" to the Garand.

Just like the K98 and the G43 both American Rifles could be outfitted with scopes to make them a "sniper" rifle............M1C and M1903A3/4.

Both sides deployed "snipers" in the same fashion either as a "designated marksman" in the assault phase, using the M1C Garand or G43. "Snipers" more comonly were deployed in the "defense" or "reconnaissance" role, when positions were more static, and fielded the o3A3/4.

As to the rhyme and reason why Germany did not equip more troops with the G43; I have to agree with the manufacturing "set backs" as stated in the earlier post.

I am of the opinion that both the o3 and the K98 were true "Rifleman's Rifles" and when fielded, with a competent operator, could engage targets in excess of 500 yrds with iron sights. A skilled operator could engage out to 900 yards and a true freak of nature could drop an enemy at 1500. The Springfield sights are marked out to 2800 yards.

Both Rifles, '03 and K98, were designed for a different/ slower type of warfare than was presented in WW2.

Prior to WW2 the idea was to stop the advancing enemy, make him deploy or seek cover, and then rain artillery and mortar fire on his postion.

This philosophy went out the window as soon as the Germans went into Poland in 1939.

Just my 2 cents though.

Brad

 

Some seem to think differently. The K43 was issused with a scope mount but not all were issued with a scope. They were not intended to be "Sniper" rifles Per se but used to increase the accuracy of the soldier as not many recieved any type of "Sniper" training. And to point out that most if not all of the high scoring Snipers in the German military scored thier kills with the Sniper version of the K98. But as with many other things they were too late and too little to have a real effect on the war.

"When carefully produced, the Gw ZF-4 was quite capable as a sniper sight. Unfortunately for the Germans and subsequently fortunate for the allies, the quality control on the ZF-4 was anything but consistent. It never saw the mass production requested in the original orders and workmanship tapered off under the constant bombing raids by the allies. Voigtlaender u. Sohn AG, Braunschweig (ddx), the company that designed the sight, seemed to have the most problems. Sights made by Opticotechna GmbH, Werk Prerau (dow) and J. G. Farbenindustrie, Camerawerk Muenchen (code: bzz) seem to have experienced less problems. Compounding the problems, the accuracy of the G-43 rifle never met expectations, which when combined with the ZF-4 made for little hope of first round hits at longer sniping ranges. "

Historic Sniper Scopes - A comparative Study

 

The G43 rifle with or without scope was generally issued to rifle infantry elements(or the "bayonet strength") of German divisions which was around 40% or so. As I said before, German Fallschirmjager and Volksgrenadier troops received many of them. The former for their status as elite light infantry and the latter to "make-up" for the general lack of manpower in their rifle infantry units.

As with submachineguns, self-loading rifles generally did not appear to be allocated much to support troops but the K98 was in general issue. So the distribution of the G43 to the right hands is greater than one would think.

One must also factor in the fact that the G43 appeared in quantity mainly in the mid to late war stage.

Rifles were by far the minority casualty-causing weapon and much less important to the Germans than their machineguns, which were equipped in unusually large numbers. I would say that the best shooters in rifle companies did most of the rifle-oriented damage, and many of them had self-loading rifles or scoped weapons anyway.

 

There is a time and a place for everything. Your post has shown how, once again, the Germans were ahead of their time. If you look at "today's military" there is a trend toward enhanced optics on the rifles. Another example of adapting a weapon to fit the soldier instead of the soldier adapting to the weapon.

Your use of the term "Sniper Training" is pretty broad. I think it would be more accurate to say that the later troops were not afforded the time and resources for "Marksmanship Training" as their earlier counter parts received.

 

THank you all for commenting. I still have a few inquiries on the subject however. From what I understand now is that both these rifles were issued to the basic infantry like the volksgrenadiers as a standard firearm.

However, was the g43 supposed to somehow "replace" the kar98k?
Or was it just supposed to fill in for some missing firepower from the lack of the firing rate of kars.

Let me get something straight, so the designated marksman was usually issued a scoped g43 probably because of its semi automatic capabilities and a sniper was given a scoped kar98k for its high accuracy. Am I right?

Lastly, Was the Sturmgewehr designed to not replace but integrate all these weapons into one? I have seen scopes stgs and I guess designated marksmen used those.

 

Ill just repost this anyway.

Wiki. But with a grain of salt. It looks like in 1940 and 1941 that it was determined. Well before 1942 as stated in the previous posts.

Gewehr 41


Gewehr 41


By 1940, it became apparent that some form of a semi-automatic rifle, with a higher rate of fire than existing bolt-action rifle models, was necessary to improve the infantry's combat efficiency. The Wehrmacht issued a specification to various manufacturers, and both Mauser and Walther submitted prototypes that were very similar.
The Mauser design, the G41(M), failed. Only 6,673 were produced before production was halted, and of these, 1,673 were returned as unusable. The Walther design, the G41(W), is in outward appearance not unlike the Gewehr 43. Most metal parts on this rifle were machined steel, and some rifles, especially later examples utilized the bakelite type plastic handguards. The Walther design was more successful because the designers had simply neglected the last two restrictions listed above.
These rifles, along with their G41(M) counterparts, suffered from gas system fouling problems. These problems seemed to stem from the overly complex muzzle trap system becoming excessively corroded from the use of corrosive salts in the ammunition primers, and carbon fouling. The muzzle assembly consisted of many fine parts and was difficult to keep clean, disassemble, and maintain in field conditions.
G41(W) rifles were produced at two factories, namely Walther at Zella Mehlis, and Berlin Luebecker. Varying sources put production figures between 40,000 and 145,000 units. These rifles saw a high attrition rate on the Eastern front.

Gewehr 43



G43


In 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union as part of Operation Barbarossa. Just prior to the opening of hostilities the Red Army had started re-arming its infantry, replacing its older bolt-action rifles with the new semi-automatic Tokarev SVT38s and SVT40s. This proved to be somewhat of a shock to the Germans, who ramped up their semi-automatic rifle development efforts significantly.
The Tokarev used a simple gas-operated mechanism, which was soon emulated by Walther thus producing the Gewehr 43 (or G43) from the handicapped G41. The simpler mechanism of the G43 made it lighter, easier to mass produce, and far more reliable. The addition of a 10-round detachable box magazine also solved the slow reloading problem. The Gewehr 43 was put into production in October 1943, and followed in 1944 by the Karabiner 43 (K43), which was identical to the G43 in every way save for the letter stamped on the side. The G/K43 was issued in limited numbers in 1944 and 1945 to units of the Wehrmacht.
Total production by the end of the war was 402,713 of both models, including at least 53,435 sniper rifles: the K43 was the preferred sniper weapon, fitted with the Zielfernrohr 43 (ZF 4) scope with 4x magnification. The weapon was originally designed for use with the Schiessbecher device for firing rifle grenades (standard on the Kar 98k as well) and the Schalldämpfer suppressor, however these accessories were deemed unsuccessful in tests and were dropped even before the rifle made it to serial production. The rifle was also not equipped to use a bayonet. The Gewehr 43 stayed in service with the Czechoslovak army for several years after the war.

Sturmgewehr (assault rifles)


Sturmgewehr (assault rifle)



The Sturmgewehr was a series of assault rifles developed in Nazi Germany during World War II which were the first assault rifle to see major deployment. It is also known by the designations: Maschinenpistole 43, Maschinenpistole 44 (MP43 and MP44, respectively) which denotes earlier versions of the same weapon.
MP43, MP44, and StG44 were different names for what was essentially the same rifle, with minor differences in production and dates. The various names were a result of the complicated small arms nomenclature in Nazi Germany. Developed from the Mkb 42(H) "machine carbine", the 'StG44' combined traits of carbines, submachine guns and automatic rifles. StG is an abbreviation of Sturmgewehr. The name was chosen for propaganda reasons and literally means "storm rifle" as in "to storm a bunker" (Sturm also refers to the weather phenomenon, adding a second meaning). After the adoption of the StG44, the English translation "assault rifle" became a common class description of this type of infantry small arm.
The rifle was chambered for the 7.92 x 33 mm cartridge, also known as 7.92 mm Kurz (German for "short"). This shorter version of the German standard (7.92 x 57 mm) rifle round, in combination with the weapon's selective-fire design, provided most of the controllable firepower of a submachine gun at close quarters with much of the accuracy and power of a Karabiner 98k bolt action rifle at intermediate ranges. While the StG44 had less range and power than the more powerful infantry rifles of the day, Wehrmacht studies had shown that most combat engagements occurred at less than 300 meters with the majority within 200 meters.

MKb 42

Contracts for rifles firing the Kurz round were sent to both Walther and Haenel (whose design group was headed by Hugo Schmeisser), who were asked to submit prototype weapons under the name Maschinenkarabiner 1942 (MKb 42, literally "machine carbine"). Both designs were similar, using a gas-operated action, with both semi-automatic and fully-automatic firing modes.
While the new version was under development in late 1942, infighting within the Third Reich was in full swing. Hitler was increasingly concerned with this, and after Hermann Göring had created the FG 42 (Fallschirmgewehr or Paratroop Rifle) in a separate program from the army's similar Gewehr 41 efforts, Hitler cancelled all new rifle projects completely. This included the production of the MKb 42(H). One concern was that the new weapon used a new ammunition type which would further hamper an already daunting logistics problem.

MP43

In order to preserve the weapons development, a new project at Gustloff was started to produce a similar weapon using the original Mauser round, the Mkb 43(G). Whenever Hitler asked about the progress of the rifle, he was always shown one of these prototypes, although there was no intention of producing them. Meanwhile the newest version of the original Mkb 42(H) was called the Maschinenpistole 43 (MP43) to disguise it as an upgrade to existing submachine guns. Another change fit a rifle grenade launcher attachment from the earlier MKb 42(H) to the MP43/1.
Eventually the truth surfaced and Hitler ordered the project stopped once again. However in March 1943 he allowed the run to continue for evaluation purposes, which then continued until September, and due to the positive combat reports it was allowed to continue.

MP44 & StG44

On 6 April 1944, Adolf Hitler issued the following decree:
a) The former MG42 is to retain the same designation b) The former self-loading rifle, known as the Gewehr 43, shall receive the designation Karabiner 43 (K43). c) The former new MP, known as the MP43, shall receive the designation MP44. In July 1944 at a meeting of the various army heads about the Eastern Front, when Hitler asked what they needed, a general blurted out "More of these new rifles!" This caused some confusion, but once Hitler was given a chance to test fire the MP44, he was impressed and gave it the title Sturmgewehr. Seeing the possibility of a propaganda gain, the rifle was again renamed as the StG44, to highlight the new class of weapon it represented, translated "assault rifle, model 1944", thereby introducing the term.
By the end of the war, some 425,977 StG44 variants of all types were produced. The assault rifle proved a valuable weapon, especially on the Eastern front, where it was first deployed. A properly trained soldier with an StG44 had an improved tactical repertoire, in that he could effectively engage targets at longer ranges than with an MP40, but be much more useful than the Kar98k in close combat, as well as provide light cover fire like a light machine gun.

German military rifles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There was in the German army an overall "quality control" department that was responsible for devising ways to make the German armed forces more efficient. By 1940, it became apparent to this section that some form of a self-loading rifle with a higher rate of fire was needed to improve the German infantry's combat efficiency. The army issued a specification to the gun producers and both Mauser and Walther submitted prototypes that were very similar. Both models used a mechanism known as the "Bang" system (after its Norwegian designer Soren H. Bang). In this system, gases from a fired bullet was trapped near the muzzle and used to pull a piston that opened the breech to automatically reload the gun. Springs then would return the muzzle cone and piston to their original positions so the cycle would continue. The Mauser model was shown unsuitable for combat use and subsequently the Walther design was adopted. It was put into production in 1941 as the Gewehr 41(W).
The Gewehr 41(W), however, did not perform very well on the battlefield. The Bang system was too complicated and broke down frequently under the stress and wear of combat. And the gun itself was too heavy for handy use. Reloading the gun also proved difficult and time-consuming. Since it was the only self-loading rifle available to the German army, it had to be produced in numbers. And even in the factories, the Gewehr 41(W) was hard to mass-produce.
In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. On the Eastern Front the Germans captured many Tokarev 7.62mm SVT38s and '40s self-loading rifles. The Tokarev rifle employed a much simpler but more effective gas-operated mechanism, which was duly copied by the Germans into the Gewehr 41(W). The product was the Gewehr 43. The Gewehr 43 was immediately put into production to replace the Gewehr 41(W). The new model was easier to produce in large quantities and was lighter and easier to reload. As a result it was a popular weapon among the troops. Many short-cuts were incorporated into the manufacturing process. Sometimes wood laminates and plasitc furniture were used. In 1944, a shorter version of the Gewehr 43 was produced, and it was known as the Karabiner 43 even though it was only 50mm shorter.
Both the Gewehr 41(W) and 43 accepted the standard German 7.92mm cartridge. This made the Gewehr 43 a very lethal sniper weapons, and all versions were equipped with telescopic sights as a standard accessory. The Gewehr 43 was excellent in its sniper role and stayed in service for the Czech army for several years after the war.

Gewehr 41(W) and Gewehr 43



Before the start of the 2nd World War, German army had little interest in self-loafing rifles. Their tactical doctrine centered around infantry squad with MG.34 universal machine gun as primary source of firepower, supported by the riflemen with Kar.98K bolt-action rifles. By the 1941, two companies submitted the self-loading rifles for consideration of German Army - Walther and Mauser. These rifles were designates as Gewehr 41(W) and Gewehr 41(M), respectively, or G41(W) and G41(M), in short. Both rifles were somewhat similar in that they were gas-operated self-loaders, both utilizing the Bang-type annual gas pistons, located at the muzzle of the gun, within the relatively large muzzle cap. Both were fed from fixed 10-round magazines. Both rifles were tested in combat and both proved as poor performers. The Bang-type muzzle gas system was among the key sources of the problems, so, by the late 1943 Walther engineers mated the G41(W) action with the much more effective and reliable gas system of the Russian Tokarev SVT-40 rifle. The resulting design was designated as Gewehr 43, or Gew.43, or G43 in short. In the 1944 the Gew.43 was re-designated as Kar.43 (Karabiner 43, K43), with no visible changes made, and under this designation it was manufactured until the end of the war. Kar.43, made in relatively large numbers, was issued mostly as a specialist's weapon, often fitted with optical telescope sight. Like many other weapons, made during late stages of the war, the Kar.43 showed little attention to the finish in all areas, where finish was insignificant for functional needs. There were several experimental developments on the basis of Kar.43, including selective fire versions, as well as versions chambered for 7.92x33 Kurtz ammunition and adapted for Stg.44 magazines. Neither version entered production. During the early post-war period, Czechoslovak army used some Kar.43 rifles as sniper weapons. The Gew.43 / Kar.43 is a gas operated, semi-automatic weapon. The short stroke gas piston is located above the barrel. The bolt is locked by two flaps, which extend into the locking recesses in the receiver walls. When unlocking, these flaps are retracted into the bolt body. The receiver and bolt groups are machined from steel castings, with many surfaces being mechanically unfinished. Lots of stampings also are used throughout the construction. The rifle is fed from detachable box magazines, which held 10 rounds. Each G.43/K.43 rifle had the dovetail, which can accept the telescope sight mount, in addition to the standard adjustable open sights.

http://world.guns.ru/rifle/rfl12-e.htm
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It wasn't a "basic" arm of the Volksgrenadier infantry regiments. Since it used the same ammunition as the K98, it was easily integrated and the numbers of G43 varied but in general, it was issued much more than in the old grenadier divisions.

It was given to the people who did most of the rifle-oriented damage.

The designated marksmen were integrated into German infantry sections (the best shooter out of 9-10 men) and meant to engage enemy infantry directly in shorter range than a true sniper. That is why it was advantageous to use a semi-auto rifle.

The STG was designed to replace all German small arms, save their machineguns. But there were too few (almost half a million produced)and too late. The scoped STGs were very rare and relatively ineffective due to the kurtz round's inferior firing characteristics at range. The designated marksmen did not use those.

 

[SIZE=+2]Gewehr 41[/SIZE]
The Gewehr 41 was germany's first attempt at a semi-automatic rifle in the class of the american M1 Garand. The designation Gewehr 41 was given to two different weapons (although they look rather identical, they differ a lot and are not based on each other). A first weapon made by Mauser, the Gewehr 41 (M) ("rifle 41", "M"-suffix denominating the producer Mauser) or G 41 (M) failed miserably, only 6,673 (other sources: 14,334) were produced before production was halted, and of these the army returned 1,673 as unusable. The story on the Gewehr 41 (W) abbreviated G 41 (W) produced by Walther isn't much different; although it had a much simpler and reliable system that also eased production, this second G 41 still was both front-heavy and very sensitive to dirt because of the gas-nozzle located at the muzzle. This unfortunate placement of the gas-extraction at the muzzle was neccessified because the advising army weapon's bureau insisted that no holes be drilled into the barrel itself (!). The weapon was very unpopular among the troops. Still, 122,907 were built well into 1944.
Both the the G 41 (M) and the G 41 (W) could be fixed with bayonets, early models often were fitted with the small 1.5x scopes, late G 41 (W) mounted the 4x scopes. The weapon at right shows a G 41 (W) with Zielfernrohr 41 scope of 1.5x magnification. Neither model could use the Schiessbecher rifle-grenade firing device. Both weapons featured an internal magazine for 10 rounds, it was loaded with 2 of the regular Mauser 5-round clips; the regular Mauser 98k ammo pouches were used.. Technical data for G 41 (W): length 114cm; barrel length 55cm; weight (empty) 4.6kg; Vo 745m/s; ammunition: Infanteriepatrone 7,92x57
[SIZE=+2]Gewehr 43[/SIZE]
After the weapon's bureau of the army nullified their requirement that there be no holes drilled into the barrel itself for the gas-mechansim to work for the automatic rifle system, the company Walther went on to develop the Gewehr 43. This new semi-automatic rifle had the extraction nozzle drilled into the barrel and featured a removable 10-round magazine. The G 43was a beautiful design which was much cheaper and faster to produce. The weapon's designation was later changed to Karabiner 43, abbreviated K 43, although the weapon really wasn't a carbine; it was envisioned to replace the Mauser Karabiner 98k as the standard infantry rifle. Production started in October 1943; total production until the end of the war was 402,713 including at least 53,435 sniper rifles: the well-designed and well-machined K 43 was a preferred sniper weapon and was fitted with the Zielfernrohr 43, also called ZF 4, scope with a magnification of 4x. The weapon could use the Schiessbecher device for firing rifle grenades and could use a Schalldämpfer silencer; however, the G 43 could not fix a bayonet. Technical data: length 112cm; length barrel 55cm (versions with barrel lengths of 60cm, 65cm and even 70cm existed); weight empty (w/o magazine and w/o scope) 4.1kg; weight magazine (empty) 230g; weight Zielfernrohr 43 scope: 1.3kg; ammunition: Infanteriepatrone 7,92x57; Vo 745m/s; practical rate of fire 30 rounds per minute;
[SIZE=+2]Sturmgewehr 44[/SIZE]
The Sturmgewehr 44 made history as the first real assault rifle; in fact, the term "assault rifle" itself is a literal translation of this weapon's designation. Obviously, the concept of the StGw influenced Mikhail Kalashnikov in his development of the famous AK-47 assault rifle (although the AK has a system of it's own right). The story of the Sturmgewehr is that of the late success of an ingenious and right idea that prevailed despite all efforts to stop it.
Many attempts had been made in several countries including germany during the 1920ies to develop an automatic rifle that combined the characteristics of the submachinegun - a high rate of fire and therefore fire volume - with that of the then usual regular infantry rifle - accuracy and projectile power - while at the same time eliminating the disadvantages of the respective weapon types. Most of these attempts failed, because the conservative authorities did not like the idea or -mostly- because these early weapons tried to use the regular powerful rifle ammunition.
The german breakthrough therefore came when an order was given in April 1938 to develop a weapon that used the specially developed Maschinenkarabiner-Patrone 7.92x33 or Kurzpatrone, later also called Pistolenpatrone 43, that was essentially a shortened Mauser 7.9mm standard rifle cartridge filled with pistol ammunition powder. Two notable designs emerged. The first was constructed by the company Walther and was called Maschinenkarabiner 42 (W) or Mkb 42(W), the other was designed by Hugo Schmeisser from the company Haenel in Suhl under the designation Mkb 42(H). The two are easily discerned because the Haenel-design has a second barrel housing the gas-operation channel that reaches almost to the muzzle. The latter design was considered superior and went into limited production for troop trials, total Mkb 42 production was 11,833 weapons in late 1942 and early 1943. These were to be kept secret from the high command, especially Hitler himself, as he was a strong opponent to the idea not the least because he feared the large-scale introduction of yet another ammunition type. Hitler nevertheless found out about the limited production and ordered the it to be halted immediately.
However, development continued under the cover of an alibi project of producing a carbine for the accepted Mauser rifle ammunition at the company Gustloff. Several aspects of the Walther Mkb 42(W) were incorporated, the gas-operated mechanism was improved and the weapon was given the designation Maschinenkarabiner 43 (G) for the company Gustloff, again to deceive Hitler. Like the chicken bone the witch is shown in Hänsel & Gretel, Adolf was always shown the official Mkb 43(G) that was designed for the regular Mauser 7.92mm rifle cartridge. The weapon that used the actual Kurzpatrone was simply called MP 43 machine pistol in the hope that Hitler would see this as a submachine gun.
Eventually the truth surfaced and Hitler ordered the project stopped. However, in the meantime the army that had used these weapons in the trials was so enthusiastic about this new weapon that they eventually succeeded in convincing Hitler to produce the weapon as a replacement for the MP 40. First large-scale use of this new weapon was with the 93rd ID in the northern sector of the eastern front. After small changes the weapon was called MP 44. It was not until July 1944 when several Division commanders personally begged Hitler in his headquarters that the weapon was given production priority. In December of that same year the weapon was given the suggestive name Sturmgewehr or Sturmgewehr 44, abbreviated StG 44 or StGw 44. Total production of the MP 43 and MP 44 / Sturmgewehr was 425,977 at a price of 66.- RM for one Sturmgewehr 44.
The weapon is a gas-operated automatic weapon that can be fired both in selective single-shot and in full automatic mode (toggled by a switch located on the right side of the gun). Recoil reportedly is is arguably low. Because the metal hand guard fore of the magazine heated up quickly when the weapon was fired, gunners usually held the StGw 44 at the magazine instead of the hot handguard. The StGw 44 features a 30-round curved magazine and could be fitted with all known accessories: it could use bayonets or silencers as well as the Schiessbecher rifle grenade device or the ZF 4 scope. The regular sights can be adjusted from 100m to 800m range.
The Sturmgewehr 44 could also be fitted with ZF 1229 Vampir, an infra-red night sighting device. The scope for the Vampir mounted onto the StGw 44 weighed 2.3kg, the support devices were carried in a rucksack and weighed 13kg. 310 of these night-fighting scopes were produced at the company Leitz. Another intriguing invention was the Krummerlauf ("bent barrel"), a bent barrel with a persicope sighting device for shooting around corners. This idea existed in several variants, an "I"-version for infantry use and a "P" version for use in tanks (to cover the dead areas in the close range around the tank to defend against assaulting infantry), versions with 30°, 45°, 60° and 90°, and a version for the StGw 44 and one for the MG 42. Only the 30° "I" - version for the StGw 44 was produced in any numbers.
Technical data: length 94cm; barrel length 42cm; weight (w empty magazine and sling) 4.62kg; weight of loaded 30-round magazine: 920g; theoretical system rate of fire: 500 rounds/minuteM; practical rof in full automatic mode 100 rpm; Vo 685 m/s.
Ammunition: Kurzpatrone 7.92x33; this ammunition is known under the designations Kurzpatrone, Infanteriepatrone 7,92mm PP 43 or as 7.92x33.It was a bottle-shaped cartridge, essentially a shortened regular Mauser 7.9mm rifle cartridge. The projectile had a caliber of 7.92mm and weighed 6.95g; the complete cartridge weighed 16.7g (incl. 1.4g powder) and developed a typical Eo of 1,500 Joule. Penetration performance: 25cm of birchwood at 50m; steel helmets were penetrated at ranges exceeding 600m. Total production of the Kurzpatrone ammunition was 822 mio. cartridges until March 1945. A soldier equipped with the StGw 44 had six canvas magazine pouches in two sets of three as part of his field gear. Each magazine pouch held one 30-round magazine; together with the magazine atached to the weapon, the default ammo loadout for a fully equipped soldier was 7 magazines totaling 210 rounds

Infantry Small Arms Infanteriewaffen Sturmgewehr


"Over 14 million of these rifles were produced by various manufacturers. However, this number includes versions of the rifle other than the K98k, such as the Czech vz-24. From 1950 to 1965, Yugoslavia produced a near-carbon copy of the K98k called the Model 1948, which differed only from the German rifle in that it had the shorter bolt-action of the Model 1924 series of Mauser rifles. In addition, in 1953, the Spanish were manufacturing a slightly modified version, but with a straight bolt handle"

 

The appearance of designated riflemen in German infantry companies was born out of experience on the Eastern front rather than pre-war innovation. Early war German infantry did not have them.

Many infantrymen and officers expressed a need for lower-magnification scopes to be distributed to their best men for this sort of work early on in Russia so this practice was widespread very soon.

 

I think in the perfect world that would have been the intent; however, due to manpower, time and resouces I think the Kar 98s just got passed down the line and beings everyone has to have a rifle the kar 98's fit the bill. The Germans, unlike the Americans and the M1 carbine, did not make a service rifle for support troops.

For the sake of argument yes

"I" think that the Stg 44 was the culmination of service rifle technology at the time in as much as it took the best attributes of all the German Rifles and rolled them into one package. Was it the perfect rifle for every situation? : "No" Was it a capable Rifle in most situations? : Oh Yeah.

It is not unreasonable to assume that if Germany had not been getting the living dog sh*t bombed out of it and there were unlimited time and production resources that the Stg would have been fielded in much greater numbers.

Brad

 

The StG-44 was going to be the mainstay weapon of volksgrenadiers but interestingly, not of panzergrenadiers. According to the TO&E, the Volksgrenadier Rifle Company consists of two storm platoons armed with the StG-44 and one rifle platoon armed with the Kar-98, complemented by six snipers.

The six snipers are assigned to the company HQ and to be armed with the scoped G43 rifle. This suggests that the scoped G-43 are in fact sniper weapons inspite of their technical limitations. Given the state of training in the volksgrenadiers, there probably would be a enough adequate shots in a unit to make a reasonable fascimile of a sniper group.

Keep in mind that the TO&Es of 1944-45 is strickly a paper excercize as the units on the filed were equipped on a catch-as-catch-can basis. In reality, the stormplatoons were mostly armed with machine-pistols for battle.

 

All things considerd the G43 is not terribly that different in application from the M1C/D or the M-21 for that matter. Rapid well aimed fire can come in handy; whereas, the "one shot one kill" psychology of the bolt action rifles is great until the 6th guy ralizes where the shots are comming from.

Brad

 

There are also accounts (and pictures) of Volkgrenadier units armed with large numbers of self-loading rifles.

 

well the gewher 43 is just a design taken from russian tokarev rifles