Sturmgewehr 44

What? By totally unbalancing the weapon and adding significantly to the weight? Yeah, that's a lot of bootie (or arse if you prefer).

 

Perhaps I should have included the stylish and compact battery unit :

Though there is something to be said for being able to shoot at night.

However... if I remember correctly the British (and others?) were fielding anti-infrared devices around late '44 (I'm sure I've got a picture somewhere of a compact detector unit on a Universal carrier, & special binoculars for tank commanders ) and it seems likely that much of the German infrared stuff would have been outclassed even if they had got it to battle in sufficient numbers.

Cheers,
Adam.

 

Look at the size of the "Power unit"! I wonder how heavy it was and how much of a hinderance it would be in combat?

 

Wonder how much a genuine Krummlauf attachment would go for on the Militaria/gun market today? A great deal I would imagine.

I've often wondered whether the 90 degree one splintering the bullet really mattered, considering it's intended use? If I recall rightly Hogg seems to imply the barrel could take the punishment quite well.

Cheers,
Adam.

 

Photos of the MP44 in use can be found in various books about the Ardennes Offensive ( eg Parker's 'Battle Of The Bulge' ) and late-war Ostfront ( eg Carell's 'Bildband' ) etc, and even in Normandy in various Heimdal/Armes et Militaria publications.

One needs to bear in mind that by the time the MP44 was issued, the Germans were losing/in retreat and there weren't so many PK-Berichter on hand to take photos, and if there were ( eg in the Ardennes ) the photos were often captured/destroyed fairly quickly ( like the legendary photos of the MP44-toting Waffen-SS man at Poteau ).

 

Like this beast (M3 Carbine)

 

Never seen that before Stefan, 1943 & developed for the Pacific apparently, thanks for that.
Sorry to veer somewhat off the '44 (and WW2 ) but there's another rather heath-robinson looking IR scope on the same Korean War site as the above:
M3 Infra Red Sniper Rifle


Back to the '44 & the Krummlauf attachments, found reference to one selling without the mirror for $10,000 dollars... I'm really not that surprised.

Cheers,
Adam.

 

whoa, I never knew of this. Is this theoretical?

 

I think that, because they were designed for the same job, they looked similar. Infantry no longer fired at ranges over 300m, so they needed a weapon which was light, robust & effective under such conditions. Sturmgewehr 44 was a much more sophisticated weapon than Kalashnikov's.

Klive

 

Kalashnikov was just a scaled down version, too bad the Sturm wasn't put into production earlier.

 

On the first 'scaled down' thing... read the thread mate.

On this:

Why?
Wanting a better equipped Wehrmacht are we?

Cheers,
Adam.

 

Just blame the guilty one as much as you like....



Both the Maschinen Karabiner were shown to Hitler on April 14, 1942, but he was not
impressed, and disapproved the further development of the weapons.

Hitler however, continually refused to see the advantages of the Maschinen Karabiner .
His idea was that the infantry needed self-loading rifles which fired the standard 8 x 57 ammo and more submachine guns.

MP44.nl - German Uniforms and Equipment - Sturmgewehr 44 - History

 

whats wrong with that? that picture below is Wilhelm Mohnke who was the SS-Brigadeführer. I respect him, he stood up to Goebbels about the Hitler youth dying in vain defending Hitler's bunker and stood up to Hitler himself about the civilians dying from starvation in Berlin.

 

This is Wilhelm Mohnke, the photo you so proudly show is André Hennicke, a German ACTOR! That photo was taken from the film "Downfall"

Hennicke also played your friend Herr Dr. Roland Freisler in the film "Sophie Scholl - The Final Days", which may tell us something about his ideological outlook.

Do give us more, we just love comic relief!

 

More death from a better equipped aggressor army?
More time for the genocidal projects to run?
More chance for the Reich to survive?
More difficulties for the Allies to overcome in their just chastisement of a criminal regime?

What's wrong with that?

 

We seem to be drifting slightly off-topic here.....

 

you seriously thought I was thinking I posted the real picture of Mohnke?

 

POS

From the posts you have made it wouldn't be a surprise.

 

Jaeger, interesting use of an acronym...

POS - What does POS stand for? Acronyms and abbreviations by the Free Online Dictionary.