StG 44: testing the viability of the concept
MP 44 with sniper scope. Photo by Dmitry Gillmann
Why do the stars burn,
Why do the stars burn,
Why do the stars burn?
Not warm.
Get me a gun
Find me a gun,
Buy me a machine.
Quicker.
"Dear Boy" (1974)
Music D. Tukhmanova, lyrics. L. Derbeneva.
Why do the stars burn,
Why do the stars burn?
Not warm.
Get me a gun
Find me a gun,
Buy me a machine.
Quicker.
"Dear Boy" (1974)
Music D. Tukhmanova, lyrics. L. Derbeneva.
stories about weapons. This is how useful and interesting discussions can be at VO. For example, in a number of comments to the first material of the series, someone complained that it did not show the priority of our gunsmith Fedorov. Well, of course, the person grew up reading Soviet books. Where any mention of something foreign had to have a link to our authority. The Soviet one was better, but the “authority of the empire” was even suitable. Russia, after all. A discussion ensued, the outcome of which I will not retell, but which turned out to be very useful. Firstly, she suggested the idea of a new cycle, and secondly, she “showed the way” to Fedorov’s machine gun - suddenly she would be able to “hold on to it”... Well, and in the process of preparing a new cycle, find out interesting details. In particular, I found this text on the Internet:
“The Italian army used an unusually small cartridge for this period in their rifles. However, the result was that this automatic rifle was the first serious attempt to create a weapon with the type of intermediate cartridge that we now call an “automatic”, that is, before the Fedorov assault rifle of 1916.”
StG 44 from the collection of the Army Museum in Stockholm
Of course, we can immediately and indiscriminately declare that this is another attempt by Russophobes on the Internet to take away our “achievements” from us. But... this statement is based on something. And if it is not unfounded, if the performance characteristics of the Chei-Rigotti* 1900 rifle (and cartridge) are exactly as stated, then the respected V. G. Fedorov will have to make room a little on his pedestal. That is, again, its priority is undeniable here in Russia, but, most likely, not in the world. However, materials about this are ahead. In the meantime, we will continue the story about the “Sturmgewehr”...
Disassembly of MP 43/MP 44. All their main parts are very clearly visible. Photo by Dmitry Gillmann
Hugo Schmeisser claimed that from June 1943 to April 1945, 424 MP 000, MP 43, StG 44 assault rifles were produced at four factories in Germany. At the Haenel plant in Suhl, 44; 185 released "Saurer and Son" in Suhl; 000 were produced in Erfurt; and 55 by Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Steyr, Austria. This was less than the 000 million ordered and far less than the planned 104 million. From 000 to 80, 000 million rounds of 1,5x4mm Kurtz ammunition were produced. Moreover, at the beginning of March 1942, the troops had 1945 million rounds of ammunition, and the replenishment reserve was 822 million rounds.
Bolt carrier with gas piston and charging handle (top) and bolt at the bottom. The protrusions with which they hooked onto each other are clearly visible. And it is clear that locking the barrel with such a device could only be done by tilting the bolt. Photo by Dmitry Gillmann
Towards the end of the war, last attempts were made to develop a cheap example of the so-called “people's rifle” (Volksgewehr) in 7,92x33 mm caliber. One of them, the Gostlow Volkssturmgewehr (People's Assault Rifle), used a blowback Barnitzke system, in which the release of gas from the barrel near the chamber created resistance to the rearward movement of the bolt, which stopped when the bullet exited the barrel, allowing the bolt to move rearward due to the residual pressure of the liner. But the train had already left, and even the most “successful” new products could not save the Reich.
Butt. The most basic thing in a firearm, but you can't do without it. Photo by Dmitry Gillmann
The Sturmgever remained in service with the East German National People's Army under the designation MPi.44 until it was replaced by the Soviet AK-47 assault rifle. The People's Police of the GDR used it until about 1962
But even after this, it was still used by other public security forces. Ammunition was produced there until at least 1961. Other countries that used the StG 44 after World War II included Czechoslovakia (although it was not officially adopted there) and Yugoslavia, where the Gever was equipped with parachute battalions until the 1980s. But that's it story didn't end. It was transferred to the territorial defense reserve and began to be actively sold to friendly regimes in the Middle East and Africa. And France even accepted captured StG 44s to arm the colonial units of the Foreign Legion.
Spring-loaded ejection hole cover. Photo by Dmitry Gillmann
Argentina produced its own prototype versions of the StG 44, manufactured by CITEFA in the late 1940s and early 1950s. But in 1955, it adopted the FN FAL rifle, since it had an abundance of NATO cartridges of 7,62x51 mm caliber.
View of USM. Photo by Dmitry Gillmann
New semi-automatic civilian copies of the MKb 42(H), MP 43/1 and StG 44 are today manufactured in Germany by SSD (Sport Systeme Dittrich) and sold by HZA Kulmbach GmbH with the original Kurz 7,92x33mm chamber. A copy of the StG 44 chambered in .22 caliber from GSG (German Sporting Arms) was also produced in large quantities at a lower price, but this was the only cheap copy of the StG. As for the 7,92 mm Kurtz ammunition, it is currently produced by the Serbian company Prvi Partizan.
I used to always be interested in what kind of rod with a ball at the end sticks out of the MP 44 gas chamber. And this is just its plug, in which a hole was prudently made for unscrewing. Well, why the rod? And in order not to burn your hands! The plug could be hot, while the long rod cooled quickly. Photo by Dmitry Gillmann
The StG 44 was the first assault rifle to be adopted and put into mass production.
“The principle of this weapon—reducing the muzzle impulse to provide useful automatic fire at actual combat ranges—was probably the most important advance in small arms since the invention of smokeless powder.”
The influence of the StG 44 on post-war armament was quite varied, as evidenced by Mikhail Kalashnikov's AK-47 and later Eugene Stoner's M16 and their variants. That is, the main borrowing was not the technology, but the very concept of such weapons and... the conviction that this problem could be solved. And the technical solutions themselves were purely national. In particular, the AK-47 used an intermediate cartridge, similar to the German one, but the bolt was rotating... In 1944, the United States added the ability to automatically fire to the M1 carbine and released it as the M2 carbine with 30-round magazines, which essentially did , the same function as the StG 44. Kits were created to convert M1 carbines to M2 carbines in the field.
The MP 44 had a very convenient and durable magazine! Although, due to its great length, it was not very convenient to shoot from this “Gever”. Photo by Dmitry Gillmann
By the way, the cartridge itself for our machine gun appeared after the technical council of the People's Commissariat of Armaments (NKV) met in July 1943 to consider new foreign weapons that fired lower-power cartridges. Two cartridges were studied: the American .30 Carbine and the German 7,92 Kurz, captured along with the MKb 42(H), which were undergoing military tests. At the meeting it was concluded that the 7,92 mm caliber cartridge is an important achievement, and that we also need to develop a cartridge of reduced power. As a result, the first prototype of the 7,62 mm M1943 cartridge was created just a month later. The adoption of the M1 Carbine by the US Army in 1941 proved the usefulness of a small, handy, low-powered rifle that required little training to use effectively. Later, the Soviet Union further lightened the AK-47 with the creation of the AKM, and the United States developed the concept of high-velocity small-caliber bullets and further reduced the weapon's weight with the introduction of the M16 (5,56 mm) rifle. After which the USSR also adopted an assault rifle chambered for 5,45 mm.
"Store Sponges" Photo by Dmitry Gillmann
Well, StG 44 continued to fight after the war. French troops found them in Algeria, where they came from Czechoslovakia. The Viet Cong used them during the Vietnam War. The StG 44 was used by rebels in Somalia. The Americans found them among militias in Iraq. In September 2013, a Syrian rebel appeared in a photo with a Sturmgewehr connected to a makeshift remote-controlled weapons station. The machine gun was controlled by a wired joystick, the view was provided by a video camera installed behind the sight, and the picture was displayed on the LCD screen. In 2013, a small number of StG 44s were confiscated from rebels in Burkina Faso. They are believed to have been obtained from government warehouses during the Libyan civil war and then sold on the black market.
MP 44 is already in use today. A still from the Soviet-Polish film “The Rape of the Savoy”, 1979. And this is not surprising, because after the war its production was established in Argentina. So there was enough for all the drug traffickers in South America!
*There was an article about the Chei-Rigotti rifle at VO by our author Kirill Ryabov:
Automatic rifle A. Chey-Rigotti (Italy)
PS
The author expresses gratitude to Dmitry Gillmann for the photographs he provided.
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