This was an anti-personnel mine.Īnother mine was the “S-Mine” or “shrapnel-mine”. An acid would ignite the primer when the vile it was in was crushed and the primer would explode the main charge. See also 7.Infanterie-Division German WW2 Mines The MG42 went on to become the standard design for a light machine gun for NATO and is now used in a more modern form by the US military as the M-60! The new German Army continues to use a less modified but still modernized version of the MG42 as their standard light machine gun. The Germans settled on two light machine gun designs and used them throughout the war, the MG34 and MG42. German WW2 Light Machine Guns MG42 light machine gun However, these rifles never made it past the prototype phase. In 1945, Mauser had begun work on a new type of assault rifle (sometimes called the StG45(M), sometimes the Gerat O6), that used a roller-locking mechanism (like that of the MP5), which slowed the ROF down to 450 RPS. In late 1943, the MP44 (the most commonly found German assault rifle from the war) was developed, though being basically the same thing as its predecessor. The sniper arrangement didn’t really work, so, few were made. It had scope mounting rails on the iron-sights. The Germans, contemplating the sniping value of the MP43, made a variant, called the MP43/1. Later, this weapon was refined into the MP43. It looked a lot similar and was issued in numbers on the eastern front. The Maschinen Pistole 43’s origin was actually the Maschinen Karabiner 42 (MKb 42). Luckily for the men that had disobeyed the Führer, the results of the investigation were so encouraging about the new weapon that Hitler changed his mind and announced that henceforward the weapon would be called “Sturmgewehr” or Assault Rifle. Hitler was furious and ordered an investigation. The whole affair was blown when a few divisional commanders asked Hitler at a conference when they would get the new weapon. German troops all over the Eastern Front were clamoring for the new weapon. The trick worked and the weapon went into production at three factories. The German arms minister, however, knew the need for the new weapon and changed the name to “Machine Pistol”, which is what the Germans called their submachine guns like the US Thompson. However, Hitler, still thinking that troops needed a weapon capable of firing 2000 yards, ordered that production of the weapon not start. It fired a less powerful cartridge and had a lighter recoil as a result. The next submachine gun design to emerge was the MP43 or Machine Pistol 43 from a design developed in 1943. The Waffen-SS used a submachine gun made by Bergman called the MP34 also. A less known model called Erma was also produced as well as a German copy of the British STEN gun, called MP3008. The MP40 was not manufactured by Schmeisser, and the weapon was far more simple and had a much cleaner design, thus it became the standard issue for German troops.Īn earlier design called MP38 had a similar appearance and saw widespread distribution. While it is true that the Schmeisser firm did create and produce its own submachine gun design, it was less than perfect and prone to trouble. Many times the term “Schmeisser” is used in reference to a German submachine gun.
The most common submachine gun used by the Germans during WWII was the MP40. Instead, ranges had shrunk down to 400 yards and a less powerful cartridge was needed. The way in which German troops used their weapons changed and a rifle with a range of 2000 yards was no longer needed – except for specialists and snipers. After initial use, results were less than satisfactory and as soon as a better design came along, production was halted.
The Mauser design won out over the simpler Walther design and many thousands of the Gewehr 41(W) were made available to the troops on the Eastern Front. Two designs were submitted for trials in 1941, one by Walther (the maker of the famous PPK and the P38 pistols), and the other was submitted by Mauser.
While the German standard rifle was a bolt action rifle, the Germans did attempt to design a successful automatic rifle as well. It was a standard-issue for German troops in WWI and, in its modified 98k version (k for Kurz, or short), in WWII as well. This weapon was a 5-shot, bolt-action rifle that actually dated back to 1898 when it was first adopted by the Imperial German Army. The standard German infantry weapon was the rifle, originally designed by Mauser, and dubbed the Karabiner 98k.