Sturmgewehr 44
The
Maschinenpistole 43,
Maschinenpistole 44 and
Sturmgewehr 44 (
MP43,
MP44 and
StG44, respectively) were names for a light
automatic rifle developed for
Germany during
World War II as part of the
Maschinenkarabiner (machine
carbine) program, and developed from the Mkb 42(H). The many names of the Mkb 42(H)'s successor is a result of the complicated bureaucracy of the
Third Reich.
The MP43, MP44, and StG44 were names for nearly identical weapons with only small production differences and dates. The last, the StG44, was called
Sturmgewehr (
assault rifle). It combined the traits of
submachine guns and automatic rifles. The translation "assault rifle" became very popular to describe this class of weapon.
It 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 standard 7.92 mm
rifle round, in combination with the weapon's design, allowed it to be used like a submachine gun in close quarters but with greater accuracy and range than submachine guns in longer range engagements. However, it had much less range and power than regular rifles of the day; at that time, much of the fighting was taking place at closer ranges such as in towns, cities, and wooded areas.
When the StG44 was introduced, much of the
Wehrmacht was armed with either submachine guns or
bolt-action rifles such as the
Karabiner 98k. Only a limited number of soldiers were issued
semi-automatic rifles. German doctrine did not include a dedicated
light machine gun (LMG). The
MG34 and
MG42 were meant to serve this role but they proved too heavy and tended to be utilized mostly in prepared emplacements. The StG44 was not a light machine gun, but it did fill the need for a light automatic rifle that offered mobile
suppressive fire, like the
Bren or
Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), while at the same time offering much of the convenience of a submachine gun or light automatic rifle.
In the early stages of the war, the Wehrmacht's
medium machine guns proved to be far too large to be operated on the move, meaning that the troops had to use their rifles while moving up. Of course the defenders they were moving up on were in fixed positions, and therefore had no limitations in the use of their own machine guns. For an army depending on the fast-moving
blitzkrieg strategy, they found themselves outgunned almost constantly. These problems were magnified in the cities and towns, where the weapons could not be brought to bear on their targets before they disappeared into the next building.
For this reason the troops started making increased use of submachine guns, forming squads known as
assault troops which could keep up a high rate of fire while on the move. However, the submachine gun's use of
pistol rounds made for poor range, and the assault troops were really only useful in urban settings. Once out in the country it was back to the rifles again.
The issue arose once again during the invasion of the
Soviet Union. The
Red Army had been in the process of replacing its own rifles in the immediate preâ€"war era. Increasing numbers of semi-automatic
Tokarev SVT38 and
SVT40s were reaching the units, meaning that they outgunned their German counterparts considerably. The army had been attempting to introduce semi-automatic weapons of their own, notably the
Gewehr 41, but these were proving rather problematic in service, and were therefore being delivered at a trickle while the problems were being worked out.
Several attempts had been made to introduce very light-weight machine guns for these roles, but invariably the recoil from the fairly heavy standard German 7.92 mm
Mauser round made them too difficult to control. The solution was to use a round of "intermediate" power, somewhere between that of the full rifle cartridge, and pistol rounds. Experiments with several such intermediate rounds had been going on since the 1930s, but had been constantly rejected for use by the army. By 1941, it was becoming clear that there was actually a problem to solve, and one of the experimental rounds, the Polte 7.92 x 33 mm
Kurzpatrone (short cartridge) â€" originally 7 x 33 mm, but to minimize logistical problems, the Mauser 7.92 mm was selected as the basis for future development.
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 largely similar, using a
Gas-operated action, with both semi-automatic and
fully-automatic firing modes.
The original prototypes of Haenel's design, the MK 42(H), fired from the
open bolt and used a striker for firing (the bolt mechanism is based on the
Czechoslovak zb-26). The receiver and trigger housing with pistol grip were made from steel stampings, which were attached to the
barrel assembly on a hinge, allowing the weapon to be "folded open" for quick disassembly and cleaning. The Haenel MK 42(H) design proved superior to the Walther MKb 42(W), and the army then asked Haenel for another version incorporating a list of minor changes designated MKb 42(H). One was to include lugs for mounting a standard
bayonet, another to change the pitch of the rifling. A production run of these modified versions was sent to the field in November 1942, and the users appreciated it with a few reservations. Another set of modifications added a hinged cover over the ejection port to keep it clean while on the move, and rails to mount a sighting scope. A run of these modified MKb 42(H)s in late 1942 and early 1943 produced 11,833 guns for field trials.
Ultimately it was recommended that a hammer firing system operating from a closed bolt similar to that of the Walther design be incorporated. Also the gas expansion chamber over the barrel was deemed unnessary.
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 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.
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 grenade launcher attachment from the earlier MKb 42(H) led 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.
On
6 April 1944, 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 win, the rifle was again renamed as the StG44, to highlight the new class of weapon it represented, literally "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 an invaluable weapon, especially on the Eastern front, where it was first deployed. A properly trained soldier with an StG44 had a greatly improved tactical repertoire, in that he could effectively engage targets at longer ranges than with an
MP40, but be much more useful than the K98k in close range urban fighting, as well as provide light cover fire like an LMG.
The MP43/44 was an intermediate weapon for the period; the muzzle velocity from its 42 cm barrel was 647 m/s, compared to 880 m/s (K98k), 744 m/s (Bren), 600 m/s (M2 Carbine), and 365 m/s (MP40).
One unusual addition to the design was the
Krummlauf, a bent barrel with a periscope sighting device attached for shooting around corners from a safe position. It was produced in several variants, an "I"-version for infantry use, 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° bends, a version for the StG44 and one for the MG 42. Only the 30° "I" version for the StG44 was produced in any numbers.
A primary use of the MP44/StG44 was to counter the Soviet
PPS and
PPSH submachine guns, which used a 7.62 x 25 mm round (not entirely interchangeable with the 7.62 Mauser round, introduced with the 1896
Mauser "Broomhandle" pistol). These cheap mass-produced weapons used a 71-round drum magazine or 35-round "box" magazine and though shorter-ranged than the K98 rifle, could roll over troops armed with the Karabiner in a human wave attack. The StG44, while also lacking the range of the Karabiner, had a longer range than the PPS/PPSh SMGs, and a comparable rate of fire. Also, while they could fire fully automatic, they were designed to default to semi-auto fire. They were surprisingly accurate, and their slow rate of fire gave them controlability even on full-auto. While the design details are quite different, the purpose of the StG44 was obviously carried on in the most famous and most numerously manufactured assault rifle, the
AK-47.
Mauser developed several prototype
StG45(M) assault rifles, first with the Gerät 06 using a
roller-delayed blowback mechanism originally adapted from the roller-locked
recoil operation of the
MG42 machine gun but with a fixed barrel and gas system. It was realized that with careful attention to the mechanical ratios, the gas system could be omitted. The resultant weapon, the Gerät 06(H) was supposedly slated for adoption by the Wehrmacht as the StG45. This mechanism would later be developed by former Mauser engineers in Spain and used on the post-war
CETME and
Heckler & Koch's
G3 assault rifle and
MP5 submachine gun.
Towards the end of the war, there were last-ditch efforts to develop cheap so-called
Volksgewehr rifles in this caliber. One of these (the VG 1-5) used a
gas-delayed blowback action based on the Barnitzke system, whereby gas bled from the barrel near the chamber creates resistance to the rearward impulse of the operating parts, which ceases when the projectile leaves the muzzle, allowing the operating parts to be forced rearward by the residual pressure of the cartridge case. This principle has been used most successfully in the Heckler & Koch PSP or
HK P7 pistol.
Generally accepted as the world's first assault rifle, the StG's effect on post-war arms design was wide-ranging, as evidenced by Mikhail Kalashnikov's famous AK-47, and ultimately in the U.S. M-16 and its variants.
The Soviet Union, who also had lacked large number of deployed LMGs like the
BAR, was quick to adapt the assault-rifle concept. The AK-47 used a similar-sized round and followed the design concept, but was internally (mechanically) somewhat different.
Many of the other Western countries continued using their existing weapons. The
7.62 x 51 mm NATO round that was adopted was no smaller, though the adoption of smaller rounds had been a pre-existing trend. For example, the
M1 Garand, which was initially developed for the
.276 (about 7 mm), was changed at the direction of
General MacArthur to use the previously existing
.30-06 Springfield cartridge to be common with existing ammunition stocks and weapons. Some modification was made, using a lighter 150-
grain (9.7
g) bullet for the Garand, rather than a heavier 172-grain (11 g) bullet intended to be optimized for the
M1917 Browning machine gun.
Eventually,
NATO moved from the 7.62 x 51 mm to another intermediate cartridge â€" the
5.56 x 45 mm â€", but the weapons that were adopted varied significantly, and marked a different interpretation of what was needed in an intermediate weapon than the AK-47 and StG44. They used an even smaller higher velocity round, and the weapons themselves were lighter. In terms of size and weight, they were closer to the M2 Carbine (a fully-automatic version of the
M1), and the cartridge design itself had a history dating back before the 1900s. The USSR noted the advance and incorporated these differences in the improved
AK-74, which was lighter and used a
5.45 x 39 mm round similar to NATO's version.
*
List of World War II firearms of Germany*
List of firearms*
Assault rifle*
List of firearms in video games
