German rifle 44. Information bureau: About the monuments to Schmeisser and Kalashnikov. Small arms of the infantry division of the Wehrmacht

On the monument Mikhail Kalashnikov, opened on September 19, 2017 in Moscow, military expert Yuri Pasholok saw an explosion diagram of the German StG 44 assault rifle, developed in 1944 Hugo Schmeisser and outwardly reminiscent of the Kalashnikov assault rifle that came out later. Sculptor Salavat Shcherbakov, the author of the monument, told the radio station "Moscow Says" that

This message coincided with the newly activated (in connection with the opening of the monument) discussion that the Kalashnikov assault rifle could allegedly be developed by Schmeisser, who lived in the USSR for a short time after the war, or “copied” from the StG 44 (the abbreviation translates as Sturmgewehr, then there is an "Assault Rifle Model 1944"). Discussions on this topic regularly begin with renewed vigor, despite the fact that weapons specialists have repeatedly pointed out the fundamental differences in the design of these machine guns, emphasizing that the reason for the comparison is the distant external similarity of weapons.

Rifle StG 44. Photo: Public Domain

What are the differences?

Shutter locking method

AK and StG 44 differ in the most important sign for the design of weapons - the method of locking the shutter. For AK, locking occurs by turning the bolt around the longitudinal axis, for StG 44 - by tilting the bolt in the vertical plane. The method of locking the shutter is a key element of the entire design, but little is known to ordinary people who are not versed in the structure of weapons. Thus, a lack of understanding of the significance of this difference affects the opinion about the similarity of different types of machine guns and rifles with each other.

Receiver

At the Kalashnikov assault rifle, it consists of the actual receiver with a section in the form of an inverted letter P with bends in the upper part along which the bolt group moves, and its cover attached to the top, which must be removed for disassembly. At StG 44, the tubular receiver has an upper part with a closed section in the form of the number 8, inside which the bolt group is mounted, and a lower one, which serves as a trigger box (USM). Differences in the design of the receiver lead to a different procedure for disassembling and assembling weapons.

Layout, disassembly order

The layout and, as a result, the order of disassembly of these machines also differ. StG 44 structurally involves the “breaking” of the weapon into two parts, one of which consists of a trigger and a butt, and the other consists of a receiver, chamber, barrel itself, forearm, gas venting mechanism, etc. This StG 44 scheme was then implemented in almost the same form in the design of the M16 rifle, various modifications of which are the main small arms of the US Army.

In the AK, the trigger mechanism (USM) is not detachable, for disassembly it is not necessary to disconnect the butt, and the return mechanism is completely located in the receiver.

Magazine mount

The store mount is also different. The StG has a rather long receiving neck, while the AK has a magazine that is simply inserted directly into the receiver window.

Fire translator and safety device

The German and Soviet machine guns also have a fire translator and a safety device: the StG has a separate two-way push-button type fire translator and a fuse located on the left in the form of a flag, AK has a fuse translator located on the right.

“The Kalashnikov assault rifle and the STG 44 differ from a technical point of view in many ways. These are two different systems: both in terms of weapons and cartridges. In Germany, earlier than in other countries, they invented a new type of weapon, which we call an automatic weapon. This is an individual automatic weapon chambered for intermediate power.

Prototypes that underwent launch tests in 1942-1943 came across to Soviet soldiers as trophies. This did not start work on the machine gun in our country, but it made it possible to speed them up. Didn't do any copying. Both have automation based on the removal of powder gases. Both can fire bursts and single shots. But this does not mean they are closely related. Kalashnikov redesigned both the cartridge and the weapon. It is enough to put two cartridges side by side, and the difference will be noticeable. It is also enough to carry out an incomplete disassembly of the two machines, and differences will be visible.

The Kalashnikov assault rifle is much lighter than the German one. The locking system for AK is by turning the bolt on two stops, for STG 44 - by tilting the bolt.

When releasing the machine gun, the Germans tried to save as much as possible on materials, they widely used stamped metal parts, because of this it was not very convenient to hold the weapon in their hands. AK has better ergonomics. None of the German developments - neither the experimental ones, nor the STG 44 itself - were subsequently copied anywhere. There have been attempts to copy these weapons in Spain and Latin America, but to no avail. And the Kalashnikov assault rifle is still being copied, ”said AiF.ru firearms specialist, historian, writer Semyon Fedoseev.

In the midst of all the abundance of small arms made by designers in the past century, one can single out individual standards that have had the greatest impact on the upcoming development of weapons. The emergence of some of them can be called a true turning point in the history of the development of small arms. A striking example of this can be the history of the first Sturmgewehr (Stg.44) assault rifle, which can be safely called the predecessor and inspirer of such famous types of weapons as the AK-47 assault rifle and the FN FAL rifle.

The German automatic rifle Sturmgewehr 44 was really good for its time: for the first time, a place was provided for installing an underbarrel grenade launcher, an optical sight, and other suspension devices on this weapon. According to legend, the name for this weapon (Sturmgewehr, which means "assault rifle") was invented by Hitler himself. But all of the above is less than cherries on a cake, the more fundamental achievement of the Stg.44 was its ammunition, which caused a real revolution in weapons business.

The Sturmgever was indeed an elite weapon. For him, even the world's first infrared night vision sight Zielgerät 1229 Vampir was developed. It consisted of the sight itself (weighed 2.25 kg) and a rechargeable battery (13.5 kg), which the fighters carried in a wooden box behind their shoulders. Ghoul was intensively used in the last year of the war, although the range of his action did not exceed 100 meters.

The history of the creation of this tool began a long time before the 2nd World War, in the middle of the 30s of the last century.

Minor history

After the Nazis came to power in Germany, the rapid rearmament of the German army began. It also hit small arms. The German army administration wanted to have a more advanced small arms than their potential opponents had. The Germans considered the creation of an intermediate cartridge, as well as new weapon systems for it, to be one of the promising areas for the development of small arms.

At that time, all the armies of the world used either pistol or rifle cartridges. Rifle ammunition had better accuracy and range, but was unnecessarily massive. This led to an increase in the mass of the gun, to its complication, to a decrease in the amount of ammunition that a fighter could take with him. The flight range of a rifle bullet reached 2 km, although most of the fire contacts took place at distances of 400-500 meters. In addition, the creation of such ammunition sought more resources.

The rifle cartridge was very poorly suited for the creation of an automatic weapon.

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The pistol cartridge was not massive enough, and it’s hard to call its ballistics impeccable. It is effective at distances up to 200 meters, which is obviously not enough for the main gun of an infantryman. The countless submachine guns made before and during the war were striking proof of this.

Work on the creation of intermediate ammunition has been carried out since the beginning of the twentieth century, but the Germans managed to make the first serial standard: in 1940, the Polte weapons company made an intermediate cartridge 7.92 × 33 mm Kurz.

Even before the war in Germany, the concept of re-equipping the army with a gun made under an intermediate cartridge was created. At that time, the German army had three main types of small arms: a submachine gun, a repeating rifle and a light machine gun. The new automatic gun, made under the intermediate cartridge, was supposed to completely change the submachine gun and the magazine rifle, also partly the light machine gun. The German military expected to significantly increase the firepower of rifle formations with the help of a new weapon.

In 1938, the Wehrmacht Ordnance Department entered into an agreement with the arms company C.G. Haenel, owned by Hugo Schmeisser, an agreement to create an automatic carbine for a new intermediate cartridge. The new gun received the abbreviation MKb.

At the beginning of the 40th year, he handed over to his customers the first standards of the new gun, chambered for 7.92 × 33 mm Kurz. In the same year, another popular German arms company, Walther, received a similar task.

At the very beginning of 1942, both companies presented their modified MKb standards (MKbH and MKbW), they were presented to Hitler. The gun, made by Walther, was found to be very complex and capricious. The Schmeisser standard had a more conventional device and a sturdy construction, it was more comfortable to disassemble, and had the best features.

The new gun received the designation MKb.42 and was sent to the Eastern Front for further tests. Front-line tests completely confirmed the advantage of the standard made by Haenel, but the military demanded that certain configurations be introduced into the design.

By the middle of 1943, the Schmeisser rifle was put into service and the name was changed once again. Now this gun was designated by the abbreviation MP-43A (MP-431). More than 14 thousand units of such a weapon were made. This was followed by another small refinement of the gun, it received the name MP-43 and actually did not change until the very end of the war. First, in 1944, the rifle received the latest abbreviation - MP-44.

In September 1943, the brand new rifle was given over to large-scale military tests; the 5th SS Viking Panzer Division on the Eastern Front was armed with it. The new automatic rifle received the most seductive reviews, it significantly increased the firepower of infantry units.

After that, the new gun was demonstrated to Hitler. Previously, he received a huge number of beautiful reviews about him from the generals and the management of the military-industrial complex of Germany. The fact is that Hitler was against the development and adoption of a new class of rifles. On the other hand, it is believed that the final name of this automatic rifle - "assault rifle" or StG.44 - was personally invented by the Fuhrer.

The Sturmgever entered service with the Waffen-SS and selected units of the Wehrmacht. In total, about 400 thousand units of this gun were made before the end of the war (for comparison, the MP-38/40 was produced during the entire war about 2 million pieces). This weapon began to appear only at the final step of the war and did not have a significant impact on its course. The problem was not its quantity (it is quite convincing), but the lack of ammunition for the Stg.44.

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The damn situation with ammunition for the latest assault rifle is noted in their own memoirs by the German generals. But in general, Stg.44 proved to be the best in terms of accuracy, simplicity of design, and its own manufacturability.

After the end of the war, the Sturmgever was used by the police of the GDR, the army of the FRG, and the armed forces of several other European states. There is information that in Syria, warehouses where several thousand units of this weapon were located were seized by the opposition and at the moment these machine guns are intensively used by both sides of the conflict.

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Device description

Automation Stg.44 works by removing part of the powder gases from the bore. Gases move back the bolt carrier with the bolt. The locking of the bore is done by tilting the bolt.

The trigger mechanism of the hammer type. Stg.44 is capable of both single fire and burst fire. The fuse covers the trigger.

Food is made from a box-shaped double-row magazine with a capacity of 30 rounds. Sector sight, it allows you to shoot at a distance of up to 800 meters.

The return spring is located inside the wood butt, making it impossible to create a modification with a folding butt.

Advantages and disadvantages of Stg.44

Sturmgever can be called a revolutionary prototype of small arms. But, like any new weapon, the Stg.44 had its own "childhood illnesses". The developers simply did not have enough time to remove them. In addition, we should not forget that Stg.44 is the first gun of its kind.

Drawbacks:

• very large weight compared to an ordinary rifle;
• fragility of the receiver;
• bad sights;
• weak spring in stores;
• the absence of a forearm.

Advantages:

• good shooting accuracy at close and medium distances;
• convenience and compactness;
• good rate of fire;
• excellent ammunition properties;
• versatility in combat conditions.

As you can see, the shortcomings of the Stg.44 are not critical, and they could simply be removed with only a small upgrade of the gun. But the Germans did not have time to correct their mistakes.

Some experts believe that if Stg.44 had appeared a couple of years earlier, then the war could have had a different end. But history does not tolerate subjunctive moods.

Sturmgewehr (Stg.44) and Kalashnikov assault rifle

In April 1945, the Americans occupied the town of Suhl in Thuringia, where Hugo Schmeisser's company was located. The gunsmith himself was arrested, but after the Americans made sure that he was not a Nazi and did not commit atrocities, the designer was released. The Yankees were not entirely intrigued by his gun. They thought their M1 carbine was even better than the Stg.44.

They thought completely differently in the Russian Union. Work on the creation of weapons for an intermediate cartridge began in the USSR in 1943, immediately after the appearance of the first German captured samples. After the city in Germany, where the Schmeisser enterprise was located, moved to the Russian zone of occupation, all the technical documentation for Stg.44 was removed from the plant.

Next - more. In 1946, stern people came to the 62-year-old Schmeisser and made him an offer from the category of those who are not rejected. He, as well as the employees of his office, together with their families, went to the USSR, and more specifically, to the city of Izhevsk, where at that time hard work was underway to create a new machine gun.

Disputes about the relationship between the Kalashnikov assault rifle and the Stg.44 continue to this day and their intensity does not subside. Was the AK a copy of the German assault rifle? No, of course, they differ and very seriously. But to the question of whether the Stg.44 was a model for the creation of a Russian machine gun, one can definitely give an affirmative answer. To do this, it is quite easy to look at their appearance and design.

But that's not the most exciting thing. Who made the famous Russian machine gun? An illiterate boy with seven years of education or an experienced gunsmith with a worldwide reputation, who spent the last years of his life working on a similar tool? The question, as they say, is rhetorical. According to the memoirs of people who were familiar with Kalashnikov, he did not know how to draw and was not able to make a simple calculation. Although, everyone emphasizes that the guy’s hands were really golden. But for the creation of a new tool, this is obviously not much.

In 1948, Kalashnikov was oriented to work at the Izhmash design bureau, where the machine gun was being finalized at that time. Hugo Schmeisser also worked there during this period, they definitely could not help but meet. But in the memoirs of Misha Timofeevich there is not a single word about the Germans.

Although, the history of the creation of the famous machine gun is a separate topic, which obviously goes beyond the scope of our material.

You can also add that in 1952 Schmeisser was released to Germany, where a year later he died at once.

Technical properties

• weight, kg: 5.2;
• length, mm: 940;
• barrel length, mm: 419;
• initial bullet speed, m/s: 685 (bullet weight 8.1 g);
• caliber, mm: 7.92;
• cartridge: 7.92 × 33 mm;
• effective range, m: 600;
• type of ammunition supply: sector magazine for 30 rounds;
• sight: sector;
• rate of fire, shots / min: 500-600.

The Second World War seriously spurred the development of weapons and military equipment. The armies that entered the war, sometimes, came out of it with a completely different face and more advanced weapons. The German armed forces were also at the forefront of technical thought.

As a result of the defeat of Germany, many ideas ended up abroad, promoting novelties in other countries. One of the first mass models known in the world was the Sturmgever 44 assault rifle, one of the first such specimens chambered for an intermediate cartridge.

The history of the creation of Sturmgever

Even in the interval between the world wars, theorists and the military were concerned with the issue of uniformity and fundamentally new technical characteristics of firearms among soldiers. Rifle cartridges were unnecessarily powerful. They retained lethal force for an average of a couple of kilometers, while a real battle was carried out on average at a distance of 300 meters.

However, the problem was not in the strength of the cartridge, but in its large dimensions and the complexity of its use in automatic weapons. The pistol cartridge showed itself well at distances up to 200 meters, then both penetrating power and shooting accuracy greatly decreased. As a result, the armed forces of the countries of the world met the Second World War, armed with rifles and submachine guns.

A new type of weapon and ammunition made it possible to use logistics much more efficiently.

An increased amount of ammunition carried and transported due to uniformity, an increase in the strength, range and density of fire by a unit, all this and much more was given by the new cartridge.

Intermediate ammunition, which has the lethality of a rifle cartridge and is suitable for automation, has been sought since the beginning of the 20th century. The unitary cartridges created at that time were not widely used and had almost no effect on the armament of the soldiers. Only in 1940 did the German Polte engineers manage to create a successful cartridge, 7.92 × 33 mm Kurz (short).

According to the plans of the High Command, the Wehrmacht was to be rearmed, instead of submachine guns and rifles, soldiers were to receive a universally uniform
weapon.

Even earlier, in 1938, an agreement was concluded between the Armaments Directorate and the Schmeisser company on the development of a new type of weapon for an intermediate cartridge. In 1940, he handed over the developed sample for research, and at about the same time a new contract was concluded with the Walter company with the same technical assignment. In early 1942, at a meeting with Hitler, both options were demonstrated.

Tests showed the inconsistency of the Walther model, it was unnecessarily capricious and difficult to operate. The Schmeisser model, on the contrary, proved to be convenient, and it was decided to arrange front-line tests.

After successful use in the East and the elimination of minor shortcomings, in 1943 a model of a fundamentally new small arms was adopted under the marking MP-43A or MP-431.

The name of the weapon was chosen for a long time. The first years it was believed that the engineers were working on an automatic carbine. In 1944, the Fuhrer proposed the name assault rifle, and this name was assigned to all samples of this type of weapon in the west. An interesting fact: initially, Hitler was against a new type of personal small arms.

He was presented with a variant tested in the troops, repeatedly refined, highly appreciated by the generals, who enjoyed Hitler's confidence. Under pressure from positive reviews, the Fuhrer had to give in, and StG.44 was put into mass production.

Weapon design

Automation is based on the removal of powder gases from the bore. They move the shutter back, and locking occurs by skewing the shutter. The percussion mechanism of the trigger type.

The machine is capable of both automatic fire in bursts of various lengths and single shots.

Ammunition is produced in a magazine way, from a sector two-row magazine for 30 rounds. The sight allows you to shoot at eight hundred meters. Separately, it is worth highlighting the return spring, located in a wooden butt. This does not make it possible to produce weapons with a folding butt.

Since the weapon went to the troops, in fact, "raw", it has many disadvantages, as well as advantages:

• unsuccessful aiming devices, taking into account the fact that the machine gun fires accurately at small and medium combat distances;
• a lot of weight compared to rifles and submachine guns, but good ergonomics and compactness;
• insufficient strength of the receiver,
• spring weakness in the store;
• unfinished handguard, uncomfortable for the shooter;
• excellent rate of fire from the positive sides of the weapon.

It is worth noting that almost all the shortcomings are associated with "childhood diseases" or wartime conditions. These shortcomings are quite easily eliminated, which was also shown by operating experience, since from the moment they were put into service until the end of the war, the machine guns were modernized several times and, literally on the assembly line, the weapon was improved.

If Germany had more time and resources, history could have changed dramatically due to the massive use of new weapons, analogues of which either had worse characteristics or were in development.

Of interest are the developments to improve the StG.44, carried out by German designers until the very end of the war. In addition to mounts for sights and grenade launchers, a device was developed for firing at night. The sight "Vampire" made it possible to see the target at a distance of up to one hundred meters. The downside was the weight of the sight, more than 2 kg., As well as a 13-kilogram power supply worn behind the back.

Combat use

Initially, the new assault rifle was used in the SS division "Viking". In the future, these weapons also came into service only with the elite units of the German army. In total, 400 thousand samples were made, which was not a very large number, but this was not the main problem.

There was a catastrophic lack of ammunition for the machine gun, the industry could not cope with orders for the front.

This, and the fact that the weapons hit the troops en masse in 1944, when the issue of the defeat of Germany remained a matter of time, did not allow the rifle to make a significant contribution to the fighting.

Meanwhile, the Allies took a closer look at the new weapons. The Americans did not like the Sturmgever, the generals considered the M1 carbines to be a much better weapon. True, this did not prevent the American infantrymen from using captured samples with pleasure throughout the war. The Soviet army appreciated the capabilities of the assault rifle.

The saturation of the PPSh did not affect the use of a fundamentally different captured weapon, and its small mass use is associated with the main trouble, an insufficient amount of ammunition. Trophy samples influenced the intermediate cartridge 7.62 × 39 designed in the Union.

Post-war life StG.44 and interesting facts

Speaking of the German assault rifle, one cannot fail to mention the discussion related to its role in the creation of the . After the end of World War II, Schmeisser, who did not stain himself as a Nazi criminal, was released. He was immediately offered cooperation with the Soviet authorities, and he spent a long time in Izhevsk, at an arms factory.

At the same time, the young designer Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov was working on the creation of his own weapons in Kovrov, on the basis of an arms factory.

One way or another, we can talk about the external similarity between StG.44 and AK, but if you look inside, the difference becomes obvious. Despite the single principle, the removal of powder gases, the design itself is significantly different.

Finding the return spring, locking, the principle of disassembly, many other small differences make it possible to talk about different samples. The provocative question of whether Kalashnikov made an assault rifle or Schmeisser remains on the conscience of lovers of cheap sensations and searches in an empty dark room of a cat.

In the post-war period, the machine was used by the army of both Germanys, the IDF in many wars with Arab countries, as well as in military conflicts in Korea, Vietnam and some African countries. The spread of other types of weapons did not allow the machine gun to spread widely, but it made its contribution to the war.

There is evidence of its use in the conflict in Syria, already in the 21st century. He got there from Israeli warehouses, burdened with obsolete machine guns.

The StG.44 received unexpected success in Soviet cinema.

During the filming of Pirates of the 20th Century, the director and writers decided that it would be nice to equip the villains with something new. Since rumors about the American M16 had already reached the public, but the film studios could not get fake samples, it was decided to slightly “modernize” the German StG.44.

A handle was welded to it on top to resemble the “black rifle” of American soldiers. It is not clear why, but they welded the connection of the butt and the receiver, eliminating the possibility of disassembling and cleaning the weapon. Soviet citizens, especially of school age, were shocked by the appearance of new weapons in the cinema, and this made the pseudo-M16 a good advertisement. This was followed by the appearance in several more films about the "friendship" of the Soviet and American people.

As a result, hundreds of samples of Eugene Stoner's real creations were purchased for the warehouses of film studios, leaving this interesting hybrid to the delight of film lovers. Periodically, StG.44 flashes in films about the war and a variety of shooters.

Video

The Haenel / Schmeisser MP.43 assault rifle is the predecessor of the famous Stg.44 "Sturmgever". Left side view

The Haenel / Schmeisser MP.43 assault rifle is the predecessor of the famous Stg.44 "Sturmgever". Right side view

The Haenel / Schmeisser MP.43 assault rifle is the predecessor of the famous Stg.44 "Sturmgever".
Incomplete disassembly in comparison with the Kalashnikov AKM

The development of manual automatic weapons chambered for a cartridge intermediate in power between pistol and rifle was started in Germany before the start of World War II, in the mid-thirties. In 1939, an intermediate cartridge of 7.92 × 33 mm (7.92 mm Kurz), developed on an initiative basis by the German company Polte, was chosen as the new base ammunition in 1939. In 1942, by order of the German arms department HWaA, two firms set about developing weapons for this cartridge - C.G. Haenel and Karl Walther.

As a result, two samples were created, initially classified as automatic carbines - (MaschinenKarabiner, MKb). The sample of the company Walter was designated, the sample of the company Henel, developed under the direction of Hugo Schmeisser (Hugo Schmeisser) -. Based on the test results, it was decided to develop the design of the Henel company, in which significant changes were made, primarily related to the USM device. Due to Hitler's reluctance to begin production of a new class of weapons, development was carried out under the designation MP 43 (MaschinenPistole = submachine gun). The first samples of the MP 43 were successfully tested on the Eastern Front against the Soviet troops, and in 1944, more or less mass production of a new type of weapon under the name MP 44 begins. After the results of successful front-line tests were presented to Hitler and approved by him, the nomenclature of weapons there was again a betrayal, and the sample received the final designation StG.44 (Sturmgewehr 44, Sturmgever, "assault rifle"). The name Sturmgewehr carried a purely propaganda meaning, however, as it sometimes happens, it stuck tightly not only to this sample, but to the entire class of manual automatic weapons chambered for an intermediate cartridge. The total production of all variants of the "Sturmgever" for the years 1943-45 amounted to more than 400 thousand pieces, and in the post-war period its production was not resumed. However, Stg.44 assault rifles were used in limited numbers in the early post-war period in the GDR and Czechoslovakia, and in Yugoslavia they were in service with the airborne troops until the 1970s.
It should be noted that the successful development and use of Stg.44 assault rifles by fascist Germany left its mark on the entire post-war development of small arms, since sooner or later most countries of the world switched to weapons of the same class under an intermediate cartridge. At the same time, the most common designation for a new class of weapons was precisely tracing paper from the German word "Sturmgever", i.e. "assault rifle", although from any point of view, the term "automatic carbine" originally used by the Germans seems to be much more correct.
In general, the Stg.44 assault rifle was a relatively successful model, providing effective fire with single shots at a distance of up to 500-600 meters and automatic fire at a distance of up to 300 meters, although being, however, excessively heavy and not very convenient in the butt, especially when shooting lying. There is a common legend that the Kalashnikov assault rifle was copied from the Sturmgever and that Schmeiser himself, allegedly being in Soviet captivity, participated in the development of the AK. HOWEVER, it’s impossible to talk about DIRECT BORROWING by Kalashnikov from the Schmeisser design - the designs and Stg.44 contain too many fundamentally different solutions (the layout of the receiver, the USM device, the device for locking the barrel, etc.). And the very possible participation of Schmeiser in the development of the Kalashnikov assault rifle looks more than doubtful, given that Schmeiser was in Izhevsk, while the experimental AK-47 was created in Kovrov and Kalashnikov himself arrived in Izhevsk only in 1948, with a ready-made design of the machine.

Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle (Sturmgewehr 44, Stg.44) It was a weapon built on the basis of automation with a gas engine with a long stroke of a gas piston located above the barrel. The barrel was locked by tilting the bolt down, behind the insert in the receiver. The receiver is stamped from a steel sheet, also a stamped USM unit, together with a pistol grip, is hinged to the receiver and folds forward and down for disassembly. The butt is wooden, attached to the receiver with a transverse pin and removed during disassembly, a return spring is located inside the butt (thus eliminating the possibility of simply creating a variant with a folding butt). The sector sight, the fuse and the fire mode translator are independent (the fuse lever on the left above the pistol grip and the transverse fire mode selection button located above it), the shutter handle is located on the left and moves along with the bolt carrier when firing. On the muzzle of the barrel, a thread is made for mounting a rifle grenade launcher, usually closed with a protective sleeve. Stg.44 could be equipped with an active IR-sight "Vampire", as well as a special krummlauf Vorsatz J device for firing from tanks (and other shelters) at the enemy in the dead zone near the tank.

A unique and extremely rare German-made blanked assault rifle (automatic) shp mp 44 or stg 44 sturmgewehr - Stg 44 Sturmgewehr. Factory-finished Hammer weapon. Number 5793. Caliber blank 7.62x39mm. The history of the Stg 44 assault rifle began with the development by Polte AG (Magdeburg) of an intermediate cartridge 7.92 × 33 mm of reduced power for firing at a distance of up to 1000 m, in accordance with the requirements put forward by the HWaA (Heereswaffenamt - Wehrmacht Weapons Department). In 1935-1937. numerous studies were carried out, as a result of which the initial tactical and technical requirements of the HWaA for the design of weapons for the new cartridge were revised, which led to the creation in 1938 of the concept of light automatic small arms capable of simultaneously replacing submachine guns, magazine rifles and light machine guns in the troops . On April 18, 1938, the HWaA entered into a contract with Hugo Schmeisser, owner of C.G. Haenel Waffen und Fahrradfabrik ”(Suhl, Thuringia), a contract for the creation of a new weapon, officially designated MKb (German Maschinenkarabin - automatic carbine). Schmeisser, who headed the design team, handed over the first prototype of the assault rifle to the HWaA in early 1940.

At the end of the same year, a contract for research under the MKb program. received by Walther under the leadership of Erich Walther. A variant of the carbine of this company was presented to the officers of the artillery and technical supply department of the HWaA in early 1941. According to the results of firing at the Kummersdorf training ground, the Walther submachine gun showed satisfactory results, however, fine-tuning its design continued throughout 1941. In January 1942, the HWaA demanded that C.G. Haenel" and "Walther" to provide 200 carbines each, designated MKb.42 (H) and MKb.42 (W), respectively.

In July, an official demonstration of prototypes of both companies took place, as a result of which the HWaA and the leadership of the Ministry of Armaments remained confident that the modifications of the machine guns would be completed in the very near future and production would begin at the end of summer. It was planned to produce 500 carbines by November, and by March 1943 to increase the monthly production to 15,000, but after the August tests, the HWaA introduced new requirements in the TTZ, which briefly delayed the start of production. According to the new requirements, a tide for a bayonet was to be mounted on the machines, and it was also possible to mount a rifle grenade launcher. In addition to this, C.G. Haenel had problems with a subcontractor, and Walther had problems setting up production equipment. As a result, not a single copy of the MKb.42 was ready by October.

The production of assault rifles grew slowly: in November, Walther produced 25 carbines, and in December - 91 (with a planned monthly production of 500 pieces), but thanks to the support of the Ministry of Armaments, the firms managed to solve the main production problems, and already in February the production plan was exceeded (1217 machine guns instead of a thousand). A certain number of MKb.42s, by order of the Minister of Armaments Albert Speer, went to the Eastern Front to undergo military trials. During the tests, it was found that the heavier MKb.42(H) was worse balanced, but more reliable and simpler than its competitor, so the HWaA gave its preference to the Schmeisser design, but required some changes to it.