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Old 10-25-2010, 10:03 AM
dragoon500ly dragoon500ly is offline
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In regards to the MP44, I've read that it wasn't rejected because of the ammunition as the 7.92mm round would still have been the standard round for machineguns and sniper rifles. It went through a number of developments from the MP42 to the MP45 and it was kept largely hidden from Hitler because he wanted manufacture to concentrate on machineguns and SMGs instead of rifles. After impressing Hitler in demonstrations and the good reports coming back from combat testing on the Eastern Front, the MP44 was given the green light and he is alleged to have named it the SturmGewehr in praise.
The MP43 developed the "short" 7.92mm round. The major arguements against the weapon is that there was no stockpile ammo and no one was willing to take responsibility for replacing 8 milliard rounds of ammo, in the middle of a shooting war. Okay, its understable from a REMF standpoint. But when the MP43 was issued to test platoons on the Eastern Front, the soldats loved the weapon, not due to its ability to fire automatic, but more due to its semiautomatic capability. Hitler, at first, ordered that production be stopped on the MP43, because the MP40 was doing a excellent job and did not need to be replaced. It was only when at a firearms demonstration (where the honor guard was issued MP43) that Hitler actually saw the weapon and order its production to continue and its name was changed to the Sturmgeschutz 44.

While the Stu44 was an issue weapon, there is a great deal of debate over just how widely issued it really was. Stories of entire divisions being equipped with the new assault rifle have proven to be just that, stories. It is more realistically believed that the scale of issue was one or two platoons per regiment on the Western Front and at least one company per regiment on the Eastern Front.
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