Quote:
Originally Posted by Adm.Lee
This circles back to a question I've had a for a few years, but never looked into. I read a LOT of WW2 stuff, but (outside of books specifically on small arms) I've never picked up on Western troops really being aware of the StG44. German MGs are feared, and their high RoF is well-known. The panzerfausts are sometimes pressed into service. Everyone knows about a Luger, and wants one for a souvenir. Apparently rifles are rifles, and anything else might be lumped into the "burp gun" category. So, how many of those things were used by the Germans? Did it affect tactics? Were there just not as many on the Western Front?
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Quite a lot was used on the Western Front. While the first examples was confined to a few operations in Mid-Late 43, they really started being issued in late 44. There are quite a few pics floating about taken during the Battle of the Bulge showing German troops (Both Heer and SS) equipped with them.
I think why the western forces never took serious notice of them falls in the the concept that the truly feared german small arm was the MG42 - and it was probably felt that the bulk of casualties was caused by it - not the soldiers sporting the AR's - which was probably seen as nothing more than a upscaled SMG by most of the higher ups in the arms departments. Not an unreasonable thought since after all, the bullet used in the cartridge for both the 7.92 Mauser and the 7.92K was for all intents and purposes, the same.
Using my Grandfather for an example, he thought that while it wasn't a replacement for a proper rifle, it was a marvellous system for combat in area's that was more confined than an open field, but most importantly since he was a tanker, a lot easier to stow in his Firefly than a SMLE, and damn sight better than a sten or even the Tommy Gun he "didn't" have.
He told me back in the day, for the longest time he thought all the concept would be good for is specialised roles: Para's, armoured crewmen, and the like. Never as an replacement wholesale: The FAL in his mind was near perfect, he was never sold on the idea of replacing all the rifles in an army with suchlike as the M16 or AK. Ah well, even he couldn't call them all.
