From my version (V1.0) of German forces for Twilight 2000.
Before the war the main service rifle of the West German Bundesheer was the Heckler & Koch G41 assault rifle, capable of full automatic fire or three round burst. The G41 was an upgraded version of the older Heckler & Koch HK-33 assault rifle and was intended as an interim design until the introduction of the new G11 assault rifle.
The Heckler & Koch G11 uses caseless ammunition and is capable of full automatic fire or three round bursts and can carry two spare magazines positioned parallel to the magazine in use. However difficulties in mass producing caseless ammunition due to other priorities before and during the war led to only limited production of the rifle, and the G11 was only issued to selected units such as the Fallschirmjager and Fernspah special forces.
Territorial forces continued to use the venerable Heckler & Koch G3 battle rifle that had been the main service rifle of the Bundesheer for decades. The G3 uses the 7.62mm NATO round as opposed to the lighter 5.56mm NATO round of the G41, and German troops preferred the stopping power of the G3.
When it was obvious that the G11 was becoming too complicated to produce Heckler & Koch developed the G36 assault rifle as an alternative replacement. The G36A1 rifle uses the same 5.56mm NATO round as the G41, but it is a more capable weapon with superior range. It went into production in 1996 and was issued to frontline German infantry until the nuclear detonations. All German rifles (G3, G36 and G41) can mount the HK-79 and M203 under barrel grenade launchers.
German Federal Border Guards used the G8A1 rifle, which was an automatic rifle variant of the Heckler & Koch HK21 light machine gun featuring a bipod, selective fire option and telescopic scope. Federal Border Guards and other police forces also used the Belgian FN FAL and Swiss SIG SG 550 battle rifles.
German officers, military police (Feldjager) and airborne forces were issued with sub-machine guns. The standard sub-machine gun of German forces was the Heckler & Koch MP5 (A2/A4/A5), with Territorial forces using the Israeli Uzi. German Special forces also used the Heckler & Koch MP5K and MP-5SD, or more rarely the Belgian FN P90. Naval forces and military police also used the Walther MPK and MPL.
The standard German sidearm was the Heckler & Koch P7 and USP pistol, with Territorial forces using the Walther P1/P38 pistol. German special forces used the Heckler & Koch P9 and Mark 23 pistol, and police forces using a variety of pistols and revolvers.
German forces also used the Heckler & Koch PSG1 and MSG90 sniper rifles, and the Remington Model 870 shotgun. German special forces used a range of sniper rifles including the AMP DSR-1, Remington M24 and British Accuracy International AWM-F sniper rifles. They also used Barrett M82 and Accuracy International AW-50 anti-material rifles. German police forces used the Heckler & Koch G8A1 with telescopic scopes and the Mauser 86SR, or more rarely the Blaser R93 and Walther WA 2000 sniper rifles.
German forces used DM51 concussion/fragmentation grenade and the DM24 incendiary/smoke grenade. Both grenades were made by German arms company Diehl, and incorporated a detachable fragmentation sleeve which allowed it to be used defensively or offensively without a sleeve. The DM24 grenade also differs from most other incendiary grenades as it is filled with red phosphorous rather than white phosphorous, making it considerably safer to use.
German Special forces also used the prototype INKAS integrated night-fighting system that was being developed for German forces before the start of the war. INKAS consists of a rifle-mounted infrared laser projector and image-intensifying goggles. The laser can be fitted to most German assault rifles and Heckler & Koch sub-machine guns directly in front of the fore-sight, and its beam is invisible except with IR-goggles or similar night-vision devices. INKAS allows for effective night combat efficiency, with the laser considerably enhancing-hit probability through its simple point-and-shoot system. Only special forces and selected Fallschirmjager units were equipped with INKAS.
East German forces used Warsaw Pact weapons. The standard assault rifle of the NVA was the Kalashnikov AK-74N that used 5.45mm Kalashnikov round, and was built under license by Sauer & Sohn in East Germany. Second line forces and security troops were issued with Kalashnikov AK-47 and AKM assault rifles that fired the larger but less accurate 7.62mm Kalashnikov round. The Kamphfgruppen der Arbeiterklasse militia used the AK-47 and the obsolete SKS semi-automatic carbine. The standard East German sidearm was the Makarov PM pistol. East German border troops, airborne forces and the Stasi were also issued with Soviet AKS-74U automatic carbines, Czech Omnipol VZ-61 Skorpion and Polish Lucznik PM-63 RAK sub-machine guns. East German sniper rifles included the Soviet SVD Dragunov and the East German made SSG-82 which was only used by the Stasi. East German used Soviet hand grenades such as the F1, RGD-33 and RGO fragmentation grenades.
After German Reunification West German units continued to use weapons chambered for NATO cartridges, while former East German forces used Soviet weapons for the same reason. As the war progressed German forces began to use whatever weapons were available, and in the later stages of the war even used Second World War era bolt action rifles such as the Soviet Mosin-Nagant M-1891 and former Wehrmacht Karabiner 98K's.
Civilian hunting rifles have also been increasingly used by militia forces. To add to the variety of firearms used by the Germans in the Twilight War many Austrian Army and US Army weapons also found their way into use. Austrian forces came under German control after 1997, and Austrian units use their own weapons including the Steyr AUG assault rifle and Steyr MPi 69 and TMP sub-machine guns. US firearms have also been distributed to German forces including Colt M16A2 assault rifles, Ingram MAC-10 sub-machine guns and other weapons. Five years of warfare against Warsaw Pact armies in Central Europe, the Italians in Austria, and the French and Belgian armies in the Rhineland has also led to the recovery of large stocks of captured firearms. In 2001 it is quite possible for individual German units to be using weapons from over half a dozen sources that are chambered to use NATO, Kalashnikov or other types of cartridges.
|