Saturday, August 25, 2012

 

Well Equipped Enemy

I told you that the Germans would pick up and use SVT-40s as they were superior to the Kar 98 and even the semi-auto G and K 41s and 43s. I'm a little uneasy with the proximity of Soviet (partisan?) to a blank concrete block wall in the photo. That ain't so good. The German soldier wears a ceremonial piece of armor called a gorget, designed originally to protect the throat from edged weapons. American military don't wear them but many European soldiers did and, some still do.

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Not superior, the K98k is not only more accurate but the 7.92 x 57 mm has a much flatter trajectory than the Allied or soviet counterpart rifle cartridges in addition the Germans did not use soft ball (lead core) ammunition but rather steel core bullets which gave their rounds anti-armor ability (8mm @ 100 meters @ 30 degrees).The Svt-40 rifle had numerous flaws and problems that greatly affected its effectiveness as a rifle, however the Svt‘s semi-automatic nature made it desirable strictly from a fire power perspective for Germany and Finland.
Remember German domestic production of the semi-automatic rifle was initially very low with only 5,000 Gewehr 41’s being produced in January 1942 and a fraction of these being delivered by that date to front-line units. The Gewehr 41’s largest production figures and subsequent deliveries to the army was in the years 1943-44 which overlapped the production and deliveries of its successor the Gewehr 43 meaning that German semi-rifle use would be at its peak in the last 2 years of the war.
The Germans had captured thousands of foreign semi-auto rifles and a significant supply of its ammunition (7.62×54 mm) from 1941-1943. What army anywhere would turn down a large supply of free weapons which would greatly increase their fire power? None, particularly in the close quarters combat experienced in urban areas during this period.
It is a similar story with other soviet weapons such as the PPSh-41 in fact it was more ideal since Germany had large stocks of Mauser manufactured 7.63x 25mm (a domestic pistol cartridge) and later even devised a relatively quick method conversion of the weapon to 9x19 mm. The Germans also made use of domestic pre-war and other foreign weapons to arm as many units/soldiers with automatic weapons as possible (Mp-28 II, Bergmann Mp-35, Mp-34(o), Beretta M38(& variants),ZB26’s, etc.).

As far as the brick wall /soviet partisan comment, the Germans were not monsters or a secular Satan that they are built up as in the media they were people like anyone else you should be wary about atrocity propaganda as no side has clean hands especially communist partisans or the soviet union which have ideological imperative to paint “the other” i.e. the Germans as monsters to justify their own atrocities & political existence. Simply put war is dirty.

 
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