#fg42

The FG42, full name something along the lines of “Fallschirmjagergewehr 42” (there are umlauts in there somewhere and I’m not certain that I have the correct number of "h"s or that they’re in the right place) is a German-designed rifle from World War II. It was developed to provide mobile firepower for paratroopers (those of you who know at least a few words of German probably guessed that already) and had a great influence on later light machine gun designs - the American M60 in particular owes much of it’s design to the FG42. One of the more interesting aspects of it’s design is the firing mode - it fires from either an open or closed bolt depending on whether it’s in full-auto or semi-auto mode, respectively. You get the 

The first version developed (top-most in the picture above) had a receiver made of forged manganese steel, a steel butt-stock, a built-in bipod hinged at the handguard, and a grip clearly designed by someone who had never actually seen a human hand or arm. 

The use of manganese posed some supply problems, what with the whole “world war” going on at the time, so a decision was made to redesign the receiver to use cheaper, easier-to-acquire stamped sheet metal. The Germans then figured that since they were redesigning the gun anyway they might as well address some of the complaints they’d received from troops in the field:

- the bipod hinge was moved from from the handguard to the muzzle to help keep shots going in vaguely the same direction as one another

- the fire rate was reduced from 900 rounds/min to 750 because even suppressing fire should be aimed

- the stock was changed from steel to wood because shockingly enough guns get hot when you fire them repeatedly and people don’t like hot steel near their face

- they fired the fucking lizardperson in the ergonomics department and made the grip usable by the average human being without fucking up their wrist.

Some of you looking at these firearms may be wondering where the magazine goes: it slots into the left side of the receiver just above the grip and trigger. While this does make the weapon somewhat more compact, having 10 or 20 rounds of full-size rifle cartridges sticking out to the side does make the balance a bit awkward. See, the designers looked at contemporary SMGs like the Sten, saw that it worked fine there, and said “Hey, 9x19 and 7.92x57 are basically the same, right?”

In Action: FG-42 & PPSh-41

In this striking photograph we see two weapons from very different ends of World War Two’s small arms spectrum. A late war model German FG-42/II and a Soviet PPSh-41 submachine gun. 

The FG-42, a complex select-fire battle rifle capable of semi and fully automatic fire, was developed for the Luftwaffe’s Fallschirmjäger. It fed from a side mounted 20-round box magazine and fired from an open bolt on full automatic and a closed bolt for semi-automatic fire. This aided cooling in the former and accuracy in the latter. 

The late war FG-42 seen in the photograph above differed in a number of respects to the earlier models. Principally, the FG-42/II was designed to be a more robust and easier to manufacture weapon. It had a heavier bolt which reduced its cyclic rate of fire down to approximately 750 rpm. It also had a bulkier laminated wooden stock and a more conventional pistol grip, these alterations increased the rifle’s weight to 4.95kg (almost 11lbs). 

The changes were made as Germany’s paratroops were increasingly used as elite ground troops, as the need for offensive operations such as airborne assaults diminished, as the tide of war turned and the German Army was placed on the defensive. The dead paratroop in the photograph appears to be an SS-Untersturmführer, probably from the SS-Fallschirmjägerbataillon 500. 

The Soviet soldier walking towards the photographer has a PPSh-41 hung around his neck. The Soviet Union produced approximately 6 million PPSh-41s between 1941 and 1946. This huge number was achieved because of the weapon’s simple design and ease of manufacture - at peak production 3,000 a day were being produced.

The PPSh fired the 7.62x25mm Soviet pistol round and fed from either a 35-round box magazine or a 71-round drum magazine, neither of which can be seen in the photograph. Unloaded it weighed 3.6kg (8lb) and had a rate of fire of around 900 rpm. Designed to replace the PPD, the PPSh was later supplemented by the even simpler PPS-43.

The PPSh-41 was instrumental to the Russian war effort. It was well liked for its impressive rate of fire, large magazine capacity and reliability - proving ideal for the many urban engagements fought on the Eastern Front. 

Sources:

Images: 1 2 3

FG42 from Upotte!