There are two major myths surrounding the development of the Maschinenkarabiner 42, or MKb-42 and it successors, of which I too have been guilty of spreading. But, right now we are going to clear the slate and tell you the truth.
First myth – It’s a super submachine gun. No, it was never intended as a super submachine gun to counter the Soviets masses with PPSh-41s.
Second myth – Its requirements are based on experiences in the Eastern Front fighting the Soviets.
First let’s start with the ammunition, because you have to have the ammunition finalized before you can start to design a rifle to shoot it. The origins of the 7.9mm Kurz actually go all the way back to 1918, but serious development didn’t start until 1923, when the German Army quietly requested the ammunition industry develop a smaller cartridge to possibly replace the 7.9mm Mauser currently in use (quietly, because - treaty reasons). They received back several designs: RWS offered a 7mm x 46, DWM, a 7mm x 39.1, Geco, a 7.75mm x 39.5. The Army looked at them and wasn’t enthusiastic about changing the bore diameter or head diameter, so the Army, with assistance of Polte Armaturen und Maschinenfabrik began development of a cartridge with a bore diameter nominally 8mm and the same case head diameter as the Mauser cartridge. In mid-1938 the design was finalized as the 7.9mm x 33 Kurzpatrone. That year the Army issued a requirement for a new weapon to use this ammunition. The requirements were:
So, we can see the impossibility of the idea of the MKb-42/MP-44/StG-44 was the result of anything that happened during the invasion of the Soviet Union. All of the features that define the MP-44 were set down four years before German troops crossed the frontier into Russia.
So, if it wasn’t from Russia, where did these requirements come from?
For the answer to that we must look at what the German Army learned from World War I. There are many documents detailing all things the German Army had learned during the conflict. The biggest were: (and are in stark contrast to what the British and French learned)
Trench warfare was an anomaly and is to be avoided in the future. Maintain mobility at all costs in both offense and defense.
The key to success is to be mobile and use maneuver rather than brute force to defeat an enemy.
The second thing the Germans learned was:
The machine gun is the key weapon of the infantry.
The machine gun must be light enough to maintain mobility, and be powerful enough so that the firepower of the squad can be based on it.
The first order of business was to develop new tactics around this concept, so the MG 13 was used as a surrogate light machine gun until one could be developed, and in 1934 they introduced the MG-34, the first universal, or general purpose machine gun. The next order of business would have been to modernize the infantry rifle, which we saw happening earlier.
First myth – It’s a super submachine gun. No, it was never intended as a super submachine gun to counter the Soviets masses with PPSh-41s.
Second myth – Its requirements are based on experiences in the Eastern Front fighting the Soviets.
First let’s start with the ammunition, because you have to have the ammunition finalized before you can start to design a rifle to shoot it. The origins of the 7.9mm Kurz actually go all the way back to 1918, but serious development didn’t start until 1923, when the German Army quietly requested the ammunition industry develop a smaller cartridge to possibly replace the 7.9mm Mauser currently in use (quietly, because - treaty reasons). They received back several designs: RWS offered a 7mm x 46, DWM, a 7mm x 39.1, Geco, a 7.75mm x 39.5. The Army looked at them and wasn’t enthusiastic about changing the bore diameter or head diameter, so the Army, with assistance of Polte Armaturen und Maschinenfabrik began development of a cartridge with a bore diameter nominally 8mm and the same case head diameter as the Mauser cartridge. In mid-1938 the design was finalized as the 7.9mm x 33 Kurzpatrone. That year the Army issued a requirement for a new weapon to use this ammunition. The requirements were:
- Shorter than the Kar 98k (unspecified as to how much shorter)
- Weight to be less that, or equal to the weight of a fully loaded Kar 98k
- Be capable of both semi- and full automatic fire
- Have a rate of fire of 450 RPM
- Accurate to a range of 400 meters
- Be able to fire a standard rifle grenade with an appropriate adapter, and
- 50 prototypes required to be delivered by early 1942 for testing
So, we can see the impossibility of the idea of the MKb-42/MP-44/StG-44 was the result of anything that happened during the invasion of the Soviet Union. All of the features that define the MP-44 were set down four years before German troops crossed the frontier into Russia.
So, if it wasn’t from Russia, where did these requirements come from?
For the answer to that we must look at what the German Army learned from World War I. There are many documents detailing all things the German Army had learned during the conflict. The biggest were: (and are in stark contrast to what the British and French learned)
Trench warfare was an anomaly and is to be avoided in the future. Maintain mobility at all costs in both offense and defense.
The key to success is to be mobile and use maneuver rather than brute force to defeat an enemy.
The second thing the Germans learned was:
The machine gun is the key weapon of the infantry.
The machine gun must be light enough to maintain mobility, and be powerful enough so that the firepower of the squad can be based on it.
The first order of business was to develop new tactics around this concept, so the MG 13 was used as a surrogate light machine gun until one could be developed, and in 1934 they introduced the MG-34, the first universal, or general purpose machine gun. The next order of business would have been to modernize the infantry rifle, which we saw happening earlier.
