The German MP43 revolutionized infantry combat. Will Dabbs MD Photo

Certain mechanical contrivances fundamentally transform the human experience. The cotton gin, the jet airplane and the cell phone might be considered typical examples. In each case, the world was a certain way before these things. It was way different afterwards. So it was with the iconic MP43 assault rifle.

The AK rifle is the most-produced firearm in human history. With well over 100 million copies in circulation, Comrade Kalashnikov’s rugged farm implement of an infantry weapon has legitimately shaped the affairs of men. The gun even made it onto the national flag of Mozambique. However, it was hardly the first.

 

The Knockoff

The AKM (left) and the MP43 look awfully similar. It’s tough to believe they could have both been designed independently. Will Dabbs MD Photo

The Russians vehemently assert that Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov had never before seen an MP43 when he contrived his eponymous assault rifle. The gun that began as the MP43 eventually became the MP44. The MP44 eventually evolved into the StG44. StG is short for Sturmgewehr or “Storm Gun.” There is a likely apocryphal tale that Adolf Hitler himself coined the term. It was translated into English as Assault Rifle, and here we are.

Despite the three different technical appellations, the basic chassis remained essentially the same. There were esoteric differences to such stuff as barrel nuts and stock geometries, but normal folk don’t care. To the pragmatist, the MP43, the MP44 and the StG44 are all virtually the same gun design.

I struggle to believe that Comrade Kalashnikov actually designed his weapon in a vacuum. There’s just too much Storm Gun in the AK for me to think that was just random. Regardless, it was the MP43 that was the true tipping point in modern small arms design.

 

Origin Story

From left to right we have the Combloc M43 7.62x39mm round, the German 7.92x33mm Kurt and the full-sized 7.92x57mm cartridge that fed wartime bolt-action German service rifles and machineguns. Will Dabbs MD Photo

In the early years of the 20th century, infantry rifles fired smokeless cartridges capable of dealing death out to 2,000 meters. These rounds were as long as your index finger, and the guns that fired them were as big as rowboat oars. Then we slogged through our first true world war and found that most infantry engagements took place at much shorter ranges. As a result, a great deal of that prodigious ballistic horsepower was simply wasted on the countryside behind the target. Pistol-caliber submachine guns strived vainly to fill that niche, but they still left a capability gap out beyond about 100 meters.

In 1923, Germany was still reeling from post-WW1 chaos. They lost the war fair and square, and demands for reparations amidst a faltering economy were crushing the German people. Throughout it all, that legendary German martial spark nonetheless glowed brightly.

German military research programs in the interwar years ultimately produced a revolutionary cartridge. The 7.92x33mm kurz fired the same diameter bullet as the larger 7.92x57mm rifle round but only used half the powder charge. The end result was a soft recoiling and adequately powerful cartridge out to 400 meters or so. However, the Germans still needed a gun to shoot it.

When the Germans invaded Russia, they were surprised to find entire enemy formations occasionally armed solely with PPSh submachine guns. When facing such a lopsided fire disparity, German engineers set out to contrive a selective-fire combat rifle that fired this revolutionary intermediate 7.92x33mm kurz round. The end result was the MKb 42 or Maschinenkarabiner 1942.

The MKb 42 came in two broad variants. The MKb 42(W) from Walther used a novel annular gas system, while the MKb 42(H) from Haenel orbited around a more conservative long stroke gas-operated mechanism. After troop trials on the Eastern Front, elements of both guns were melded to become the MP43.

MP was shorthand milspeak for Maschinenpistole or machine pistol. Rumor has it that questionable moniker was bestowed upon the rifle to get it around Hitler’s personal prohibition against intermediate-cartridge designs. After Der Fuhrer saw the revolutionary rifle demonstrated, however, he was just as smitten with it as are the rest of us.

The Rest of the Story

The MP43 was a truly paradigm-shifting design. Will Dabbs MD Photo

The rest, as they say, is history. By war’s end three different production plants had manufactured some 424,000 copies of the radical new assault rifle despite around-the-clock Allied bombing. German industry also produced 822 million rounds of 7.92x33mm ammunition to feed them.

That first German assault rifle subsequently showed up in war zones around the world for decades after the guns finally fell silent in Europe. Hundreds of the weapons were discovered in storage in Syria during their recent civil war. If properly cared for, guns, like bad politics, seem to last about forever.

Nowadays, the MP43 is the crown jewel in any well-heeled gun collection. Rumor has it that Palmetto State Armory will soon debut a new-made semiauto version. I’m giddy at the prospect. The gun’s classic lines foreshadowed even greater things to come. Sleek, sexy, lethal and cool, the MP43 was indeed the shape of things to come.

Thanks to www.worldwarsupply.com for the gear used to outfit our reenactor.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

46 COMMENTS

  2. “In the early years of the 20th century, infantry rifles fired smokeless cartridges capable of dealing death out to 2,000 meters.” eh? I dont think so.

    • The four major rifle rounds used in WW2,
      30.06, .303 Brit. 8mm Mauser, 7.7 Jap
      are all deadly at 2000 meters. Getting a hit is a looong shot but I for 1 am not going to just stand around waiting for it.
      Belt fed is another story entirely

  3. “The scientists couldn’t believe it, so a second round was touched off. This time the lead projectile weighed 650 grains with a mv of 1,301 fps. Using the same 35-degree elevation, the bullet landed 3,245 yards away.”

    The old west Buffalo hunters. Over 150 years ago. They were hitting targets regularly at a mile or more. I think technology has made us very lazy. And we don’t pass down the great knowledge, that has accumulated for hundreds of years of marksmanship.

    Has bullet drop mathematics changed in two hundred years?

    https://truewestmagazine.com/article/a-long-shot-buffalo-hunters-vs-quanah-parkers-warrior/

    • EdP, I’m not the WWII historian that a friend of mine is, but I think the SS was the first troops to be issued these weapons. Just because we may not like history doesn’t change it.

    • Agreed. No need or purpose served by wearing Nazi garb. Period. I don’t have to dress like I’m in the KKK to write an article about something they did, or used, or otherwise.

  5. 1942/43, but there will be those who will call its design an MSR. Even though there grandfathers had not been born at the time. Thanks to the author for calling the weapon what it is.

    • “1942/43, but there will be those who will call its design an MSR.”

      Doubtful, since MSR means ‘Modern Sporting Rifle’, and the MP43 is considered at the end of the older era in rifle design.

      Just my opinion…

    • Actually, my FATHER was a combat veteran of WW2. Even in Germany the SS were a terror organization. They are definitely not, to me, an honest depiction of the German infantry soldier.

  6. I think Herr Dabbs should reread his 1918 history Western front. 1919 would have been UGLY.

    Typically great piece. What cartridge would PSA use? Team w/Hornady for.a new round?/.30 150gn Kurz? Load M1 carbine case as HP Spritzer?

  7. I totally believe the ak47 was not original, as absolutely nothing “invented” by communism is Brad new. They are incapable of innovation. Everything they “created” was a modification of a western design or a flat out copy.

    • Nothing invented by anybody is truly “original.” We all stand on the shoulders of giants. Commies just stand on their shoulders to spit in their face as they destroy most of what they built and take credit for the little that is left.

    • “Everything they “created” was a modification of a western design or a flat out copy.”

      *WRONG* as this proves :

      “The Thing was designed by Soviet Russian inventor Leon Theremin,[7] best known for his invention of the theremin, an electronic musical instrument. In Russian, the device is called Эндовибра́тор (endovibrator).

      The device, embedded in a carved wooden plaque of the Great Seal of the United States, was used by the Soviet government to spy on the US. On August 4, 1945, several weeks before the end of World War II, a delegation from the Young Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union presented the bugged carving to Ambassador Harriman, as a “gesture of friendship” to the Soviet Union’s war ally. It hung in the ambassador’s Moscow residential study for seven years, until it was exposed in 1952 during the tenure of Ambassador George F. Kennan.”

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)

      Stick with making comments on subjects you actually know something about, dumbass…

  8. With the new rifle for the Army, we are back to large caliber rounds once again. History repeating itself. Looks like the lessons from the Ukraine war have not yet materialized with our military. Lessons from Ukraine so far do not support the need for a long range rifle and large caliber cartridge. The Russians and Chinese have not equipped their soldiers with that magical level 4 body armor that was used to promote the production of the new XM7 rifle and 6.8x51mm or .277 Fury cartridge. We are back to square one once again with less ammo to carry into battle. We should have went for the 6.8x41mm cartridge when it was developed in the late 2000’s by the 5th Group SOF at Ft. Campbell, KY. It looks like Youtube has taken down the video of its development. The 6.8x41mm cartridge was what we needed, but big Army wanted to develop their own cartridge and scraped the SOF designed 6.8x41mm intermediate cartridge. Some lost history that is not available out there when information has been scrubbed about the 6.8x41mm cartridge.

    • The real lesson of the GWOT that hasn’t been learned is why bother dying to accomplish nothing for a globalist ideal that hates you and the very fact that you enlisted at all.

      We shouldn’t be going into any battles and our equipment should be designed for fighting here in defense. Not over there or anywhere else.

      • “Not over there or anywhere else.”

        That would work, if the United States did not have business ‘interests’ in every country on the face of the Earth.

        And how would we get all the worlds peoples to hate us if we weren’t interfering with their governments?

        “I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

        General Smedley Butler, USMC

        • He did all those things and only spoke out once he got his own future secured. As an officer he could have resigned his commission at any time,
          butler is miner’s kind of guy.

        • Marxism ain’t a racket? Gangsters for Marx say “not at all”, but they are of course are lying…

          All criminals may not be leftists, but all leftists are criminals.

    • “The Russians and Chinese have not equipped their soldiers with that magical level 4 body armor”

      Yet. Could I talk you into a 6.8×46?

  10. “I struggle to believe that Comrade Kalashnikov actually designed his weapon in a vacuum.”

    I doubt it, when he got assigned to the national weapon design bureau to refine his design for potential production, he was surrounded by the best weapon designers at that time, and I find it likely there was some ‘leakage’ between the gunsmiths in the competing design shops on what worked, and what didn’t…

    • Yeah, that’s not generally disputed. AK being based on captured German weapons is weird Fuddlore. I was surprised to see it in an otherwise OK article.

    • “Poland invented vodka”

      They did a great job, that beverage has done more to reduce Russia’s combat effectiveness than any particular weapon system.

      Reminds me of the story…

      Photographer wanting to photograph real hillbilly culture hears of a place in the hills untouched by time.

      Stopped at local sheriffs office to ask directions.

      Deputy gives him directions, but says “We don’t go up there much, them boys is all potato farmers up thataway“…

      • reminds me of a story…

        Photographer wanting to photograph a left wing culture socialists utopia hears of a place untouched by the trappings of the ‘colonizing’ world where everyone is a ‘comrade’. Occasionally these utopia folks would come into town to take other peoples stuff and peacefulness and rights, burn down a few places, and try to kill a few people because these people didn’t like the idea of their country being overrun by idiots intent on tyranny, and try to impose on society what they wanted. Ya know, typical socialism stuff.

        Stopped at local sheriffs office to ask directions.

        Deputy gives him directions, but says “We don’t go there, can’t afford the manpower because we’ve been de-funded…”

        • The only difference between your story and my story is that mine is true, and yours is total bullshit.

        • no, my story is true, happens every day and even documented by MSM as they try to support it.

  15. “The gun that began as the MP43 eventually became the MP44. The MP44 eventually evolved into the StG44.”

    I got a PSA STG-44 in .22LR. Its a lot of fun.

    (https://palmettostatearmory.com/mauser-stg-44-22lr-semi-auto-black-4440018.html)

    Know someone who has an actual WWII German StG 44. Its in an hermetically sealed display case though, ‘disabled’ but he has all the necessary parts. The StG 44 looks ‘almost’ brand new (a couple of visible scratches on it). People have tried to buy the StG 44 from him, he said one person offered him $50,000.00 for it but he said he will never sell it. His dad took it off a surrendering 14 year old German ‘Hitler youth’ soldier in WWII about a week before the war ended.

    His dad related the story to me a year before he passed away:

    The kid was in charge of his group of German ‘Hitler youth’ soldier kids. They had been dropped off at their position with just a few containers of water and a little bread and ammo and their guns with ‘official’ orders to hold the position at all cost. But wisely the kid realized they could die if they didn’t get out of there and remembered what his commander had privately told him so after being dropped off he talked to his group and they all agreed and were getting ready to abandon their post and run away when the Americans came along so they surrendered when the American troops showed up. The kid had said he had never fired it except in some brief training by the German troops they had been with. The kids were hungry, ate every ration the American troops gave them and asked for more so the troops kept feeding them, said all they had eaten in the last several days was a little bread each day because the food supplies for the German troops they were with were gone and they were not being re-supplied.

    The kid said that the German soldiers were moving out to engage advancing allied troops elsewhere but their commander had decided to leave behind the German ‘Hitler youth’ with them in a position to ‘delay’ the Americans advancing from the south along a road. The commander gave the kid his orders to hold the position at all cost and then told him privately to run away after being dropped off or to surrender when the Americans showed up.

  16. I am a history buff. I collect milsurps. I do not collect anything that has Nat-zee proof marks on it. I am not Jewish. But I am a history buff.

    Commune-ism and social-ism are evil. But I am not aware of them attempting to genocide an entire race just for existing.

    I served at a time when men who had served in ww2 and Korea were still on active duty. Some had seen the camps. All were of the opinion that the SS should have all been killed when the war ended. All of them.

    • They systematically killed plenty of people. Way more than Hitler did.

      The major difference is they had more time in which to do it, and they didn’t single people out simply for being Jewish.

      I’m not sure that makes it enough better to make a difference.

      • Altogether they killed more than old adolph did. But adolph made an industry out of it. Harvesting things like gold fillings.

        A lot of the death and suffering inflicted by those others was as much stupidity as bad intent. When you’re too stupid to realize your plans will lead to mass starvation and death in the millions you need to go.

        • “A lot of the death and suffering inflicted by those others was as much stupidity as bad intent.”

          Strongly disagree. It is a basic part of the “others” process/script. From the git.

          The career of Lysenko, who facilitated both Stalin and Mao in creating famine, is the ‘textbook example’.

    • “Commune-ism and social-ism are evil. But I am not aware of them attempting to genocide an entire race just for existing.“

      Well, when the Catholic Church tells you that the Jews were the ones who crucified Christ and killing them will help ensure you receive immortal life, it seems like a good choice.

      • Miner49er
        “Well, when the Catholic Church tells you that the Jews were the ones who crucified Christ and killing them will help ensure you receive immortal life, it seems like a good choice.”
        That’s strange; I was raised a Catholic with a Catholic school education, and I was NEVER told (or even heard) any such thing. You, sir or madam, are a liar.

    • “were of the opinion that the SS should have all been killed when the war ended. All of them.”

      My info is that most were, 1945-47. Systematic starvation in “pow camps”, mostly…

      As an aside, it is also my info that the 3rd reich basically ran on meth, particularly true of the Eastern Front 1939 on… (do your own diligence)

      • Yes. I’m aware of the meth. Doesn’t matter how the SS died. So long as they died

        The modern SS, the antifa, deserve the same fate.

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