Artillery and small arms from the Great Patriotic War. The most powerful machine guns in the world Small arms of the USSR during WWII

Developed by Wertchod Gipel and Heinrich Vollmer at the Erma plant (Erfurter Werkzeug und Maschinenfabrik), the MP-38 is better known as the "Schmeisser", in fact weapon designer Hugo Schmeisser to the development of the MP-38 and Mr 40 German machine gun Wehrmacht of World War II war photos, has no relation. In literary publications of the time, all German submachine guns were mentioned as being based on " Schmeisser system" Most likely this is where the confusion came from. Well, then our cinema got down to business, and crowds of German soldiers, all armed with MP 40 machine guns, went for a walk on the screens, which has nothing to do with reality. At the beginning of the invasion of the USSR, about 200,000 thousand MP.38/40 were manufactured (the figure is not at all impressive). And during all the years of the war, the total production amounted to about 1 million guns; for comparison, the PPSh-41 was produced over 1.5 million in 1942 alone.

German submachine gun MP 38/40

So who armed the pistol with the MP-40 machine gun? The official order for adoption dates back to the 40th year. Armed infantrymen, cavalrymen, tank and armored vehicle crews, drivers vehicle staff officers and several other categories of military personnel. The same order introduced the standard ammunition load of six magazines (192 rounds). In mechanized troops there are 1536 rounds of ammunition per crew.

incomplete disassembly of the MP40 machine gun

Here we need to go a little into the background history of creation. Even today, more than 70 years after the end of the war, the MP-18 is a classic automatic weapon. Caliber chambered for a pistol cartridge, operating principle - blowback. The cartridge's reduced charge meant that it was relatively easy to hold, even when firing in full-automatic mode, while lightweight weapons manual application it is almost impossible to control when firing in bursts when using a full-size cartridge.
DEVELOPMENTS BETWEEN WARS

After military warehouses with MP-18s were taken over French army, the pistol was replaced with a 20- or 32-round box magazine, inserted on the left, with a “disc” (“snail”) magazine similar to the Lugger magazine.

MP-18 with snail magazine

The 9 mm MP-34/35 pistol, developed by the Bergman brothers in Denmark, was very similar in appearance on MP-28. In 1934, its production was established in Germany. Large stocks of these weapons, made by the Junker und Ruh A6 plant in Karlsruhe, went to the Waffen SS.

SS man with MP-28

Until the very beginning of the war, machine guns remained special weapons, used primarily by secret units.

A very revealing photo of the weapons of the SS sd and police units from left to right Suomi MP-41 and MP-28

With the outbreak of hostilities, it became clear that this was a uniquely convenient weapon for universal use, so it was necessary to plan the production of a large number of new weapons. This requirement was met in a revolutionary way by a new weapon - the MP-38 assault rifle.

German infantryman with an mp38\40 machine gun

Not much different mechanically from other automatic pistols of the period, the MP-38 did not have the well-made wooden stock and intricate details inherent in automatic weapons of earlier designs. It was made from stamped metal parts and plastic. It was the first automatic weapon equipped with a folding metal stock, which reduced its length from 833 mm to 630 mm and made the machine an ideal weapon for paratroopers and vehicle crews.

Photo of a German MP38 assault rifle in service with the Wehrmacht

The machine gun had a protrusion under the barrel, nicknamed the “rest plate,” which made it possible to conduct automatic fire through machine loopholes and embrasures, without fear that vibrations would move the barrel to the side. Due to the sharp sound made when firing, the MP-38/40 assault rifle earned the inelegant nickname “belching machine gun.”

German soldier with MP 40

Design disadvantages: Mr 40 German Wehrmacht machine gun of the Second World War photo

mp-40 German machine gun of the Second World War

The MP-38 entered production, and soon, during the 1939 campaign in Poland, it became clear that the weapon had a dangerous flaw. When cocking the hammer, the bolt could easily fall forward, unexpectedly initiating shooting. An improvised way out of the situation was a leather collar, which was put on the barrel and kept the weapon cocked. At the factory, the easiest way was to make a special “delay” for safety in the form of a folding bolt on the bolt handle, which could be pinched by a recess on the receiver, which would prevent any forward movement of the bolt.

The soldiers were colder than the MP 40 machine gun

The weapon of this modification received the designation “ MP-38/40».
The desire to reduce production costs led to the MP-40. In this new weapon, the number of parts requiring processing on metal-cutting machines was reduced to a minimum, and stamping and welding were used wherever possible. The production of many parts of the machine gun and the assembly of the machine gun were located in Germany at the Erma, Gaenl and Steyr factories, as well as in factories in the occupied countries.

soldier armed with a submachine gun MP 38-40

The manufacturer can be identified by the code stamping on the back of the bolt box: “ayf” or “27” means “Erma”, “bbnz” or “660” - “Steyr”, “fxo” - “Gaenl”. At the beginning of World War II, slightly less MP38 assault rifles were produced 9000 things.

stamping on the back of the bolt: "ayf" or "27" means Erma production

This weapon was well received by German soldiers, and the machine gun was also popular among Allied soldiers when it was given to them as a trophy. But he was far from perfect: while fighting in Russia, soldiers armed MP-40 assault rifle , found that Soviet soldiers armed with a PPSh-41 assault rifle with a 71-round disc magazine were stronger than them in battle.

Often German soldiers used captured PPSh-41 weapons

Not only that soviet weapons had a large firepower, it was simpler and turned out to be more reliable in field conditions. Bearing in mind problems with firepower, Erma introduced the MP-40/1 assault rifle at the end of 1943. The assault rifle had a special configuration that included two disc magazines with 30 rounds each, placed side by side. When one ran out, the soldier simply moved the second magazine in place of the first. Although this solution increased the capacity to 60 rounds, it made the machine heavier, weighing up to 5.4 kg. The MP-40 was also produced with a wooden stock. Under the designation MP-41, it was used by paramilitary militarized forces and police units.

In war as in war

By the end of the war, more than one million MP-40 assault rifles were produced. It was reported that communist partisans used the MP-40 to shoot the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, taking him prisoner in 1945. After the war, the machine gun was used by the French and remained in service with Norwegian Army AFV crews in the 1980s.

Shooting from MP-40, no one shoots from the hip

With the front line approaching for Germany, under pressure from both the East and the West, the need for simple, easy-to-manufacture weapons became critical. The answer to the request was MP-3008. A weapon very familiar to British troops is the modified Sten Mk 1 SMG. The main difference was that the store was placed vertically down. The MP-3008 assault rifle weighed 2.95 kg, and the Sten - 3.235 kg.
The German "Sten" had initial speed bullets 381 m/s and rate of fire 500 rounds/min. They produced about 10,000 MP-3008 assault rifles and used them against the advancing Allies.

MP-3008 is a modified Sten Mk 1 SMG for manufacturability

The Erma EMR-44 is a rather crude, crude weapon made of sheet steel and pipes. The ingenious design, which used a 30-round magazine from the MP-40, was not put into mass production.

Let's remember the 7 types of Soviet automatic weapons of the Great Patriotic War.

Submachine gun or machine gun

A submachine gun is an automatic weapon that can fire in bursts and is chambered for a pistol cartridge. But we say “company of machine gunners” (and not submachine gunners), although if we're talking about about the Great Patriotic War, in the vast majority of cases we are talking about a submachine gun. An assault rifle, to be terminologically precise, is a different weapon that is no longer chambered for a pistol, but for an intermediate cartridge. The first Soviet submachine gun syst. Degtyareva PPD was put into service in 1934. with a box magazine for 25 rounds. However, it was produced in small quantities, and the weapon itself was clearly underestimated. The Soviet-Finnish War showed the effectiveness of submachine guns in close combat, so it was decided to resume production of the PPD, but with a 71-round disc. However, PPD was expensive and difficult to produce, so another sample was needed that would combine reliability and ease of production. And the legendary PPSh became such a weapon.

PPSh-41

The Shpagin submachine gun was adopted for service on December 21, 1940, but its mass production began already during the Great Patriotic War, at the end of August 1941. And the first time this weapon will appear at the front, apparently, is after the parade on November 7, where the PPSh was for the first time captured on newsreels. The first PPSh had a sector sight at 500 meters. But it is almost impossible to hit an enemy with a pistol bullet from 500 meters, and later a reversible sight appeared at 100 and 200 meters. A fire selector is located at the trigger, allowing you to fire both bursts and single shots. Initially, PPSh were equipped with a disk magazine, which was quite heavy and which needed to be loaded with one cartridge at a time, which in field conditions is inconvenient (the weapon number was painted on the disk). Since March 1942, it was possible to achieve interchangeability of stores, and since 1943. a sector magazine for 35 rounds will appear.

PPS-43

From the second half of 1943 into the army in large quantities The submachine gun system begins to arrive. Sudaeva. The lack of a fire translator was compensated by the low rate of fire (600 rounds per minute versus 1000 for the PPSh), which made it possible, with a certain skill, to fire single shots. The popularity of PPS is evidenced by the fact that this model, unlike PPSh, was produced both after the war and for a long time held in airborne troops. The main production during the war was deployed in besieged Leningrad, where only at the plant named after. Up to 1 million units of Voskov were produced. General features PPSh and PPS were easy to manufacture and assemble and reliable in operation. At the same time, we managed to avoid the other extreme - primitivism, which is characteristic of the English Stan submachine gun. The consequence of this was the high saturation of the Red Army with this type of small arms. In total, about 5 million PPSh and about 3 million PPS were produced during the Great Patriotic War, while the total number of submachine guns produced in Germany is estimated by various researchers to be around 1 million units.

DS-39

Shortly before the start of the Great Patriotic War, the heavy machine gun of the Degtyarev system (DS-39), which replaced the machine gun of the Maxim system, began to enter service with the Red Army. This weapon was distinguished by very tough automatic operation and required cartridges with a steel sleeve rather than a brass one. The production of special cartridges intended for use by only one type of weapon was considered inappropriate, and Soviet industry returned to the production of what had been known since the days of Russo-Japanese War Maxim machine gun, which until the end of 1943 remained the main and practically the only heavy machine gun of the Red Army.

Tokarev rifle

In the last pre-war years in the USSR, much attention was paid to rearming the army with self-loading rifles. Tokarev (SVT-40). In total, by June 1941, about 1.5 million units were produced, and the Red Army was the most equipped army with self-loading rifles in the world. From July 1942 to active army The AVT-40 began to arrive, allowing continuous fire in close combat. The fuse also served as a fire translator. However, 10 rounds of ammunition for burst shooting turned out to be clearly not enough, shooting accuracy due to the lack of a bipod was low, and barrel wear was immediate. Also in 1942, it was generally prohibited to fire in bursts from any rifles (AVT-40, ABC-36). Combat experience has shown that the SVT-40 and AVT-40 are very difficult weapons for recruits who, after an accelerated training course, rush into battle. At the slightest malfunction, the Tokarev rifle was abandoned, replaced with the usual three-ruler, which worked in any conditions. Despite the fact that in general the Tokarev rifle did not take root in the army, it became the favorite weapon of well-trained units - Marine Corps, motorized rifle and cadet units.

DP-27

From the beginning of the 30s, the light machine gun of the Degtyarev system began to enter the army, which became the main light machine gun of the Red Army until the mid-40s. First combat use DP-27 is most likely associated with the conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1929. The machine gun performed well during the fighting in Spain, Khasan and Khalkhin Gol. During operation, a number of shortcomings were identified - a small magazine capacity (47 rounds) and an unfortunate location under the barrel of the return spring, which was deformed from frequent shooting. During the war, some work was carried out to eliminate these shortcomings. In particular, the survivability of the weapon was increased by moving the return spring to the rear of the receiver, although general principle work of this sample has not undergone any changes. New machine gun(DPM) began to enter the troops in 1945.

ABC-36

In the second half of the 30s, in order to increase the firepower of the infantry, an attempt was made in a number of countries to create an automatic rifle capable of firing in bursts. In the USSR, production of the Simonov automatic rifle mod. 1936 ABC-36 was produced in Izhevsk in small batches, and the total number did not exceed 65 thousand units. The rifle first found combat use in battles with the Japanese at Khalkhin Gol. When the question arose about rearming the entire army with a single type of rifle, the choice was between the automatic Simonov and the self-loading Tokarev (SVT-38). The situation was resolved by J.V. Stalin’s question about the need to fire in bursts. The answer was negative and production of ABC-36 was curtailed. Most likely, at that time it was very difficult to provide an army armed with millions of automatic rifles with an appropriate amount of ammunition in the near future. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, most of the ABC-36 were in service with the 1st Moscow Proletarian Division and were lost in the first months of the war. And in 1945 application of ABC noted in Soviet-Japanese war, where this rifle was held the longest.

Until now, many believe that the mass weapon of the German infantry during the Great Patriotic War was the Schmeisser assault rifle, named after the name of its designer. This myth is still actively supported by feature films. But in fact, this machine gun was not created by Schmeisser, and it was never a mass weapon of the Wehrmacht either.

I think everyone remembers footage from Soviet feature films about the Great Patriotic War, dedicated to attacks by German soldiers on our positions. Brave and fit" blond beasts“(they were usually played by actors from the Baltic states) walk, almost without bending, and fire as they go from machine guns (or rather, from submachine guns), which everyone called “Schmeissers.”

And, what is most interesting, no one, perhaps, except those who were actually at war, was surprised by the fact that the Wehrmacht soldiers fired, as they say, “from the hip.” Also, no one considered it a work of fiction that, according to movies, these “Schmeissers” fired accurately at the same distance as the rifles of Soviet army soldiers. In addition, after watching such films, the viewer got the impression that all German infantry personnel, from privates to colonels, were armed with submachine guns during the Second World War.

However, all this is nothing more than a myth. In fact, this weapon was not called “Schmeisser” at all, and it was not as widespread in the Wehrmacht as Soviet films said, and it was impossible to shoot from the hip. In addition, an attack by a unit of such machine gunners on trenches in which soldiers armed with repeating rifles were sitting was clearly suicidal - simply no one would have reached the trench. However, let's talk about everything in order.

The very weapon that I want to talk about today was officially called the MP 40 submachine gun (MR is an abbreviation for the word " Maschinenpistole", that is, an automatic pistol). It was another modification of the MP 36 assault rifle, created back in the 30s of the last century. The predecessors of these weapons, the MP 38 and MP 38/40 submachine guns, proved themselves very well at the very first stage of the Second World War, so military specialists of the Third Reich decided to continue improving this model.

The “parent” of the MP 40, contrary to popular belief, was not the famous German gunsmith Hugo Schmeisser, but the less talented designer Heinrich Volmer. So it is more logical to call these machines “Volmers”, and not at all “Schmeissers”. But why did the people adopt the second name? Probably due to the fact that Schmeisser owned the patent for the magazine used in this weapon. And, accordingly, in order to comply with copyright, the receiver of the first batches of MP 40 magazines bore the inscription PATENT SCHMEISSER. Well, the soldiers of the Allied armies, who received this weapon as a trophy, mistakenly believed that Schmeisser was the creator of this machine gun.

From the very beginning, the German command planned to arm the MP 40 only command staff Wehrmacht In infantry units, for example, only squad, company and battalion commanders were supposed to have these machine guns. Subsequently, these submachine guns also became popular among tank crews, armored vehicle drivers and paratroopers. However, no one armed infantry with them en masse either in 1941 or after.

Hugo Schmeisser

According to data from the archives of the German army, in 1941, immediately before the attack on the USSR, there were only 250 thousand MP 40 units in the troops (despite the fact that at the same time there were 7,234,000 people in the troops of the Third Reich). As you can see, there was no question of any mass use of the MP 40, especially in infantry units (where there were the most soldiers). Over the entire period from 1940 to 1945, only two million of these submachine guns were produced (while over the same period, over 21 million people were conscripted into the Wehrmacht).

Why didn’t the Germans arm their infantrymen with this machine gun (which was later recognized as one of the best during the entire period of World War II)? Yes, because they were simply sorry to lose them. After all sighting range The MP 40's range of fire against group targets was 150 meters, and against single targets - only 70 meters. But the Wehrmacht fighters had to attack the trenches in which the soldiers were sitting Soviet army, armed with modified versions of the Mosin rifle and Tokarev automatic rifles (SVT).

Effective firing range of both types of this weapon was 400 meters for single targets and 800 meters for group targets. So judge for yourself, did the Germans have a chance to survive such attacks if they were, as in Soviet films, armed with MP 40? That's right, no one would have reached the trenches. In addition, unlike the characters in the same films, real owners of a submachine gun could not fire it on the move “from the hip” - the weapon vibrated so much that with this method of firing all the bullets flew past the target.

It was possible to shoot from the MP 40 only “from the shoulder”, resting the unfolded butt against it - then the weapon practically did not “shake”. In addition, these submachine guns were never fired in long bursts - they heated up very quickly. Usually they fired in short bursts of three or four shots, or fired single fire. So in reality, MP 40 owners have never been able to achieve the technical certificate rate of fire of 450-500 rounds per minute.

That is why German soldiers carried out attacks throughout the war with Mauser 98k rifles, the most common small arms of the Wehrmacht. Its effective firing range against group targets was 700 meters, and against single targets - 500, that is, it was close to that of the Mosin and SVT rifles. By the way, the SVT was highly respected by the Germans - the best infantry units were armed with captured Tokarev rifles (the Waffen SS especially loved it). And the “captured” Mosin rifles were given to rear guard units (however, they were generally supplied with all sorts of “international” junk, albeit of very high quality).

At the same time, it cannot be said that the MP 40 was so bad - on the contrary, in close combat this weapon was very, very dangerous. That is why he was loved by German paratroopers from sabotage groups, as well as intelligence officers of the Soviet Army and... partisans. After all, they did not need to attack enemy positions from a long distance - and in close combat the rate of fire, a light weight and the reliability of this submachine gun provided great advantages. That is why now on the “black” market the price of MP 40, which “black diggers” continue to supply there, is very high - this machine gun is in demand among “fighters” of criminal gangs and even poachers.

By the way, it was precisely the fact that the MP 40 was used by German saboteurs that gave rise to a mental phenomenon called “autophobia” among Red Army soldiers in 1941. Our fighters considered the Germans invincible, because they were armed with miracle machine guns, from which there was no salvation anywhere. This myth could not have arisen among those who faced the Germans in open battle - after all, the soldiers saw that they were being attacked by Nazis with rifles. However, at the beginning of the war, when our soldiers retreated, they often encountered not linear troops, but saboteurs who appeared out of nowhere and sprayed bursts of MP 40 at the dumbfounded Red Army soldiers.

It should be noted that after the Battle of Smolensk, “automatic fear” began to fade away, and during the Battle of Moscow it disappeared almost completely. By that time, our soldiers, having had a good time “sit” in defense and even gained experience in counterattacking German positions, realized that the German infantry did not have any miracle weapons, and their rifles were not much different from domestic ones. It is also interesting that in feature films made in the 40-50s of the last century, the Germans are all armed with rifles. And “Schmeisseromania” in Russian cinema began much later - in the 60s.

Unfortunately, it continues to this day - even in recent films, German soldiers traditionally attack Russian positions, shooting on the move from MP 40. Directors also arm soldiers of the rear security units, and even the field gendarmerie with these machine guns (where automatic weapons were not issued even to officers ). As you can see, the myth turned out to be very, very tenacious.

However, the famous Hugo Schmeisser was actually the developer of two models of machine guns used in World War II. He presented the first of them, the MP 41, almost simultaneously with the MP 40. But this machine gun even looked different from the “Schmeisser” we knew from the films - for example, its stock was trimmed with wood (so that the fighter would not get burned when the weapon heated up). In addition, it was longer-barreled and heavier. However, this version was not widely used and was not produced for long - about 26 thousand units were produced in total.

It is believed that this machine was prevented from being implemented lawsuit from the company ERMA, charged against Schmeisser for illegally copying its patented design. The designer’s reputation was thereby tarnished, and the Wehrmacht abandoned his weapons. However, in units of the Waffen SS, mountain rangers and Gestapo units, this machine gun was still used - but, again, only by officers.

However, Schmeisser still did not give up and in 1943 he developed a model called MP 43, which later received the name StG-44 (from s turmgewehr — assault rifle). In its appearance and some other characteristics, it resembled the Kalashnikov assault rifle that appeared much later (by the way, the StG-44 had the ability to install a 30-mm rifle grenade launcher), and at the same time was very different from the MP 40.

During the Great Patriotic War, readers wrote about the desirability of a similar article about machine guns. We fulfill the request.

At this time, machine guns became the main destructive force of small arms at medium and long ranges: among some shooters, self-loading rifles were gradually replaced by submachine guns instead of self-loading rifles. And if in July 1941 the rifle company had six light machine guns, then a year later - 12, and in July 1943 - 18 light machine guns and one heavy machine gun.

Let's start with Soviet models.

The first was, naturally, the Maxim machine gun of the 1910/30 model, modified to accept a heavier bullet weighing 11.8 g. Compared to the 1910 model, about 200 changes were made to its design. The machine gun became lighter by more than 5 kg, and reliability automatically increased. Also for new modification A new Sokolov wheeled machine was also developed.

Cartridge - 7.62 x 54 mm; food - belt, 250 rounds; rate of fire - 500-600 rounds/min.

The specifics were the use of fabric tape and water cooling of the barrel. The machine gun itself weighed 20.3 kg (without water); and together with the machine - 64.3 kg.

The Maxim machine gun was a powerful and familiar weapon, but at the same time it was too heavy for maneuverable combat, and water cooling could cause difficulties when overheating: fiddling with canisters during combat is not always convenient. In addition, the Maxim device was quite complex, which was important in wartime.

There was also an attempt to make a light machine gun from the easel "Maxim". As a result, the MT (Maxim-Tokarev) machine gun of the 1925 model was created. The resulting weapon can only be called a hand-held weapon only conditionally, since the machine gun weighed almost 13 kg. This model was not widespread.

The first mass-produced light machine gun was the DP (Degtyarev Infantry), adopted by the Red Army in 1927 and widely used until the end of the Great Patriotic War. For its time it was good weapon, captured examples were also used in the Wehrmacht (“7.62mm leichte Maschinengewehr 120(r)”), and among the Finns the DP was generally the most common machine gun.

Cartridge - 7.62 x 54 mm; food - disk magazine for 47 rounds; rate of fire - 600 rounds/min; weight with loaded magazine - 11.3 kg.

Disc stores became its specialty. On the one hand, they provided a very reliable supply of cartridges, on the other, they had significant mass and dimensions, which made them inconvenient. In addition, they were quite easily deformed in combat conditions and failed. The machine gun was equipped with three discs as standard.

In 1944, the DP was upgraded to the DPM: a pistol grip fire control appeared, the return spring was moved to the rear of the receiver, and the bipod was made more durable. After the war, in 1946, the RP-46 machine gun was created on the basis of the DP, which was then exported en masse.

Gunsmith V.A. Degtyarev also developed a heavy machine gun. In September 1939, the 7.62-mm heavy machine gun of the Degtyarev system (DS-39) was put into service; they planned to gradually replace the Maxims with it.

Cartridge - 7.62 x 54 mm; food - belt, 250 rounds; rate of fire - 600 or 1200 rounds/minute, switchable; weight 14.3 kg + 28 kg machine with shield.

By the time of Germany’s treacherous attack on the USSR, the Red Army had about 10 thousand DS-39 machine guns in service. In front conditions, their design shortcomings quickly became clear: too fast and energetic recoil of the bolt caused frequent ruptures of the cartridges when removing them from the barrel, which led to the inertial dismantling of the cartridge with a heavy bullet that jumped out of the barrel of the cartridge case. Of course, in peaceful conditions this problem could have been solved, but there was no time for experiments, the industry was evacuated, so production of the DS-39 was stopped.

The question of replacing the Maxims with a more modern design remained, and in October 1943, 7.62-mm heavy machine guns of the Goryunov system of the 1943 model (SG-43) began to enter the troops. It is interesting that Degtyarev honestly admitted that the SG-43 is better and more economical than his design - a clear demonstration of the difference between competition and competition.

The Goryunov heavy machine gun turned out to be simple, reliable and quite light, but production was launched at several enterprises at once, so that by the end of 1944, 74 thousand units were produced.

Cartridge - 7.62 x 54 mm; food - belt, 200 or 250 rounds; rate of fire - 600-700 rounds/minute; weight 13.5 kg (36.9 on a wheeled machine or 27.7 kg on a tripod machine).

After the Great Patriotic War, the machine gun underwent modernization and was produced as an SGM until 1961, until it was replaced by a single Kalashnikov machine gun in an easel version.

Perhaps let us also remember the Degtyarev light machine gun (RPD), which was created in 1944 for the new intermediate cartridge 7.62x39 mm.

Cartridge - 7.62x39 mm; food - belt, 100 rounds; rate of fire - 650 rounds/minute; weight - 7.4 kg.

However, it entered service after the war and was also gradually replaced by the RPK light machine gun during the unification of small arms in the Soviet Army.

Of course, we must not forget about large-caliber machine guns.

Thus, the designer Shpagin developed a belt feed module for the recreation center in 1938, and in 1939 the 12.7 mm Degtyarev-Shpagin heavy machine gun of the 1938 model (DShK_, mass production of which began in 1940-41 (in total during the war) was adopted for service about 8 thousand DShK machine guns were produced).

Cartridge - 12.7x109 mm; food - belt, 50 rounds; rate of fire - 600 rounds/minute; weight - 34 kg (on a wheeled machine 157 kg).

At the end of the war, the Vladimirov heavy machine gun (KPV-14.5) was developed chambered for anti-tank rifles, which made it possible not only to support infantry, but also to fight armored personnel carriers and low-flying aircraft.

Cartridge - 14.5×114 mm; food - belt, 40 rounds; rate of fire - 550 rounds/minute; weight on a wheeled machine - 181.5 kg (without - 52.3).

KPV is one of the most powerful machine guns, ever in service. The muzzle energy of the KPV reaches 31 kJ, while that of the 20-mm ShVAK aircraft gun is about 28 kJ.

Let's move on to German machine guns.

The MG-34 machine gun was adopted by the Wehrmacht in 1934. It was the main machine gun until 1942 in both the Wehrmacht and tank forces.

Cartridge - 7.92x57 mm Mauser; food - belt, 50 or 250 rounds, magazine 75 rounds; rate of fire - 900 rounds/minute; weight - 10.5 kg with bipod, without cartridges.

A special feature of the design is the ability to switch power to feed the tape both from the left and from the right, which is very convenient for use in armored vehicles. For this reason, the MG-34 was used in tank forces even after the appearance of the MG-42.

The disadvantage of the design is the labor and material consumption of production, as well as sensitivity to contamination.

An unsuccessful design among German machine guns was the HK MG-36. The relatively light (10 kg) and easy-to-manufacture machine gun was not reliable enough, the rate of fire was 500 rounds per minute, and the box magazine contained only 25 rounds. As a result, it was first armed with Waffen SS units, supplied on a residual basis, then it was used as a training weapon, and in 1943 it was completely withdrawn from service.

The masterpiece of German machine gun engineering is the famous MG-42, which replaced the MG-34 in 1942.

Cartridge - 7.92x57 mm Mauser; food - belt, 50 or 250 rounds; rate of fire - 800-900 rounds/minute; weight - 11.6 kg (machine gun) + 20.5 kg (Lafette 42 machine).

Compared to the MG-34, the designers were able to reduce the cost of the machine gun by approximately 30%, and the metal consumption by 50%. Production of the MG-42 continued throughout the war; in total, more than 400 thousand machine guns were produced.

The machine gun's unique rate of fire made it a powerful means of suppressing the enemy, however, as a result, the MG-42 required frequent replacement of barrels during combat. At the same time, on the one hand, changing the barrel was carried out constructively in 6-10 seconds, on the other hand, it was possible only with the presence of heat-insulating (asbestos) mittens or any available means. In the case of intense shooting, a barrel change had to be done every 250 shots: if there was a well-equipped firing point and a spare barrel, or better yet two, everything was great, but if it was not possible to change the barrel, then the effectiveness of the machine gun dropped sharply, firing could only be carried out in short bursts and taking into account the need for natural cooling of the barrel.

The MG-42 is deservedly considered the best machine gun in its class of World War II.

Video comparison of SG-43 and MG-42 (in English, but there are subtitles):

The Mauser MG-81 machine gun of the 1939 model was also used to a limited extent.

Cartridge - 7.92x57 mm Mauser; food - belt, 50 or 250 rounds; rate of fire - 1500-1600 rounds/minute; weight - 8.0 kg.

Initially, the MG-81 was used as an on-board defensive weapon for Luftwaffe bombers; it began to enter service with airfield divisions in 1944. The short barrel length caused a lower muzzle velocity compared to standard ones. light machine guns, but the MG-81 had less weight.

But for some reason the Germans did not bother with heavy machine guns in advance. Only in 1944 did the troops receive Rheinmetall-Borsig MG-131 machine guns of the 1938 model, which also have an aviation origin: when the fighters were converted to 30-mm MK-103 and MK-108 air guns, the MG-131 heavy machine guns were transferred ground forces(total 8132 machine guns).

Cartridge - 13×64 mm; food - belt, 100 or 250 rounds; rate of fire - 900 rounds/minute; weight - 16.6 kg.

Thus, we can say that in general, from a design point of view, the Reich and the USSR had parity in machine guns. On the one hand, the MG-34 and MG-42 had a significantly higher rate of fire, which in many cases had great importance. On the other hand, they required frequent barrel changes, otherwise the rate of fire remained theoretical.

In terms of maneuverability, the old “Degtyarev” won: the inconvenient disk magazines nevertheless allowed the machine gunner to fire alone.

It is a pity that the DS-39 could not be finalized and had to be discontinued.

In terms of large-caliber machine guns, the USSR had a clear advantage.

The advantages of the SMG (rate of fire) and the rifle (range of aimed and lethal shooting) were designed to combine automatic rifle. However, almost until the very end of World War II, not a single country managed to create a successful mass weapons of this class. The Germans came closest to this.

At the end of 1944, the 7.92 mm Schmeisser assault rifle (Sturm-Gewehr-44) was adopted by the Wehrmacht. It was a further development assault rifles 1942 and 1943, which passed successfully military tests, but not adopted for service. One of the reasons for the delay in mass production of such promising weapons was the same conservatism of the military headquarters, who did not want, in connection with new weapons, to make changes to the established staffing tables army units.

Only in 1944, when the overwhelming fire superiority of both Soviet and Anglo-American infantry over the German infantry became apparent, “the ice broke” and the StG-44 was put into mass production. However, the factories of the weakened Third Reich managed to produce only a little more than 450 thousand units of this AB before the end of the war. It never became the main weapon of the German infantry.

There is no need to describe the StG-44 for a long time, because all its main characteristics, design solutions and design were implemented after the war in the Soviet Kalashnikov assault rifle of the 1947 model. The main differences between the AK-47 and the German prototype are related only to the caliber of the cartridge: standard 7.62 mm Soviet instead of 7.92 mm German.