Haenel MKb-42(H), MP-43, MP-44 (StG-44) Assault Rifle German Technologie

The MKb-42(H) Assault Rifle, though heavier and a bit less balanced than the competing Walther design, used a simpler operation and could be built cheaper and easier; therefore, it won the competition. The actual production version was the MP-43 Assault Rifle given the designation of a submachinegun to disguise it’s true nature from Hitler, who fancied himself a military expert and thought he knew exactly what sort of rifle the troops needed. A few modifications were made; the Walter-type hammer-firing mechanism replaced the Haenel striker, and operation was changed so that the MP-43 Assault Rifle fired from a closed bolt. The tangent rear sight was located above the location of the magazine, and the front sight post was hooded. Due to the growing chaos and damage in Germany, production was subcontracted to about a dozen manufacturers, and slight differences between manufacturing methods meant that MP-43 Assault Rifle often had to have their parts hand-fitted and that the parts sometimes would not interchange between MP-43s.

MP-43 Assault Rifle

The barrel length remained at 14.35 inches, but the grenade launcher was not a standard feature instead, a version designated the MP-43/I was built in smaller numbers which had a grenade launcher attachment at the muzzle. Most MP-43/Is (and some MP-44s) also had a mount on the left side of the receiver for a Zf.4 telescopic sight or the new (and rare) Zg.1229 Vampir active infrared night scope. (It should be noted that in 1944, night scopes were giant, clumsy affairs that often weighed as much as the rifle they were mounted upon.) To mark the official start of mass production, the designation of the weapon was changed to the MP-44 Assault Rifle ; shortly thereafter, it was re-christened the StG-44 (Sturmgewehr 44, or “assault rifle”) to denote it’s true nature (an apocryphal story says this was done by Hitler himself during a visit to the Russian Front).

MKb-42 Assault Rifle

Perhaps the strangest modification of the StG-44 was the Krummlauf Attachment. The idea of the Krummlauf Attachment was to allow the StG-44 to fire around corners. It was basically a curved barrel extension with an attached mirror. There were 3 variants of the Krummlauf: the STG-44(P) curved 30 degrees, the STG-44(K) curved 90 degrees, and the STG-44(V) curved 40 degrees. Only the STG-44(P) was mass-produced, with about 10,000 examples being made. The Krummlauf has perforations that slow the bullet to allow it to make the turn; unfortunately, they slow the bullet so dramatically that the bullet has a greatly reduced effectiveness. Of course, the weapon is useless in close combat, except when firing around corners (unless the shooter is really good at applying Kentucky Windage).

This weapon was the world’s first true assault rifle to go into active service. Though Haenel (and Walther) had been their contracts to develop the new rifles in 1940, the prototype version of the Haenel (the Mkb-42(H) was not first used in July 1943 in Russia. The MKb-43(H) is largely the work of Hugo Schmeisser. The MKb-42(H) looked essentially like a modern assault rifle in fact, similar to the AK-47. (It’s never been proven whether the MKb-42(H) and its successors had any influence on Kalashnikov, but rumors abound.) The MKb-42(H) was gas operated by direct impingement.

Haenel MKb-42(H) Assult Rifle

The MKb-42(H) Assault Rifle fired from an open bolt in both automatic and semiautomatic modes. The barrel was quite short for the time at 14.35 inches, and the MKb-42(H) was a trifle heavy. Cyclic rate of fire was rather slow at 575 rpm. The MKb-42(H) at first had no bayonet lug or provisions for rifle grenades, but they were demanded by the Army, even before production could get into gear. Army interference only grew after that. As a result, only 116 had been built by December of 1942, and the first batch of rifles for combat testing were not delivered until January of 1943 (200 rifles short of the target figure).