GERMAN WEAPONS & AMMO

                                  Karabiner 1898 Kurz

Caliber: 7,92mm (8mm)
Length: 43.6 inches
Weight: 8lbs 9oz
Barrel: 23.6 inches (600mm), 4 grooves, right hand twist
Feed System: 5 round integral box magazine
System of Operation: Mauser turn bolt
General Comment: Best military bolt action rifle of all time.

The Karabiner 1898 Kurz was the last of the long line of Mauser rifles used by the Wehrmacht (Germany Army). The K98k designation translates to: short carbine 1898 model.

The origins of the Mauser rifle family date back to the late 19th century. The weapon was introduced by order of the German Emperor in April 1898 as the Gewehr 98 (Rifle). This rifle became the standard infantry weapon of all German forces. A modified, shortened version of the rifle (K98K) was introduced into the Wehrmacht in 1935. K is for Kurz which means "short" in German. Therefore, the length was shorter than the WWI Gewehr 98, had a different front sight, and had a curved, rather than straight bolt action handle with a fixed internal magazine of five rounds.

Every soldier who fought for Germany in the Second World War trained with this rifle. In fact for many this was their only weapon throughout the war.
The K98k could also be used as a sniper rifle when a ZF41 2.5x Scope or a ZF42 5x scope was attached. The K98k could also fire both explosive and armor piercing grenades by the attachment of a shot cup to the end of the rifle. This was done by one man in a rifle squad who was trained to set up and fire them.

The Wehrmacht entered World War II with a total number of 2,769,533 K98k rifles. The cost per Mauser was 70 Reich Marks. The practical rate of fire was 15 rounds per minute. The K98k served the Wehrmacht well, and underwent several changes during the 10 year period that it was produced. Various changes were made in an attempt to reduce production costs and to increase actual production. A total of 14 million rifles were produced. This weapon, despite plans to replace it with weapons of greater firepower and lower production costs, remained the primary infantry weapon for the entire conflict.

MP38

Caliber: 9x19mm Luger/Para
Weight: 4,7 kg loaded, 4,03 kg empty
Length (stock closed/open): 630/833 mm
Barrel length: mm
Rate of fire: 500 rounds per minute
Magazine capacity: 32 rounds
Effective range: ca. 100 meters

The MP38 was the standard German submachine gun of WWII. As the number in its name suggests, it was first issued in 1938. Two years later, it was replaced by the MP40, which was identical except used less expensive stamped metal for certain parts, which was more cost effective for a mass produced weapon. It was a very successful firearm and even Allied forces preferred them over their own submachine guns and scavenged MP40s whenever possible. The design was copied by other countries both during and after the war.

MP40

German M1934 Flare Pistol known as Heeres Leuchtpistole. Made of steel in 1930s, changed to Aluminum during the war.

The Heeres Model 1934 was adopted after the M1894.  Initially, it was made of steel and then of aluminum alloy prior to the start of the second world war.  No mechanical changes were made.    A rifled, grenade throwing version was developed when the Germans met the Soviet T-34 battle tank.  These pistols were known as the Gezogene Leuchtpistole or Kampfpistole Z.  This pistol looks similar to the standard Heeres Model with the exception of a luminous "Z" stamped on the left side of the breech and the steel lined rifled 26.5mm barrel.  Accessories for this "tank pisser offer" included a shoulder stock and an detachable grenade launcher site. 

Luger P08 9mm pistol

Type: Single Action
Chamber: 7.65mm Luger/Para, 9x19mm Luger/Para
Weight unloaded:
Length: 230 mm (with 102 mm barrel)
Barrel length: 98 mm, 102 mm, 152 mm, 203 mm and others
Capacity: 8 rounds

The Parabellum pistole was developed by Georg Luger in Germany, ca. in 1898. The Parabellum name comes from ancient Latin saying Si vis Pacem, Para bellum - if you want Peace, prepare for War. The Lugers' design is based on earlier Hugo Borchard idea, but Luger re-designed the Borchards' locking system into much smaller package. Most pre-WW II Parabellums were developed by DWM company in Germany, with some being manufactured under license in other countries. During WW II, many companies, such as Mauser werke and others, also produced Lugers.

Walther P-38 9mm Pistol

The Walther P38 pistol was developed as a military pistol for the German army (Wehrmacht) during the late 1930s. It first appeared in 1938, and small numbers of the original HP (Heeres Pistole – army pistol) were bought by Sweden before the Wehrmacht adopted it as the Pistole 38 and took over all production guns. During the war, P38 pistols were made by a number of factories, including the Walther itself.

Browning High Power M35 9mm pistol

Type: Single Action
Chambering: 9mm Parabellum
Length overall: 200 mm
Barrel length: 118 mm
Weight: 885 g
Magazine: 13 rounds

Initially, the "High Power" pistol was designed by John M. Browning in 1925 and was patented in the USA in 1927, soon after the death of the Browning. The design was aquired by Belgian state-owned company FN Herstal, and improved by FN designer Dieudonne Saive. The resulting pistol was shelved until 1935, when Belgian army was ready to adopt new sidearm. The HP was offered for trials and won, and was adopted as a Model 1935 pistol. Soon after that it was also adopted by Belgian police and by many foreign countries, including Britich Commonwealth ones (UK, Canada, Australia etc.). The High Power is the only sidearm that served for both sides in WW2 - Germany used many HPs manufactured in occupied Belgium, while Allies used HPs manufactured mostly in Canada by company Inglis. The HP continues its service well into XXI century with belgian Army and Police, British army and many other military and Law Enforcement agencies, being second longest living service pistols after the another famous Brownings' design, the Colt 1911.

RUSSIAN WEAPONS & AMMO

 Cartridge: 7.62x25
Type of Operation: Blowback
Cyclic rate: 900 rpm
Muzzle velocity: c.1600fps (488mps)
Type of Fire: Selective: full-automatic and semi-automatic
Length: 33.10 in. (828mm)
Barrel: 4 grooves, right-hand twist
Barrel Length: 10.60 in (265mm)
Weight unloaded: 8 lbs. (3.64 kg), with drum 12 lbs. (5.40 kg)
Type of Feed Mechanism: Single position feed, stamped sheet-metal, curved box magazine.
    Also, a drum magazine similar to the PPD type, but possessing two feed lips.
Magazine capacity: 35 round detachable box or 71 round drum
Weight of Loaded Magazines: 1.5 lbs, box type (.680 kg), 4 lbs. drum type (1.840 kg)

Sights: Tangent with open "U" notch, adjustable from 50 to 500 meters. On the later models,
    there is an open "U" notch "L" flip rear sight set for 100 and 200 meters.

Two national catastrophes contributed to the Soviet enthusiasm for submachine guns. The first was the Winter War with Finland in 1939-1940 when the Finns used submachine guns with devastating effect during close combat in the forests, and the second was the German invasion of 1941 when the Russians lost in the retreats both huge quantities of small arms and much of their engineering capability There then arose an urgent demand for a light and simple weapon capable of a high volume of fire, and the answer to this was the PPSh-41, designed by Georgii Shpagin. It was much cheaper and quicker to make than the preceeding models and was finished roughly; the barrel was still chromed, however, and there was never any doubt about the weapon's effectiveness. Stripping was simplicity itself, as the receiver hinged open to reveal the bolt and spring. There was no selector lever on some of the late models, when the gun was capable of only automatic fire, and the magazine was the proved and tried 71 round Suomi drum. The rate of fire was high, but a rudimentary compensator helped to steady the climb of the muzzle. About 5 million PPSh guns had been made by 1945.

9mm Conversion of the PPSh-41

The Germans in WWII took captured PPShs and converted them by inserting a 9mm barrel and a magazine adapter to accept MP 38 and 40 magazines. No modifications to the bolt face was necessary. The German designation for the 7.62x25 PPSh was "MP717(r), and for the 9mm conversion "MP41(r)".

Caliber: 7,62x25 mm TT
Weight: 3,67 kg loaded, 3,04 kg empty
Length (stock closed/open): 615 / 831 mm
Barrel length: 250 mm
Rate of fire: 500-600 rounds per minute
Magazine capacity: 35 rounds
Effective range: 200 meters

The PPS-43 (Pistolet-Pulemet Sudaeva, model of 1943 = Sudaev SMG) was born as an answer to the need for weapon that is more compact and mobile than PPSh41, then in use by Soviet Army. PPSh-41 was somewhat too long to be used by tank crews and mobile recon groups and paratroopers, so lae in 1941 Red Army issued a request for new, more compact SMG. Designer Sudaev initially designed his new SMG in 1942, and it was adopted under the designation of PPS-42. Next year he refined the design and thus final model was designated as PPS-43. This SMG was manufactured in significant numbers (nearly 2 millions of PPS-43 weapons were manufactured between 1943 and 1946). PPS-43 is sometimes referred to as the best SMG of World War 2. After WW2, it was widely exported to pro-Soviet regimes around the world and widely copied.

Technically, the PPS is a full-automatic only weapon, based on simple blowback principle, and is fired from the open bolt. The safety is located at the front of the triggerguard. The receiver and barrel shroud are made from stamped steel. Rear sight is L-shaped flip type and is marked for 100 and 200 meters distance, front sight is fixed blade type. The barrel is equipped with simple muzzle brake. The folding stock is made from steel and folds up and over the top of the receiver. Barrel was chrome-lined and thus very durable - average barrel life was 20 000 rounds.

PPS-43 used only one type of magazines - curved box magazines, which held 35 rounds. These magazines were externally similar to, but NOT compatible with box magazines of PPSh41. 

Mosin-Nagant M1891 Sniper version with PU scope

The name of famous Russian armorer Sergei Ivanovich Mosin is associated with his well-known rifle. It was a manually operated bolt-action, magazine fed rifle. It fired 7.62 mm ammunition, fed from an integral, single stack magazine, loaded from the clip chargers, with capacity for 5 rounds. The Mosin-Nagant had a maximum range of around three kilometers but was only capable of effective aimed fire out to ranges of 400-500 meters. The rifle is striker-fired, and the striker was cocked on the bolt open action.

The positive aspects of the Mosin rifles were the reliability and simplicity of both manufacture and service. These weapons can be considered reasonably effective infantry weapons. Fairly good shooting can be done with them at combat ranges, although their sights do not lend themselves to the finer degrees of accuracy which can be obtained with similar United States weapons. But, on the other side, this rifle had some serious drawbacks. This long rifle was awkward to maneuver and carry, especially in the woods and trenches. The horizontal bolt handle was short by necessity, so, in the case of the cartridge case stuck in the chamber this required a lot of strength to extract it. They suffer from an overcomplicated bolt, but in other respects are relatively simple to service and maintain. The safety, in that it is extremely hard to engage and disengage, represents a shortcoming of the weapons.

The Mosin-Nagant rifle, known in the Russia as a "Vintovka Mosina" (Mosin Rifle), was developed under the government commission in the late 1880s and early 1890s, and was officially adopted for service by the Russian Tsar in 1891. During the official trials, two designs were selected - one by a designer from the Tula arsenal - Mosin - and another by the Belgian brothers Emil and Leon Nagant. The final design, adopted by the Commission, utilized features from both. The action of the rifle was developed by Colonel S.I. Mosin, and the magazine was developed by the Nagants.

The most commonly found Mosin-Nagant 1891/30 rifles were manufactured in either the Izhevsk and Tula Arsenals. In 1960 Tula saw the establishment of a special prize of S.I.Mosin. Specialists from various defense enterprises took part in contests for "S.I.Mosin prize laureate" title. A recently published book "S.I.Mosin prize laureates of the XX century" features the names of those who received this title from 1960 to 2000, and lists their merits.

Along with the rifle, a new, small-caliber cartridge was adopted. This cartridge had a rimmed, bottlenecked case and a jacketed, blunt nose bullet. The rimmed case design, which at that time already started to became obsolescent, was inspired by the low level of the Russian arms industry. This decision, kept this obsolete, rimmed cartridge is in general service with Russian army for more than 110 years.

Tokarev TT33 7,62 Tokarev Pistol

Chambering: 7.62x25mm TT (7.63 mm Mauser)
Type: Single action
Weight: 910 g
Length: 116 mm
Capacity: 8 rounds

The Tokarev TT ("Tula, Tokarev") pistol was developed as a result of continuous trials, held by the Red Army in the mid- and late 1920s. Red Army looked for a new, modern semiautomatic pistol to replace obsolete Nagant M1895 Revolver and a variety of foreign semi-automatic pistols. One of the most popular foreign handguns, purchased in numbers during 1920s, was the famous Mauser C96, and the Red Army really liked its powerful 7.63mm cartridge, which, in slightly modified form ,selected for its future pistol of domestic design. Red Army tested several pistols of various designers, and in 1930 eventually selected the design of the famous Russian arms designer, Fedor Tokarev. During 1930 - 1932 Red Army procured several thousands of new pistol, and after initial field testing requested several improvements, which resulted in the adoption of the model 1933 Tokarev pistol early in 1934. This pistol was manufactured in increased numbers prior to the Great Patriotic War. Before July 22, 1941, about 600 000 TT-33 pistols were delivered to Red Army. During war pistols were made in increasing numbers. In 1946 the TT was slightly modified to cut production costs, and its manufacture in USSR finally ceased circa 1952, with the adoption of the more modern 9mm Markarov PM Pistol. However, TT served with the Soviet Army well until 1960s, and with the Soviet Militia (Police) - until 1970s. During late 1940s and 1950s USSR also supplied some of its new allies from Warsaw pact with licenses to manufacture TT, and it was produced in China, Hungary, North Korea, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia, in more or less original forms. Most military TT pistols of non-Soviet manufacture were also in 7.62mm, with some commercial export versions available in 9x19mm Luger, and fitted with some sorts of manual safety.

For its time Tokarev TT was a formidable weapon, with good penetration and effective range. It was of good reliability and easy to maintain. What it lacked most was the manual safety, and its grip shape was not too comfortable.

The Tokarev TT is a short recoil operated, locked breech pistol. It uses Browning swinging link system, borrowed from the Colt 1911 pistol, modified to simplify production. The single action trigger had no safeties, other than disconnector to prevent out-of-battery fire, and a half-cock notch on the hammer. The only safe way to carry TT was to always have an empty chamber. The hammer unit was made as a single unit, easily detachable for cleaning and maintenance. Some years later Swiss designer Charles Petter developed similar system for the French Mle.1935 pistol. Steel magazine held 8 cartridges. Fixed sights were factory zeroed for 25 meters. Grip panels were usually made of plastic or wood (wartime production).

Nagant Revolver M1895

Type: Double Action
Chamber: 7.62mm Nagant
Weight unloaded: 750 g
Length: 230 mm
Barrel length: 114 mm
Capacity: 7 rounds

This revolver was designed in Belgium by Nagant brothers (Emile and Leon) in the late 1880s - early 1890s, and was adopted by numerous countries, including Sweden and Poland, but the major user and manufacturer was undoubtfully Russia (and later Soviet Union). Russian government adopted Nagant revolver in 1895, and local production began in 1898 (first shipments were from Belgium). It was a standard russian sidearm until 1930, when M1895 Nagant was declared obsolete, but it was widely used and manufactured during World War 2, and manufacture was finally ceased circa 1950.

Later, some sporting revolvers, both in 7.62mm and in .22LR were developed on Nagant platform. Intertestingly enough, the M1895 revolvers still can be seen carried by some security personnel in Russia, especially by Railroad Security and by some armed guards. Usually, those revolvers are 2 to 4 times older than men who carry these guns.

From technical point of view, Nagant revolvers were already almost outdated at the moment of its adoption in 1895, since newest revolvers like S&W Hand Ejectors or Colts with side-opened cylinders were much faster to reload. On the other hand, M1895 had some unusual and interesting features, one of which was gas sealed cylinder, which made the Nagant a rare example of revolver suitable for mounting a silencer. Such a practice was known by NKVD and some Red Army special forces (recon and scouts) during WW2. Special silencer, called "Bramit device" was designed by Mitin brothers and could be mounted on the barrel.

M1895 Nagand was a solid frame, seven shot revolver with non-removable cylinder. The loading and unloading was committed wia the loading gate at the right side of the frame, one cartridge by one. Spent cases were ejected by the ejector rod, which, when not in use, was concealed within the cylinder axis and swung to the side on the ejector rod link to be used. Original guns were double action ones, but Tsarists government ordered that some of M1895 should be retrofitted with Single Action triggers and issued to enlisted men, and DA guns should be issued only to the Officers and Police. In Red (Soviet) army only Double Action Nagants were issued.

The gas sealed cylinder, mentioned above, was made to use all of powder gases to propel the bullet (in most revolvers some gases escape from the gap between the cylinder face and barrel breech). To achieve that, the cylinder moves ahead a bit when hammer is cocked, enclosing a barrel breech area with recess in the front of each chamber. The cartridge, unique to that design, had long case with tapered mouth and a bullet totally enclosed inside the case. When cylinder moves forward, the cartridge case mouth entered the barrel breech and was used as additional seal. This was a complicated mechanism, useful mostly when guns were used with silencer.

Being somewhat complicated and relatively slow to reload, with ammunition of marginal power, Nagants were otherwise good guns, reliable, acurate and quite popular among the troops.

Tokarev SVT-38 & SVT-40 Semi-automatic rifles

The SVT-38 (Samozaryadnaya Vintovka Tokareva - Tokarev Self-loading rifle) was originally adopted in the 1938 after more than 20 years of the research and development, done by famous Russian arms designer Fedor Tokarev. It was not a first Soviet semi-automatic rifle - there were the select-fire 'Avtomat' of 1916 by Fedorov and also select-fire AVS-36 of 1936 by Simonov. 'Avtomat' was chambered for Japanese 6.5mm Arisaka round and was declared obsolete, and the AVS-36 showed some design deficiencies, so new rifle was adopted. After initial trials, it was updated and re-adopted in 1940 as a SVT-40. This rifle was made in relatively large numbers (more than 1 million made prior to 1945), and was originally issued as a standard infantry rifle, replacing the obsolete Mosin-Nagant M1891/30 bolt action rifles. Few SVT-40 were also manufactured in the sniper variant, equipped with scope mounts and telescopic sights, but accuracy was not sufficient, so only about 50 000 sniper SVT-40 were manufactured, and these were supplemented by the Mosin-Nagant sniper rifles. The SVT-40 had a somewhat controversial reputation. It was highly regarded by the enemies (Finns and Germans) and it was a very sought-after war trophy, re-issued to both German and Finnish troops. On the other hand, it was often considered unreliable and over-complicated by the Soviet troops (when comparing with old Mosin-Nagant rifles), but it was more to the poor training and maintenance, than to the rifle itself. Some better trained and educated Soviet troops, such as Sea Infantry (Marines, which always were some kind of elite in the Soviet army) used the SVT-40 with great deal of success. After the end of the World War 2, most SVT-40 were quickly withdrawn from service and put into reserve stocks. Some rifles were later sold on domestic civilian market for hunters as a military surplus. Other than basic versions, there also were developed a shorter carbine SKT-40, and a select-fire AVT-40, but both seen very little service. Overall, the SVT-40 was in general no worse than American M1 Garand (and have some advantages over it, especially in the reloading procedures), and obviously better than earlier German Gew.41 semi-automatic rifles. It was the matter of training and education, and quality of the service of in the Soviet troops, that lead to the low popularity (in general) of this basically good rifle.

SVT-40 is a gas operated, magazine fed self-loading rifle. It uses a short piston stroke gas action, located above the barrel. The interesting feature of the SVT is that the gas block, along with front sight base and a muzzle brake, were produced as a single barrel extension unit. This greatly simplified the manufacture of the barrel, but the barrel extension itself unit was quite complicated to make. Gas chamber has 5 positions gas regulator to ajust the system for any conditions. The gas piston has its own return string and moved back for about 36 mm (1.5 inch) when gun was fired. It gave a quick and powerful stroke to the bolt carrier, which carried the bolt under it. Barrel locking was achieved by the rear part of the bolt, that tilted down to lock into the reinforced steel insert in the floor of the receiver. Charging handle was permanently attached to the right side of the bolt carrier. Detachable box magazine was made from sheet steel and hold 10 cartridges. SVT could be reloaded either by replacing the magazine or by using 5-round stripper clips of the Mosin-Nagant. Stripper clip guides were machined into the receiver top cover. Bolt system incorporated a bolt catch, that held the bolt group back when magazine was empty, to facilitate faster reloading, especially when using stripper clips.

Both SVT-38 and SVT-40 were hammer-fired, with safety switch located behind the trigger. When engaged, safety locked the trigger. On the rare AVT-40 select-fire rifles, safety had an additional setting for full-auto fire mode.

The SVT-38 featured a two-piece wooden stock with separate upper handguard with small steel insert at the forward end. SVT-40 had an one-piece wooden stock with shorter forend and separate upper handguard. Front part of the stock was replaced by the sheet steel cover with cooling ports. Cleaning rod, originally stored in the groove at the right side of the stock at the SVT-38, was relocated under the barrel on the SVT-40.

Sights of the SVT consisted of the post type front sight, mounted on the sight base with circular front sight guard, and a tangent type open rear sights, mounted on the rear part of the barrel. Sniper versions were equipped with special detachable, see-through scope mounts at the rear of the receiver, so the scope was offset to the rear, allowing to use a clip-charging facility.

SVT-38 was equipped with detachable, knife-bayonet. SVT-40 was issued with similar bayonet, but with blade shortened to save weight. Unlike the Mosin-Nagant, the bayonets were routinely carried in sheaths, and attached to the rifle only when required.

U.S WEAPONS & AMMO

M1 Garand