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StG 44
The Sturmgewehr 44 was a German automatic rifle developed during World War II, and generally considered the first mass produced assault rifle in the world. It was developed from the earlier Haenel MKb 42(H) "machine carbine" prototype. During development the project was hidden from Hitler, who had ordered it cancelled, by referring to it as a submachine gun (Maschinenpistole); during this time it was known as the MP43 and MP44. When the deception was discovered (supposedly due to an officer requesting "more of these new rifles") it was demonstrated to the German high command, and Hitler himself re-named it the "Sturmgewehr." This literally translates as "storm rifle;" this is storm as in "to storm a castle," hence the translation "assault rifle." The three versions were essentially minor updates for production purposes.
The claim that the StG-44 was the first assault rifle is a contentious one; other weapons which could be termed early assault rifles have existed before (for example, the Russian Fedorov Avtomat). Rather, the StG-44 was the first to be mass produced, and the first to be referred to as an assault rifle. While the StG-44 was well received by troops and is often depicted as some kind of superweapon in modern videogames, it suffered from a number of issues throughout production. The materials used in the mass-production StG-44 were of poor quality due to war expediency, and British analysts (who praised the earlier MP43) found the bolt could be totally immobilised by pinching the sides of the receiver with the fingers of one hand, while the rifle could be totally destroyed by the simple act of leaning it against a doorframe and then knocking it over. The stock was prone to breakages, and American analysts criticised the 11.5 pound weight of the loaded weapon as excessive considering the relatively small round used, comparing the StG-44 unfavourably to the M1 Carbine.
Because of its manufacturing costs, which prevented speedy wartime production, the StG 44 was scheduled to be replaced with the Sturmgewehr 45, but the war ended before the new rifle could be issued for field trials. Due to administrative errors and the chaos of the war, around one hundred thousand StG-44s were never delivered to the front lines and were seized by the Soviet army from depots and warehouses after the war ended, ultimately being provided to client states: this is why StG-44s are not an uncommon sight in conflict zones even today. These surplus StGs were sufficiently common that they were often visually modified to stand in for M16s in Soviet-era Russian movies. For still mysterious reasons, these mockups were actually not created in the likeness of the serial M16, but early AR-15 prototypes. So, the Mosfilm version was actually created in the likeness of variants with black furniture, a narrow forend, and the upper charging handle of the AR-10 pattern. The Lenfilm version was created according to the appearance of the slightly later version with familiar outlook but with bright furniture.
In Russia, some surplus StG-44s have now been converted into civilian semi-auto rifles named the "MP44-O" ("O" stands for "охотничий"; okhotnichiy, i.e. "hunting"). Also, new semi-automatic civilian reproductions of the MKb 42(H), MP 43/1, and StG 44 are being manufactured in Germany today by Sport Systeme Dittrich.
Specifications
(1943 - 1945)
- Type: Assault Rifle
- Caliber: 7.92x33mm Kurz
- Weight: 10.2 lbs (4.6 kg) unloaded
- Length: 37 in (94 cm)
- Barrel length: 16.5 in (41.9 cm)
- Muzzle Velocity: 2,247 ft/s (685 m/s)
- Feed System: 30-round detachable box magazine
- Fire Modes: Semi-Auto/Full-Auto
The StG 44 and variants can be seen in the following films, television series, video games, and anime used by the following actors:
Film
| Title | Actor | Character | Note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The White Darkness (Bílá tma) | German soldiers | 1948 | ||
| Wolves' Lairs (Vlcie diery) | German soldiers | 1948 | ||
| Little Partisan (Malý partyzán) | Oldrich Vykypel | Commander of partisans | 1950 | |
| German soldiers | ||||
| Action B (Akce B) | UPA fighters | 1952 | ||
| The Tank Brigade | German soldiers | 1955 | ||
| Ernst Thälmann - Leader of his Class | German soldiers | 1955 | ||
| Canal (Kanal) | German soldiers | 1957 | ||
| At That Time, at Christmas... (Tenkrát o vánocích) | German soldiers | 1958 | ||
| A Time to Love and a Time to Die | German soldiers | 1958 | ||
| The Bridge (Die Brücke) | Frank Glaubrecht | Jϋrgen Borchert | Inexplicably switched with an MP40 during shooting scenes | 1959 |
| The Mad Executioners | Seen in the police museum | 1963 | ||
| Battle of the Bulge | Dana Andrews | 1965 | ||
| Where is the General? (Gdzie jest general?) | German soldiers | 1964 | ||
| A Tale About Nipper-Pipper (Skazka o Malchishe-Kibalchishe) | Enemy soldiers | Magazines removed, some with Gewehr 98 bayonets | 1965 | |
| The Adventures of Werner Holt (Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt) | Klaus-Peter Thiele | Werner Holt | 1965 | |
| Manfred Karge | Gilbert Wolzow | |||
| German soldiers | ||||
| The Hunchback of Soho | Seen in Gen. Perkins' "war room"; without buttstock and magazine | 1966 | ||
| Carriage to Vienna (Kocár do Vídne) | Ladislav Jandoš | Young partisan | 1966 | |
| Funeral in Berlin | East German Police & Border guards | 1966 | ||
| Zhenya, Zhenechka and "katyusha" | German soldiers | 1967 | ||
| Billion Dollar Brain | Midwinter's troops and Soviet soldier | 1967 | ||
| The Shield and the Sword (Shchit i mech) | German and Soviet soldiers | 1968 | ||
| I Was Nineteen (Ich war neunzehn) | Aleksey Eybozhenko | Sr. Lt. Sascha Ziganjuk | 1968 | |
| Jaecki Schwarz | Lt. Gregor Hecker | |||
| Dieter Mann | Unteroffizier Willi Lommer | |||
| German soldiers | ||||
| Che! | Cuban rebel | 1969 | ||
| The Eighth (Osmiyat) | Georgi Georgiev-Getz | "Osmiyat" | 1969 | |
| Nikola Anastasov | "Chaplin" | |||
| Treasures of the Flaming Cliffs (Sokrovishcha pylayushchikh skal) | A mercenary | 1969 | ||
| Black Sun (Chyornoye solntse) | Ambroise Mbia | Robert Moussombe | Heavily visually modified in two different versions | 1970 |
| Rein Aren | Freddy "Africa" | |||
| Government troops, guerilla fighters, mercenaries | ||||
| My Zero Hour (Meine Stunde Null) | Manfred Krug | Gefreiter Kurt Hartung | 1970 | |
| Alfred Müller | Gefreiter Blumhagen | |||
| The Stolen Train (Otkradnatiyat vlak) | Dimitar Buynozov | Damyan | 1971 | |
| She No Longer Talks She Shoots | Annie Girardot | Rosemonde | 1972 | |
| André Pousse | Max | |||
| Chronicle of the Night (Khronika nochi) | African soldiers | Standard and visually modified with FN FAL style handguard | 1973 | |
| I Serve at the Border (Ya sluzhu na granitse) | Border guards of unnamed state | Visually modified to resemble M16 | 1974 | |
| They Fought for Their Country | German soldiers | 1975 | ||
| Long Miles of War (Dolgie vyorsty voyny) | German soldiers | 1975 | ||
| Poem of Kovpak: Carpathians, Carpathians... (Duma o Kovpake: Karpaty, Karpaty...) | Soviet partisans | 1976 | ||
| Port | German soldiers | 1976 | ||
| Mama, I'm Alive (Mama, ich lebe) | Eberhard Kirchberg | Karl Koralewski | 1977 | |
| Uwe Zerbe | Walter Pankonin | |||
| Mikhail Vaskov | Sgt. Kolja | |||
| Night Over Chile (Noch nad Chili) | Chilean soldiers | 1977 | ||
| Escape to Athena | Telly Savalas | Zeno | 1979 | |
| Pirates of the XXth Century (Piraty XX veka) | Nikolai Yeryomenko, Jr. | Sergey Sergeevich | Visually modified to resemble M16 | 1979 |
| Pavel Remezov | Doctor | |||
| Viktor Gordeev | Yura Mikosha | |||
| Viktor Zhiganov | Stetsenko | |||
| Pirates | ||||
| The Hijacking of Savoy (Pokhishchenie Savoi) | Aleksandr Mikhajlov | Gido Torstensen | 1979 | |
| Leonid Bronevoy | Jean Challot | Standard and Visually modified to resemble M16 | ||
| Scharf's henchmen | ||||
| Personal Safety Not Guaranteed (Lichnoy bezopasnosti ne garantiruyu) | A bandit | 1980 | ||
| Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back | Rebel Alliance soldiers | As the "BlasTech A295" | 1980 | |
| From the Bug to the Vistula (Ot Buga do Visly) | German soldiers | 1980 | ||
| Santa Esperansa | Vladimir Lomizov | Carlos | Visually modified to resemble AR-10/AR-15 | 1980 |
| Laimonas Noreika | Felisindo | |||
| Vladimir Tikhonov | Pablo Kanepi | |||
| Chilean soldiers | ||||
| The Professional | African soldiers | 1981 | ||
| Incident at Map Grid 36-80 (Sluchay v kvadrate 36-80) | US Navy sailor | Visually modified to resemble M16 | 1982 | |
| The Fall of the Condor (Padeniye kondora) | Evgeniy Leonov-Gladyshev | Manuel | Visually modified to resemble AR-10/AR-15 | 1982 |
| Chilean soldiers | ||||
| Copper Angel (Medny angel) | Policemen and gangsters | Visually modified to resemble M16 | 1984 | |
| Until the End (Až do konce) | Daniel Netušil | Sigi | 1984 | |
| The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission | German soldiers | 1985 | ||
| Come and See (Idi i smotri) | SS soldier | 1985 | ||
| The Detached Mission (Odinochnoye plavanye) | Nikolay Lavrov | SSG Eddie Griffith | Visually modified to resemble M16 | 1985 |
| Rogue American soldiers | ||||
| The Battalions Request Fire (Batalyony prosyat ognya) | German soldiers | 1985 | ||
| R Document (Dokument R), The | Security guards | Visually modified to resemble IMI Romat variant | 1985 | |
| Secrets of Madame Wong (Tayny madam Vong) | Hong Kong police | Visually modified to resemble M16 | 1986 | |
| Interception (Perekhvat) | US soldiers | Visually modified to resemble M16 | 1986 | |
| The Jaguar (Yaguar) | Sergey Veksler | Jaguar | Visually modified to resemble AR-10/AR-15 | 1987 |
| Artyom Kaminsky | Fernandes | |||
| Adel Al-Khadad | Arana | |||
| Chilean military school cadets | ||||
| Curse of Snakes Valley (Klatwa doliny wezy) | Security guards | 1987 | ||
| Island of Lost Ships (Ostrov pogibshikh korabley) | Islanders | Original and visually modified to resemble M16A1 | 1987 | |
| The Russians Are Coming | Gert Krause-Melzer | Günter Walcher | Movie was filmed in 1968 | 1987 |
| German soldiers | ||||
| Cargo 300 (Gruz 300) | Afghan mujaheddins | Visually modified to resemble M16 | 1989 | |
| Gangsters of the Ocean (Gangstery v okeane) | Lev Durov | Russian boatswain | Visually modified to resemble M16 | 1991 |
| Pirates | ||||
| Road Hawks (Stervyatniki na dorogakh) | Mafia member | Custom "StG-44k" | 1990 | |
| Sniper | Criminal | 1992 | ||
| Casino | Police officers | Visually modified to resemble M16 | 1992 | |
| Deserter (Dezertir) | A brigand | 1997 | ||
| Downfall | German soldiers | 2004 | ||
| Joy Division | Ricci Harnett | Sgt. Harry Stone | 2006 | |
| The Island (Ostrov) | German soldiers | 2006 | ||
| The Bridge | François Goeske | Albert Mutz | 2008 | |
| German soldiers | ||||
| Brother's War | Tino Struckmann | Capt. Klaus Mueller | 2009 | |
| What Men Talk About (O chyom govoryat muzhchiny) | A German soldier | 2010 | ||
| Memorial Day | German soldiers | 2011 | ||
| Iron Sky | Moon Nazis | With sci-fi embellishments | 2012 | |
| Fury | Brad Pitt | Staff Sergeant Don "Wardaddy" Collier | 2014 | |
| The Guy from Our Cemetery (Paren s nashego kladbishcha) | at the gun shop | 2015 | ||
| 1944 | Estonian SS soldiers | 2015 | ||
| Battery Number One (Edinichka) | A German soldier | 2015 | ||
| Overlord | Mathilde Ollivier | Chole | 2018 | |
| Dominic Applewhite | Private Rosenfeld | |||
| German soldiers | ||||
| Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan | Vietcong soldier | 2019 |
Television
| Show Title | Actor | Character | Note / Episode | Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mission: Impossible | guards | "The Exchange" (S03E12) | 1968 | |
| Born by Revolution: On the Night of the 20th (Rozhdyonnaya revolyutsiey: V noch na 20-e) | A Soviet soldier | Seen in documentary footage | 1976 | |
| Mirage | Regimantas Adomaitis | Frank Morgan | Visually modified to resemble M16 | 1983 |
| Ints Burans | Ed Black | |||
| TASS Is Authorized to Declare... (TASS upolnomochen zayavit...) | Nagonian soldiers | Visually modified to resemble M16 | 1984 | |
| Confrontation (Protivostoyanie) | A Soviet soldier | Seen in documentary footage | 1985 | |
| Dead Man's Tale (Chto skazal pokoynik) | Evgeniy Voskresenskiy | "Lame" | Visually modified to resemble M16 | 2000 |
| Aleksey Buldakov | "Ponytail" | |||
| Gangsters | ||||
| Band of Brothers | German soldiers | Seen on wall in "Curahee" (Ep.1), used in "The Breaking Point" (Ep.7) | 2001 | |
| Ash (Pepel) | Farkhad Makhmudov | "Pepel"'s henchman | 2013 | |
| A German soldier | ||||
| Front | A German soldier | 2014 |
Video Games
Anime
| Title | Character | Note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade | Fuse | 1999 | |
| Kerberos members | |||
| Hellsing Ultimate | Vampire Nazis | 2006 - 2012 | |
| Strike Witches: Operation Victory Arrow | Ursula Hartmann | with Krummlauf | 2014 - 2015 |
| Brave Witches | Nikka Katajainen | 2016 - 2017 | |
| Waltrud Krupinski |
Haenel MKb 42(H)
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The MKb 42(H) was a prototype developed by C.G. Haenel for the contract of the creation of automatic weapons for the 7.92x33mm Kurz cartridge. Another project for this assignment was the Walther-made MKb 42(W), but Haenel's design proved to be superior. By July 1942, 50 pre-production MKb 42(H) rifles had already been submitted for testing, and from November 1942 to April 1943, Haenel produced and supplied about 8,000 new assault rifles which were tested in combat against the Soviet army. Based on the results of these tests, it was decided that the MKb 42(H) deserves undoubted attention, but required revision; these revisions resulted in the MP43-StG 44 series of rifles.
Film
| Title | Actor | Character | Note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ernst Thälmann - Leader of his Class | KZ prison guards | 1955 | ||
| Higher Principle (Vyssí princip) | Jan Skopecek | SS man | 1960 | |
| German soldiers | ||||
| Death Is Called Engelchen | German soldiers, Partisans | 1963 | ||
| On the way to Berlin (Na puti v Berlin) | German soldiers and officers | Converted to 7.62x39mm | 1969 |
Video Games
| Game Title | Appears as | Mods | Notation | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Killing Floor | "MKb42" | Added in a patch in 2012 | 2009 | |
| Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad | "MKb 42(H)" | 2011 | ||
| Killing Floor 2 | "MKb42" | stocks removed and are fitted with bayonets | 2016 | |
| Sniper Elite 4 | "MKb 42" | 2017 |
Anime
| Title | Character | Note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade | Kerberos members | 1998 |