The
StG 44 (
Sturmgewehr 44 or "assault rifle model 1944") was an
assault rifleAn assault rifle is a rifle designed for combat, with selective fire . Assault rifles are the standard infantry weapons in most modern armies, having largely superseded or supplemented larger and more powerful battle rifles such as the M14, FN FAL and the Heckler & Koch G3...
developed in
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and was the first of its kind to see major deployment, considered by many historians to be the first modern assault rifle. It is also known under the designations
MP 43 and
MP 44 (
Maschinenpistole 43,
Maschinenpistole 44 respectively), which denotes earlier development versions of the same weapon.
Description
MP 43, MP 44, and StG 44 were different designations for what was essentially the same rifle, with minor updates in production. The variety in nomenclatures resulted from the complicated
bureaucracyBureaucracy is the collective organizational structure, procedures, protocols, and set of regulations in place to manage activity, usually in large organizations and government...
in Nazi Germany. Developed from the Mkb 42(H) "machine carbine", the StG44 combined the characteristics of a
carbineA carbine is a firearm similar to a rifle or musket. Many carbines, especially modern designs, were developed from rifles, being essentially shortened versions of full rifles firing the same ammunition, although often at a lower velocity...
,
submachine gunA submachine gun is a firearm that combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the cartridge of a pistol, and is usually between the two in weight and size...
and
automatic rifleAutomatic rifle is a term generally used to describe a self-loading rifle chambered for a rifle cartridge, capable of delivering both semi- and fully automatic fire...
. StG is an abbreviation of
Sturmgewehr. The name was chosen for
propagandaPropaganda is communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience...
reasons and literally means
storm rifle as in "to storm an enemy position" (i.e. "assault", leading to the modern terminology "assault rifle"). After the adoption of the StG 44, the English translation "
assault rifleAn assault rifle is a rifle designed for combat, with selective fire . Assault rifles are the standard infantry weapons in most modern armies, having largely superseded or supplemented larger and more powerful battle rifles such as the M14, FN FAL and the Heckler & Koch G3...
" became the accepted designation for this type of infantry small arm.
The rifle was chambered for the
7.92x33mm Kurz7.92x33mm Kurz is a rifle cartridge developed in Nazi Germany prior to and during World War II. The ammunition is also referred to as 7.92mm Kurz , 7.92 Kurz, or 7.92mmK, and was specifically intended for development of an assault rifle...
cartridgeA cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim ....
, also known as 7.92 mm
Kurz (German for "short"). This shorter version of the German standard (
7.92x57mm MauserThe 7.92x57mm cartridge was designed by the German Gewehr-Prüfungskommission for the Gewehr 1888 and later used in Mauser bolt-action rifles. This cartridge was originally adopted by Germany in 1888 as the M/88 7.92x57mm I...
)
rifleA rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
round, in combination with the weapon's selective-fire design, provided a compromise between the controllable firepower of a submachine gun at close quarters with the accuracy and power of a
Karabiner 98kThe Karabiner 98 Kurz was a bolt-action rifle adopted as the standard infantry rifle in 1935 by the German Wehrmacht, and was one of the final developments in the long line of Mauser military rifles.-General information:The Karabiner 98k was a controlled-feed bolt-action rifle based on the Mauser...
bolt action rifle at intermediate ranges. While the StG44 had less range and power than the more powerful infantry rifles of the day,
WehrmachtWehrmacht was the name of the unified armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe ....
studies had shown that most combat engagements occurred at less than 300 m with the majority within 200 m. Full-power rifle cartridges were excessive for the vast majority of uses for the average soldier.
The StG 44's
receiverIn firearms terminology, the receiver is the part of a firearm that houses the operating parts. It is sometimes called the body of the firearm, and especially in the context of handguns it is often called the frame...
was made of heavy stamped and welded
steelSteel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most cost-effective alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
as were other contemporary arms such as the MP 40 and MG 42. This made for a fairly heavy rifle, especially one firing an intermediate-power cartridge. Difficulties with fabrication, the need to use available non-priority steels, and the exigencies of war resulted in a heavy receiver. U.S. military intelligence criticized the weight of the weapon along with the inclusion of the fully automatic feature which it considered "ineffectual for all practical purposes." The British were also critical saying that the receiver could be bent and the bolt locked up by the mere act of knocking a leaning rifle onto a hard floor. Many of these criticisms are more a testimonial of the Allied aversion rather than an accurate view of the weapon's characteristics which were proven during combat in the war.
To its credit, it was the first weapon of its class, and the concept had a major impact on modern infantry small arms development. By all accounts, the StG44 fulfilled its role admirably, particularly on the
Eastern FrontThe Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of war between the European Axis powers, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia and Finland , and the Soviet Union which encompassed central and eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9...
, offering a greatly increased volume of fire compared to standard infantry rifles. In the end, it came too late to have a significant effect on the outcome of the war.
Background
At the start of the Second World War, German infantry was equipped with comparable weapons to most other military forces. A typical infantry unit was equipped with a mix of bolt action rifles and some form of
lightA light machine gun or LMG is a machine gun designed to be carried and fired by an individual soldier, with or without an assistant, and used in a front-line infantry support role. LMGs are often used as squad automatic weapons....
or
mediumA medium machine gun or MMG, in modern terms, usually refers to a belt-fed automatic firearm firing a full-power rifle cartridge and typically weighs from 15 to 40 pounds . MMGs usually have some type of provision for extended firing, such as a removable or extra-heavy barrel, cooling fins, or a...
machine gunA machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rifle bullets in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute...
s. One difference from other armies was the emphasis on the machine gun as the primary infantry weapon, as opposed to it being thought of mostly in the support role. German units tended to be machine gun "heavy", carrying more ammunition for the machine gun than for the rifles, using belt ammunition for their more modern section-level weapons to maintain a higher rate of fire, and generally thinking of the rifle as a support weapon. Although newer rifle designs had been studied on several occasions, they were never considered very important.
One problem with this mix was that the standard rifles were too large to be effectively used by mechanized and armored forces, where they were difficult to maneuver in the cramped spaces of an armored vehicle. Submachine guns such as the MP 28, MP 38, and MP 40 were issued to augment infantry rifle use and increase individual firepower, but suffered from a distinct lack of range and accuracy beyond 100 m. A small fast-firing weapon would have been useful in this role, but again the need did not seem pressing.
The issue arose once again during the invasion of the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
. The
Red ArmyThe Red Army The Red Army The Red Army was the Soviet government’s revolutionary militia beginning in the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the USSR. Since 1946, after the Second World War, it was called the Soviet Army.The 'Red...
had been in the process of replacing its own bolt action rifles in the immediate pre–war era. Increasing numbers of
semi-automaticA semi-automatic, or self-loading firearm is a gun that after being fired, ejects the empty round that has been fired, loads a new cartridge, and cocks itself...
TokarevFedor Vasilievich Tokarev was a Russian weapons designer and deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from 1941 to 1950...
SVT-38 and SVT-40s were reaching Red Army units, though issue was generally restricted to elite units and
non-commissioned officerNon-commissioned officer , abbreviated to NCO or Non-com , is a term in many armed forces indicating leadership ranks less senior than commissioned officers...
s. Submachine guns were extremely widespread, and issued on a far larger scale; some Soviet rifle companies were completely equipped with
PPSh-41The PPSh-41 submachine gun was one of the most mass produced weapons of its type of World War II. It was designed by Georgi Shpagin as an inexpensive alternative to the PPD-40. The PPSh operated with simple blowback action, had a box or drum magazine, and fired the 7.62x25mm pistol round...
submachine guns.
This experience with high volumes of hand-held automatic 'assault' fire forced German commanders to rethink their small arms requirements. The German army had been attempting to introduce semi-automatic weapons of their own, notably the
Gewehr 41The Gewehr 41 rifle, commonly known as the G41, was a semi-automatic rifle used by Nazi Germany during World War II-Background:By 1940, it became apparent that some form of a semi-automatic rifle, with a higher rate of fire than existing bolt-action rifle models, was necessary to improve the...
, but these early rifles proved troublesome in service, and production was insufficient to meet forecast requirements. Several attempts had been made to introduce lightweight machine guns or automatic rifles for these roles, but invariable recoil from the powerful 7.92 mm Mauser round made them too difficult to control in automatic fire.
The German solution was to use a round of intermediate power, between that of a full-power rifle cartridge and pistol ammunition. Experiments with several such intermediate rounds had been going on since the 1930s, but had been constantly rejected for use by the army. By 1941, it was becoming clear that action needed to be taken, and one of the experimental rounds, the Polte 7.92x33mm
Kurzpatrone ("short cartridge") was selected. To minimize logistical problems, the Mauser 7.92 mm rifle cartridge was used as the basis for the final 7.92x33mm Kurz intermediate round, which also utilized an aerodynamic
spitzerA spitzer is an aerodynamic bullet design used in most intermediate and high-powered rifle cartridges. The name derives from the German word Spitzgeschoss, literally pointed bullet. It was first introduced in 1898 by the French in their 8 mm Lebel "Balle D" cartridge...
rifle bullet design.
MKb 42
Contracts for rifles firing the
Kurz round were sent to both Walther and Haenel (whose design group was headed by
Hugo SchmeisserHugo Schmeisser was a German developer of infantry weapons in the 20th century.Schmeisser was born in Jena, Saxe-Weimar. His father, Louis Schmeisser , was one of the best-known weapons designers in Europe...
), who were asked to submit prototype weapons under the name Maschinenkarabiner 1942
(MKb 42
), literally "machine carbine"). Both designs were similar, using a gas-operatedGas-operation is a system of operation used to provide energy to operate autoloading firearms. In gas-operation, a portion of high pressure gas from the cartridge being fired is used to power a mechanism to extract the spent case and chamber a new cartridge. Energy from the gas is harnessed...
action, with both semi-automatic and fully-automatic firing modes.
The original prototype of Haenel's design, the MKb 42(H), fired from an
open boltA semi or fully automatic firearm is said to fire from an open bolt if, when ready to fire, the bolt and working parts are held to the rear. When the trigger is pulled the bolt goes forward, feeding a round from the magazine into the chamber and firing it...
and used a striker for firing (the mechanism is based on the
CzechoslovakCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
ZB vz. 26). The receiver and trigger housing with pistol grip were made from steel stampings, which were attached to the
barrelA gun barrel is the tube, usually metal, through which a controlled explosion or rapid expansion of gases are released in order to propel a projectile out of the end at a high velocity....
assembly on a hinge, allowing the weapon to be folded open for quick disassembly and cleaning. The Haenel design proved superior to Walther's MKb 42(W), and the army then asked Haenel for another version incorporating a list of minor changes designated MKb 42(H). One was to include lugs for mounting a standard
bayonetA bayonet is a knife-, dagger-, sword-, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit on, over or underneath the muzzle of a rifle barrel or similar weapon, effectively turning the gun into a spear. It is a close quarter battle combat or last-resort weapon.-History: The origins of the bayonet are...
, another to change the pitch of the rifling. A production run of these modified versions was sent to the field in November 1942, and the users appreciated it with a few reservations. Another set of modifications added a hinged cover over the ejection port to keep it clean in combat, and rails to mount a telescopic sight. A run of these modified MKb 42(H)s in late 1942 and early 1943 produced 11,833 guns for field trials.
Ultimately it was recommended that a hammer firing system operating from a closed bolt similar to Walther's design be incorporated. The gas expansion chamber over the barrel was deemed unnecessary, and was removed from successive designs, as was the underbarrel
bayonetA bayonet is a knife-, dagger-, sword-, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit on, over or underneath the muzzle of a rifle barrel or similar weapon, effectively turning the gun into a spear. It is a close quarter battle combat or last-resort weapon.-History: The origins of the bayonet are...
lug.
MP44, StG44
In April 1944,
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
decreed that the MP 43 be renamed the MP 44. In July 1944, at a meeting of the various army heads about the Eastern Front, when Hitler asked what they needed, a general exclaimed, "More of these new rifles!". This caused some confusion (Hitler's response is reputed to have been "What new rifle?"), but once Hitler was given a chance to test-fire the MP 44, he was impressed and gave it the title Sturmgewehr. Seeing the possibility of a
propagandaPropaganda is communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience...
gain, the rifle was again renamed as the StG 44, to highlight the new class of weapon it represented, translated "Storm (Assault) rifle, model 1944", thereby introducing the term.
By the end of the war, some 425,977 StG 44 variants of all types were produced. The assault rifle proved a valuable weapon, especially on the Eastern front, where it was first deployed. A properly trained soldier with an StG44 had an improved tactical repertoire, in that he could effectively engage targets at longer ranges than with an MP 40, but be much more useful than the Kar 98k in close combat, as well as provide light cover fire like a light machine gun.
The StG 44 was an intermediate weapon for the period; the muzzle velocity from its barrel was , compared to of the Karabiner 98k, of the
BritishGreat Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 59.6 million people, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1000 smaller...
Bren, of the
M2 carbineThe M1 carbine is a lightweight semi-automatic carbine that became a standard firearm in the U.S. military during World War II and the Korean War, and was produced in several variants. It was widely used by U.S...
, and achieved by the MP40.
One unusual addition to the design was the Krummlauf; a bent barrel attachment for rifles with a periscope sighting device for shooting around corners from a safe position. It was produced in several variants: a "I" version for infantry use, a "P" version for use in tanks (to cover the dead areas in the close range around the tank, to defend against assaulting infantry), versions with 30°, 45°, 60° and 90° bends, a version for the StG 44 and one for the MG 42. Only the 30° "I" version for the StG 44 was produced in any numbers. The bent barrel attachments had very short lifespans – approx. 300 rounds for the 30° version, and 160 rounds for the 45° variant. The 30° model was able to achieve a 35x35 cm grouping at 100 m.
A primary use of the MP44/StG44 was to counter the Soviet PPS and
PPSh-41The PPSh-41 submachine gun was one of the most mass produced weapons of its type of World War II. It was designed by Georgi Shpagin as an inexpensive alternative to the PPD-40. The PPSh operated with simple blowback action, had a box or drum magazine, and fired the 7.62x25mm pistol round...
submachine guns, which used the 7.62x25mm Tokarev round. These cheap, mass-produced weapons used a 71-round drum magazine or 35-round box magazine and though shorter-ranged than the Kar98k rifle, were more effective weapons in close-quarter engagements. The StG 44, while also lacking the range of the Kar 98k, had a longer range than the PPS/PPSh submachine guns and a comparable rate of fire. Also, while they could fire fully automatic, they were designed to default to semi-automatic fire. They were surprisingly accurate, and their slow rate of fire gave them controllability even on full-auto. While the design details are different, the concept of the StG44 was obviously carried on in the most famous and most numerously manufactured assault rifle family, beginning with the
AK-47The AK-47 is a selective fire, gas operated 7.62mm assault rifle developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov in the 1940s. Six decades later, the AK-47 and its variants and derivatives remain in service throughout the world...
.
Late prototypes
In a somewhat unrelated development,
MauserMauser is a German arms manufacturer of a line of bolt-action rifles and pistols from the 1870s to present. Their designs were built for the German armed forces, but have been exported and licensed to a number of countries since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as being a...
continued design work on a series of experimental weapons in an effort to produce an acceptable service-wide rifle for the short cartridge system. One of these prototypes, a product of the engineers at the Light Weapon Development Group (Abteilung 37
) at Oberndorf, was the MKb Gerät 06 (
Maschinenkarabiner Gerät 06 or "machine carbine instrument 06") first appearing in 1942. This gun used a unique gas piston-delayed roller-locked action derived from the short recoil operation of the MG 42 machine gun but with a fixed barrel and gas system. It was realized that with careful attention to the mechanical ratios, the gas system could be omitted. The resultant weapon, the
Gerät 06(H) was supposedly slated for adoption by the Wehrmacht as the
StG 45(M). The operating principle lived on in postwar designs from
CEAM/AMEAtelier Mécanique de Mulhouse was a French weapons manufacturer.-History:After the Second World War, the Mauser firearms factory was seized by French Forces and restarted to supply the French. Mauser's Department 37 development group was placed under control of the French War Department's armament...
,
CETMECETME is an acronym for Centro de Estudios Técnicos de Materiales Especiales , a Spanish government design and development establishment. While being involved in many projects CETME was mostly known for its small arms research and development...
, and most famously,
Heckler & KochHeckler & Koch GmbH is a German defense manufacturing company that produces various small arms, for example the MP5 submachine gun, G3 automatic rifle and the more recent G36 assault rifle, the MP7 personal defense weapon, USP series of handguns and the high-precision PSG1 sniper rifle...
.
Towards the end of the war, there were last-ditch efforts to develop cheap so-called
Volksgewehr rifles in the 7.92x33mm caliber. One of these, the
VG 1-5The Volkssturmgewehr 1-5 is a 7.92x33mm Kurz caliber semi-automatic rifle developed by Nazi Germany during World War II. It was also known as the VG 1-5, Volkssturm-Gewehr 1-5, Versuchs-Gerät 1-5 and "Gustloff", and was intended as a cheaply mass-produced weapon for the Volkssturm...
(
Volkssturmgewehr 1-5), used a gas-delayed blowback action based on the Barnitzke system, whereby gas bled from the barrel near the chamber created resistance to the rearward impulse of the operating parts, which ceases when the projectile leaves the muzzle, allowing the operating parts to be forced rearward by the residual pressure of the cartridge case. This principle has been used most successfully in the P7 pistol.
Post-war
Generally accepted as the world's first assault rifle, the StG44's effect on post-war arms design was wide-ranging, as evidenced by
Mikhail KalashnikovLieutenant General Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov is a famous Russian small arms designer, most famous for designing the AK-47 assault rifle.-Early life:...
's famous
AK-47The AK-47 is a selective fire, gas operated 7.62mm assault rifle developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov in the 1940s. Six decades later, the AK-47 and its variants and derivatives remain in service throughout the world...
, and later in the U.S.
M16The M16 is the U.S. military designation for the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle. Colt purchased the rights to the AR-15 and currently uses that designation only for semi-automatic versions of the rifle....
and its variants. The Soviet Union was quick to adopt the assault rifle concept. The AK-47 used a similar-sized intermediate round and followed the design concept, but the AK-47 was mechanically different.
After World War II, many Western countries continued using their existing full-caliber rifles. Although the
7.62x51mm NATOThe 7.62x51mm NATO is a rifle cartridge developed in the 1950s as a standard for small arms among NATO countries. Specifications for the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge are not identical to the commercial .308 Winchester though they are safely interchangeable....
round adopted post-war was still a full-power cartridge, the trend towards the adoption of less powerful rounds was already underway in the West. For example, the M1 Garand had initially been developed for the
.276 PedersenThe .276 Pedersen round was an experimental 7 mm cartridge developed for the U.S. Army and used in the Pedersen rifle and early versions of what would become the M1 Garand rifle.-Summary:...
(7 mm) round, a cartridge less powerful than the standard
.30-06 SpringfieldThe .30-06 Springfield cartridge or 7.62 x 63 mm in metric notation, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and standardized, used until the 1960s and early 1970s. It replaced the .30-03, 6 mm Lee Navy and .30 US Army...
. The U.S. Army's adoption of the
M1 carbineThe M1 carbine is a lightweight semi-automatic carbine that became a standard firearm in the U.S. military during World War II and the Korean War, and was produced in several variants. It was widely used by U.S...
in 1941 proved the utility of a small, handy, low-powered rifle that required little training to use effectively.
America and, later, NATO developed assault rifles along a roughly similar path by at first adding selective-fire capability in a reduced power, full-caliber cartridge. The Soviet Union lightened the AK-47 and introduced the
AKMThe AKM is a 7.62mm assault rifle designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is an upgraded version of the AK-47 rifle and was developed in the 1950s...
. America developed the concept of small-caliber, high-velocity (SCHV) bullets and further reduced the weight of their firearms with the introduction of the M16. The Soviets followed suit with the introducing the SCHV
AK-74The AK-74 is a 5.45mm assault rifle developed in the early 1970s in the Soviet Union. It was developed from the earlier AKM and introduced in 1974.The rifle first saw service with Soviet forces engaged in the Afghanistan conflict...
rifle.
As for the Sturmgewehr itself, it remained in use with the East German Nationale Volksarmee until it was eventually replaced with variants of the AK-47 assault rifle. The
VolkspolizeiThe Volkspolizei was the national police of the German Democratic Republic . The Volkspolizei was responsible for most law enforcement in East Germany, but its organisation and structure were such that it could be considered a paramilitary force as well...
used them until approximately 1962 when they were replaced by the
PPSh-41The PPSh-41 submachine gun was one of the most mass produced weapons of its type of World War II. It was designed by Georgi Shpagin as an inexpensive alternative to the PPD-40. The PPSh operated with simple blowback action, had a box or drum magazine, and fired the 7.62x25mm pistol round...
. Other countries to use StG44s after World War II included the
CSSRThe Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 until early 1990 The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (Československá socialistická republika in Czech and Slovak) was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 until early 1990 The Czechoslovak Socialist...
and the
Socialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaThe Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the second half of World War II until it was formally dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro,...
, where units as the
63rd Paratroop BattalionThe 63rd Paratroop Battalion is one of the battalions constituting the Special Brigade of the Serbian Army. It used to be of brigade-size, but it has the status of a battalion within the restructured Serbian Army...
were equipped with them until the 1980s, when they were ultimately transferred to
Territorial DefenseThe Territorial Defense Forces were a separate part of the armed forces of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The forces acted as a Home Guard which roughly corresponded to a military reserve force or an official governmental paramilitary...
reserves or sold to friendly regimes in the Middle East and Africa.
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
manufactured their own trial versions of the StG44 in the late 1940s and early 1950s , but made the decision to adopt the
FN FALThe Fusil Automatique Léger or FAL is a 7.62x51mm NATO self-loading, selective fire rifle produced by the Belgian armaments manufacturer Fabrique Nationale de Herstal during the Cold War, and adopted by many North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries...
instead in 1955 .
After World War II, the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
and other Eastern Bloc states supplied client regimes and guerrilla movements with captured German arms such as the StG44 along with newly manufactured or repackaged 7.92x33mm ammunition. French forces discovered many in Algeria and determined the origin to be the
CSSRThe Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 until early 1990 The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (Československá socialistická republika in Czech and Slovak) was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 until early 1990 The Czechoslovak Socialist...
. Examples also found their way into the hands of the PLO and
HezbollahHezbollah is a Shi'a Islamist political and paramilitary organisation based in Lebanon. Hezbollah is now also a major provider of social services, which operate schools, hospitals, and agricultural services for thousands of Lebanese Shiites, and plays a significant force in Lebanese politics...
in
LebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon
[Republic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies...]
. It is still used in very limited numbers by militia forces in the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
as well as some countries in the
Horn of AfricaThe Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts for hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea, and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. It is the easternmost projection of the African continent...
. StG44s have been confiscated from militia groups by U.S. forces in Iraq.
New semi-automatic reproductions of the MKb 42(H), MP 43/1, and StG 44 are being manufactured in Germany today by Sport-Systeme Dittrich in the original 7.92x33mm Kurz chambering.
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