Interesting Article in Popular Mechanics on Kalashnikovs

[ForTehNguyen]

they still wouldve lost, the MP44 alone cant turn the ride against what really won the war - the Allies industrial capacity, both US and Soviet manufacturing power. Some of the battles wouldve been a bit tougher tho.

[TOrrock]

they still wouldve lost, the MP44 alone cant turn the ride against what really won the war - the Allies industrial capacity, both US and Soviet manufacturing power.

That, and fighting on two major fronts while also attempting to liquidate entire peoples from greater Germany and occupied countries.

And being led by a batshit crazy former corporal.


Anyway.....lets keep to the AK. I feeling a Sturmgewehr thread though.....

[Thomas M-4]

It would have been murder in the hedgerow country in France also.
It wouldn't have won the war but it could have made a difference in those 2 close in battles were armored war-fare didn't work.
Just saying

[mkmckinley]

I think he has an article in November's Esquire about the AK and M16. Haven't read it yet.

[TOrrock]

You can listen to the interview he did with NPR here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=130493013

I know it's hard to ignore Gross, but the interview is actually pretty good.

[Combat_Diver]

I had two MP44 that were found in Iraq at the end of 03' along with 60 rds of East German 7.92 Kurz and one mag. Did track down about another 4-6 found over there at the time.


Notice the selector and safety (two different switchs, push thru selector and on left side safety like on a AR15, like the test AK46)

Someone had to fire that 60 rds of ammo.

I enjoyed the article and look forward to the book and since this is about the AK series, Iraq has them all!


CD

[Jaws]

Great read. Thanks. Looks interesting.

Here's a part that I don't think got the whole story:

Why did the Soviet Union think a lightweight, automatic rifle was needed?


The Soviet military had faced the world's first mass-produced assault rifle—the German sturmgewehr, or storm rifle—in battles on the Eastern Front in World War II. It was impressed and wanted its own version. The AK-47 was fundamentally a conceptual copy of the German weapon. The Soviet Union was exceptionally skilled at copying its enemies' ideas and was proud of its espionage and intelligence successes in obtaining enemy equipment and grasping the significance and utility of its opponents' gear. In this case, it wanted an equivalent: a compact rifle, with modest recoil and weight, that could be fired on automatic or semiautomatic and that used smaller ammunition than the rifles of its time. Some people think of the Kalashnikov as revolutionary in design and idea, but it was evolutionary. In hindsight, it marked a natural step in a progression that had been under way for decades—a weapon midway between the large rifles and small submachine guns of the era, the ultimate compromise arm. This had many benefits, including that because the weapon used lighter, lower-powered ammunition, it would be less expensive to manufacture and supply and less burdensome, and each soldier could carry more cartridges per combat load. It all made military sense, and the Soviet arms-design community understood this immediately and went to work on its conceptual knockoff of the pre-existing German arm.

There's on thing missing in this picture. How the Russian fighting doctrine changed during ww2. It is well known that after the painful experiences in Finland, in the last half of the war, the Soviets started to use a lot of submachine guns. More than all other major powers. In the crowded European cities this were very effective weapons and the soviets sometimes armed entire companies with nothing but PPSh submachine guns. Same tactics were used by the Chinese in Korea.
Sure the Sturmgewere had some influence and is most likely the spark that started it all, but I think the AK is a logical evolution of a rifle to match the new doctrine heavily based on mass full auto fire.

[lloydkristmas]

I had the pleasure of firing one of the authentic STG-44's one time. Cool experience historically speaking, but the gun was a jammomatic. No idea if it was because of ammo, mags, or some other issue with the gun (which is probably very hard to source parts for, but i dunno). I'd guess the thing malfunctioned every 6 rounds or so.

In keeping with the original thread topic, thanks for the link, its interesting to see people who have put that much research into firearms

[Bolt_Overide]

Good article, lots of good info there for the AK noob and conesuer alike.

[Iraqgunz]

That's odd. I was speaking to an MP44 owner about 2 weeks ago and he said the gun runs great. I wonder if there was something going on that you weren't aware of.

I had the pleasure of firing one of the authentic STG-44's one time. Cool experience historically speaking, but the gun was a jammomatic. No idea if it was because of ammo, mags, or some other issue with the gun (which is probably very hard to source parts for, but i dunno). I'd guess the thing malfunctioned every 6 rounds or so.

In keeping with the original thread topic, thanks for the link, its interesting to see people who have put that much research into firearms