The Gewehr 41Mauser and Walther Semi Auto Rifles,In 1938 and 1940 the German military began testing

The Gewehr 41Mauser and Walther Semi Auto Rifles,In 1938 and 1940 the German military began testing for a new semi-automatic rifle.  Their standards dictated that no holes for tapping gas for the loading mechanism were to be bored into the barrel, the rifles were not to have any moving parts on the surface and in case the auto-loading mechanism failed, a secondary bolt action mechanism was to be included.Two companies responded to the Wehrmacht’s challenge for a semi-auto design, Mauser and Walther.  The Mauser design (top picture), called the Gewehr41(M) was the least successful of the two. Since no holes could be tapped in the barrel, the rifle used a gas system where gases from the cartridge were trapped near the muzzle in a ring-shaped cone, which in turn worked a long piston rod that opened the breech and re-loaded the rifle. This system was called the Bang system, named after its designer, a Danish man named Søren Hansen Bang.  To meet the requirement of a secondary bolt action system the Mauser Gew 41M also had a turn bolt action that could be used in case the gas mechanism failed.  Unfortunately for Mauser, they often did fail, mostly due to gunpowder fowling and the overly complex design.  Only 6,673 were produced, of which 1,673 were returned as unusable.The Walther model (bottom picture) was called the Gewehr 41(W).  The Gew 41W was much like the Mauser model, using the same gas powered Bang system. Walther simplified the Bang system, which made it much more reliable.  More importantly, Walther ignored most of the conditions set by the Wehrmacht.  For example the Gew 41W did away with the turnbolt secondary action, reasoning that if the gas system failed, the user could simply work the action as a straight pull.  The Gew 41W was the more common of the two due to it’s more reliable design. Around 40,000 to 140,000 were produced. However the Gew 41W still had some flaws, most notably it was complicated and difficult to manufacture.  Refinement of the Gew41W design would later lead to the creation of the Gewehr 43 later in the war. -- source link

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