The German Gewehr 43 semi automatic rifle,Germany’s quest for a practical semi automatic battl

The German Gewehr 43 semi automatic rifle,Germany’s quest for a practical semi automatic battle rifle during World War II began with the Gewehr 41(W) and Gewher 41(M) rifles.  Both designs used a complicated gas system where gas was collected through a trap at the muzzle, which worked a piston which operated the action.  An extremely complex design called the Bang system, both the G41(M) and G41(W) were very unreliable.In 1943 Walther Arms decided to try again in designing a semi automatic rifle.  This was in reaction to the Soviet Union, which began to supplement their forces with semi auto designs, and the United States, which entirely equipped their forces with semi auto rifles.  The new Walther design featured many aspects of the older G41(W).  However the most important modification was a replacement of the Bang system with a more reliable gas operated action.  The new action was inspired by the Soviet SVT-40 semi auto rifle.  Rather than using the awkward bang system, the G-43 used a simple tap through which gas from the rifle’s discharge entered a gas tube, which operated a short stroke piston.  The G-43 was accepted by the German Army in late 1943.  It was chambered in 8X57 Mauser, then the standard infantry cartridge of the German military.  While the G-43 had a ten round detachable magazine, German soldiers were not expected to reload the G-43 with fresh magazines.  Rather they were trained to load it with two five round stripper clips through the action.  The G-43 also lacked a bayonet mount.Originally it was hoped that the G-43 and later the more advance STG-44 assault rifle would replace the older K98k bolt action rifle.  However German industry was never able to produce both rifles in enough quantities to do so.  Thus the G-43 was used to supplement the K98.  When it became apparent that Germany industry could not produce enough G-43’s to arm every soldier, German logistics attempted to allocate 19 of the semi auto rifles per company.  Of the 19, 10 were issued with 4X telescopic sights, and were used as designated marksmen rifles.  Unfortunately for the German Army, not enough were produced to accomplish even this goal.  Production of the new rifles was hampered by a lack of resources, a shortage of labor, and more importantly the intense bombing campaign conducted by the Allies. At best a German company could expect 4 or 5 G-43’s or STG-44’s.  Despite Germany’s effort to adopt a new semi automatic rifle, the K98 bolt action rifle would remain as the bread and butter weapon for the German infantry throughout the war.  Between 1943 and 1945 — 402,713 G-43’s were produced, of which 53,435 were issued with scopes. -- source link

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