Fisplen wrote:
What did the Russians use then?
Mosin Nagant rifles, a variety of experimental semi automatic rifles, Tokarev pistols, submachineguns, notably the PPsH, licensed Maxim machine guns left over from WWI, etc. You have to remember that the assault rifle in it's modern configuration had only just appeared in the form of the German StG44 or
SturmGewehr, as Hitler named it, and it was supposedly contact with this weapon that inspired Kalashnikov's design. The AK is mechanically quite different than the German StG, but the external layout is similar, and the most important element of the design, the intermediate cartridge, was carried into the AK pattern rifles. Prior to WWII, generals were obsessed with long range marksmanship and demanded rifles that could shoot to 1000m, but casualty studies determined that combat typically took place at much closer range, where a shorter weapon firing a more controllable round at a higher rate was advantageous. The Russians got the concept immediately, but they'd also taken to the SMG for similar reasons (you could cheaply arm conscript troops with them), while the US and thus the rest of the West would take until the 1960s to absorb the lesson.
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“The totally convinced and the totally stupid have too much in common for the resemblance to be accidental.”
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