Guns Used by Nazi Germany During WWII

Jack -- 8th grade

The Gewehr-43 was a semi-automatic rifle designed by Carl Walther Sportwaffen used by Nazy Germany. He designed it in 1943. It was used from 1943 to 1945. It weighed 9.7 pounds. It's length was 3.7'; the barrel's length was 1.8'. It used a 7.92x57mm Mauser bullet. It was gas-operated, where a portion of the gas generated by the burning gun powder is used to operate the action. The muzzle velocity, the speed the bullet comes out of the barrel, is 2,328' per second. The effective range without a scope is 500m, but with one, it's 800m. It carries a 10 round detatchable box magazine. The sights were iron sights or Zf42 optical crosshair scope. From 1943 to 1945, 402,713 Gewehr-43 semi-automatic rifles were built.

The Lugar P08 was a semi-automatic pistol designed by George J. Lugar; used by various countries, Nazy Germany most commonly. It's service time was from 1904 to 1945. It weighed nearly 2 pounds. It's length was 9" long; the barrel alone was 4" long. It carried a 7.65x21mm Parabellum bullet. It's action is short recoil; where the force of the recoil is used to provide energy to cycle the action. The muzzle velocity is 1,148' per second. It's effective range is 50 meters. It could hold either an 8 round box magazine or a 32 round drum magazine. The sights were iron sights, no scope. The Lugar P08's production time was from 1900 to 1945.

The Nazi German MG-42 was a gun they called "General purpose machine gun." It was a fully-automatic gun, shooting a 7.92x57 Mauser cartridge at speeds up to over 1,200 rounds per minute. The gun's muzzle velocity was 2,447' per second. It was designed in 1942 and served in the German military from then to 1968; while it was produced from 1942 to 1945 in Germany. It weighed about 25.5 pounds. It was 44" long while the barrel alone was 21" long. It's effective range was 1000 meters with iron sights. It carried a string of bullets called a bullet belt, holding either 50 or 250 bullets. It was recoil-operated, similar to the short-recoil action, but for bigger guns. There were over 400,000 MG-42's produced.

The Karabiner 98k, a.k.a. Kar 98k, was a Nazi German bolt action rifle that carried a 7.92x57mm Mauser cartridge designed in 1935. It was produced from then to 1945. It was in service from 1935 to even today. It was about 43.7" long, while the barrel was 23.6" long. It weighed about 9 pounds. It had iron sights, but sometimes it had a scope for better range. It carried a 5 round magazine. It's muzzle velocity was 2,493' per second, and it's effective range was 500 meters. There were over 14,000,000 "Kar 98k's" built.

The Nazi German MP-40 was an SMG, or sub-machine-gun. It shot a 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge at speeds up to 500 rounds per minute; while the bullet exited the barrel at 1,247' per second. It's effective range was 100 meters. It used a 32 round detatchable box or two 64 round dual magazines. It maily used iron sights. It was 32.8" long with the stock unfolded; but with it folded, it was only 24.8" long. The barrel was 9.9" long, and the whole gun itself was 8.8 pounds heavy. It was designed in 1938 by Heinrich Vollmer and produced from 1940 to 1945. It started it's time inservice in 1939 and is still used today. From 1940 to 1945, there were around 1,000,000 MP-40's produced.