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Author Topic: German WW2 infantry weapons - quantities produced & first use dates?  (Read 671 times)

Offline Mick_in_Switzerland

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I have been researching quantities of German weapons produced in WW2 to try to gauge what weapons were common.
I am trying to find details of how many were made, when they were issued etc.

This the information that I have found so far - does it appear plausible?

Pistols
Luger P1908 – left over from WW1 – quantity unknown
Wather P38 450,000 produced

Rifles
Karabiner 98 kurz started in 1936, with the adoption of the 7.92×57mm Mauser. About 14,000,000 produced
Fallschirmjägergewehr 42 First issued in 1942 but only about 10,000 produced.
Gewehr 43 G43 started in 1944, about 400,000 produced
StG 44 started in 1944, about 450,000 produced

SMG
MP 38 and MP40 Maschinenpistole 40 – MP38 was built in small quantities and replaced by the MP40 of which about 1,100,000 MP40 built

LMG
MG32 Maschinengewehr 34 started in 1935, about 575,000 produced
ZB-26 Czech Light Machine Gun (like Bren gun) – captured weapons used by Germans
MG42 Maschinengewehr 42 started in 1942, about 425,000 produced

Anti-Tank Weapons
Panzerfaust about 6,000,000 produced.  Start 1943 mostly Panzerfaust 30 until mid-1944 then Pazerfaust 60. Panzerfaust 100 produced from late 1944
Panzershreck = 289,151 produced from about 1943

Thanks

Mick
« Last Edit: July 15, 2017, 04:34:54 PM by Mick_in_Switzerland »

Offline FramFramson

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Re: German WW2 infantry weapons - quantities produced & first use dates?
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2017, 05:49:12 PM »
There's an earlier SMG in the MP 34 (also known as the MP 30), a very high-quality weapon produced from 1929–1940, which was the German's main SMG early in the war. It was replaced by the MP40, which was significantly less complex and far cheaper to manufacture, but the MP 34 was prized by those who had them and continued to be used throughout the war. I am unable to find production numbers for it.

Also, on the eastern front, there were never enough SMGs to meet demand, which led to very wide use of captured Russian PPSh-41 guns. I'm not sure how you'd estimate capture numbers, but accounts of their use by German forces is very common.


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Offline Arlequín

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Re: German WW2 infantry weapons - quantities produced & first use dates?
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2017, 06:33:49 PM »
There is a vast array of firearms obtained from Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland, that were used by Germany, not to mention Spanish items sold to Germany during the war.

This list seems pretty comprehensive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_firearms_of_Germany

Although it does miss the MG13, which was the Wehrmacht's LMG before the MG34 appeared and was used in the Panzer I and re-issued to second-line units during WWII.

 

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