Ts4EVER

Yes, generally speaking the Germans issued weapons according to TOE, not any notions of "elite". The vast majority of StG44s were used by Infantry divisions. the only Armored units with them were the Panzer Brigades raised in late summer 1944 (and then destroyed by Patton in Lorraine). Not SS though.

You sure a Jumbo with flamethrower ever existed? Never heard about that one.

Don't remember, 9 or 8.

Not a beta tester or dev, and I have no access to the game in any way. But historically: The 1943 grenadier squad (still in use in 1944 and 1945) had 9 people, 1 machine gunner, 1 squad leader and his assistant with MPs or automatic rifles and the rest of the squad were armed with rifles. A Volksgrenadier Company was supposed to have 1 rifle platoon (whose squads were organized as above) and two "Sturm" Platoons. In these Sturm Platoons, two squads were entirely equipped with StG44 assault rifles, while 1 support squad had 2 MGs and several grenade dischargers for their rifles.

Wrong. Common misconception, but simply wrong. The grand majority were used by the newly created Volksgrenadier Divisions that replaced the catastrophic losses of the 1944 summer. This is why you don't see them in CM so far. They will probably show up in the Ardennes game. About the G43s: The StG44 was not even in the official toe for Panzergrenadiers until 1945, whereas they were supposed to have 1 - 2 G41 or G43 rifles per squad.

Well the K98k was also based on the Gewehr 1898.

It's probably a dedicated anti tank unit.

By the end of the war the Germans started massively using the Beretta smg. Also, this was taken in 1945, Pomerania. As you can see, this whole unit is equipped with the EMP35.

The SS used them, but not in Combat units. The only picture of one in German use that I know of is from the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943.

One thing to consider is that "hardcore" wargaming is a niche to begin with, even among gamers. I'm a dev over at Forgotten Hope 2 and I know of two women who played it, one of which is a beta tester. That being said, this stuff is hard to quantify since women are not easily identified on the internet, especially without voice communication.

I wonder how they arrived at these numbers. If they count subscribers, I would argue that the readership of this magazine is mostly adults, people who tend to be in stable relationships. So it is possible that a man orders the magazine in his name for the household, but the woman still reads it as well.

Begleitgrenadiers were basically tankriders. They were first used as escorts for StuGs in 1944, by 1945 these units were also added to normal Panzers. One of the more spectacular instances of this was in the Panzer Division Müncheberg, which had some of its Begleitgrenadiers equipped with nightvision scopes for their StG44s to accompany the Uhu Panthers. In general StG44s feel a bit overrepresented in Normandy in this game. There is sparse evidence for their use in France before Autumn and Winter 1944. The Panzer Brigades that counter attacked Patton in September 1944 had a lot of them. Especially the Ardennes offensive saw mass use of the weapon as part of Volksgrenadier Divisions, who had two squads per platoon equipped entirely with them. Interestingly, the use of the MP40 declined towards the end of the war, as it was shifted out of production. Instead, oral history as well as archaelogy shows an increase in Beretta smgs in German use, produced in occupied Italy. For instance, the museum in Malmedy has two of those on display, including a mud find. The SS Kampfgruppe Westfalen that famously fought near Paderborn, the battle where General Rose was killed, was equipped with a large number of those.

21st Panzerdivision French Vehicles, "Funnies" for the Allies More handweapon options, even if the gameplay effect would be none existant. Things like: G41(w), MG26(t), Sten MKIII, Vickers K lmg More scenarios and campaigns

This is probably advertisement for a let's play channel. Maybe Pewpewchewchew?

On a related note, I assume the same is the case for the modernized version of the DP that is present in the handbook?

Ah I see. Well if it wasn't used, it wasn't used. That being said, I think it would be nice to see some more rare weapons that were not generally issued, but still around. I'm thinking stuff like the G41(W) semi automatic rifle (which was used in Sicily and Italy and actually still more common than the G43 in Normandy) or captured weapons like the MG26(t) etc, especially for Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine or Straggler troops. Considering the level of detail CM2 goes into for vehicles, this would be very nice for some infantry "granularity".

According to the manual, this gun is ingame, but where? I don't think I ever saw it. Also, is there any difference between this and the PPS43 except the name?

These were used in ground combat in desperate situations during the Ardennes battles.

Those look all pretty "Ostfront" though, not like Normandy.

Are these pictures on the internet somewhere? Sounds interesting.

It is an often repeated myth that the German equipped "elite" units with the StG44. What you need to see is that the Germans did not only introduce a new weapon with the StG, but also a new tactical concept, the so called Sturmzug. The idea was that one platoon in each company (later 2 in the Volksgrenadier units) was to be equipped entirely with StG44s. In June 1944 this reorganisation process had just started. On top of that, the first units to be reorganised were Infanterie divisions (the 1. Infanterie-Division for instance was the first one to be completely reequipped). Panzergrenadiers had no StG44s in their TOEs until the 1945 version, which was never implemented. What they did have in their TOEs however were G41 or G43 semi auto rifles, usually 2 per squad.

Thing is that the SVT40 production was beginning to be scaled back in 1942. The peak number of SVT40s in frontline use seems to ahve been 1941, since back then they still wanted to replace all mosins with semi automatic rifles. Most of these were of course lost during the disasters of Barbarossa. All in all the SVT40 was an early war weapon, becoming more rare as the war progressed.

Still doesn't explain why there are so many SVT40s ingame.

The Germans actually developed nerve agents and manufactured them in large amounts, but thank god even when all was lost they didn't use them.

Probably. That being set, production of the SVT40 was slowly scaled back, starting in 1942, so it probably wasn't the most common sight on the battlefield by 1944, with scope or without.