Germany's M1 semi-auto rifle

[lcm1947]

I see here that Germany did have a semi-auto shoulder weapon being the 7.92 mm Gewehr 41. I wonder why it wasn't used more instead of the bolt action that was the predominantly used rifle in WWII? This book I'm looking at is very good but very little comments of useage and dates. Mostly just specs. Anybody ever hear or know any details about this rifle?

[MikeT]

According to one book the G41(W) had some problems. It wasn't popular due to fouling problems, constant maintenance problems, poorly balanced, and was heavy.

The G43 was better and fixed many of the 41's problems. However, it wasn't introduced until 43 and by that time the Germans had overal manufacturing difficulties due to the war and strategic bombing.

MikeT

[M Hofbauer]

Forget the G 41. What you want is the G 43. The G 41 was a piece of crap as a direct result of the OKW's mandatory request that the to-be-developed new semi-auto rifle have *no* holes drilled into the rifled barrel itself, so the G 41 was constrcuted with the nozzle at the muzzle. Needless to say that was just an invitation to malfaunction.

The G43 was a sound design and according to plans would have replaced the 98k as the standard infantry rifle. However, by the time it came into service there was a better thing in the form of the StG 44 as the ultimate battlefield weapon for the common infantry soldier (even if CM doesn't model the advantages of the StG 44 to any valid degree IMHO).