Axis Weaponry, Aka Guns Options

[Spartan]

Kar 98
The standard German infantry weapon was the rifle, originally designed by Mauser and dubbed the Karabiner 98k. This weapon was a 5-shot, bolt-action rifle that actually dated back to 1898 when it was first adopted by the Imperial German Army. It was standard issue for German troops in WWI and, in its modified 98k version (k for kurz, or short), in WWII as well.
Geweher 41
While the German standard rifle was a bolt action rifle, the Germans did attempt to design a successful automatic rifle as well. Two designs were submitted for trials in 1941, one by Walther (the maker of the famous PPK and the P38 pistols), and the other was submitted by Mauser. The Mauser design won out over the simpler Walther design and many thousands of the Gewehr 41(W) were made available to the troops on the Eastern Front. After initial use, results were less than satisfactory and as soon as a better design came along (the model 43), production was halted. The way in which German troops used their weapons changed and a rifle with a range of 2000 yards was no longer needed - except for specialists and snipers. Instead, ranges had shrunk down to 400 yards and a less powerful cartridges was needed.
MP40
The most common submachine gun used by the Germans during WWII was the MP40. Many times the term "Schmeisser" is used in reference to a German submachine gun. While it is true that the Schmeisser firm did create and produce its own submachine gun design, it was less than perfect and prone to trouble. The MP40 was a not manufactured by Schmeisser, and the weapon was far more simple and had a much more cleaner design, thus it became the standard issue for German troops. An earlier design called MP38 had a similar appearance and saw widespread distribution. A less known model called Erma was also produced as well as a German copy of the British STEN gun, called MP3008. The Waffen-SS used a submachine gun made by Bergman called the MP34 also.
MP44
The next submachine gun design to emerge was the MP43 or Machine Pistol 43 from a design developed in 1943. It fired a less powerful cartridge and had a lighter recoil as a result. However, Hitler, still thinking that troops needed a weapon capable of firing 2000 yards, ordered that production of the weapon not start. The German arms minister, however, knew the need of the new weapon, and changed the name to "Machine Pistol", which is what the Germans called their submachine guns like the US Thompson .45 cal. The trick worked and the weapon went into production at three factories and German troops all over the Eastern Front were clamouring for the new weapon. The whole affair was blown" when a few divisional commanders asked Hitler at a conference when they would get the new weapon. Hitler was furious and ordered an investigation. Luckily for the men that had disobeyed the Fuehrer, the results of the investigation were so encouraging about the new weapon that Hitler changed his mind and announced that henceforward the weapon would be called "Sturmgewehr" or Assault Rifle. This was the world's first ever assault rifle.

The Maschinen Pistole 43's origin was actually the Maschinen Karbiner 42 (MKb 42). It looked a lot similar, and was issued in numbers on the eastern front. Later, this weapon was refined into the Mp43. The Germans, contemplating the sniping value of the Mp43, made a variant, called the Mp43/1. It had scope mounting rails on the iron-sights. The sniper arrangement didn't really work, so, few were made. In late 1943, the MP44 (the most commonly found German assault rifle from the war) was developed, though being basically the same thing as it's predecessor. In 1945, Mauser had begun work on a new type of assault rifle (sometimes called the StG45(M), sometimes the Gerat O6), that used a roller-locking mechanism (like that of the Mp5), which slowed the ROF down to 450 RPS. However, these rifles never made it past the prototype phase.

MG42

The Germans settled on two light machine gun designs and used them throughout the war, the MG34 and MG42. The MG42 went on to become the standard design for a light machine gun for NATO and is now used in a more modern form by the US military, and the Australian Army, as the M-60! The new German Army continues to use a less modified but still modernized version of the MG42 as their standard light machine gun.

There are many more but I know i can trust u guys to research it.

[FeezyWeezy]

I know that no one reads this threat anyway...

Just want you to know about the coolest fighter of WW2 Messerschmitt ME 262

http://www.stormbirds.com/project/images/2005_00.jpg
http://www.stormbirds.com/project/images/2005_0.jpg

Being the first jet fighter to enter operational service, the design of the Messerschmitt Me 262 stemmed from a previous 1938 requirement from the German Air Ministry, for a plane to be powered by the new BMW gas turbine engines. The airframe design was produced by Dr Woldemar Voigt. The design was for a low wing monoplane with a slight sweep on the wing leading edge.

The first prototype Me 262 airframe was finished well before it's jet engines. BMW had numerous problems with this novel form of propulsion. For this reason, the prototype made it's first flight on 18 April 1941 with a conventional Junkers Jumo 210 G piston engine mounted in the nose. By November 1941, the BMW 003 engines were ready for installation into the 262 airframe. On 25 March 1942, an Me 262 prototype took off under the power of a Jumo 210 piston engine and two of the jet engines. The inclusion of the piston engine proved to be a wise decision considering that shortly after take-off, both jet engines failed one after the other due to compressor blade failures, leaving the pilot, Fritz Wendel, to land the aircraft solely under the power of the `old' propeller.

Further development was continued but with use of the new Junkers Jumo 004 Turbojet engine. This new engine was more reliable, producing 2,200 pounds of thrust. This enabled Fritz Wendel to take off for the first time solely by jet power on 18 July 1942.

The new jet aircraft proved to be much faster than conventional aeroplanes but development problems, Allied bombings, and cautious Luftwaffe leadership contributed to delays in quantity production. In late 1943, Adolf Hitler agreed to put the Me 262 into mass production, but insisted (with great reservations from Generalleutnant Adolf Galland, Göring and Messerschmitt) that the Me 262 be configured as a bomber rather than a fighter. Contrary to Hitler's orders, the Me 262 was exclusively produced as a fighter but when this was discovered by the Führer, an immediate conversion of all planes was ordered, thus ending all hopes of repelling the punishing Allied bombing raids for the sake of dropping one or two bombs. The Me 262 was argued to be an excellent opportunity to inflict serious damage to the Allied bomber formations as it had already produced superb results against Allied aircraft and it used diesel fuel which was in less demand compared with the high-octane fuel used by propeller driven aircraft.

The Allied bombing raids destroyed hundreds of Me 262s on the ground whilst they were being converted from fighters to bombers or were unable to fly due to lack of fuel, spare parts, or trained pilots. Therefore, the Me 262 did not get to reach it's full potential. More than 1,400 Me 262s were produced but fewer than 300 ever saw combat.


When it did fly to air combat, the Me-262 was unstoppable at high speed, but it was vulnerable at low speed, after takeoff and before landing, because of its very sensitive and immature jet engines, and that's where allied fighters ambushed it, in addition to attacking it on the ground.



It was not a classic agile fighter aircraft. A fast twin-jet aircraft, it was designed to be a powerful bomber interceptor, what the Germans called Zerstorer (destroyer). It had a speed of 870kmh (540mph) decisively faster than the 700kmh (437mph) of the allied P-51 Mustangs which escorted the allied bombers.

The fighter version, named Schwalbe (swallow), was armed with four 30mm guns in the nose, giving it an enormous punch which easily destroyed a heavy bomber, and also a stand-off firing range advantage against the bombers' defensive weapons. Before the end of the war it was also armed with R4M unguided 50mm air-to-air rockets, which also proved very lethal against bomber formations, also from stand-off range.

The two-seater night fighter version was also equipped with an air intercept RADAR and a passive homing device that homed on the transmissions from allied aircraft. Its speed advantage over the slow heavy bombers was so great that it became a difficulty in the conditions of a RADAR-based night intercept, so its pilots specialized in intercepting the much faster Mosquito bombers, easily intercepting many of the previously almost invincible Mosquitoes.

The bomber version, that was produced only because of Hitler's command, was named Sturmvogel (Storm bird). In addition to the 30mm guns it also carried two 500lb bombs, and was generally inefficient as a bomber, due to its low precision (it was limited to high altitude level bombing), low bomb load, and low range. Without bombs, the bomber version was still efficient as a bomber interceptor, but initially they were simply not used as interceptors. Later they were, but since Hitler demanded that it will be flown by bomber pilots even in interception missions, this proved a total failure, since the bomber pilots simply lacked the necessary fighter pilot training to perform and survive this type of mission. There was also a photo reconnaissance version, and several other versions which never passed the prototype stage.



http://www.warbirdpictures.com/LCBW4/Me-262-57.jpg
http://www.rb-29.net/HTML/04.PAAvtnArt/PAS...Air/Me262sA.jpg (I Like this picture)

This is REALLY coool, a group of people re-creating ME 262's that are flyable, and not sitting in museums.
http://www.stormbirds.com/project/index.html