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Myths about the Great Patriotic War: one rifle for three

Myths about the Great Patriotic War: one rifle for three

Did the outdated three-rulers have any chances against the MP-40s ahead of their time?

Consciously or not, but psychological techniques in war have been used by commanders of different times and peoples for a very long time. And one of these tricks is the appearance of a soldier. obviously, that for effective propaganda a fighter in a beautiful, brutal form and with the most modern weapons, but practicality in this situation is not remembered.

In Nazi Germany, the image of the good soldier of the Wehrmacht "untwisted" so well, that even now many people imagine German soldiers tall, smiling blondes with blue eyes. Officers in black by Hugo Boss, soldiers - in gray with rolled up sleeves, with the indispensable "Schmeiser" MP-40 on the side. And few people care, that only the SS had a black uniform, and Schmeiser had a very mediocre relationship with the MP-40.

Myths about the Great Patriotic War: one rifle for three

Source photo: wikipedia.org

The Soviet soldier was portrayed as a harsh barbarian in a heavy overcoat, yes with a rifle over his shoulder. Notably, that in the USSR they did not particularly try to dispel a similar image. But through these images, the layman was presented with a completely obvious message - German progress against Russian denseness.

But if you think about it, it becomes clear, that a heavy overcoat would be much more practical than a dandy uniform in bad weather, that no cap can be compared with earflaps in winter, and that the MP-40 in an open field will not save you from such a primitive "mosquito".

They understood this in the German army, in connection with which the widely steamed German machine gunner was in fact a real rarity and remained so almost until the end of the war. So, at the beginning of the war in the Wehrmacht, only 16 PP on the company. On 10 million rifles Mauser 98k accounted for only 1 a million Schmeisers.

In the Red Army at that time there were already full-fledged units of submachine gunners. Furthermore, during the war years, Germany released only 1 million MP-38/40, in the USSR during this time stamped 6 million PCA and 2 million PPP. During the encirclement of German troops near Stalingrad, Soviet soldiers captured more than 150 thousand rifles, and machine guns and submachine guns - no more 10 thousand.

On both sides of the front, the German miracle weapon was treated equally and called submachine guns the weapons of gangsters. Soviet saboteurs loved "Schmeisers" for their compactness, but that was where its advantages ended. It was possible to effectively take advantage of all the advantages of PP only at short distances, while rifles made it possible to start firing already at a distance 400 meters and more, the enemy would be visible. It was the rifles that were the very weapon of victory, and for both sides.

German divisions went into battle not at all with the MP-40, and with the most common rifles of the Mauser system of the sample 1898 of the year. In this way, the armament of the German soldier was not ultra-modern and was at the same level, which was attributed to the Red Army.

At the same time, by the beginning of the war, Soviet soldiers were no longer bast shoes with one "mosinka" for three, but they held in their hands self-loading and automatic rifles of the Simonov and Tokarev systems, which, by the beginning of the war, more than 1 million. Only in 1940 year was issued over 1,3 million upgraded Mosin rifles. Considering stocks and rifles produced in other pre-war years, it becomes clear, that popular in certain circles stories about a rifle for three are nothing more than an absurd myth.

The presence of self-loading rifles among the soldiers of the Red Army for the Wehrmacht was not a surprise, since the German designers themselves were actively developing similar systems. But besides, that half of the enemy army will be armed with them, German generals were not ready. In the German units, automatic rifles appeared closer to the middle of the war.

Myths about the Great Patriotic War: one rifle for three

Myths about the Great Patriotic War: one rifle for three

The Defense Ministry reported on those killed in the hard landing of Tu-22M3

Source photo: wikipedia.org

Despite the time and resources spent, German soldiers were in no hurry to adopt new weapons.. The high unreliability of new rifles affected - with 40 shots happened before 7 delays. The reason for this fragility of the mechanism was an overly powerful German cartridge, which in just a few shots could render the rifle inoperable.

This could be dealt with by creating a new cartridge, designed for automatic weapons. And it will be created, however, the Wehrmacht will not dare to start rearming the army, especially since it will already be in the yard 1944 a year and the German command will have a lot of other problems. In the absence of reliable German analogues, Wehrmacht soldiers will begin to use Soviet captured SVT-40 rifles everywhere., so active, that in some front-line units there will be one Soviet rifle for three German soldiers.

In fairness it should be noted, that Soviet self-loading and automatic rifles also suffered from similar "childhood" diseases, although to a much lesser extent. In this regard, both sides will continue to actively use conventional rifles., created at the end of the 19th century.

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