Semi Automatic & Assault Rifles

The Second World War saw an unparalleled increase in the firepower at the disposal of the individual soldier.  At the bottom end of the scale this was provided by the appearance of first the semi automatic, and latterly the fully automatic rifle.

The idea of a self loading rifle was nothing new, the principle was already used in light machine guns.  The trick was to successfully transfer the gas operated mechanism to a much lighter rifle design.  The theory was simple enough, tapping off a portion of the gases produced by the ignition of the propellant in the cartridge.  These were then used to operate a piston which ran above the barrel.  The piston then undertook the manual work carried out in the normal bolt action rifle.  Upon firing, the bolt group was forced back against the return spring, the spent case being extracted and ejected.  A new round came into line as the bolt moved back, and when the return spring took effect this was stripped and chambered as the bolt moved forward again.  This operation required only minor amendment to enable fully automatic fire to be produced.

The problem was not in making semi and fully automatic rifles; the problem was in making them reliable.  The US Army had settled on its semi automatic M1 back in the early 1930s.  That allowed a lot of time for the weapon to be developed and refined before it saw action, practically a decade in fact.  Both the Germans and the Russians fielded examples in the first half of the war on the Eastern Front, but neither was a success.  The Red Army remained heavily reliant on bolt action rifles, but the Germans continued their research and developed several notable weapons.  The British meanwhile, never produced a self loading rifle for the duration of the war, waiting until the end of hostilities before commencing work on the politically doomed EM2.

Another major factor was ammunition.  No army was enthusiastic about introducing a new calibre into its ranks.  All the existing bolt action rifles and their accompanying light and heavy machine guns used the same round.  As a result, all semi automatic weapons were expected to do so as well.  This severely limited what could be achieved, and added to the mechanical reliability problems of many designs.  Two new rounds were eventually introduced, one of which was to have a profound impact on firearms evolution.  Most though retained the same high power, heavy recoil ammunition used in bolt action weapons.  Several designs became popular sniper rifles, where the ability to get off a second round quickly with minimal re-aiming proved particularly lethal. 

Listed below are some of the more important designs which saw service during the Second World War.

The United States Army

The M1 Rifle (Garand)

The M1 rifle, the most reliable self loader of the era

With the adoption of the M1 back in 1932, the US Army became the first in the world to deploy a self loading rifle.  They were perfectly placed to manufacture millions of the type by the time war came, giving their soldiers and later Marines a terrific advantage in the field.

The M1 had several curious, and not all entirely welcome features.  To load, the bolt was drawn back and locked.  The weapon was fed by an 8 round clip which was pushed whole into the rifle.  The bolt was then released to chamber the first round.  When the first round was fired, the gas operated piston cleared and reloaded the chamber as described above.  When the last round was fired, the bolt locked open to the rear and the redundant clip was ejected.  A new clip was inserted, the bolt released, and the weapon was ready again.  What caused some concern was that there was no way to recharge the clip if there were just a few rounds left in; the weapon had to be emptied before it could be reloaded.  The eye-catching ejection of the spent clip could also compromise attempts at firing from concealment, though surely loosing off eight rounds may also have hindered matters.

But these were minor flaws in most circumstances.  The volume of fire produced by the average soldier was staggering.  And ironically, that was perhaps the greatest failing of the Garand.  While Britain and Germany sought out new machine guns for their rifle squads, America looked at the Garand and thought they did not need such things.  Yet as impressive as the M1 was, it took a great many to match the fire of a single German MG34/42, as the GIs found to their cost as they slogged across Western Europe to Berlin.  In the Marine Corps, the M1 was used in a far more effective fire system, as discussed on  The United States Marines page.

As a basic load, each soldier was issued ten clips, one carried in each of the pouches of the standard rifle belt.  Latterly, bandoliers containing six clips were issued, allowing for anywhere between 80 and 128 rounds to be carried by the average soldier.

The M1941 (Johnson Rifle)

The Johnson M1941, seriously considered by the US Marines as a solution to the early shortages of the M1

A US Marine Corps officer, Captain M M Johnson, had an idea for a different kind of rifle.  Like the M1, it was self loading and fired the standard .30 cal round, but unlike the Garand it used a short-recoil operation.  Roughly speaking, this used the recoil of firing to move the barrel back a fraction to rotate and unlock the bolt.  A return spring undertook the normal action of reloading the chamber one the spent casing had been ejected.  It was a novel idea; it was also very complex, never a good sales pitch for a service rifle.

When the US rejected his design, Johnson sold it to Holland, who were promptly invaded by the Nazis, thus curtailing the market somewhat.  Meanwhile, his Marine Corps was expanding and found itself seemingly behind the National Guard in the queue for new M1s.  They bought the few thousand Johnson M1941s already produced and issued them for testing, seemingly restricted to their Raider and Parachute elements.  It was neither an outstanding success, nor a total failure.  The Johnson held two more rounds than the Garand and thanks to its unusual magazine could be 'topped up' with single bullets or a five round clip.  But once American industry kicked in there were M1s to spare and the few Johnson rifles were withdrawn.  A Johnson light machine gun also existed, with a 20 round side loading box.  The Marines tried this weapon too and it also saw use with the Special Service Force in Italy.    

The M1 Carbine

The M1 Carbine managed to achieve a popularity unsurpassed in American use, despite its dubious ballistic performance 

The M1 Carbine is one of those peculiar weapons which does not quite fit into any existing category.  The US Army quickly recognised that it would not be possible to arm all its men with the Garand for sometime as production geared up.  Men in rear echelon roles were not first in line for the new rifle, but still needed something to defend themselves with.  The original M1903 bolt action rifle and Thompson sub machine gun were both too heavy to haul around along with mortar ammunition or the like, so a new weapon was sought.  The result was the M1 Carbine.

The carbine fired a much smaller and lighter round than the Garand, though of the same 0.30 in calibre.  The smaller round allowed a much lighter weapon which was fed from a detachable box magazine which held 15 rounds.  A larger 30 round box was introduced towards the end of the war.  The carbine replaced the pistol as the official armament of many ranks of officers and became almost standard among men serving heavy weapons such as mortars or artillery pieces.  

Several modifications appeared; the M1A1 with a folding stock for Airborne troops and the M2 which introduced fully automatic fire and the larger capacity magazine.  This latter item only arrived towards the end of 1944 and had a rate of fire of 750 rounds per minute.  The M1A1 folded down to 65 cm, but was slightly heavier at 2.8 kg.

The main criticism of the M1 concerned its ammunition, which was often found wanting to stop a determined man in battle.  It was neither a close range saturation weapon, like the sub machine gun, and was too underpowered to equal a rifle.  It was highly popular, but was not further developed after the war.

Ammunition was carried in pouches containing two magazines.  The number of pouches worn seems to have varied with unit, most Army men displaying one, while the Marines authorised two.  A total of between 45 and 75 rounds seems likely with one magazine carried in the weapon.  

The Red Army

The SVT 40 (Samozariadnyia Vintovka Tokareva)

The SVT 40, which should have been a far more important weapon in the Red Army arsenal than it actually became

The Red Army introduced several types of semi automatic rifle in the years prior to the Nazi invasion.  Both the AVS and the SVT 38 served in small numbers before their mechanical failings consigned them to the scrap pile.  The basic design of the SVT 38 was improved upon though, and emerged as the SVT 40 detailed above.

Like so many other such weapons, the SVT 40 suffered from the use of the high power rifle round used in its companion bolt action rifles and machine guns.  In the Red Army, there was also the added problem that men were often thrust into combat with little training, especially in the niceties of weapon maintenance.  The SVT was a complicated machine, ill-suited to be used by conscript recruits.  Ambitious plans for the weapon to replace the old Mosin-Nagant came to nought.  Instead, it became a support item, used to bolster the fire of a rifle squad in the hands of an experienced soldier or NCO.

Several variants appeared, most notably a sniper version, whose users would lavish more care and attention on the tricky mechanism.  A few fully automatic weapons were produced, but proved too troublesome for further development.  The weapon was simply too complicated for the needs of the Red Army which was paring itself to the bone to survive.

The German Army

The Gewehr 43 

The Gewehr 43; not quite the German Garand, but a particularly lethal sniper rifle

The German Army were desperate to get a reliable semi automatic weapon into the hands of their troops on the Eastern Front.  Their first attempt, the Gewehr 41, was less than successful, and was issued only in limited numbers.  It proved difficult to maintain and produce, and at 5 kg was quite heavy.

When the Germans captured numbers of the Russian SVT 40, they found the mechanism it employed far simpler than the version used in the Gewehr 41, and copied it for their own use.  It was an irony that the Red Army gave the German Army some of their best weapons of the war.

The Gewehr 43 proved a far superior design to the Tokarev.  Telescopic sights were, it seems, fitted as standard, making the rifle a dreadfully efficient sniper's tool.  It could never come close to replacing the bolt action Mauser, but it provided a lethal companion.  Ammunition was carried in the standard rifleman's belt as described on the Bolt Action Rifles page.

The Mashinenpistole MP43 (Sturmgewehr 44) 

The revolutionary MP43/Stg 44, which influenced post-war design far more than it did World War Two

Much has been written about this weapon by people far more qualified than me.  Its effect on the war was limited by the comparatively few numbers produced, perhaps less than 120,000 for the entire German Army.  Its lasting impression however is plain to see wherever the Soviet era Kalashnikov is displayed.

The MP43 was an attempt to break the mould of previous designs by using an entirely different cartridge.  The same 7.92 mm calibre common to other German weapons was retained; but the round itself was shorter than its predecessor with a much reduced propellant charge.  This in turn meant a reduced lethal range of around 500 m.  It also generated a lighter recoil effect, which allowed the inclusion of fully automatic fire as well as single shots.  This gave the user an advantage over every other rifleman he may encounter in a typical gun battle.

Because of its automatic capability, and the kind of political insanity endemic to Nazi Germany, the weapon was described as a sub machine gun initially.  No one wanted to have to retool the war machine to produce the new ammunition.  By 1944 it had been accepted as an 'assault rifle' - a term which persists to this day.  Grand plans were laid to rearm the Wehrmacht with the new design, but as mentioned numbers were never equal to the task.  Following the war, the weapon was heavily studied to provide the basis of the Soviet AK47 and its derivatives.

Ammunition was carried in the same manner as for the MP40.  Two pouches, each containing three magazines, with perhaps a further one loaded in the rifle for a total of 210 rounds. 

The Fallschirmjagergewehr 42 (FG42)

The unique FG42, another potentially influential weapon produced in minute numbers by the Germans

The FG42 had only minimal impact on German operations, yet it remains a fascinating design.  It was intended as a means of increasing the firepower of the German Parachute arm, and attempted to be all things to all men.

The weapon fired the standard 7.92 mm round used in the Kar98, but fed from a 20 round side mounted box.  In single fire it used the same basic gas operation described above.  However, in automatic fire it used an open bolt action the same as a sub machine gun (see Sub Machine Guns).  The weapon also fitted a bipod which gave it the appearance of a light machine gun.

While not perfect, the FG42 was remarkably reliable for its complexity.  What could not be addressed though was the trouble it took to actually make.  Not many more than 7000 reached the Paratroops for whom it was intended.  It became another weapon which was to inspire post-war designs for many years to come.

Ammunition was carried by means of an odd looking bandolier arrangement, hung around the neck.  It held eight magazines in individual pockets for a total of perhaps 180 rounds with a box loaded.

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