Walther Gewehr 41 (G41 / Gew 41)

History

Rifle 41 (or "Gew 41" or "G41") series of semi-automatic rifles appeared in relatively small numbers for the German army during World War II (1939-1945). Up until this point in the war, the Wehrmacht relied primarily on infantry, armed with standard Mauser-style bolt-action rifles from decades ago. These weapons are rock solid and well proven in combat, but have a slower rate of fire and smaller magazines compared to autoloaders.

The German Empire attempted to introduce automatic weapons into its armies during World War I, but these projects were usually limited and saw little major action. With the new world war in Europe, a new weapons program was adopted to provide German infantry units with powerful self-loading semi-automatic service rifles.

The "Gewehr 41" finally emerged from work in 1941, with two prototypes supplied by traditional arms companies Mauser and Walther. Therefore, each shape is assigned a slightly different name - Mauser products are called "Gew 41 (M)" and Walther products are called "Gew 41 (W)". An interesting request from the company was to include a bolt action mechanism as a failsafe in case the auto-loading feature fails in service. Other requirements stipulate that no moving parts should be installed along the surface of the weapon, and no holes should be drilled in the barrel to "absorb" the gases needed for the loading process. As a result, an entirely new operating system was developed, dubbed the "Bang" mechanism - rather interesting - although the name comes from the operation's Danish designer Soren H. Bang.

After some evaluation, Mauser's design dropped out of the competition, and the more stable Walther riflewhose designers actually ignored the "moving parts" and "bolt action" requirementswas accepted for service with the German Army. Production of the rifle comes from Berlin-Lubecker Maschinenfabrik in Lubeck, Germany and Carl Walther Waffenfabrik AG in Zella-Mehlis, Germany.

The Gew 41(W) looked no different from the bolt-action rifles of the day, with the stock, receiver and front end all represented by a wooden body. The barrel is embedded in a wooden frame, and all critical internal components are placed in the rear of the receiver. The stock is finely contoured, with an ergonomic integrated pistol grip, and the curved trigger is set in an elongated ring. An internal (non-removable) 10-round magazine is placed in front of the trigger group and fed from the top of the receiver via an ammunition "clip".

A flip-up mirror in the center of the receiver allows for a degree of precision shooting, complemented by a front sight above the muzzle. The inside of the gun is gas-operated - gas is trapped around the muzzle to power the piston - and its unique locking bolt system is required to complete the semi-automatic action.

It weighs 10.87 lbs (4.9 kg), has an overall length of 44.8 in (1,140 mm) and a 21.5 in (546 mm) barrel.

As the weapon has a non-detachable one-piece 10-round loading magazine that relies on a 5-round "clip" for two 7.92x57mm Mauser cartridges - the same as the Bundeswehr Mauser Carbines The ammo and clips in the 98K bolt-action rifle are the same. While the autoreload angle of the rifle is the key to its ultimate success or failure, the actual reloading of two separate stripping pins leaves a lot to be desired in the heat of battle.

Well-trained soldiers can fire 20 to 30 rounds per minute. At an effective range of about 400 yards, the muzzle velocity is rated at 2,328 feet per second.

In practice, however, Gew 41 proved to be limited in several important ways. Most notably, the Gew 41(W) proved costly to mass produce, a common failure of many early warfare weapons. The gas system is overly complex and prone to fouling, and the gun's design has an inherent imbalance that makes it noticeably heavy on the muzzle.

As with complex weapons, the internal components of the battlefield require great attention in general maintenance to combat the effects of dust, dirt and debris on the battlefield, as well as general wear and tear. Reloading is tedious and can endanger the operator's life.

Given these shortcomings, only 6,600 to 8,000 Gew 41 rifles were eventually delivered. Still, the Gew 41 series was for a while the only automatic rifle available to the German Army.

The line was eventually replaced by a similar - albeit greatly improved - Rifle 43 (Gew 43), which succeeded the Gew 41 and entered service in 1943. The Gew 43 became a more "production friendly" model, with a detachable box magazine and the possibility to mount a telescopic sight for a lethal sniper system. However, the Gew 43 only became possible after the Germans encountered the captured Soviet Tokarev automatic rifles and their gas operating systems that extracted gas from the barrel.

The Tokarev gas system was more or less directly copied to the German Gew 43.

In any case, the Gew 41 made it to the Eastern Front at least after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, although these weapons were often found in the hands of "special forces" members of the Wehrmacht and were not standard in the German army. General and infantry.

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