Walther Gewehr 43 (G43 / Gew 43)

History

The Rifle 43 (Gew 43) became the next evolution of the 1941 Walther Gew 41(W) - a self-loading semi-automatic rifle that did not see production numbers in order to leave a proper battle necessary for the impression. In 1940, the Germans developed a program to provide their infantry with standard semi-automatic rifles to upgrade their outdated bolt-action rifle mechanisms. Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union were already issuing such weapons to their armies, leaving the Germans with no choice.

However, the Gew 41(W) proved too expensive for wartime mass production, relied on a complex gas system prone to fouling, and due to its fixed magazine lugs (fed by a pair of clips) And difficult to reload.

Eventually, they found themselves facing the Soviet Army and their Tokarev automatic rifles, evaluating and dissecting the gas operating system (the extraction of gas from the barrel) to provide automatic action. Instead, the Gew 41(W) was designed with a complex muzzle-based pneumatic operating system, which made the weapon "muzzle-heavy" and unnecessarily dynamic. Armed with foreign technology, Walther set about working on an improved version of the Gew 41(W), eventually delivering the Gew 43 in 1943.

The 43 was largely intact.

While similar in appearance to the Gew 41, the Gew 43 has many improvements over its predecessor. The bolt locking system of the former is retained, but the aforementioned gas system itself is a completely new design.

Additionally, the 10-round magazine is now produced as a detachable box, although it still uses the 7.92x57mm Mauser cartridge - the same used in the German Army's standard Mauser Karabiner Kar 98 service rifle. The sight mount has been milled directly into the receiver to attach the optional Zf42 series optical reticle for precise long-range shooting.

After increasing production, the Gew 43 was delivered to German soldiers at the end of 1943 and was immediately used against the enemies of the Red Army. From there, the front would operate at other points of the war, although due to limited availability it was mostly found in German special forces. The appearance of the Gew 43 caused all production of the previous Gew 41 series to cease, but the Gew 41 remained operational after 1943 - the worst state of the German army at the end of the war was that all automatic weapons were better than none.

The German Army had the privilege of piloting the newer Gew 43, which ultimately respected its inherent strength and rugged, man-stop and self-loading properties, but the range was often underwhelming compared to its contemporaries at the time.

The powerful Mauser rifle cartridge of 7.92 x 57 mm caliber is an effective sniper weapon system used in conjunction with the Gew 43 with telescopic sight. The weapon's auto-reload function works well because the operator doesn't have to operate the manual bolt mechanism to prepare for the next round - he can simply scan the battlefield for available targets and fire repeatedly until he runs out of ammo supply from the magazine.

The optical sight is mounted on two mounting points above the rear of the receiver end, and all Gew 43 sniper rifles of the German Army (if possible) are issued with this simple modification.

The Gew 43 surpassed the original Gew 41 in every way. Constant attempts to simplify the production process required the use of plastic and even laminated wood in furniture to replace valuable materials found elsewhere in the German war. In the final months of the war, the Gew 43 left the factory in a rush to get some rather rough finishes.

In 1944, the "Karabiner 43" even came online as a simpler form of the basic Gew 43 design. Although the Karabiner 43 is nominally called the Karabiner, it is only about 2 inches shorter than the original, making it a more portable weapon system.

This version is further differentiated by its larger trigger guard.

When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, some production of the Gew 43 continued. The Czech Army became a famous operator after the war and admired the usefulness of the system, especially in the sniper role. A total of 402,713 Gew.

43 rifles were produced - a seemingly large number, but a number that doesn't really reflect the weapon's overall success. By comparison, the American war winner M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle produced 6 million, and even the Soviet Union managed 1.6 million Tokarev SVT-40 semi-automatic rifles.

So for every 43 Gews, at least 50 Garands are produced.

Specification

Roles

Dimensions

Performance

Changes