Post by Buckeye Dale on Sept 24, 2018 6:39:19 GMT -5
I thought this was interesting...
Killing Cousins: A Tale of Three Axis Submachine Guns
by WILL DABBS on JUNE 29, 2018
The Second World War was the bloodiest, most expansive conflict in all of human history. World War 2 affected most everybody on the planet. Empires rose and fell, and upwards of sixty million people lost their lives. Roughly 3% of the world’s population perished during those six horrible years.
World War 2 saw desperation on a planetary scale. Nation states struggled for their very existence, straining every aspect of their respective societies to raise and equip armies on an unprecedented scale. The United States became known as the Arsenal of Democracy, and Allied forces in all combat theaters used American equipment to varying degrees.
We didn’t really get ramped up until Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. By D-Day in June of 1944, we were already powering down our production of landing craft and capital ships. At the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, the US Navy fielded 8 aircraft carriers. By the end of the war, we had 99. Those two and one-half years saw production on an unimaginable scale.
Meanwhile, the Germans were undergoing a similar maximum effort to arm and equip their legions on their dark missions of planetary conquest. The Nazis drew small arms in particular from a variety of sources. Allied nations provided weapons, as did manufacturing plants in newly occupied territories. As a result, the German war machine found itself fielding a wide amalgam of designs, some of which were more effective and sustainable than others.
The German war machine really fielded two separate armies. The details are muddled even today but the Heer served as the ground combat force of the Wehrmacht, while the paramilitary SS served alongside as a separate elite entity. Later in the war the SS enjoyed a priority in logistics and equipment. Early on, however, they had to make do with what weapons they could scrounge. This resulted in an interesting milieu of domestic and foreign-produced small arms. In no other area is this curious phenomenon more clearly manifest than in the area of submachine guns.
www.gunsamerica.com/digest/killing-cousins-a-tale-of-three-axis-submachine-guns/
Killing Cousins: A Tale of Three Axis Submachine Guns
by WILL DABBS on JUNE 29, 2018
The Second World War was the bloodiest, most expansive conflict in all of human history. World War 2 affected most everybody on the planet. Empires rose and fell, and upwards of sixty million people lost their lives. Roughly 3% of the world’s population perished during those six horrible years.
World War 2 saw desperation on a planetary scale. Nation states struggled for their very existence, straining every aspect of their respective societies to raise and equip armies on an unprecedented scale. The United States became known as the Arsenal of Democracy, and Allied forces in all combat theaters used American equipment to varying degrees.
We didn’t really get ramped up until Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. By D-Day in June of 1944, we were already powering down our production of landing craft and capital ships. At the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, the US Navy fielded 8 aircraft carriers. By the end of the war, we had 99. Those two and one-half years saw production on an unimaginable scale.
Meanwhile, the Germans were undergoing a similar maximum effort to arm and equip their legions on their dark missions of planetary conquest. The Nazis drew small arms in particular from a variety of sources. Allied nations provided weapons, as did manufacturing plants in newly occupied territories. As a result, the German war machine found itself fielding a wide amalgam of designs, some of which were more effective and sustainable than others.
The German war machine really fielded two separate armies. The details are muddled even today but the Heer served as the ground combat force of the Wehrmacht, while the paramilitary SS served alongside as a separate elite entity. Later in the war the SS enjoyed a priority in logistics and equipment. Early on, however, they had to make do with what weapons they could scrounge. This resulted in an interesting milieu of domestic and foreign-produced small arms. In no other area is this curious phenomenon more clearly manifest than in the area of submachine guns.
www.gunsamerica.com/digest/killing-cousins-a-tale-of-three-axis-submachine-guns/
