What is was Gewehr 43?

Answer 1

The Gewehr 43 (pronounced Ge-vair) was a German semi-automatic rifle developed as a result of the need for a semi-automatic rifle to compete with the Russian SVT-40 and American M-1 Garand. Upon the G41's failure to compete effectivly against the SVT-40 rifle, the Germans took what the Russians did with the SVT-40, the G43 was the new rifle that replaced the G41, it used a similar system that the SVT-40 used, this proved to be better than the Gewehr 41 system, the G43 was more reliable and had a detachable box magazine as opposed to the 2, 10 round stripper clips that the G41 had.

However, like the SVT-40, the G43 was very complicated, and didn't perform very well in mud, dirt, and significant changes in temperature, unlike the Russian's better quality (due to the the absense of mass supply shortages that the Germans had to contend with) the G43 was slightly less reliable than the SVT-40, and was too complicated and expensive to mass produce. When put against the American M-1 Garand in Europe, the G43 was a slight improvement over the K98 bolt action, but unlike the Mauser 98k, the G43 wasnt nearly as reliable, or as simple. The Gewehr 43 only had its semi-automatic capability going for it when compared to the Garand rifle. the M-1 was far more reliable even in the worst conditions, better made, better sights, faster clip loading and unloading system, lighter recoil, and was made of the finest quality materials, (since the U.S. was never effected by the wartime conditions and bombings of its factories) it was more simple to mass produce, very easy to mantain, and was general issue to all troops, unlike the Gewehr 43, which was only issued 2 units per company, and those rifles were mostly issued as a specialist's and sniper's rifle, as opposed to being a frontline battle rifle.

For every 50 M-1 Garands produced by the allies, the Germans produced 1 Gewehr 43