Kalashnikov Invented the "Assault Rifle"???
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Tony Williams
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I find it very hard to understand how anyone can claim that Kalashnikov invented the assault rifle. He most assuredly did not, by a long way. Apart from the various pre-WW2 developments in several countries, the StG 44 was a "finished product", having been through a competitive selection process (which Haenel won over Walther, after both types had been field-tested) and subsequently refined. As I've posted, getting on for half a million were made. It is still in use today, despite not having been made for 60 years.
I have read comments by those lucky enough to have fired a StG 44 and an AK side-by-side. There isn't much to choose between them; the StG's main disadvantage is that it's heavier, but that does make it steadier and more accurate in auto fire. Ballistics of the 7.92x33 and 7.62x39 are too similar for the difference to be significant.
There is no doubt that the Russian development of the 7.62x39 cartridge was inspired by the first 7.92x33 rounds captured in 1942. Kalashnikov had nothing to do with that. Neither did he invent the concept of the assault rifle even in purely Russian terms. Along with several other designers, he was given the 7.62x39 ammo and told to design a selective-fire rifle around it. He would have known all about the StG 44 before he started (the Russians captured shedloads) and basically took the concept and tried to improve on it.
Kalashnikov's design was selected as the best out of a bunch of them, but if he had never existed then the next one would have been chosen. Similar-looking competing designs were produced in 1946 by Sudaev, Simonov, Dementiev and Bulkin, and there was an interesting bullpup by Korobov. In fact, the front-runner was the Sudaev design, which emerged before Kalashnikov's, but the designer died in 1946.
Someone has already observed that Kalashnikov bore about the same relationship to the development of the assault rifle as Henry Ford did to the car. In fact, I'm not sure he could even claim that much; he didn't invent anything as radical as mass-production, he just designed a slightly better gun.
If you're interested in the development of assault rifles, THIS book gives the story.
Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum
I have read comments by those lucky enough to have fired a StG 44 and an AK side-by-side. There isn't much to choose between them; the StG's main disadvantage is that it's heavier, but that does make it steadier and more accurate in auto fire. Ballistics of the 7.92x33 and 7.62x39 are too similar for the difference to be significant.
There is no doubt that the Russian development of the 7.62x39 cartridge was inspired by the first 7.92x33 rounds captured in 1942. Kalashnikov had nothing to do with that. Neither did he invent the concept of the assault rifle even in purely Russian terms. Along with several other designers, he was given the 7.62x39 ammo and told to design a selective-fire rifle around it. He would have known all about the StG 44 before he started (the Russians captured shedloads) and basically took the concept and tried to improve on it.
Kalashnikov's design was selected as the best out of a bunch of them, but if he had never existed then the next one would have been chosen. Similar-looking competing designs were produced in 1946 by Sudaev, Simonov, Dementiev and Bulkin, and there was an interesting bullpup by Korobov. In fact, the front-runner was the Sudaev design, which emerged before Kalashnikov's, but the designer died in 1946.
Someone has already observed that Kalashnikov bore about the same relationship to the development of the assault rifle as Henry Ford did to the car. In fact, I'm not sure he could even claim that much; he didn't invent anything as radical as mass-production, he just designed a slightly better gun.
If you're interested in the development of assault rifles, THIS book gives the story.
Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum
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