Pretty good and short answer about the relation of the Stgw and AK47 in my eyes.
aksville
Quote:
Q: I often hear many say that the AK-47 was a direct copy of the STG44, what truth is there to this?
Really, what would a tank operator know about mechanisms needed for a gun especially the best assault rifle of all time. Do these two guns operate on the same basic concept and just simply a copy of a german design, or is the AK-47...... (2 answers - asked 18 months ago)
A: Not a "direct copy", but "heavily influenced" is probably fair
The AK-47 is not a direct copy or clone of the STG-44.
For starters, they fire a different cartridge. The AK-47 is chambered in 7.62x39mm, and the STG-44 in 7.92x33mm. Further, Kalishnikov (the creator of the AK-47) used the locking lug design of the M1 Garand and the trigger and safety group designed by John M. Browning. Finally, the AK action is a rotating bolt and the STG is a tilting bolt. So, there are clearly some differences.
That said, it seems pretty clear that Kalishnikov heavily borrowed from the STG-44. The two main pieces of evidence:
1) The overall design and form of the weapon is very, very similar. In fact, people who don't know much about guns often mistake a STG-44 for an AK-47.
2) Hugo Schmeisser, the man who designed by the STG-44, was captured by the Russians in 1945 and forced to work on weapon design for them. Schmeisser was not allowed to go home until 1952. Those seven years Schmeisser was working in the USSR match up pretty neatly with the development of the AK-47.
Kalishnikov (who is still alive), denies to this day that he copied the STG-44. And in a literal sense, he is correct. There are significant differences. On the other hand, the similarities are obvious even to someone who knows little about guns.
My personal view: Kalishnikov should get credit for significantly improving on the German STG-44. But would he have invented the AK-47 if the Germans hadn't invented the STG-44? I doubt it.
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Interesting might be as well that the idea or concept of assault rifles was there long before the Stgw was designed. But the Stgw was definetly the most succesfull design
Weapons with similar use or design to the Stgw have been the Charlton Automatic Rifle, Chauchat (more machineguns actualy but they had a curved magazine and shared many principles with modern assault rifles), Fedorov Avtomat, Cei-Rigotti, Mondragón rifle or the M1941 Johnson machine gun. It is very hard to really differentiate between rifles, automatic rifles or light machineguns since many shared similar qualities. Most of the weapons mentioned used quite big calibers but there have been ideas to shorten them already in the 20s of the 1900 century. The Japanese 6.5x50mm Arisaka rifle cartridge for the Fedorov Avtomat and the 6.5x52mm Mannlicher-Carcano for the Cei-Rigotti. Though relability issues and complex mechanisms made those weapons very rare. But it was a new concept afterall.
The Ribeyrolles 1918 is as well a extremly interesting design and might come as close as possible to the concept of assault rifles.
