Why didn't the Bunderswehr just adopt the Stg44 instead of the G3?

In the end they were right, .308 worked just fine as a battle cartridge, it was followed after the experience in korea, which was much like the afghan and less trees back then.

This guy gets it.

Look at prototype versions of CETME A, CETME B, Until you arrive to the CETME C, that is is basically a furnitured G3.

you will see that the STG44 legacy was not lost.

CETMEs were similar to STG-45. Nothing in common with the STG-44 mechanically, which shot itself apart after a laughably small amount of rounds- not that this mattered, since the war was already lost and they wouldn't be in service for more than a year.

Because it was a flimsy piece of shit made out of potmetal and needlessly complicated stampings and internals. It's good in concept, and if nobody else has an assault rifle, it's impressive, but it has a very short lifespan and many other shortcomings.

You could have the debate over whether or not they should have gone for intermediate or full powered cartridges, in hindsight we would say intermediate because it makes the most sense, but NATO wasn't making the most sense that day. NATO demanded the full powered 7.62x51mm, and that's what the member states would have to settle with.

Germany initially wanted the FAL for the Bundeswehr, and actually very briefly got a contract for it from FN in Belgium (adopting it as the Gewehr 1), they were willing to sell some rifles. Germany, however, wanted to buy tooling and production to make FAL rifles on their own, and neither FN or Belgium in general were comfortable with that prospect given the then quite recent events, so that fell through.
Germany would eventually look at the CETME rifle, which was designed by former Mauser and Walther engineers, who left for Spain after the war to work on arms development.
The CETME was heavily based on the developments of the "Sturmgewehr 45(m)" (aka Gerät 06), a roller-delayed 7.92x33mm rifle intended to replace the Sturmgewehr 44, except Nazi Germany would surrender the very week it was adopted so that never went anywhere.

These engineers would return to Germany and form H&K, where they would refine the CETME into an actually pretty good rifle, all things considered, and it would be adopted as the Gewehr 3 (I have no idea what Gewehr 2 was).

Attached: CETME B.jpg (1800x412, 67K)

It's a bit more than a Garand, but you could sort of say that.

>The germans could have reused their stock of Stg44 and change the cartrige maybe
Not really. First, the factories were all bombed to shit, second, a lot of the key competencies had left town (either going for greener pastures since there was no arms business immediately after WW2, or they were unlucky and got caught on the wrong side of the border and the Soviets got them), finally, third, the Stg44 was really not designed to last.

It was built around the idea of using less nice steel to make the body of the gun, and only use the better steel for the barrel, bolt, piston and trunnion. This works, but the gun doesn't really last very long. After maybe a few thousand rounds the receiver splits in places, parts begin to walk, etc, the magazines had a short lifespan as well, being made much in the same ways.
The flipside is that it was reasonably cheap and fast to make, and an intermediate rifle was indeed useful, but it rarely got to see its full potential, Germany always outran their supplies and production capabilities for ammunition (and also fuel, but that's another thing), and then an all new cartridge was introduced into the logistics.

People who got to have a full set of magazines and a full compliment of ammo supplied to them, had wonderful experiences with them, because assault rifles are GOOD, but they'd frequently be short on ammo, getting worse with time, and just miserably bad near the end, some having it so bad as just having one magazine and 30 rounds, being their supply for the month. Most people (outside of some parts of Operation Barbarossa) never got to use their Stg44 fully.

Attached: sturmgewehr fcg.jpg (864x907, 143K)

You could kind of say that, at least for the Stg-45(m).
The FAL is somewhat different, using a tilting-bolt, but having short-stroke piston and machined receiver body, also being based more on the FN49 rifle than the Sturmgewehr.

Addressing OP; conceptually, a tilting-bolt rifle with a long-stroke piston and a stamped sheet steel receiver, could be made to work just fine, but you'd have to develop that again given that all the people and shit necessary for the Stg44 were missing.

The FAL would look appealing, being a finished design they could buy right now, and it's a good rifle, but the machined receiver would cost some money. The G3 was also appealing because it was cheaper to make and they could produce it domestically.

Attached: FAL, Gewerh 1.jpg (640x417, 61K)

The G2 was the sig 510, and the G4 was the ar10

Ah, that makes sense.

Were those all trialed at the same time or did that happen progressively?

HK was already a thing when it was decided to make what would become the G3.
The founders were not involved with the cetme and in fact, prior to being allowed to make guns again, HK made all kinds of mundane things like bicycle parts.

Same time iirc

I guess I'm getting the history mixed up. Did not know they made bicycles, that's pretty cool.

they even brought some elements from BAR and

Ikr?
I would love to have an hk bicycle