The k98 was the standard arm for the German forces. The illustration if anything is wrong, in that there never were enough MP40 for such a setup. There would normally be an SMG issued to just 1 in 20. The rest of the weapons reflect the post-ww1 tactic of a rifle team supporting each GPMG.
Who thought this was a good idea?
Caleb Flores
Adrian Anderson
>1 mg42 PER SQUAD
>need to carry enough ammo to keep it shooting
>but lets give every soldier heavier semi autos with heavy magazines instead of lighter bolt actions and stripper clips
also squads rarely operate alone so there are always multiple mg’s supporting the same attack. it was a good idea for peer warfare.
William Adams
>tfw only recently learned the US was the only military to have radios at the platoon level
Blake Foster
I'm pretty sure that during operation overlord the germans defenders had 2 mg42 per squad, mounting to 8 (!!) MG42 per platoon (2 MG x 3 squad + 2 organic platoon mg teams)
Jose Ortiz
What, the entrenched forces had ammassed weapons along the area most likely to be attacked by a well known enemy force ready to strike?
Brayden Howard
It was such a bad idea that the USA did copy it after the war, obviously without the bolt actions. The idea of "fire more bullets faster" with an GPMG as the main factor.
>There would normally be an SMG issued to just 1 in 20
1 in 10 is what I heard
Austin Phillips
well, SMGs were issued to squad leaders and to officers, yo make it easier for them to do all the leadership stuff without having to carry a (relatively) long-ass rifle
Colton Hernandez
Well, there were one million MP40s made. Total ranks of Wehrmacht: 18 millions. But your number could be as good as mine because there were so many types of units. An aggressive front line unit would probably receive more of them than one guarding Paris. And in addition to the MP40s there were a lot of captured SMGs either being put directly in use at the front or sent home for redistribution to second line or non-front units.
Squad leaders and NCOs. Most actual officers carried the pistol they had been issued or a private purchase.
Wyatt Howard
Kind of surprised now looking at it that grenadiers didn't get something like an old grease gun or M1 carbine.
Aaron Murphy
Would you want to be the one guy in the front line with a weapon with shorter range than anything the enemy was fielding, if you could choose otherwise? Being armed with just a pistol in addition to the single shot launcher must have been piss inducing in a fox hole.