Thought i'd start a 'fun' topic just to test our knowledge of Military History.

First question:

Which German unit was selected to carry out the the first full combat trials of the MP43, the results of which lead Hitler to revisie his opinion of the weapon?

Ross

This is just a stab in the dark. Could it be the raid to free Mussolini? I can't remember if that was the MP43/Stgr44 or maybe the FG42.




There is much heated debate over that. Kalashnikov {sp} categorically denied he was influenced by the MP43.

Rodger - Nope.

Ahhh I see that Tom is a true follower of Ensign Pavel Checkov. As he was quite fond of telling LT Sulu all the great "inwentions" of the Russians.

:-)

Of course it could be just political pride but he always seemed a stand up guy to me, and a brilliant man. From what I've read on other boards it just doesn't seem like he was influenced by the MP43. Of course if you ask any German fan then invented airborne troops, glider attacks, the jet aircraft, the guide missile, etc, etc, etc. Wonder how they ever kept losing the wars.

If I'm not mistaken the MP44 was first used on the russian front by Walter Model, the "Fuhrers Fireman" and his troops. It was Hitler himself who called it the Sturmgewehr, and prior to that everyone called it a Maschinenpistolen, because Hitler said "no new rifles."

My question to you all is, April 30th was a holiday for who? and why is it important? Also What significant artifact was saved and preserved?

You assumed I meant the V-2, I actually meant a guided missile. Ever hear of the Kettering Bug?



"Along with the British A.T. (Aerial Target), one the earliest guided missiles. Development of the Kettering Bug, under the direction of Charles Kettering, began at the Delco and Sperry companies in 1917. It was an unpiloted biplane bomber made of wood, weighing just 270 kg, including a 135-kg bomb as payload, and was powered by a 40-h.p. Ford engine. Engineers employed an ingenious method of guiding the Kettering Bug to its target. Once wind speed, wind direction, and target distance had been determined, the number of revolutions the engine needed to take the missile to its target was calculated. A cam was then set to drop automatically into position when the right number of engine revolutions had occurred. The Kettering Bug took off using a four-wheel carriage that ran along a portable track. Once airborne it was controlled by a small gyroscope, its altitude measured by an aneroid barometer. When the engine had completed the prescribed number of revs, the cam dropped into position, causing bolts that fastened the wings to the fuselage to be pulled in. The wings then detached, and the bomb-carrying fuselage simply fell onto its target. The Kettering Bug was successfully demonstrated in 1918 before Army Air Corps observers in Dayton, Ohio. However, World War I hostilities ended before the missile could be put into production."

This is great.
Keep it going, Rodger never ceases to amaze me with his ( diverse) knowledge, and Tom has a great knack of starting disscusions from new angles..

Cheers
Henk