...also used as a sniper rifle, here with the (insufficient) scope ZF4. One of the disadvantages of the G43/K43 were the intense muzzle flash and the comparatively short barrel.
Thanks for the post flame! So did the armed forces decide not to use this? And use the mp44 assault gun? This looks comparable to the M1 rifle the US used.
Right, as I said the G43 was meant to be the successor of the 98k (a bit strange that the G43 had no fixation for a bayonet…) but the unexpected success of the "machine carbine" StG44 changed the leaderships mind. Still about 398000 were produced from 1943-1945 including about 53500 scoped items.
Unlike the Gew 41 models, these rifles saw action on all fronts. I haven’t yet found a squad-level TO&E that tells how these weapons were deployed; one source I came across said they were distributed only to “specialist” units, such as engineers.