That’s not a problem unique to the FG, all rifles firing full power carts are generally not controllable in full auto.
…and then he woke up & the coffee was cold.
I want to see the paratrooper who fires a weapon while he is descending from the skies and then throws his weapon away, because it’s pistol grip is not practicable on the ground :mrgreen:
PS: Hope you all see the Irony?
I completely agree with you on that part. 
Well, these German paratroopers must’ve been supermen, managing to fire a weapon on the way down that was securely stowed in a canister under a different parachute…
Some FJ jumped with MP-40 s in the chest, no idea about the FG-42, for the time 1942 and on most of the FJ ops were glider borne and no deliver by parachutes.
just a question,didnt they prefer to do jumps under the protection of darkness?
and if so, knowing this,why would they go to the trouble of thought,design and manufacture of a attribute to the rifle that may or may not aid in firing the weapon on a parachute decent,i would think that firing your weapon on decent would be the equivalent to telling them ,“here i am shoot me before i hit the ground” as the muzzle flash would be a targe to aim for
No, that they didn’t drop at night , they didn’t design it to be fired on a parachute descent (it was securely packed in a canister under a different parachute), whoever posted that had been at the funny tobacco and/or playing too many computer games.
I thought they just threw down potato mashers as they dropped… 
In any case, I think the Fallshirmjager were all but done with airborne drops by the time the FG42 was adopted…
The mother of all ownings…Stoat, I’ll have to look it up, but I’m pretty sure that the intention had been for the FJ to jump with the FG.42. That was one of the reasons it had to be compact and light.
The idea for the FG.42 came out of the hammering the FJ got on Crete where they were often picked out of the sky by the defenders and those that did land alive were too seperated from the weapon canisters that they had to fend for themselves armed with SMG’s and pistols.
Of course by the time the FG.42 went into production combat drops had pretty much stopped.
Right, lets put this bollocks to bed.
-
Safety.
Anyone who has taken part in military parachute operations will realise that the priority is to land in one piece. -
Altitude.
Operational lobs are done at low level to ensure that time from exit to landing is as short as possible, this is specially true of the FJ.
There are a couple of famous photos of FJ with MPs on their chest, but it was a rare occurrence to jump with them although it looks good in propaganda pics.
There IS NOT TIME to release a weapon from it’s stowage, make ready, acquire a tgt and shoot. -
Eqpt.
The rigging lines of the FJ parachutes used by the Germans in WWII (mainly the RZ-16 and -20) converged not onto lift webs as those of the Allies, but onto a metal ring which was attached to the harness via straps or hemp rope to the shoulders and hips.
The parachutists’ position was therefore not vertical as in modern designs, but perpendicular to this connection, and the troops came down in a ‘crawl’ position, being trained to roll on landing
This is the reason they were issued elbow and knee pads.
Come up with as many Boy’s Own Paper stories of derring-do and leaping into the wide blue yonder with a PAK between the teeth as you like, but those are the facts.
To add to what cuts said, some of the FJ drops were done below 100 meters if I remember correctly , which was just enough time for the parachute to open and slow the descent before barrelling in.
Look carefully at archive footage of FJ drops. As cuts says, they actually hang from the parachute at a distinctly forward sloping angle. you will also see them flailing their arms and legs in an attempt to hit the ground facing the right direction so that they can roll forwards (this is because they did not have the lift webs on the shoulders so could not steer their parachutes).
So, in the extremely few seconds from leaving the extremely tiny door of a JU52 supposedly with a full-sized rifle strapped to you, being suspended by a single point between your shoulder blades underneath a parachute, flailing your arms and legs to face the direction of drift, carrying out a forward roll when you hit the deck, exactly when and how are you going to unhitch a full-sized weapon or indeed any weapon, aim it, acquire a target and fire at it, and not end up impaled on said weapon on landing?
From “Technical Demands for the Development of a Paratroop Rifle, Specification LC-6”
- Not to exceed 1 metre in length
- Not to be heavier than the standard K98k rifle.
- Calibre to be the standard service cartridge
- To have detachable magazines, one with a minimum of 10 rounds capacity and another with 30 rounds.
- To have selective fire capability using the simplest mechanism and to fire from a closed bolt in semi-auto fire and an open bolt in full-auto fire
- To be free from stoppages
- To have a 1.5 power telescopic sight with recoil proof optics
- To be equiped with a grenade launcher
- To be equiped with a bayonet, preferrably attached and folding
- To be capable of being used as a club in close combat.
- No necessity for a removable barrel.
- The barrel must have a life of at least 2,000 rounds even when fired in burst mode.
- To be provided with a collapsible grip for the left hand so that the weapon will not entangle clothing or equipment when jumping
- To be provided with a folding bipod for firing from the prone position.
- The butt must be designed to absorb recoil.
- The weapon must be stable and not jump around when firing.
- Protection must be provided against dirt entering the mechanism.
- The weapon must not be sensitive to shocks and drops when in use.
Edit: I should add that I’m not suggesting that the intention was that the rifle was to be used during the desent, just that they planned to jump with them rather than have the rifles drop with the canisters.
To be fair, that wouldn’t be the first totally insane technical specification the Germans ever came up with during WW2…
This is correct. It WAS designed to give German paratroops access to firepower AFTER they landed, as their experience on Crete was that soldiers tend to get shot more often when going up against infantry with rifles and machineguns at rifle range, while using only pistols and a few machinepistols while desperately trying to collect their weapons canisters…
The FG42 was designed to give a few FJ a stop gap automatic weapon, with superior firepower, while the rest collected their weapons from canisters…
But as I think everyone should know by now, use of this weapon on airborne drops was rare since the FJ began to take on a role of elite light infantry in Italy and Normandy by early 1944. I would be interested in the overall effectiveness of the rifle in combat and the ratio of the FG42 to the numbers of KAR98s or the MP40s, and other semi auto rifles issued to the FJ by the end of 1943…
True PDF, but I also think it would be interesting to see the ‘Tech Demands’ or specs in the original German, or better yet a copy of the doc itself to see what word or phrase was used for ‘jumping.’
Unfortunately, as is still the case today, sometimes eqpt specs are written up by people with little or no practical experience of the use of such eqpt in realistic conditions, eg. the exaggerated and often misplaced input on the SA80 project contra the rejection of such for the same on the AK.
Very true, but one of the extra ordinary aspects of the FG.42 is just how close Louis Strange got to meeting the requirements.
Cuts; those specifications are taken directly from the book “Death From Above The German FG42 Paratroop Rifle” By Thomas B Dugelby and R Blake Stevens. Unfortunatly it does not contain many details of how they were deployed.
I believe that the FJ only used the FG.42 in two combat jumps; the raid on Tito’s hideout and the failed drop behind Allies lines in Normandy. The other uses of the FG-42 were in glider operations and infantry action in Italy, France and the defence of Berlin.
Thanks Bas, I’ve not yet got around to buying that particular book, I’ll have to do so sooner or later. 
It’s odd that the bumf specified a collapsable grip for the left hand. I wonder if they meant on the forend or the butt - or could it perhaps be a mistranslation for the zweiben ?
No arguament here that it wasn’t well suited to the requirements given - I just think that no sane human being who had a clue about what it was to be actually used for would have ever come up with those requirements…