Special Sub-Topic: German Small Arms of World War II Click Here To Play: German Small Arms of World War II

This machine gun put out a lot of lead. Over 1,200 rounds a minute! Allied troops called it (erroneously) the Spandau. What was the name of this weapon.

MG-42. Allied soldiers reported that this gun made a sound like that of ripping linoleum. The gun fired so fast that each shot happened too fast for the human ear to process it individually!

Any movie set that includes German soldiers in WW2 would be incomplete without the legendary MP-40. About how many real ones were actually made?

1 million. Allied soldiers highly valued the venerable MP-40 and would gladly have traded in their Thompsons and Stens for one of the weapons.

The German Paratroopers needed a weapon that was lighter than the MG34/42, so an alternative was turned out. Which of these was it?

FG42. The Fallschirmjaeger (German paratroops) were the toughest fighters on the German front, they needed a weapon similar to the American BAR. Something that would provide the firepower of the MG42 with the weight of a service rifle. The FG42 fired a full sized rifle round, this combined with its light weight made it a handful when firing on full automatic.

What was the Luger's successor?

Walther P38. The Luger was a great, if not incredibly reliable, weapon; however, it was never made in large numbers, so its successor, the P38, was developed. With eight 9mm parabellum rounds in the butt, compact size, reliability (unusual for a German pistol), and simplicity all made the P38 a wonderful little pistol.

Germany, like every other country in the war, had a service rifle, the Karbiner 98K. Americans experienced this rifle in another war, and they were impressed, what was this war?

Spanish-American War. The Karbiner 98 was originally named the Mauser 98. The 98 means 1898, the year the weapon was developed. Spanish troops in Cuba had this weapon when T.R.'s Rough Riders charged up San Juan hill. The weapon was more reliable and faster firing than the rifles the Americans were using. In fact, we adopted the mechanism and incorporated it into our own rifles up to the famous 30-06 hunting rifle.