"In addition to the absence of heavy armored units, our paratroopers are better equipped than the army, and we will prove that the paratroopers under the Air Force are more suitable for rapid and mobile operations." In the face of General Bock's doubts, Richthofen did not care, for so many years, the Luftwaffe was not only engaged in aircraft, but also in infantry equipment and artillery! Although Richthofen was far less domineering than Goering in history, on the one hand, he shouted that everything that could fly belonged to me, and at the same time he was engaged in the field division of the air force, but he was still very concerned about the German paratroopers under the air force, and with sufficient funds, the German paratroopers had come to the forefront in terms of infantry equipment and light artillery.

What is the best feature of paratroopers? The lines of a later movie very aptly describe the characteristics of paratroopers, that is, "paratroopers are born to be surrounded!" "After being thrown behind the rear of the other side by planes, you are isolated and surrounded by enemies, and all kinds of unexpected situations can happen. The logistical supply was not guaranteed, and it was besieged by the superior forces of the other side, and because of the problem of airlift, the ammunition and weapons carried by the side were very limited in quantity and power. How to maximize the combat effectiveness of one's own side with limited weight has become the key to paratrooper weapons.

So when the Germans designed the paratrooper weapons, they first started with guns and ammunition. First of all, on the infantry guns, you say that if you let a paratrooper shoot this Mauser rifle at a Briton with a Lee Enfield rifle, the two sides are equal, so who has the advantage? Naturally, the Britons who used the Lee Enfield rifle, and it was not for nothing that this rifle was claimed to have the fastest rate of fire among bolt-action rifles? As soon as the two sides fought, they were a notch behind each other in terms of firepower density, and this weapon naturally could not meet the needs of the German paratrooper units.

However, semi-automatic rifles have also appeared in this plane. By chance, the Germans got some Russian-designed semi-automatic rifles from their puppet Russia, and this rifle is the historical SVT38 semi-automatic rifle. THIS WEAPON USING THE AIR-CONDUCTIVE PRINCIPLE, WITH A TOTAL LENGTH OF 1220MM, AN EMPTY GUN WEIGHT OF 3.95KG, AND A 10-ROUND MAGAZINE IS SIGNIFICANTLY STRONGER THAN A BOLT-ACTION RIFLE. Especially in terms of weight, it's pretty good. This rifle is about 500 grams lighter than the Mosin Nagan rifle.

Objectively speaking, the SVT38 rifle is definitely one of the best semi-automatic rifles of its time. After copying a batch and distributing it to the various units, the grassroots response was also good, well, although the use of Russian weapons made the Germans feel a little shameless. HOWEVER, THIS IS NOT A BIG PROBLEM, AFTER CHANGING TO A 7.92MM*57MM BULLET, A GERMAN NUMBER OF GEW28 WILL BECOME. And so. The rifles of the German paratroopers were chosen.

IN THIS DIMENSION, THE GERMAN ARMY STILL CHOSE THE MP38 SUBMACHINE GUN AS ITS MAIN FIREARM, WHICH USED 9MM BELLUM BULLETS TO GIVE THE GERMAN INFANTRY SQUAD PLENTY OF MELEE FIREPOWER. It stands to reason that German paratroopers should inherit this weapon. But in fact, this so-called most elite infantry in Germany is a little disdainful of this weapon, as for the reason? Let's start with the last time Student and the Italian Marines met.

"Submachine guns are of limited use in more open combat environments. The maximum effective range of the submachine gun in our hands is only about 150 meters. And this is still in the hands of veterans. AND THE POWER IS TOO SMALL, THE 9MM*19MM BELLUM BULLET IS UNDOUBTEDLY VERY CLASSIC AS A PISTOL BULLET FOR SELF-DEFENSE, BUT IF IT IS USED AS THE MAIN WEAPON AND AMMUNITION IN THE HANDS OF SOLDIERS, THE LETHALITY OF THIS LOW-POWER BULLET IS OBVIOUSLY NOT ENOUGH. If you're fighting in a dense forest, the lack of power is even more pronounced. A German second lieutenant once commented on the submachine gun in his hand.

In fact, this problem does not exist in large-scale army equipment, because the backbone of the infantry firepower of the German Army is heavy machine guns and light machine guns. A squad was completely organized around light machine guns in hand. Submachine gunners are designed to provide melee firepower, and the effective range does not matter much. However, for paratroopers with a small number of people and an emphasis on constant super-firepower, this weapon with a relatively short range and less powerful power is somewhat unsuitable. After all, the environment faced by paratroopers is often more treacherous than that of the Army. Although it was once proposed to replace the semi-automatic rifles with all the staff and cancel the submachine guns. However, after all, there is still a considerable gap between the rate of fire of semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns, and at this time it was proposed whether they could be equipped with such weapons as American BAR machine guns.

The Browning machine gun had already appeared in World War 1, and the German Army captured some Browning machine guns in battles with the Americans, and the Americans called him an automatic rifle, while the Germans considered this thing to be no different from a light machine gun. This thing has a lot of firepower and a very strong rate of fire. But the weight of one Browning machine gun was approximately equal to the weight of two Mauser rifles. This is obviously not suitable for a class of troops such as paratroopers, which are sensitive to the weight of equipment, and of course, one BAR must have much more firepower than two Mausers. But the problem is that the Germans already had a better universal machine gun of the MG family. They considered their MG universal machine gun to be more advanced and more powerful than the Browning, and there was absolutely no need to equip the paratroopers with two weapons of the same function and positioning.

In addition to the problem mentioned above, there is also the problem that if you shoot with a hand-held BAR, and not on the ground, then the accuracy of such a weapon will be reduced, and the recoil will be relatively large. At the same time, because the firearm itself is relatively long and heavy, it is not suitable for carrying and quickly entering the combat state. This is very inconvenient for paratroopers who need to fight in the streets. As a result, automatic rifles similar to BAR were completely excluded from this selection of paratrooper weapons.

It seemed that the need for a new approach was needed, and the deep-pocketed Luftwaffe issued a tender for small arms and listed rather harsh conditions, first of all, the weapon had to be able to be used in deserts and warm and humid areas, and it had a high degree of stability. SECONDLY, THE WEIGHT OF THIS WEAPON CANNOT EXCEED THE STANDARD OF 3.9KG FOR MAUSER RIFLES, AND THE LENGTH OF THE GUN CANNOT EXCEED THE LENGTH OF 1110MM FOR MAUSER RIFLES. Thirdly, the rate of fire of this weapon must be able to reach the level of 350 to 400 rounds. Fourth, the weapon must have good accuracy and lethality at a distance of 400 meters.

After seeing the tender documents, the German designers began to think about what kind of weapon this was, first of all, in terms of rate of fire and effective range, the ammunition used in this weapon should be between pistol bullets and rifle bullets directly. The former is too small and does not have enough range and power, the latter is too large and has a lethal range much higher than 400 meters. So the Germans thought about it, could they make a short rifle bullet? THE ORIGINAL 7.92*57MM BULLET IS TOO LONG, SO LET'S MAKE IT SHORTER. HOW ABOUT GETTING A 7.92*33MM? The bullets are shorter, lighter, and the ammunition can be carried. What's more, the recoil is reduced, and it is easy to shoot at any time like a submachine gun.

After solving the problem of ammunition, the remaining problems are well solved. Although there is a gap between this weapon and the STG44 of later generations, the basic elements have been complete, and after all aspects of testing and handing over to the troops for trial, the German paratroopers finally used the assault rifle numbered STG29 and the GEW28 semi-automatic rifle as the main weapon of the German paratroopers.

After solving the rifle problem, it was time for the machine gun, but this time the German paratroopers did not show any difference from the army, and honestly chose the same MG27 machine gun as the German army. (For the specific number jù, please refer to MG34 in later generations.) In terms of pistols, you can also make do with Luger pistols, of course, if you are willing to buy it separately out of your own pocket, it doesn't matter if you carry a box gun.

In addition to guns, the German Airborne Forces were also equipped with a grenadier-like curved weapon, and if he showed this thing to Xu Jie, he would find that this kind of Dongdong was very similar to the historical Japanese Type 89 grenadier canister. IN FACT, THIS CALIBER OF 50MM, WEIGHT OF 2.7KG, LENGTH 413MM AND EFFECTIVE RANGE OF ABOUT 500 METERS IS ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE HISTORICAL 89 GRENADIER CANISTER. Originally, there were no similar weapons in European countries throughout history. However, that doesn't mean that the weapon is not good. At least much stronger than the German granatwerfer 36 type 50MM mortar. The latter weighed 14 kg and had an effective firing range about the same as the 89 grenadier canister. Muzzle velocity 75M per second. The rate of fire is from 15 to 20 rounds per minute. So much so that even the Germans withdrew it after not long in it.

Of course, if the grenadier wants to exert its power, it depends on the skill of the operator, after all, there is almost no commendable aiming method for this thing. Moreover, the loading and firing steps are more cumbersome, and the rate of fire is relatively low (the rate of fire of the American M2 Type 60 mortar can reach 30 rounds a minute!). The accuracy is also relatively low (lower than the average mortar. But just for its lighter weight. The Germans said it would be good to give it to the paratroopers. As a result, at least one grenadier group will be arranged in the armament of each platoon. Although theoretically a soldier can use a grenadier canister, the artillery is called "not occupying the establishment". But in fact, it is better to operate this kind of thing by 3 people, one is responsible for holding the gun, one is loading, and then there is an ammunition man, but fortunately, the weight of the grenade used is not heavy, and a grenade is not even 500 grams. The original intention of this weapon was to give the German paratroopers a curvature that could be quickly maneuvered.

When the German paratroopers finally solved the infantry weapons, they found that more difficulties awaited them in heavy weapons. Paratroopers will have to deal with not only infantry, but also bunkers, tanks, armored vehicles, and other big guys. Mortars alone will definitely not work. And because of the requirements of the transport aircraft itself, these things had to be reduced in weight. And after having artillery, you have to solve the problem of transportation, not to mention that it is obviously very difficult to transfer hundreds of kilograms of artillery by manpower, so you also need to equip them with a small vehicle.

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