The first true ‘assault rifle’, i.e. a select-fire weapon chambered in an intermediate calibre between pistol and rifle rounds.

Originally dubbed a ‘Machine Carbine’ and then a ‘Machine Pistol’ (MP43, MP44), the final name of ‘Sturmgewehr’ (Stg44) was applied to much the same weapon in 1944, supposedly by Hitler himself. This radical concept, and indeed the general layout and construction of the rifle, set the template for post-war infantry rifle designs, notably the Kalashnikov and the CETME, a rifle built upon experimental wartime German technology.

The already hefty Stg.44 was made even more unwieldy where fitted with the Krummlauf, though this gave the significant theoretical advantage of accurate or automatic fire around corners and over walls, and was quickly detachable.