The first iteration of the iconic German Sturmgewehr was developed by Haenel starting in 1938. It was a select-fire rifle chambered for the short 8x33mm cartridge, developed by the Polte company. It used a long-stroke gas piston and a tilting bolt patterned after the Czech ZB-26 light machine gun. What makes the MKb42(H) stand out from the later Sturmgewehr models is that it was an open-bolt design. The original design spec was concerned about preventing cook-offs, and so it required firing from an open bolt. This means a very simple fire control system, but it also made the rifle difficult to shoot accurately in semiautomatic.
The first MKb42(H) prototype was finished in 1941, with 50 sample guns produced by late March 1942. A major trials was held inApril 1942, in which Hitler rejected the design (mostly, he disliked the smaller cartridge). Development was continued anyway, with a move to a closed-bolt system that would become the MP43/1 which was ready for its first testing in November 1942. The open-bolt 42(H) was put into production anyway, as a stopgap measure to provide some much-needed individual firepower to troops on the Eastern front. Serial production began in January 1943, and continued until September 1943. In total, 11,813 of the rifles were manufactured. They saw use in Russia until replaced by newer MP43 models, and represent the first combat use of the assault rifle concept.
Video on the MKb42(W):
Did Hitler cancel the Sturmgewehr?
“(…)troops on the Eastern front(…)”
There some specimens were captured and investigated, which resulted in reports
https://www.tankarchives.ca/2018/03/mkb-42h-first-appearance.html
https://www.tankarchives.ca/2019/09/even-more-mkb-42h-intel.html
What is interesting is presumed magazine capacity from 2nd one
The machinegun is fed from detachable double feed 35-38 round magazines.
that is noticeable more than 30.
I would hazard a guess that the poor bastards that were tasked with doing that technical intelligence were working off of damaged weapons and magazines, and without enough ammo to fully fill a magazine.
Alternatively, the 35-38 round count is a typo, which is another commonplace thing to find in such documents during that era. Look at all the errors in the US technical intelligence stuff about German small arms for examples…
I’m actually pretty impressed that they got all that they did… For something that was a battlefield pickup, those drawings and technical inferences are pretty damn good. Dimensionally accurate, so far as I can tell, and carefully reasoned. A mistake or two of a minor nature like magazine capacity is far outshadowed by the rest of it they have there.