Erma EMP 44
| Erma EMP 44 | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| general information | |
| Military designation: | Submachine gun Erma EMP 44 |
| Country of operation: | German Empire |
| Developer / Manufacturer: |
ERMA works C. G. Haenel Steyr works |
| Development year: | 1943 |
| Furnishing | |
| Overall length: | 720 mm |
| Weight: (unloaded) | 3.6 kg |
| Barrel length : | 250 mm |
| Technical specifications | |
| Caliber : | 9 mm parabellum |
| Possible magazine fillings : | 1 × 32 or 2 × 32 cartridges |
| Cadence : | 500-600 rounds / min |
| Fire types: | Continuous fire |
| Lists on the subject | |
The Erma EMP 44 was a very simple German submachine gun , which was developed by the ERMA works in 1943 in order to be manufactured in large numbers very quickly and easily.
history
The widespread use of submachine guns by the German Wehrmacht during World War II led to a strong expansion of production as well as to a progressive simplification and cheapening of the existing models. Efforts to simplify and make it cheaper reached a first high point in 1943 with the development of the EMP 44. Towards the end of the war, this development towards simplification was exceeded by the last desperate developments, such as the Neumünster MP 3008 machine gun .
At the beginning of 1943, the Erma company began to develop a new generation of submachine guns. The main focus was on the use of materials that are still available in sufficient quantities and the production on machines that are already available or not specially adapted for production. In addition, many years of experience from the production and combat missions of the MP 38 and MP 40 were incorporated . The result was the EMP 44 submachine gun, which was designed for mass production and significant cost reduction and which would have been easy to manufacture in very large numbers.
technology
The housing and piston were made of welded steel tubing, the support and pistol grip were made of light alloys. The very simple muzzle damper was designed analogously to the Russian PPS-43 submachine gun , the breech and the recoil spring based on the MP 40. The weapon was only designed for continuous fire and, like the МР 40 / I, had a double magazine holder for standard magazines with 32 rounds: After the first magazine had been fired, the second could be pushed in front of the breech with a pushing movement. This made a total of 64 rounds available.
Since the butt and the housing were on the same level, the aiming device was raised for ergonomic reasons (as later, for example, with the American M16 assault rifle ). The aiming device could be set to a distance of 100, 200 or 300 m. The gun had a 250 mm long barrel, was 720 mm long in total and its weight was 3.6 kg.
The EMP 44 passed all ordinance tests, but was rejected by the Wehrmacht because of its cheap and strange appearance, although it was a symbol of an extremely inexpensive and easy to produce weapon. It was not until the end of 1944, when the military situation in Germany was visibly deteriorating, that the EMP 44 was used as a weapon for the Volkssturm . However, since production of the MP 40 would have had to be throttled for production, the weapon was not produced now either.
literature
- Michael Heidler: Submachine guns 1939–1945: Development - Types - Technology . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2019, ISBN 978-3-613-04186-8 .
- Alejandro de Quesada: MP 38 and MP 40 Submachine Guns , Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014, ISBN 978-1-78096-390-7 . (82 pages online PDF)
Individual evidence
- ↑ DWJ, edition 10/1992, The German submachine guns MP 38 and MP 40, 1938 to 1940 (online PDF 1.41 MB) ( Memento from January 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ narod.ru: 9 mm submachine gun EMP.44 ( Memento from April 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (The text on the website is based on the article Part 3: Submachine guns from the series Infantry Weapons of the Third Reich of the Russian Waffen-Magazin Edition 8/2001)