Kalashnikov vs Sturmgewehr!

German army: "The guns don't need to last, we'll give our soldiers new ones when the old ones wear out" Soviet army: "The gun needs to last forever, we'll just give the same guns to new soldiers when the previous ones die."

8:50 " the two countries came at this with opposite approches ." just like they did with poland

GERMANY: We need a smaller rifle. RUSSIA: We need a bigger SMG.

It's good that you mentioned cleaning. It's so VITALLY important to keep an AK clean! If you don't clean it thoroughly, every couple of million rounds / thousand years (Whichever happens first) there is a possibility that the action may get slightly stiff.

"They're not super-cheap." >$132,250

I think we can all agree on that the sturmgewehr is a beautiful firearm.

The Type 56 was sold for $132,250? I Can probably get one for $50 in Africa

Stg: The guy who said the joke. Ak-47: The guy who said it louder.

We should all have Sturmgewehrs! You get a Sturmgewehr, you get a Sturmgewehr! Everyone gets a Sturmgewehr!

The AK47. So easy, a child can use it. And they do. -- Nicholas cage (Lord of War)

The whole SKS vs AK adoption thing, was mainly russia playing it safe. The SKS was a relatively simple evolution of ww2 semi-auto rifles, and considered a safe, reliable weapon to hand out en masse to their troops. The AK represented a fairly innovative design, with several radical trade-offs vs the weapons it replaced, as well as a totally new battlefield doctrine to go with it. The SKS was put into production in case either the AK, or the philosophy behind it, didn't work out. Once it was obvious that the AK was a massive success, they fully committed to it

"lOOk tHE gERMAns arE uSiNg aK's!" Every person watching Downfall where I live

Can we just say that Sturmgewehr wins on being more fun to say?

Lots of Sturmgewehr's are being used in the Syria war at the minute. Seen pictures of the rebels (possible ISIS) using them with scopes bolted on. Apparently they raided a government warehouse which had 5,000 in storage.

That German report really is the best example I've ever heard of how the assault rifle massively changed combat. The fact that they could advance without stopping, and retreat fully with cover as opposed to how it was before shows just how incredible the shift between the older low ammo rifles and the new high capacity select fire rifles is. Its actually quite similar to the change in the US military capability was in such a short time between the Civil War with muzzle-loaders and the Indian Wars with lever actions.

It is now 2023 and I can confirm people still believe the AK was a rip off of the STG... Some people just refuse to learn new things.

Can somebody explain the prices of the auction? Sold for: $32,200 (MP-44) $132,250 (Type 56 AK) Why is the Chinese AK four times more expensive than the StG 44?

I remember playing a Medal of Honor game where if you played multiplayer split screen and it was Axis vs Allies, it pretty much came down to the STG 44 vs the BAR.

2:14 - look at how the metal in the gun flexes with the shots. That's a really cool slow-mo clip.

In defense of the AK47 let me say that I was issued an old one in the Hungarian Army in 1963, with a machined receiver and it turned out to be an accurate and real low maintenance rifle. Before we took the oath we had to qualify on the range with three single shots at 150 meters in the prone position. The requirement was 21 points. They promised 3 days leave for a score of 27 or more. After I fired three shots in about 20 seconds, my score was 30! The group was less than 2 inches. The high score was the only one in the battalion. I have never gotten the three days leave though; that's socialism for you!