StG 44

The StG 44, short for Sturmgewehr 44 or assault rifle 44, is a German selective-fire rifle developed during the Second World War and issued to German forces beginning in 1944, generally regarded as the first weapon to establish the assault rifle as a distinct category of infantry arm. It fired an intermediate-power 7.92x33mm Kurz cartridge, less powerful than a full-length rifle round but far more powerful than a pistol round, from a curved 30-round detachable magazine, giving infantry a weapon effective in both semi-automatic aimed fire at longer range and fully automatic fire at the closer ranges typical of most actual combat. Produced too late and in too few numbers to affect the outcome of the war, the StG 44's intermediate-cartridge, selective-fire concept directly influenced postwar rifle designs including the Soviet AK-47 and shaped the assault rifle as the standard infantry weapon of the later twentieth century.