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88% My German Empire (穿越成皇储) / Chapter 330: Chapter 407 Planning (2)

Kapitel 330: Chapter 407 Planning (2)

After World War II, most Western countries did not develop an intermediate power cartridge similar to the Soviet 7.62x39mm (Switzerland had a 7.65x35mm in the 1920s; Germany had a 7.92x33mm, 7.75x39/40mm during WWII; Czechoslovakia had a 7.62x45mm, and the UK had a 7×43mm, but these did not become widespread); NATO's standard ammunition calibers are 5.56x45mm, 7.62x51mm, 9x19mm, 12.7x99mm; besides these, each country has its own equipment, such as the American .45 (11.45mm) pistol cartridge, Germany's 4.6x30mm ammunition, and so on.

The 7.62x39mm M43 cartridge was developed in the late stages of WWII and officially put into service after the war ended. At that time, the intermediate power rifle cartridge was a trend, and Germany's 7.92x33mm Kurz cartridge was already widely used during WWII for the Stg44 assault rifle; but after the war, the only cartridge that truly entered service and became widespread was the 7.62x39mm M43.

This was due to the overall reasonable design and good performance of the M43 rifle cartridge, as well as the Soviet Union's significant influence after the war.

In the historical context of that time, compared to the various high-power rifle cartridges of WWII and the 7.62x51mm NATO rifle cartridge that NATO still stubbornly adhered to, the M43 intermediate power rifle cartridge significantly reduced the overall size and weight of the bullet, which was beneficial for increasing the amount of ammunition carried; the recoil when shooting was significantly reduced, and the bullet's power was sufficient for engagements within 400m, with less muzzle rise during continuous fire than automatic rifles firing high-power rifle cartridges, which was advantageous for exerting firepower at close range.

As for why NATO did not popularize intermediate power cartridges, we have to start from the end of WWII.

After WWII ended, the Cold War between the East and West quickly began, and Western countries established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. To save on military construction costs and achieve logistical material standardization during wartime, NATO proposed to establish a standard for light weapons ammunition and select a standard NATO rifle cartridge, which led to a noisy and contentious debate.

As an old imperialist power in Europe, although Britain was greatly weakened, it stubbornly recommended its own .280 inch (7×43mm) intermediate power rifle cartridge. It should be said that the basic design of this cartridge was quite good, with better ballistic performance than the Soviet 7.62x39mm M43 rifle cartridge, and smaller recoil, muzzle noise, and flash.

However, the United States, as the leader of NATO, strongly opposed intermediate power rifle cartridges.

During WWII, the U.S. military was fully equipped with the M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle, and the firepower of infantry squads was unrivaled at the time. Because they started early and had an advantage, the United States was very conservative about light weapons, believing that the M1 Garand rifle was already perfect. At most, they could add a 20-round magazine and a continuous fire function; as for ammunition, the 30-06 rifle cartridge (7.62×63mm) was also good. At most, they could slightly shorten the cartridge length to make it lighter, and that would be enough!

For this, the United States directly developed a T44 experimental rifle and T65 rifle cartridge. The basic structure of the T44 was very similar to the M1 Garand, which can be seen as an M1 Garand with a shortened forestock, added 20-round magazine, and continuous fire function, eventually developing into the well-known M14 rifle; the design of the T65 rifle cartridge was also very conservative, just a shortened 30-06 rifle cartridge, reducing the cartridge length from 63mm to 51mm, with an initial velocity still at 848m/s, still a traditional high-power rifle cartridge.

After several years of arguing, the final result was that the United States, relying on its huge influence among Western countries, prevailed, and the T65 rifle cartridge was designated as the standard NATO rifle cartridge, which is the 7.62x51mm NATO rifle cartridge; the British persisted for a while (mainly the Labour government), but ultimately, considering the unity of Western allies, they gave up the .280 inch rifle cartridge and also switched to the 7.62x51mm NATO rifle cartridge, thus NATO missed the historical opportunity for intermediate power rifle cartridges and continued to use traditional high-power rifle cartridges in the 1950s.

At that time, the three mainstream rifles of NATO countries—the American M14 rifle, the Belgian FN FAL rifle, and the West German G3 rifle—all used this caliber, commonly suffering from excessive recoil and difficulty in controlling continuous fire. Therefore, most American M14s simply replaced the single/continuous fire selector with a rate reducer lock, locking it in single-fire mode, and the British L1A1 (the British-produced FAL rifle) also eliminated continuous fire, only allowing single shots.

The consequence of this was that the firepower density of the infantry squad did not increase much compared to WWII (although the metric version of the FAL and the West German G3 retained the continuous fire function, because the recoil of the 7.62x51mm cartridge was too great, short bursts were difficult to control and not practical, and for the United States, replacing the M1 with the M14 locked in semi-automatic mode hardly improved), and the light weapons system of infantry squads was clearly behind the Soviet Union.

During the Vietnam War in the 1960s, the U.S. military's M14, which used full-power rifle cartridges, was outperformed by the AK using intermediate rifle cartridges in the jungle, and they hurriedly switched to the not yet fully prepared M16, even though it initially received continuous bad reviews due to reliability issues. But after being improved to the M16A1, the small-caliber trend instantly overwhelmed the intermediate rifle cartridges and sparked a wave of rifle small-caliberization in military forces around the world.

Because all the advantages of the M43 intermediate power rifle cartridge, the small-caliber rifle cartridges have, and even surpass the M43 cartridge.

1. In terms of weight and volume, small-caliber rifle cartridges are lighter and smaller, allowing for a greater amount of ammunition to be carried.

2. In terms of recoil, small-caliber rifle cartridges have less recoil when shooting, less muzzle rise during continuous fire, and are more stable.

Moreover, small-caliber rifle cartridges have many advantages that the M43 rifle cartridge does not have: their trajectory is flatter and extends lower than the M43 intermediate power rifle cartridge, with a larger danger zone for the bullet; high-speed bullets are more likely to destabilize upon hitting the human body, with the bullet fragmenting or tumbling, releasing energy more fully, and causing stronger wounding effects.

Wilhelm also wanted to jump directly to small-caliber rifle cartridges, but small-caliber rifles have a large length-to-diameter ratio for the barrel and require high precision in manufacturing, with high bullet initial velocity and fast barrel wear, which greatly increases the technical difficulty in terms of barrel manufacturing processes and materials. During WWII, manufacturing small-caliber guns and ammunition was not a problem, but the key issue was that under wartime production, the manufacturing efficiency and cost of small-caliber rifles could not meet the needs of extremely large production volumes.

In addition, the emergence of small-caliber was due to the continuous increase in artillery firepower, eliminating the need for the long-range shooting capability of rifles; during WWII, artillery firepower was not strong, and the long-range shooting capability of rifles was still a much-needed performance for the military; switching to small-caliber would greatly weaken the military's firepower, only leading to a more disastrous defeat.

Although small-caliber ammunition has advantages such as light weight, high shooting accuracy, and high ammunition carrying capacity, it also has shortcomings such as insufficient penetration power and a sharp reduction in lethality beyond the effective range. Many years later, the military world once again valued the advantages of .62mm caliber bullets, and some national armies picked up 7.62mm rifles again.

For these various reasons, Wilhelm could not give up intermediate power cartridges. First, he used Germany's 7.92x33mm from WWII, then switched to the Soviet 7.62x39mm, and finally settled on the British .280 inch (7×43mm) intermediate power rifle cartridge.


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