Collecting

German MP 44 assault rifle manufactured by C.G. Haenel Suhl in 1944

Product Description

The origins of the MP 44, later christened ‘Sturmewehr 44’, go back to May 1938, when the Heeres Waffenamt (Army Weapons Office or WaA) launched a programme for a selective fire machine carbine firing an intermediate round. Haenel in Suhl took up the opportunity to design a rifle while the Polte factory in Magdeburg started developing a new 7.92mm Kurz (7.92x33) round.

By 1940, Hugo Schmeisser, who worked at Haenel, had produced two prototypes in milled steel. However, Merz Werke of Frankfurt came up with a steel sheet metal stamping for the housing of the rifle and it is in this configuration that the WaA ordered the first 50 sample rifles by early 1942. These rifles were tested intensively both in Suhl and in the army testing grounds at Kummersdorf.

In the meantime, Carl Walther in Zella Mehlis heard about the programme and proceeded to produce their own design on the same Army specifications. The WaA placed an order for 200 samples from Walther. The first example was demonstrated at Kummersdorf on 30 March 1942, while some of the rifles from Haenel were demonstrated the day after. Walther was the clear winner at this stage since its rifles fired from a closed bolt and performed accurately and reliably.

By now, the two competing designs had been designated the MKb 42(H) and MKb 42(W). MKb stood for ‘Maschinen Karabiner’ (machine carbine) while the letter suffixes denoted the respective manufacturers. Walther's lead appears to have faded soon after, as only the Haenel examples were trialled up to December 1942. The WaA ordered further quantities of the open-bolt MKb42(H). New rifles were distributed to units in the field for troop trials. 

However, Hitler was opposed to the development of a machine carbine. The Army made three attempts to convince him of the importance of this new weapon and the intermediate round, but Hitler would have none of it. He wanted a semi-automatic rifle, not an automatic one. Nevertheless, the OKH (Oberkommando des Heeres – Army High Command) carried on regardless. By this time Haenel, was already developing the new closed-bolt version of the MKb 42(H). It was christened the 'MP43/I', a misnomer if there ever was one, to camouflage its introduction as a machine pistol (‘MP’), which Hitler favoured. The OKH approved Haenel’s production plans while the production of components was outsourced to various companies. When Hitler became aware that production was already underway, he grudgingly approved a limited serial production.

Haenel’s closed bolt 7.92mm Kurz MP 43/1 went into serial production in the summer of 1943. However, further work was required to simplify production and manufacture it in greater quantity and in different factories. The result was the MP 43, which went into production in late 1944. The main changes in the design in the transition from the MP 43/1 to the MP 43, apart from the model designation which appears on the left side of the receiver, were the removal of the scope mount rails on the side of the rear sight ramp and a rearrangement of the barrel muzzle and frontsight design. Its design remained unchanged until the war ended, except for two further changes in the model designation. 

The transition from the ‘MP 43’ designation to ‘MP 44’ occurred in April 1944 and was undertaken by all four factories manufacturing this rifle, namely Haenel, ERMA, Sauer and Steyr. This was just a change in the official model designation, as stamped on the left side of the receiver. However, earlier wooden stocks on the MP 43 tend to have a wider profile at the butt, whereas the vast majority of MP 44 have a slender profile. Yet, some late-war MP 44 are observed with the earlier, wider stocks. These may have been old inventory that was put to good use in the last production runs of the war.

The MP 44 on offer today was captured by Soviet forces on the Eastern Front. Thankfully, it was not refurbished by the Soviet Army after WWII, as it was one of a batch of rifles distributed to a Soviet State bordering Afghanistan, where it eventually ended up. All the rifle’s components have the matching serial numbers. Most importantly, it retains all its original finish.

Price on request