Any ideas as to why MP44 "Sturmgewer" is seldom seen in movies?

There was one in the movie, "Battle of the Bulge." It was captured from the German boys and still had "grease" in the bore.
 
I think I can answer this...

First, the MP44 was never that common on the Western front. It was very popular with the German troops in the East, however.

Second, there just aren't a lot of MP44's in private hands out there. The movies don't have any special access to Class III's - they have to lease/rent them from somewhere (private owners or Class III dealers).

Third, I've been on a couple of movie sets, and I've seen how the movie guys treat rented weapons. I've seen a M1918 BAR dropped on the ground (and the "ground" was basically a mountain of rock) repeatedly, just to get a shot that was cut out of the movie. I wouldn't let a movie company use any irreplaceable weapon of mine for any price.
 
The STG44 was never available in huge numbers, and like others have said was primarily an eastern front rifle. Since most of the eastern front remained under soviet control I'd bet most of the rifles were in soviet arsenals. The soviets were so impressed with the concept of the rifle that they copied it (so to speak) as the AK.

UNLIKE the AK the stg44 had a LOT of parts (duh its german), and while the idea was to make a "cheap" to produce rifle the ammunition and parts supply dried up VERY quickly in postwar germany. I suspect many rifles were destroyed/recycled as part of the general dis-arming of the germans.

also, in post-war europe the idea of "unified" arms and ammunition came into being (that being 7.62 nato) and "experimental" rounds like the 7.92 mm kurz were left by the wayside.

And lastly (and I might get flamed for this) the US was slow to catch onto the idea of the assault rifle, favoring refinements of the garand design for nearly 20 years after the war. So few people had EVER seen an stg44 or similar rifle.

There is one film I can think of where telly Savalas plays a partisan where the partisans all use STG44's. (the name of the movie escapes me)

(note to movie armourers should be EASY to "dress up" an ak as an stg)

Dr.Rob
 
Hi, guys,

There were very few StG44s available in the hey-day of DEWATS, so few were registered in '68. The movie rental houses don't have many of them, either. But I think the major reason they don't show up in movies is that they are not nearly as dramatic and "Nazi-looking" as an MP38/40, of which there are plenty, real and dummy.

This is the same reason movie German officers always carry Lugers, rarely P.38s. The Luger is recognized as German by even a gun ignoramus who thinks a P.38 is an airplane.

Jim
 
Oleg, in the movie where I saw the BAR dropped on the rock, there was a prop available for their use, but the director chose to use the real one while it's owner was out of sight (I was wandering around watching the filming).

Like I said, I wouldn't let those monkeys lay their grubby paws on my firearms.

BTW, they did pay for the damage they did (I think a bent part or two, plus refinishing the stock and rifle).
 
102.jpg

MP44 Sturmgewehr (“storm rifle”)

Since when has Hollywood ever been concerned with depicting anything, let alone military small arms, with historical accuracy? To his credit Speilberg came close with Saving Pvt. Ryan, though there were some gaffs even with the American M1 Garands (the all had the wrong rear sight).

It’s kinda funny, but in history books I see about as many pictures of American troops carrying MP44s as I see pictures of German soldiers with them. Especially after the Battle of the Bulge. I guess our GIs knew a good thing when they saw it. Obviously it impressed the dogfaces more than the Generals and bean counters in the Pentagon.

Lots of MP44s were made but Allied bombing kept most of them from reaching the troops at the front. After WWII the East Germans used MP44s for decades, it’s even possible production continued behind the Iron Curtain long after the end of WWII. I was watching a TV show on the Berlin Wall Crisis, at one point they showed East German boarder guards at a check point and they were all carrying MP44s in circa 1961.

After Germany reunified it was found that the East Germans had over 100,000 MP44s still in war reserve storage. Some of these guns are now being sold in SHOTGUN NEWS as parts kits without the receiver. Another company is selling aluminum mock receivers, so for only $600 or $700 anyone can have their own non-firing Sturmgewehr. -- Kernel
 
Hi, guys,

In German the word "sturm" can mean "storm" but it also means "assault", and that is the translation usually used for the name of the StG44 and the Swiss StG57. So the StG44 was really the world's first "assault rifle."

Neither the "A" in "AK" or the "A" in "AR" stand for "assault". AK means "Automat Kalashnikov" and "AR" is short for "Armalite", the division of Fairchild that originally developed the product line.

Jim



[This message has been edited by Jim Keenan (edited January 07, 2000).]
 
Great info, but whats the kurts Carbiner carbine??????....I thought that was supposed to have been germanys entrance into assault style rifles.....??/tks fubsy.
 
Hi, Fubsy,

The word "kurz" (short) referred in this case to the ammunition which was designated 7.9 kurz to distinguish it from the standard 7.9 rifle ammunition (what we call the 8mm Mauser). The second "k" in Kar.98k also stands for "kurz" but in that case it refers to the rifle itself. A third common use is the German ammunition designation "9mm kurz", which we call the .380 ACP.

Jim

Jim
 
It's funny that you should mention the subject of MP44s/Stg44s Oleg. I remember seeing a photo of a BATF firearms property room/vault (don't know if there is one or many) in a Time or Newsweek article from last year, and I saw what is probably the largest assemblage of Stg/Mp 44s in the US. It looked like there was 7 to 9 of them on one of the racks. So sad to see them not even out in a museum.
 
An excellent example of the MP44 can be found in the Berman Museum in Anniston, AL. This new and relatively little known museum has an outstanding collection of antique and modern firearms and edged weapons.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top