Re: Blood and Iron

Chapter 21: A New Generation of Military Equipment Part I



The year was 1901. In thirteen years, the Great War would break out. While machine guns had existed for the last 20 years or so, they were sparse and mostly used in colonial conflicts. There was a certain air of arrogance among the European powers, or more specifically their military leadership who were focused on the main army.

Machine guns were seen as a crude tool whose only use was mowing down savages. By 1914, when the Great War broke out, the Imperial German Army, who was one of the first nations to truly embrace the concept of the machine gun, had less than 400 total in their entire arsenal.

The French, who would be their initial rivals had perhaps two machine guns for every battalion of soldiers. It was a woefully foolish oversight on behalf of the European powers who would quickly come to realize the effectiveness of machine guns. Even if at the time they were heavy, cumbersome, and static weapons.

Bruno, having two weeks to himself, decided he would begin designing the initial concept blueprints for three weapons. All of which he hoped would give Germany the greatest advantage possible over the course of the next decade as they prepared themselves for the upcoming war.

First and foremost, as much as the Mauser 98 was the pinnacle of military bolt-action rifle designs. The technology already existed to produce a better infantry rifle. The only problem was that the gun designers of the era had not yet perfected how to properly make a semi- automatic rifle that was suitable to military conflicts.

But Bruno was aware of these things. At least in theory. He had a particular interest in firearms in his past life, no doubt due to his time as an infantry officer. And had a general understanding of the basic principles that went into designing self-loading rifles.

He may not be able to make something as modern as a G36 assault rifle. Such a thing required modern composite materials which would not come into existence until at least half a century later. Nor would he be able to provide an optic for every rifle.

But such a thing did not matter in this era. Nor were such weapons ideal for the trenches of the Great War, whose fighting often took place initially over distances greater than what a modern assault rifle was practical at.

No, Bruno felt that a full power, semi-automatic rifle was more suited to such a conflict. And in his past life Germany had made one such rifle during the later days of the Second World War.

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The Gewehr 43, as it was known in his past life. Was a semiautomatic rifle, chambered in 7.92x57 Mauser. It had a detachable 10 round magazine. And a built in dust cover which would prevent mud and debris from entering the action.

If issued to the standard infantryman in the German army, such an increase in firepower and rate of fire would overwhelm the enemies charging at the German trenches. Especially if employed in conjunction with a general purpose machine gun, and a submachine gun.

The Gewehr 43 operated under a principle called the short stroke gas piston. It was a concept employed in many semi-automatic, automatic, and select fire platforms. Even ones designed in the 21st century.

However, unlike later designs, the weapon featured a more unique flapper locking bolt mechanism, rather than the more standard rotating bolt which became common in most modern rifle platforms following the second world war.

In addition to this, the rifle was designed with a built in scope mount on its receiver. Which could be paired with a zf 4 telescopic sight. Though Bruno would also design this quick detachable optic for use among German marksman. He doubted the Reich's ability to mass produce it for every infantryman.

Though there were some design flaws with the rifle that needed adjusting. At least the rifle as it was initially fielded. Its gas system was ridiculously overpowered, so much so that it actually damaged several internal components over time and use. This was later optimized by American companies in the decades after the war had ended.

And Bruno would need to fix this. In addition to this, the rifle lacked a bayonet lug. Which would be crucial in the trenches. Though there were records of prototype designs fitted with a k98k bayonet lug. Which Bruno took inspiration from as he added this feature to his variant of the rifle.

Aside from this, certain components would need to be beefed up in proportion, as they had driven brittle, and prone to failure. Whether this was because the rifle was employed late into the war, and was thus often rushed during production. Or simply because of inherent design flaws. Bruno honestly didn't know.

But he would have years to perfect this rifle design. And would have his father's entire company of weapons engineers to look over his blueprints and fix anything that missed his attention.

With the first draft of the Gewehr 43 auto-loading rifle finished. Something that, as mentioned previously could be improved upon at a later date. Bruno moved onto designing the second most important weapon that came out of the First World War.

The sub-machine gun entered the Great War during its final years. Despite this, it proved to be an effective weapon not only for NCOs in the field but also for crewman and pilots.

The design Bruno had in mind was expensive and time consuming to manufacture. But in his past life it had been nicknamed the Rolls Royce of submachine guns due to its superior quality. The weapon he selected for production was, of course the Steyr-Solothurn MP-34. The MP-34 was contracted by the Austrian firearms manufacturer Steyr, to the Swiss arms corporation Solothurn during the interwar period in Bruno's past life, because of the restrictions imposed by the treaties of Versailles and Trianon which prohibited the Germans and the Austrians from manufacturing sub-machine guns.

It could be chambered in a number of cartridges, but for the sake of his needs, Bruno replicated the 9x19mm Luger design which currently saw service in the form of the Luger Pistol.

It was a handgun cartridge also known as the 9x19mm Parabellum and had proven to be the most popular pistol cartridge adopted by military, law enforcement, and civilians alike even into the modern era.

The MP-34, as it was known in his past life, which, like the other firearms Bruno was currently making initial drafts of, would likely be given a designation in this life. Operated via the open bolt blow-back action. Most sub-machine guns used some variation of direct blowback with an open bolt, and the MP-34 was no exception.

It utilized 32 round detachable double stack magazines. And was effective out to 200m with a rate of fire of 600 rounds per minute. It was a fairly comfortable gun to shoot all things considered, and had other features built into it that were uncommon, such as a bayonet lug, and a magazine loading system.

After designing the MP-34 a rough variation of it. Bruno then began work on the general purpose machine gun he intended to produce for the German Army. The concept of a General Purpose Machine Gun or GPMG was created by the Germans during the interwar period.

The idea was to have one machine gun that could fulfill any role which the military needed. Could it be used by infantry? Yes! Could it be slapped onto a transport vehicle? Absolutely! Could you mount it coaxially with a tank turret? You bet your ass you could! Was it possible to put it on an aircraft? 100% guaranteed or your money back!

And while the MG-42 was designed to replace the earlier MG-34 design during the war. It never really was able to do so. As for certain design reasons, it was incapable of being deployed via means other than as an infantry weapon, or mounted on the top of a light utility

vehicle.

Because of this, and the fact that Bruno wanted to simplify the lines of production in the military. He opted for the MG-34. Which while having a slower, albeit still substantial rate of fire, and was slightly heavier, despite having a slimmer profile. Could be used in any capacity which the German Military needed it.

The MG-34 was an air cooled, recoil operated, open rotating bolt machine gun. Which could fire at a variable rate of 600 - 1,000 rounds per minute, which was selectable via a switch on the grip. All the while making use of the 7.92x57mm Mauser cartridge.

This would be the same cartridge used in the Gewehr 43, and was currently used in the Gewehr98. Meaning ammo commonality would exist between riflemen and machine guns, thus simplifying logistics and military procurement.

It had an effective firing range of 2,000 meters, and a quick change barrel system, which standard doctrine dictated every 200 rounds to swap out the barrel, lest it overheat, or cause other problems such as the cooking off of ammunition in the feed tray.

While one might consider it to be heavy, weighing int at just over 12kg, or slightly over 26 lbs, it was still substantially lighter than the other machine guns of this current era, the lightest of which being the Vickers which weighed a whopping 23kgs, or 51 lbs.

The relatively lightweight, and overall profile of the firearm meant it was man portable, and could be fired from a standing position by the gunner who wielded it. This gave the German Army a significant advantage over their enemies.

Who, when being overrun by the enemy would not be able to carry their machine guns with

them, thus losing access to a critical piece of equipment. This also meant that the machine gun could be moved with the rest of the unit during an assault. And deployed at a moment's notice in case of sudden contact with the enemy.

Finally, it made use of a metallic belt, unlike the cloth belts of the current era. Meaning that it would reliably feed even in the worst of conditions. All in all, if Bruno had his way, the German army would have an enormous advantage in terms of firepower and mobility when it

came to their army.

These were all advantages that could prove to end the Great War much earlier than it had

during his past life, if the Germans played their cards right that is. As for how Bruno planned for these weapons to be used. The standard doctrine of the German Army in WW2 at a squad level was exactly what Bruno was going for in this life.

Because of this, he planned to give every NCO a submachine gun, one man a general purpose machine gun, to be operated by himself, and another soldier who carried and loaded the ammo. While the rest of the eight men in the squad were equipped with a rifle. In this case, rather than the bolt action k98k, he planned to have them issued with the semiautomatic G43. Of course, to do this, Bruno would need to send these designs to his father, who would, in turn approve them for prototyping. Where the designs would be tweaked and perfected by his engineers, who in turn would spend the next 4-5 years making sure they were perfectly functional, before shipping them off to the military arms trials where they could finally be approved for service.

Only after all of this would the weapons be mass produced and issued to soldiers. The entire process could take up to a decade to fully become issued to soldiers. Giving Germany roughly three years or more to fully equip their army with the next generation of infantry weapons

that Bruno had just designed.

Despite having spent nearly an entire three days working on these designs. There were plenty

of other things which Bruno needed to invent or improve upon within the coming days that would have to go through a similar and lengthy process in order to be adopted by the Army.

These included new uniforms, helmets, gas masks, artillery, airplanes. Et Cetera. None of which Bruno could manufacture without the aid of his father's company. Or gain the approval for adoption without his father's influence within the Bundesrat.

Needless to say, Bruno would have to spend years fighting tooth and nail to get the German

Army properly equipped for the upcoming Great War. And he would need to make use of his father's wealth, influence, and power to succeed in this endeavor.

But that path to victory was never won without the shedding of sweat, blood, and tears. And Bruno was more than happy to pay such a price to ensure the Reich emerged victorious in this new millennium.