…By the end of 1939 most nations had begun the process of phasing out their WWI holdover small arms for a more modern set of weapons. Usually this consisted of new machine guns, semi-automatic pistols, sub machine guns and semi-automatic rifles. There were however exceptions to this trend due to various local and financial considerations.
The British for example were satisfied with their Thompson submachine guns from the 20’s and saw no need for more of the weapons. Similarly they were satisfied with their revolvers for sidearms and decided on cost grounds not to purchase a semi-automatic pistol. To replace their Lewis guns, the Holek, a derivative of the Czech ZB 26 was adopted, at first in .303 but later .276 Enfield. Similarly the British went Czech to replace their Vickers guns, choosing a derivative of the ZB-53 as the Rolik gun, that being a mispronunciation of the designers name. Finally the Number 39 rifle was adopted to replace the Enfield, a derivative of the Danish-American Bang rifle of the early 20’s it was unique in having a full bolt action as a backup to the Semi-Automatic system. This decision was made as many in the British Amy were worried about a semi-automatic action not holding up to trench conditions. The new rifle, medium machine gun and later models of the light machine gun were chambered in an updated derivative of .276 Enfield, whose adoption had been precluded by a combination of immature technology and the outbreak of WWI. The adoption of the Rolik made the choice of a rimless cartridge to replace .303 British a necessity and the .276 was chosen for its long range accuracy over the other option of 7.92x57mm Mauser that was being consider.
The members British Empire did not all follow the mother country’s lead in small arms. Almost all preferred to stick with .303 British as their main service cartridge and none chose to adopt the Number 39 Rifle, instead sticking with the Lee Enfield. India adopted the French Bertheier Machine gun instead of the Holek, while Canada adopted the Hout, a development of their Ross Rifle, South Africa modified the Lee Enfield into the Rieder Automatic Rifle, and Australia and New Zealand did the same to the Lee Enfield with their Charlton. The Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders all planned to adopt the Holek in .303 but needed a stopgap before that happened.
By contrast to the British the Germans were sticking with their bolt Action rifles in 7.92x57mm Mauser for reasons of cost, having to equip a large army without masses of WWI surplus meant they could not afford more advanced semi-automatic rifles, instead issuing a simplified carbine version of the venerable Gewehr 98. A cheaper 9mm pistol from Walther was chosen to replace the costly Luger. In submachine guns the Germans replaced their secretly amassed MP-18 derivatives with a simpler Vollmer derived series of progressively simpler designs in 9mm. In machine guns the Germans were the most innovative and they developed the MG-35 in 1933, the first general purpose machine gun, almost as light as a dedicated LMG but as effective at sustained fire as a medium machine gun, it would replace all of their legacy machine guns as quickly as possible. The Germans mostly stuck with 7.92 Mauser as their standard rifle cartridge, even for the experimental semi-automatic Gebirgjager Rifle issued in small numbers, but a shortened 7x43mm version of the Spanish Mauser cartridge was adopted for the Falschrimjagers automatic rifle. These two low production weapons were meant as combat prototypes to determine if Germany should skip to true assault rifles as some post WWI analyses suggested, or simply stick with semi-automatic.
The French were one of the very few powers to adopt a totally new bolt action rifle in the late 30’s. Despite adopting a semi-automatic in the closing days of WWI, and attempting to adopt one before the war, the French had never managed to equip a large portion of their forces with it, and most RSCs had been converted to bolt action in the 30’s to improve reliability. Their experience had showed them that they wanted a Semi-Automatic even before WWI, but their budget meant they could not equip all of their forces with it, so a new bolt Action, the MAS -36 in their new 7.5mm cartridge was developed to complement the MAS-38 semi-automatic for use with colonial and reserve troops and replace the obsolescent before WWI Lebel and the stopgap Berthier. This was combined with the MAS 39 7.65mm SMG based on Vollmers captured in Spain, and a semi-automatic pistol in the same cartridge. Uniquely the French did not attempt a major upgrade of their machine guns, having done so in the 20’s, and settled for merely rechambering them to the new cartridge.
Italy was odd in introducing two new rifle/machine gun calibers in the late 30’s. The Italians had realized that sharing ammunition between belt fed machine guns and stripper clip fed rifles never occurred in practice, thus they could afford to specialize rather than adopt a compromise caliber, choosing 7.35x51mm for magazine fed weapons and 8x63mm Swedish for their belt fed weapons to replace the obsolescent 6.5mm Carcano. The former was used in the Breda M1935 semi-automatic rifle and the M1937 domestic copy of the Czech ZB26 machine gun, the latter in their FIAT M1935 and Breda M1938 medium machine guns. These were supported by conversions of existing bolt action rifles to 7.35mm and a number of excellent 9mm pistols and submachine guns from Breda.
Japan was fairly conservative in its development of small arms. It introduced a copy of the Czech ZB26, as many powers did, but otherwise stuck with bolt action rifles and strip operated, oil lubricated, heavy machine guns, admittedly new models chambered in a new rimless 7.7mm cartridge that was non interchangeable with the rimmed 7.7mm cartridge already used by the IJN. It continued to issue its standard automatic pistol from the 20’s and only tentatively began development of an SMG based on the MP18 after seeing its success in urban warfare in China. They continued to have a number of odd approaches, having finally ended their insistence on rifles having overly long barrels for bayonet fighting they instead begin issuing them with sights for AA use, and they remained the only developed country to widely issue swords as actual sidearms.
Despite the Soviet reputation by the end of 1940 they had arguable made the most progress of any nation bar the US in reequipping their infantry. A new reliable light machine gun with a unique pan magazine had replaced all their older models, which mostly went to Spain or China. Two different semi-automatic rifles were produced and by the start of 1940 a third of frontline infantry had the new weapon and a new medium machine gun was being introduced. All of these used the venerable 7.62x54mmR cartridge for reasons of logistics. In terms of lighter arms they were supported by pistols in a modified 7.63mm Mauser cartridge and a well-designed sub machine gun in the same, though lagging production meant that revolvers continued to be produced alongside automatic pistols.
The United States had, of the major powers, done the best of rearming its infantry. By the start of 1940 the Springfield and Enfield rifles were phased out of the regular army and work on equipping the National Guard with the new semi-automatic rifle had begun. The new belt fed BAR variant had totally replaced the Lewis gun and older BAR models, outside of units using the short Jungle Model BAR for patrol work, and the new lightweight and simplified Grease Gun SMG had replaced the Thompson. The United States was satisfied with only minor changes to its M1911 pistol and M1919 Machine gun, both of which had been fairly advanced when introduced and remained broadly competitive. The main issue was that of the two caliber system the US had adopted for its service rifles, with the Regular Army getting .30-06 and the National Guard .276, leaving their rifle ammunition non interchangeable. This however was considered an improvement over the Pedersen were the same infantryman would be carrying .30-06 and .30 Longue, and the plan was to reequip deployed National Guard units in the case of a colonial war or to divert .30-06 to training in the case of a world war…
…By the end of 1939 the German Army was operating on the assumption that war was imminent. This meant that many mid-term development programs had to be ceased as they would not be ready in time. Most prominent among these was the Panzer VI program. Issues with its suspension and new engine were proving extremely difficult to solve. The decision was thus made to cancel it and to build a variant of the Panzer V with slightly thinner armor, the intended 5cm gun and the originally intended weapon as an ersatz cavalry tank…
…The overall timing of WWII proved problematic for many nations. It was long enough after the Great Depression for money to be available to finally start replacing obsolescent if not obsolete equipment from the Great War, if not before. However it was not long enough for that process to have been underway for very long. Thus almost everyone found themselves facing a dilemma without an easier answer, do they stick with the older equipment or do they go with the new, either approach being problematic and resulting in logistical difficulties. The question many would find themselves asking was how badly do they need equipment now as opposed to later…
-Excerpt from Steel Talons: Armed Forces of the Interwar, Dewitt Publishing, Los Angeles, 2011
Okay we will get to important developments next week, assuming my cringey side project doesn't eat my time
