Not assault rifles?

A question, more than a WI. We all know the assault rifle was invented in Germany & gets its name from the German Sturmgewehr. So, what if the assault rifle was invented elsewhere? Say, the U.S. makes the Garand in .308 Short, instead. (Don't worry about how.) What would it be called? (My first thought is "carbine", but...:p)
 

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A question, more than a WI. We all know the assault rifle was invented in Germany & gets its name from the German Sturmgewehr. So, what if the assault rifle was invented elsewhere? Say, the U.S. makes the Garand in .308 Short, instead. (Don't worry about how.) What would it be called? (My first thought is "carbine", but...:p)
Why not assault rifle?
 
Why not assault rifle?

Because the whole "assault rifle" moniker was something given to the StG 44, previously referred to as the MP (Maschinenpistole) 43/44, by Hitler because he liked calling it something more aggressive than the technical name given. If the first assault rifles were invented somewhere else or rose to prominence elsewhere the odds are pretty good they'd be called something like automatic rifles, battle rifles, heavy submachine guns, or something similar and much more technical.
 
well only the name was invented there, the type of weapon existed earlier

can read this thread: https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=215966

there is a possibility that a brand name of the specific weapon become the name for this type of weapon for example 'Mondragon' (which was one of the earliest of this type of weapon)

One of the big differences between the Mondragon and later assault rifles that would develop, like one particular model from Tsarist Russia during the same period that looks a lot like an AK-47, is most models used a clip the size of a standard rifle clip of five to ten rounds. Later stuff of what we think of as assault rifles OTL carry clips more in line with submachine guns of 20-30 rounds giving more capacity for suppressing fire. Some Mondragons used 30 round drums but this wasn't the norm.
 
Automatic rifles. People in the armed forces would just call them rifles. The term was only adopted because they served alongside conventional bolt action rifles and would not have been used in an army that adopted them as a universal infantry weapon. The US Army just called the Garand a rifle.
 
AdA said:
Automatic rifles. People in the armed forces would just call them rifles. The term was only adopted because they served alongside conventional bolt action rifles and would not have been used in an army that adopted them as a universal infantry weapon. The US Army just called the Garand a rifle.
The difference is, the Garand used the full-power .30-'06 round. I'm proposing a short, lower-power round. If anything, I'd guess "automatic carbine" would be standard. Automatic rifle sounds likely (but boring:p).
 
The US M1 Carbine came in a full auto version, had extended magazines available, a short lower powered propellant package than the common infantry rifles, was more compact than those. Anyone remember when it was designed & put into production?
 
Carl Schwamberger said:
The US M1 Carbine came in a full auto version, had extended magazines available, a short lower powered propellant package than the common infantry rifles, was more compact than those. Anyone remember when it was designed & put into production?
1940, IIRC. Not really on-point.
 
Avtomats?

Had Russia not fallen into revolution and civil war, perhaps they'd be known as "Federov's" or "Avtomats" if the Russian army refined them, and put then into use in the 20's?
 
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1907 Winchester in .351 WSL
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180 gr bullet@1,870 ft/s

French had around 2200 modified to select fire during WWI.
fusil Mle 1907...Rifle, model 1907
 
Had Russia not fallen into revolution and civil war, perhaps they'd be known as "Federov's" or "Avtomats" if the Russian army refined them, and put then into use in the 20's?
Avtomat doesn't roll off the tongue, but I did have the same idea when I saw the OP, I was thinking they could be, in English, called "Automats".
 
Avtomat doesn't roll off the tongue, but I did have the same idea when I saw the OP, I was thinking they could be, in English, called "Automats".
And from there, it may be "extended" into "Automatic rifles" and then shortened into "autorifles".

I tend towards "machine-carbine" myself, but that doesn't quite convey the ability to select-fire.
 
"Parachute Rifles" ..... specifically the Fallschirmsgwehr 42 Mark 2 .... if intermediate cartridges had not been developed.
 
The difference is, the Garand used the full-power .30-'06 round. I'm proposing a short, lower-power round. If anything, I'd guess "automatic carbine" would be standard. Automatic rifle sounds likely (but boring:p).

That's not the point. The term carbine was for something that was not meant to replace rifles. In most armies whatever the infantry uses as standard weapon is called a rifle, as in the weapon riflemen carry. You only use other monikers for something that complements, but not replaces, rifles. If the Germans had totally replaced both the KAR98 and the G43 with the Stg44, it would be called the model 1944 rifle.
When the Martini Henry was issued, it wasn't called a breech loading rifle in service, just a rifle.
 
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