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Courtesy of the book "Sturmgewehr!: from firepower to striking power" apparently on the eve of war the Luftwaffe developed a strong interest in the weapon and nearly adopted it but for war being around the corner (same with the German army apparently). What if the Luftwaffe ended up adopting it right before WW2 as a paratrooper weapon to replace both the MP38 and Kar98K and the MG34 as the squad support weapon? It would mean using it for Norway and France in 1940 and then Crete in 1941. I'd imagine they'd have to convert it to 7.92 caliber instead of the 7.75 of the final prototype and in time adopt a Garand solution to the muzzle gas trap construction.

Given that the weapon was about the weight of the MP40 (which could be jumped with) and could be modified to have a folding stock (unlike the StG44 it did not have a spring in the stock) and effectively be a more efficient and less expensive FG-42 (replace that weapon entirely), it could be jumped with even with the crappy jump setup the German Fallschirmjager had until 1942. Does that have an impact on the heavy casualties of 1940-41? What would the Allied response be to such a weapon revealed in 1940? How about the impact on the German army, Hitler, and the Soviets in 1940?
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