The WWII Thread

[mrstickball]

sethnintendo said:

Troll_Whisperer said:

I didn't want to imply that the US didn't have a big impact, which it did, especially in the Pacific front. Just that so many movies and games make it seemed like it was US v everything. Of course, someone who's very informed of WWII as you is not going to have that image, I'm talking about people who's only source of information in this matter are movies, games, etc.

To be perfectly honest I'm not a big expert in WWII (though I know how it played out in general terms and what role the parts played), and especially don't know much about the weapons used during the war, so I didn't know about the T-34, thanks for that. However, I have the feeling that, despite people making it seem like the US and USSR were equal powers during the cold war, the American economy and engineering was always much better (despite Russia having more nuclear weapons, launching to space first, etc), so you're probably right.

I was actually trying to find an original weapon made by the Russians and I came up with the AK-47.  After looking at the Wiki page on the AK-47 it can be pulled from there that they really were just copying the assault rifle idea mainly from Germany with their StG44.  Since the Russians had plenty of experience towards the end of the war with Germany infantry being equipped with StG44 they obviously saw the value in the assault rifle.  Anyways, the AK-47 was and still is an amazing gun and has proven reliability.  I am sure there are plenty of original weapons ideas that the Russians have come up with but I just can't find any that are completely original.  However, it can be said that most weapons are just improvements based off of previous weapons. 

Russia had a few other guns during the war that also were precurors to the AK-47.

The initial development of the AK-47 sprung from the SKS, which was developed and chambered in the 'intermediate' 7.62x39 cartridge which became the de-facto golden standard of firearm calibers for the next 50 years. The SKS was developed in parallel with the STG-44, so one could argue that neither were more innovative than the other. The SKS was more rifle-based while the STG-44 was more machine-pistol based (with its smaller x33 cartridge configuration).

The SKS is an amazing, AMAZING weapon. Not as proliferated as the AK by any measure, but my dad (ergo my brother and I) own 3 - two Chinese types and a Russian type. Fantastic weapons of war. A lot of poorer nations adopted the SKS if they couldn't afford/get their hands on an AK-47 like Vietnam did during their struggle for independence and their war against America.