"Rusting quickly": what else did German soldiers say about captured Soviet PPSh assault rifles?

In the course of any war, the parties to the conflict quite actively "change" weapons in the course of hostilities. Weapons go to opponents as trophies. This applies to both hand and heavy weapons. So, for example, in the Wehrmacht, captured Shpagin submachine guns were quite actively used. What was the opinion of the German soldiers and officers of them?

Soviet PPs were a welcome trophy. / Photo: militaryexp.com.

In World War II, the main weapon for most of the infantry on both sides was still a manual reloading rifle. In the Soviet Union they used the grandfather's Mosinka, and in Nazi Germany they armed themselves with the no less grandfather's Mauser, which still remembers the First World War. In this regard, light machine guns, self-loading rifles and, of course, submachine guns have always been a welcome trophy, both in the Wehrmacht and in the Red Army.

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In general, the Germans praised the machine gun. / Photo: popgun.ru.

German officers and soldiers often recalled the Soviet “Daddy” in their memoirs after the war. In most cases, the Germans noted that this weapon was ideal for close combat. First of all, thanks to the 71-round drum and high rate of fire, which made the PPSh-41 virtually a small light machine gun in the minds of the invaders.

The Germans liked the machine gun. / Photo: maxpark.com.

Also, the Germans positively noted the severity of the PPSh precisely in the context of hand-to-hand combat weapons. The machine gun with cartridges weighed about 5 kg, which, coupled with a powerful wooden butt, made it a "serious argument" when there was nothing else left. German soldiers praised the Soviet machine gun for its high reliability and simplicity of design. At the same time, the Germans, like ours, did not like the drum equipment mechanism. It was too complex and required increased attention. But most of all the Germans scolded "Daddy" for the quality of the metal. The Wehrmacht soldiers did not like the fact that the machine gun needed to be regularly lubricated. Otherwise, the weapon began to quickly rust in the difficult conditions of the eastern front.

Felix Steiner. / Photo: blogspot.com.

However, the best characteristic for the PPSh is the appeal of Felix Steiner by the commander of the Waffen SS Viking division from 1942 to the highest ranks of the state leadership. Steiner proposed setting up production of its own PPSh-41 in Germany, chambered for the German MP-40 cartridge. He argued his proposal by the fact that the Soviet machine gun is ideal for the war on the eastern front. As a result, the production of MP-41 (r) submachine guns was launched in Germany, which, in fact, were an exact copy of the Soviet "Papas".