.276 Peterson would have certainly made for a handier and easier to shoot Garand, but who knows if it would have had decent terminal ballistics {the 6.5 Arisaka struggled in this regard} and barrier penetration, particularly when used in the MG role?
Greatest battle implement ever devised - SVT-40? Stg44? .. or M1 Garand
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I can guarantee you will start a minor fire with that comment. first of all, I totally agree that the SKS is a very good rifle and if i had to decide between it and a Garand to save my butt in the latter days of WW2 I would definitely pick the SKS if there actually was such a firearm at that time. The problem is that there wasn't. I don't profess to be any kind of expert on this but I've taken an interest in the subject and done a lot of research and Unfortunately there is ZERO compelling evidence that the SKS was actually fielded and tested in the last days of World War 2.
As far as I can tell from the top Russian source for such things, Chumak, there were Simonov-pattern prototype rifles tested in some fairly unimportant theater in the Eastern front, but while these had many of the design features that would later show up in the SKS these tests guns we're in 7.62X54R and performed badly.
You probably know this but the Germans kept a fastidious inventory of all of the foreign guns they had ever encountered. Here is that list of German designations of foreign firearms in World War II[/B]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_designations_of_foreign_firearms_in_World_War_II The SKS isn’t on the list. Nor was an SKS Reviewed by the US military after the war as they did with any Foreign firearms that they could get their hands on.
As for photographic evidence there is a picture of a guy with an SKS in what is supposed to be as seen from the siege of Berlin. This has since been proven to be a hoax since the guy next to him is armed with a Stechkin pistol - which was introduced in service in 1951.
The really bad news is that the SKS wasn’t even an asset in The Korean War, even though the Koreans were supplied by both the Russians and the Chinese. Obviously it had its day in Vietnam.
As for the persistent but wrong reports that there were SKS rifles used in WW2 I have always wondered if bpeople could have been confusing the SKT-40 with the SKS. From a distance it has a similar profile to the SKS. The SKT-40 was the carbine variant of the SVT-40 with a barrel which is 200mm shorter and a suitably shorten stock and gas system. IT appears in list of German designations of foreign firearms in World War II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_designations_of_foreign_firearms_in_World_War_II as the Selbstladegewehr 259/2(r)
Here's a picture of a Soviet soldier holding an SKT-40 (A.K.A SVT-40 carbine) in 1942 (source http://www.kalashnikov.ru/medialibrary/2a0/v-raznyh-variantah.pdf)
Got any photographic evidence of an SKS in use in WW2?
If your definition of a successful firearms design is based on years of active service, then by far and away the winning pattern is destined to be the M1 carbine. This handy little firearm - which we would probably refer to as a personal defense weapon today - was originally conceived as and easier-to-shoot alternative to the Colt 1911 - for use in the hands of non-infantry people like cooks, truck drivers, mortar men, etc. It was developing no time by commercial interests and went on to punch WAY above its weight AND very quickly became adopted as a frontline weapon; something it was never intended to be.
The Amerikanskis produced over 6 million of these darn little things, and they made a big impact in WW2, the Korean War and, yes, Vietnam. As a matter of fact, they were heavily used by the Israelis after that - and they still seem to really like this gun and its cartridge.
And yes these things are so darn good that they still make them today
More to the point, there is clear video evidence to suggest that the M1 carbine will be with us, as an important weapon for several thousand years to come! Anybody who's ever seen the original Planet of the Apes understands that. Charlton Heston's character is pretty good with one of these, as are those nasty horse-mounted gorilla types.
Clearly, no goofy, old school Garands are still in use thousands of years in the future.
If your definition of a successful firearms design is based on years of active service, then by far and away the winning pattern is destined to be the M1 carbine. This handy little firearm - which we would probably refer to as a personal defense weapon today - was originally conceived as and easier-to-shoot alternative to the Colt 1911 - for use in the hands of non-infantry people like cooks, truck drivers, mortar men, etc. It was developing no time by commercial interests and went on to punch WAY above its weight AND very quickly became adopted as a frontline weapon; something it was never intended to be.
The Amerikanskis produced over 6 million of these darn little things, and they made a big impact in WW2, the Korean War and, yes, Vietnam. As a matter of fact, they were heavily used by the Israelis after that - and they still seem to really like this gun and its cartridge.
And yes these things are so darn good that they still make them today
More to the point, there is clear video evidence to suggest that the M1 carbine will be with us, as an important weapon for several thousand years to come! Anybody who's ever seen the original Planet of the Apes understands that. Charlton Heston's character is pretty good with one of these, as are those nasty horse-mounted gorilla types.
Clearly, no goofy, old school Garands are still in use thousands of years in the future.
The M-1 Carbine was definitely a terrific firearm; if Patton had a more open mind, perhaps he would have said so himself...
Tankarchives has a letter asking for the SKS prototypes to be tested at the front, but the commander was reluctant to let them actually be in combat due to several different factors, such as speed of advance (preventing them from training with it), and the intensity of fighting (a possibility of losing a prototype and being unable to observe combat effects)
Coyote Ugly
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Either way you have to admit that it was pretty gutsy of this guy to take a dump in Hilter's personal Volkswagen
I guess in the world of Steelgray, it's all well and good to make childish jokes about bodily functions - even if it does potentially involve someone who ended up as a political prisoner in the Third Reich and was killed in combat. Oh, and the fellows wife (assuming the fellow was August Landmesser) died in a concentration camp.
Yeah, the joke that just keeps on giving.
Yeah, the joke that just keeps on giving.
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