In any serious history of the development of modern infantry smallarms, the FG42 is considered VERY advanced, long "before it's time"...offering characteristics that still have not been fielded since. For instance, in semi-auto, it fires with the bolt closed, as one would for accuracy. But, put the selector on AUTO (or whatever the German Army designation looks like!), and you can see this in the video, the bolt carrier is retained to the rear upon cocking, "open bolt"...and slams shut when you pull the trigger, then is retained "open" when you end the burst. This is how 95% of machineguns operate, and about 85% of submachineguns like the UZI and Sterling/STEN (the most common exception being the Mp-5). All assault rifles and all battle rifles are "closed bolt" as their semi-auto accuracy is more important.
Open bolt is done mainly for two reasons: in SMG's it's done because it makes it simple in parts and easy to manufacture. In GPMG's it's done because of the massive heat buildup from extended full automatic bursts, from cartridges similar to typical hunting rifles. The heat buildup presents two problems: the possibility of "cooking off" a cartridge sitting in a very hot chamber (so you don't let it sit there at all), and the barrel heat just kills it's life. So...the instant you aren't shooting, the cartridges are nowhere near the chamber, and the barrel now sheds heat not only from the muzzle, but from the chamber area too.
My question is simply: how did they get permission to make these as select fire!?!? LOL! When I lived there, they did have civilian gun ownership, but it seemed to be a much bigger hassle and more restrictions than Canada. I would GUESS that these guys had special circumstance permission to make these...I can't imagine any customers could buy these in full automatic except perhaps official purchases by Western armies for museums and laboratories...maybe a handful of Americans with dealer status (Class2 or 3 dealers? Dunno how that works).
It may not have been in many battles in WW2, but it has huge historical significance, all out of proportion to the number fielded.
