"How do you distribute G43 and StG44's ?" Topic

For games where this matters.. Nuts and similar platoon and below skirmishes, how do you generally distribute the special German rifles (G43 and StG44) ?

I recall doing the math from Bayonetstrength.com that a german squad, if all the rifles that were available on paper was present, would have 2-3 G43's, assuming they were spread evenly (which pictures seem to indicate, but is this the case ?)

Of course in many cases the guns werent available, so reducing it to a chance of 1 or 2 seems reasonable. D6-3 or -4 maybe per squad ?

For StG's, I know they were intended to replace the armaments of 2 squads in the platoon, but how strict was this adhered to ?

Also, does anyone know if Sturmgewehr squads would still carry an MG42 or was this left to the third squad in the platoon ?

I often go with a up to two G43 per squad, or an overall pool of say up to 5 or 6 for the platoon. That seems to cover the limited nature of G43 usage for most German formations.

Stg 44s I allow for something similar, unless you are doing a fully equipped Sturm platoon.

I think that Stg 44 usage seems like an all or nothing type of distribution. While there weren't many Sturm platoons fielded, it seems that many of them were fully equipped when they were fielded. At least that is my understanding. So I would say that when you do use a Sturm platoon, you would generally find it fully equipped. Of course, you could always strip it down a little and that would be realistic.

IIRC the third squad had two MG-42s, the rest of that squad had Stg 44s. It was definitely a fearsome unit when fielded full strength. Not too many of them running around out there (except in some units and some locations/campaigns).

That would make for an interesting game, especially on the defensive, with lots of firepower, but generally lower quality troops.

They would probably be emboldened in the attack too, at least until they start losing men, when they would be more likely to break than other units, making them much like some WWII steel armor – strong, yet brittle.

Out of the back of an Opel Blitz.

Ba dum chish.

What Iron Ivan said – Stg 44 tended be all or nothing, but with a couple of MGs retained in the platoon, there was usually a 'properly' equipped platoon in the company as well with the full complement of MGs.

I tend to just treat these as SMG platoons in higher level games as it seems to have made little practical difference on the battlefield whether thay had MP40s, Stg44s or Volks MPs.

I don't usually bother to treat semi-auto or bolt action rifles separately, certainly not in the limited numbers which were available (unlike US infantry squads).

I agree largely with Martin.
One proviso.
By late war you could fairly often find squads with one stg44 in em.
Otherwise, full sections of the things largely the smg platoon and no mg42.

Everyone's riflemen were much less effective than they ought to have been theoretically.
So whether they had a bolt action, semi auto. full auto, 5, 8, 10, 30 rounds per clip was almost irrelevent.
Give them laser rifles and they would still not be shooting effectively because training and motivation are more important than the weapon carried.

I like to have a real mixture of weapons in the late war sections that I field. I think by 1945 German sections carried whatever was to hand, rather than what they theoretically should have had. So a section of late war Germans that I've just painted (TAG 28mm) has 2 MG42s, 5 K98 riflemen, 2 Stg44s and 1 Ppsh SMG. Arguably that is two men over theoretical strength, but this lot picked up a couple of stragglers in the retreat across the Ukraine. That and they are dressed in a mixture of late war/early war clothing, just to simulate a rag-tag scratch-assembled bunch of survivors waiting for the next Russian onslaught!