Did the Germans have a rifle in ww11 that could fire around corners?

Question

I remember reading something about it along time ago.

Answer 1

The Americans did sometimes use a rifle with a mirror on it which could be pointed round a corner and aimed. The bullet would of course always travel in a straight line once fired.

I saw that on Saving Private Ryan, so it must be true.

Answer 2

Get a Ruger Mini 14 or Ruger Mini 30 Ranch Rifles....... This is a great all around rifle... The 14 fires .223 ammo and the mini 30 shoots 7.62x39MM...... Ammo is way cheaper than most other centerfire cartridges..... .22 cartridges are rim fire - meaning the firing pit hits the rim of the bullet, very underpowered..... Centerfire is what most higher powered cartridges use. They have a center primer cap that sets the gunpowder off and fires the bullet.....

Answer 3

I was just reading about this just now in a book i have. The germans developed an attachment to the MP43/ STG44 Assault rifle. It was a bent device called a krummlauf that attached to the barrel of the weapon to direct bullets round corners. It was developed for clearing tank killing infantry squads from armoured vehicles. It however never worked properly.

By the way mate WW11 means world war eleven the correct way to write it would be WWII using roman numerals.

Answer 4

Trixe bordello is right this was a rifle used by tank crews to shoot at the enemy when they did not have cover fire to protect blind spots and it did work but wore out quickly due to friction of bullet at the bend in the barrel

Answer 5

There was a version of the MP38/40 with a curved barrel and a sort of periscope sighting arrangement, issued to tank crews, as a deterrent to any attacking infantry sheltering in any blind spot, waiting to strike. They were quite successful but not issued in great numbers. and erosion of the curved barrel was a problem.

Answer 6

Who knows, by the time WW11 gets here they might but in WWII they didn't.

Answer 7

yes the weapon in question was one of the fire true assault rifles . mp44.. it came in many variations including one that had a specially formed barrel that could be fired round corners

Answer 8

Yep.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.2482

Answer 9

To my understanding they were working on one, and it tested fairly well. But not well enough, too many times it would backfire on the user.

Nazi Germany had a lot of good ideas, but never enough money or technical know-how to effectively implement these ideas. Everything kept coming in too late and/or in too small amounts to make a difference in the end.

Answer 10

Yes they did it had a curved barrel but not at 90deg.