Did the germans have better guns than the british in WW2?

Question

In the films the german soldiers tended to all have machine guns, where as the british had single shot rifles(lee enfields) apart from when they nicked one off the germans.

Answer 1

the british weapon gpmg that is still in use with the armed forces world over is based on a design that the germans used in the second world war so yes the germans did have better weapons

Answer 2

Hold on there. The Lee Enfield Rifle was of the First World War and not the second. In any case, the Lee Enfield Rifle had nine rounds in the magazine and one up the spout making a total of ten rounds ready. This is of WW-One. The German army then were still in c1914, using single shot rifles while the Brits had the Lee Enfield.

By WW2 both armies pretty much had infantry weapons of similar quality and capability. The best light machine-gun of WW2 was the Bren Gun light and easy to carry with a two man crew.

The lightest handheld machine guns of both the German and British army were for the Germans the Mauser sub-machine gun and for the British the very cheap [less than fifty pence to make] sub-machine gun called the Sten Gun. It was dirt cheap and subject to occasional jamming. Have used one of these and can testify to the fact that it was a pretty crap weapon but better than nothing. Used mainly for house to house street fighting where it was very effective.

Do you have anyone in your family with a military history? No WW2 veterans? You really must get to meet some veterans of WW2, they will put you in the picture.

Answer 3

The Lee Enfield was a very good rifle with fast reloading and a 10 shot mag It also had a good range (300 yards plus)
The machine pistols seen in the movies had a range of about 40 yards.
The standard german mauser rifle only held 5 rounds and could not be fired as quickly as the Lee Enfield.
I would much rather have a Lee Enfield .

Answer 4

The German Rifle was inferior to the Lee Enfield, however the Schmiesser and MG42 where far superior to the Sten and Bren.
However the Germans did not all use them, each platoon had about the same firepower as a British platoon.

Answer 5

more near the end of the war, the germans tended to use more and more of machine guns.
I suppose the Lee Enfield was better than the Mauser. Single shot rifles were widely used on both sides.
When it came to machine guns, german technology was simply better. The MG42 and Stg 44 were top notch.

Answer 6

The weapons that both sides used reflected their industries. The Germans were known for their expertise in clockwork and similar mechanisms, and their weapons, especially the Mauser reflected this.
Weapons like the Sten gun and the Lee Enfield were very industrial in their appearance, on the sten especially.
That is not to say that the German weapons were better, the Mauser had a tendency to spontaneously 'go off'.

Answer 7

The British Lee Enfield was a very good weapon and was used in a limited role by snipers up to the 1970's.The British were provided with 'Tommy guns by the US although there was some resistance at first by Senior officers who didn't want their men using 'gangsters weapons'.There was also the sten gun which was used extensively and for decades after the war.

Answer 8

I would say that the German tanks were superior to the British tanks, especially early in the war. But overall, British weapons killed just as effectively as German weapons did. The real difference was that the British were not prepared or trained for the blitzkreig (lightning war) tactics used by the Germans which resulted in confusion, panic, retreat, demoralization and ultimately evacuation.

Answer 9

The British Army tended to use bolt action weapons which were single shot because, they had always been trained to use single aimed shots as this creates good conservation of ammunition.
Machine guns such as (Thompson and Sten guns) were used for fighting in built up areas and for close quarter fighting.
The Bren gun and Vickers were used as support weapons as they had good range and a high cyclic rate of fire.

Answer 10

the best well known big gun was the 88 which could pick off any tank of the day including the russian T.34.
the germans then mounted the 88 on the fearsome tiger tank.
the russian tommy gun type was better than the germans counterpart for close quarter fighting.
in general then i think the germans had the edge in quality.