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108-482: The Gewehr 43 or Karabiner 43 (abbreviated G43 , K43 , Gew 43 , Kar 43 ) is a 7.92×57mm Mauser caliber semi-automatic rifle developed by Germany during World War II . The design was based on that of the earlier G41(W) but incorporated an improved short-stroke piston gas system similar to that of the Soviet SVT-40 . Germany's quest for a semi-automatic infantry rifle resulted in two designs –

216-472: A basic gas-actuated self-loading infantry rifle and carbine that would eject the spent cartridge and reload a new round using a gas-operated system. Designing a rifle that was practical in terms of effectiveness, reliability, and production was difficult, and it took fifteen years to perfect the M1 prototype model to meet all the U.S. Army specifications. The resulting Semi-Automatic, Caliber .30, M1 Rifle

324-543: A basis for several future weapons, such as Browning machine guns ( M1917 , M1919, and M2 ). Mannlicher produced smokeless powder versions of his guns, beginning in the early 1890s, until his death in 1904, . In 1903 and 1905, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company introduced the first low power blowback (shell operated) semi-automatic rimfire and centerfire rifles. The Winchester Model 1903 and Winchester Model 1905 operated on

432-474: A contract for the construction of a larger, more modern brick factory, an expanded connecting waterway, and a direct supply of bricks and prisoners for construction work in the city. On 4 June, the Neuengamme concentration camp became an independent camp ( German: Stammlager) , and transports began to arrive from all over Germany and soon the rest of Europe. As the death rate climbed between 1940 and 1942,

540-530: A crematorium was constructed in the camp. In the same year, the civilian corporations Messap and Jastram opened armament plants on the camp site and used concentration camp prisoners as their workforces. After the war turned in Stalingrad , Nazis imprisoned millions of Soviets in the concentration camp system and Soviet POWs became the largest prisoner group in the Neuengamme camp and received brutal treatment by SS guards. The first satellite camp of Drütte

648-631: A favorable reception among troops. However, its shortened and improved version, the Model 1918, was used more during the Moroccan Rif War from 1920 to 1926. Still, the bolt-action Lebel Model 1886 rifle remained the standard French infantry rifle until being replaced in 1936 by the MAS-36 , another bolt action, despite the various semi-automatic rifles designed between 1918 and 1935. Other nations experimented with self-loading rifles during

756-608: A functional prototype, which was later designated the M1888 Forsøgsrekylgevær . This rifle underwent testing by the Danish military, but it was ultimately rejected for military adoption. Following the unsuccessful trials, the inventors developed a new design, known as the M1896 Flaadens Rekylgevær . This model was also tested by the Danish military, and this time it was found to be reliable. As

864-459: A gas piston to unlock. During test firing, the development group noticed an undesirable tendency in the Gerät 03 action to exhibit bolt-bounce. It was possible to unintentionally fire the Gerät 03 during the bounce phase, at which the action was not fully locked. This opened the Gerät 03 action much faster and under much higher pressure than the gas system was supposed to allow. This observation of

972-463: A harmonics problem in the roller/wedge system led to the idea and development of the intentionally never fully locked roller-delayed blowback action design, which does not require a gas system. The original gas system of the Gewehr 43 is copiously gassed and was designed for using World War II German service ammunition in the presence of heavy fouling or icing. Being ammunition specific, the gas system

1080-666: A large volume of fire was deemed more important – during World War II , American ground forces fired approximately 25,000 rounds for each enemy killed. In the Korean War , this number raised to 50,000, and in the Vietnam War it became 200,000 rounds per enemy. The first fully automatic rifle to see widespread usage was the German StG 44 , which was reportedly well-liked by troops, as the 30-round selective fire rifle gave them much more flexibility than their service rifle ,

1188-457: A more expensive to produce and less sturdy Kjellman-style flapper locking system. These locking methods are similar in concept. By December 1943 Mauser Werke's Weapons Research Institute and Weapons Development Group had completed a roller-locked prototype rifle designated as the Gerät 03 . Aside from the differing action, the Gerät 03 prototype resembled the Gewehr 43. Although the prototype rifle

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1296-463: A prison cell block, converting the former concentration camp site into two state prisons operated by the Hamburg authorities from 1950 to 2004. Following protests by various groups of survivors and allies, the site now serves as a memorial. It is situated 15 km southeast of the centre of Hamburg. In 1937, Hitler declared five cities to be converted into Führer cities (German: Führerstädte ) in

1404-495: A prison, the history of the atrocities that occurred in Neuengamme and its subcamps was largely forgotten in Hamburg and the rest of Germany. The establishment of the memorial was thus a gradual process that faced strong opposition from citizens and the Hamburg City Council. Documentation Center reopend camp after 20 year sebaticle, in 2024 by Chief Sargeant of Federal Ministry at Channel Islands (Background) Location

1512-509: A result, 60 units were procured for the Danish Navy, making it one of the earliest semi-automatic rifles to be officially adopted by a military force. In the final years of the 19th century and early 20th century, experiments and patents with gas-operated reloading were developed by Hiram Maxim and Richard Paulson as well a gas-operated conversion system from an American inventor named Henry Pitcher. Other designs also developed, such as

1620-487: A self-loading mechanism makes self-loading rifles more expensive to manufacture and heavier than manually loaded rifles. The semi-automatic M1 Garand weighs about 410 grams (0.9 lb) more (around seven percent) than the manually loaded M1903 Springfield it replaced. American development of a self-loading infantry rifle began with the .276 Pedersen cartridge in recognition of the difficulties of producing reliable self-loading mechanisms for more powerful cartridges. Although

1728-538: A semi-automatic rifle in battle, in 1911. Shortly after the Mondragón rifle was produced, France had its own semi-automatic rifle, the Fusil Automatique Modele 1917 . It is a locked breech, gas-operated action which is similar in its mechanical principles to the subsequently manufactured American M1 Garand . The M1917 was fielded during the latter stages of World War I , where it did not receive

1836-568: A single target multiple times rapidly or multiple targets rapidly, greatly increases the effectiveness of a firearm in most applications. Reloading is a downtime from shooting and is a time of vulnerability in hostile applications. Semi-automatic rifles require less frequent reloading than single shot rifles. Semi-automatic rifles can typically more than double the hits at close range and increase hits by about 50% at longer distances compared to manually loaded rifles. The added weight of springs and fittings in self-loading mechanisms, along with some of

1944-528: A standard infantry weapon of their respective nations— Germany produced 402,000 Gewehr 43 rifles, and over 14,000,000 of the Kar98k . Another gas-operated semi-automatic rifle developed toward the end of World War II was the SKS . Designed by Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov in 1945, it came equipped with a bayonet and could be loaded with ten rounds, using a stripper clip . It was the first widely issued rifle to use

2052-405: A target and providing a large variety of customization ranging from scopes and muzzle devices, to different calibers. Semi-automatic fire greatly assists in maintaining one's sight picture, which is especially important when follow-up shots are required. Due to their demand, the manufacturers of semi-automatic firearms have greatly increased the effective firing distance of their products compared to

2160-622: Is 42,900: 14,000 in the main camp, 12,800 in the subcamps, and 16,100 in the death marches and bombings during the final weeks of World War II . Following Germany's defeat in 1945, the British Army used the site as an internment camp for SS and other Nazi officials. In 1948, the British transferred the land to the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg, which summarily demolished the camp's wooden barracks and built in its stead

2268-458: Is graduated for 7.92×57mm Mauser s.S. Patrone cartridges loaded with 12.8 g (198 gr) s.S. ( schweres Spitzgeschoss  – "heavy pointed bullet") ball bullets from 100 to 1,200 m (109 to 1,312 yd) in 100 m (109 yd) increments. Gewehr 43s were made by Berlin-Lübecker Maschinenfabrik in Lübeck (weapons coded "duv", and later "qve"), Walther (weapons coded "AC") and

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2376-510: Is therefore no difference in weight or length between the G43 and the K43. Although G43s have threaded muzzles with removable nuts for a blank adapter, the K43 does not have this feature. Variations in barrel length did exist, but those were the product of machining tolerances, differences between factories, and/or experimental long-barreled rifles. An unknown number of late-war K43 rifles were chambered for

2484-466: The .50 BMG Barrett M82 . Semi-automatic weapons use gas , blow-forward , blowback or recoil energy to eject spent cartridges after the round has moved down the barrel , to chamber a new cartridge from the weapon's magazine , and to reset the action . This enables another round to be fired once the trigger is depressed again. Semi-automatic rifles can be fed by an en-bloc clip , external magazine , or stripper clip . The self-loading design

2592-457: The 7.62×39mm cartridge. By the end of World War II, however, semi-automatic rifles had been largely superseded in military usage by their fully automatic and select-fire counterparts - weapons such as the AK-47 , FN FAL and M16 limited the viability of widespread deployment of semi-automatic rifles. Gradually, military doctrine evolved to place less emphasis on individual marksmanship, as

2700-513: The 7.92×33mm Kurz cartridge and modified to accept StG44 magazines. Though most G43/K43s are equipped with a telescopic sight mounting rail, the vast majority of the rifles were issued in their standard infantry form without a scope. About 50,000 scoped variants of the G43/K43sG.43 were produced. When equipped with a scope, it was exclusively the ZF 4, a 4x magnification telescopic sight. The ZF4

2808-624: The Cei-Rigotti in 1900. In 1906, Remington Arms introduced the " Remington Auto-loading Repeating Rifle ". Remington advertised this rifle, renamed the "Model 8" in 1911, as a sporting rifle. It was sold in Europe by FN Herstal as the "FN Browning 1900". The rifle is a locked breech, long recoil action designed by John Browning , and was offered in .25 , .30 , .32 , and .35 caliber models. It gained some popularity among civilians as well as some law enforcement officials who appreciated

2916-556: The Frisian Islands : Lager Norderney , Lager Borkum , Lager Sylt and Lager Helgoland . The Nazi Organisation Todt (OT) operated each subcamp and used forced labourers to build bunkers , gun emplacements, air-raid shelters, and concrete fortifications. The Alderney camps had a total inmate population of about 6,000. The prisoners in Lager Norderney and Lager Sylt were slave labourers forced to build

3024-626: The Schalldämpfer suppressor , however, these accessories were deemed unsuccessful in tests and were dropped even before the rifle made it to serial production. The Gewehr 43 stayed in service with the Czechoslovak People's Army for several years after the war. Likewise, the East German Border Troops and Volkspolizei were issued reworked G43 rifles, which are recognizable by a sunburst proof mark near

3132-603: The Soviet Union as part of Operation Barbarossa . Just prior to the opening of hostilities the Soviet Red Army had started re-arming its infantry, complementing its older bolt-action rifles with the new semi-automatic SVT-38s and SVT-40s . This was a shock to the Germans, who ramped up their own semi-automatic rifle development efforts significantly. The SVT series used a simpler gas-operated mechanism, which

3240-538: The bolt-action M1903 Springfield and became the standard infantry rifle known as the Garand Rifle . During World War II , over 4,000,000 M1 rifles were manufactured. The Soviet AVS-36 , SVT-38, and SVT-40 , as well as the German Gewehr 43 , were semi-automatic gas-operated rifles issued during World War II in relatively small numbers. In practice, they did not replace the bolt-action rifle as

3348-554: The East. All of the women were eventually shipped out to one of its twenty-four female subcamps. Several of the former satellite camps have been converted into memorials or at least feature commemorative plaques on-site. In 2000, however, 28 locations still displayed nothing to indicate the past presence of a camp. Dr. Garbe, from the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, wrote, "The importance of

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3456-547: The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, which then built and opened a prison on the site of the former prisoners’ bunkers in 1950. Several original buildings from the former camp were used for various purposes by the prisons until their closing in February 2006. In May 1945 the British military government began to construct DP Camps in Hamburg. Responsible for this was the unit "Displaced Persons Assembly Centre Staffs" (DPACS) which

3564-528: The G41(M) and G41(W), from Mauser and Walther Arms respectively. The Mauser design was introduced in 1941 and at least 12,755 were made, but it proved unreliable in combat. The Walther design fared better in combat but still suffered from reliability problems. The problems with both designs stemmed from a demand made by the Army that the rifles would not use holes drilled into the barrel, known as gas ports , to run

3672-549: The Hamburg Senate to relocate the two prisons standing on the former concentration camp site in 1989, it was in 2003 and 2006 they were officially moved off-site. The entirety of the grounds was thus only incorporated into the memorial site in 2007. The Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial (German: KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme), opened in 2008, is located in Hamburg-Bergedorf at Jean-Dolidier-Weg 75, named for

3780-540: The M1 Garand was ultimately adapted to fire the .30-06 Springfield cartridge at the insistence of General Douglas MacArthur , most subsequent self-loading rifles for infantry use have been chambered for less powerful cartridges to reduce weight, making the service rifles easier to carry. Target shooting has a long history, predating the firearm. As weapons that demanded user accuracy developed, so did their usage in competitions. Today, semi-automatic rifles are one of

3888-468: The Model 85 and Mannlicher Models 91, 93 and 95 rifles. The designs never proceeded past the conceptual/prototype stage due to issues inherent to the black powder used in their cartridges (based around the Austrian 11×58mmR M/77 ), such as insufficient velocity and excessive fouling . Automatic firearms would only become feasible after smokeless powder became widespread. Mannlicher designs served as

3996-513: The Neuengamme concentration camp on 13 December 1938 as a subcamp ( German: Außenlager) of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and transported 100 prisoners from Sachsenhausen to begin constructing a camp and operate the brickworks. In January 1940, Heinrich Himmler visited the site and deemed Neuengamme brick production below standard. In April 1940, the SS and the city of Hamburg signed

4104-477: The Red Cross. Only certain groups of prisoners, however, were even allowed to receive any mail from family or international organizations. Life in the camp was a constant struggle for survival, down to the smallest of details. One of the few possessions the prisoners were allowed to have, their bowls, were rusty and could only be washed in cold water. At the start of the building of the camp, prisoners slept on

4212-710: The Wilhelm Gustloff-Werke (weapons coded "bcd"). Walther used its satellite production facilities at Neuengamme concentration camp in addition to its main production facilities at Zella-Mehlis to make the rifles (It does not appear that complete weapons were assembled in the camps, similar to how Radom P35 pistols were assembled in occupied Radom , Poland without their barrels, which were built and installed by Steyr in Austria), Wilhelm Gustloff-Werke used some slave workers to augment its depleted staff from Buchenwald concentration camp . The total production by

4320-676: The arrest bunker of the camp on 25 September 1942. Four weeks later, 251 additional Soviet POWs were gassed in the bunker. There were also 20 Jewish children specifically brought to Neuengamme from Auschwitz in order to be experimented on by Dr. Kurt Heissmeyer from Berlin. No SS women were stationed at Neuengamme permanently. Female guards were trained at Neuengamme and assigned to its female subcamps . Many of these SS women are known by name, including Käthe Becker, Erna Dickmann, Johanna Freund, Angelika Grass, Kommandoführerin Loni Gutzeit (who

4428-515: The automatic loading mechanism. Meeting this requirement meant the designs had to use uncommon mechanisms that were simply unreliable and highly prone to fouling. The German invasion of the Soviet Union led to small numbers of the SVT-40 being captured and returned to Germany for examination. These used a simple gas mechanism powered from a port cut into the barrel about 1/3 of the way back from

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4536-527: The barracks, and transports arrived from Auschwitz carrying 1002 prisoners as well as various other transports carrying 1000 Soviet POWs. The total number of prisoners grew to 4500. 495 known deaths occurred in 1941 alone. Until the end of 1940, the majority of prisoners were of German nationality and contained a mix of Asocials, political opponents to the Nazi regime, and various other German national groups. After Neuengamme became an independent concentration camp,

4644-676: The bolt action Karabiner 98k . Ultimately, automatic rifles would become standard in military usage, as their firepower was superior to that of a semi-automatic rifle. However, both semi-automatic and bolt action rifles are still widely used today in military service in specific roles, such as designated marksman rifles where the greater accuracy compared to automatic rifles is valued. Furthermore, to accommodate for this greater firepower, battle rifles were mostly replaced by assault rifles , whose lighter bullets allowed more ammunition to be carried at once. Where semi-automatic rifles continue to be used, they are usually in higher calibers, such as

4752-412: The bolt carrier could be suboptimal. This can lead to increased wear and damage to guns and in worse scenarios possibly endanger shooters. For shooting historic Gewehr 43's commercial "shooters kits" have been developed that basically replace the gas cup and the gas plug with new ones, and the gas plug is threaded to accept different sized gas orifices so the gas system can be adjusted to cycle reliably with

4860-424: The camp and its satellites. Former prisoners from six countries testified during the trial regarding the executions committed in the camp, including those of Soviet POWs murdered with poisonous gas, "medical" experiments conducted on inmates, and the brutal treatment and appalling conditions of the prisoners in general. The defendants were found guilty of war crimes on 3 May 1946; eleven were sentenced to death and

4968-456: The camp's time as a concentration camp. Men and women were separated, women were placed in former SS-guards accommodations. Survivors said even though food and clothing were hard to get, they felt treated well and enjoyed being free. To get along with the difficulties of supply in the DP Camps, caused by the enormous number of survivors, on 27 May 1945 the British military government called on

5076-410: The camp. The prisoners’ barracks were surrounded by a barbed wire fence electrically charged at night. The SS commandant (German: Lagerführer) was in charge of the entire Neuengamme concentration camp network. There were only three commandants of Neuengamme, and over the years they were in charge of 4,500 SS men, with as many as 500 SS officers working at any given time. As a subcamp of Sachsenhausen,

5184-543: The cartridge energy being used to reload, can give the advantage of reduced recoil . Reduced recoil helps keep the rifle on target for successive shots, improving overall accuracy. A self-loading mechanism, tuned for specific cartridge dimensions and power, may fail to reload dirty or bent cartridges that would otherwise fire. It can also struggle to extract low-power training cartridges or may be damaged by high-power rounds. Some rifles require lubricated cartridges, making them prone to collecting dirt. Reliability issues in

5292-585: The citizens of Hamburg to donate clothes for men and women. Reactions were mixed, there were also acts of revenge. Because of these, some DPs were killed, the British military government imposed a curfew for several days. In May 1945, the DP Assembly Centre "Zoo" was established in the Hamburg park "Planten un Blomen", for repatriations into the Soviet Union. In fact in 1950 six DP Camps still existed in Hamburg (Zoo, Funkturm, Radrennbahn, Alsterdorf, Fischbeck und Falkenberg) with 4.000 people. Because of

5400-579: The combination of a semi-automatic action and relatively powerful rifle cartridges. In 1936, the Model 81 superseded the Model 8, and was offered in .300 Savage as well as the original Remington calibers. In 1908, General Manuel Mondragón patented the Mondragón rifle , designated the M1908. The rifle was used by Mexican forces in the Mexican Revolution , making Mexico the first nation to use

5508-408: The concentration camp as "empty". In the first post-war months, the camp was used as a Soviet displaced persons camp , with German POWs held separately. In June, British forces began to use the site as an internment camp for witnesses, SS members and Nazi officials, called Civil Internment Camp No. 6. The Civil Internment Camp No. 6 was closed on 13 August 1948, and the grounds were transferred to

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5616-406: The constant threat of being transferred to the death kommandos. According to the testimony of Wilhelm Bahr, an ex-medical orderly, during the trial against Bruno Tesch , 200 Russian prisoners of war were gassed by prussic acid in 1942. In April 1942, a crematorium was constructed at the camp. Prior to that all bodies were taken to Hamburg for cremation. Because prisoners were forced to clear

5724-532: The control of the SS Hauptsturmführer (an SS rank equivalent to captain) Max List . Over 700 of the OT workers lost their lives on the island or while travelling to or from it in the one year under List's leadership. The camps were then closed and the remaining inmates transferred to Germany in 1944. As the former concentration camp site was used directly after the war as an internment camp and then as

5832-583: The demolition of the former brickworks and several important historical buildings from the former camp were designated as heritage sites. In 1995, the former armaments factory of the Walther company was altered into a permanent exhibition and the Dokumentenhaus remodeled into the House of Remembrance. A new museum was opened in 2005. While decades of pressure from survivors and activists managed to convince

5940-474: The direct blowback system of operation. Winchester introduced a .351 Winchester Self-Loading semi-automatic rifle, the Model 1907, as an upgrade to the Model 1905, utilizing a blowback system of operation, offering more power than its .22 counterpart. Both the Model 1905 and Model 1907 saw limited military and police use. In 1883, two Danish inventors, Madsen and Rasmussen, began developing recoil-operated, self-loading firearm designs. By 1887, they had created

6048-604: The end and replaced the conventional stripper reloads with a modern box magazine. It was clearly superior to the G41, and simpler as well. In 1943, Walther combined a similar gas system with aspects of the G41(W) providing greatly improved performance. It was accepted and entered into service as the Gewehr 43, renamed Karabiner 43 in April 1944, with production amounting to just over 400,000 between 1943 and 1945. In 1941, Nazi Germany invaded

6156-577: The end of the war is estimated to have been 402,713 of both models, including at least 53,435 sniper rifles: these G43/K43s were used as designated marksman / sniper weapons, fitted with the Zielfernrohr 43 (ZF 43/ZF 4) telescopic sight with 4× magnification. The weapon was originally designed for use with the Schießbecher rifle grenade launcher (standard on the Karabiner 98k as well) and

6264-467: The first semi-automatics sold on the civilian market. Semi-automatic rifles are sometimes used for self-defense . Most semi-automatic rifles are rather lightweight and simple to operate, without compromising accuracy. Range-adjustable sights are also common, allowing their use in different environments. Johnson, Melvin M. (1944). Rifles and Machine Guns . New York: William Morrow and Company. Neuengamme concentration camp Neuengamme

6372-602: The floor of their crowded wooden barracks. In 1941, three-tier bunk beds were installed. From 1944, bunks were shared by two or three prisoners. The smell and overcrowding meant sleep was impossible after the 10–12 hour workday, and the bathrooms were always overcrowded in the mornings. Prisoners clung to friendships and relationships in small groups. Intellectual activities as well as the rare opportunities for cultural activities like drawing, woodcarving, talking about literature, and reciting poetry or songs helped them maintain their will to survive. The Neuengamme concentration camp

6480-577: The following men were commandants of Neuengamme: • SS Sturmbannführer Walter Eisfeld • SS Hauptsturmführer Martin Gottfried Weiß , April 1940 – June 1940 Erich Frommhagen (SS member from May 1933, ID No. 73754) became adjutant to the commandant of the Neuengamme camp in early 1940. He was killed in action on 17 March 1945. As an independent concentration camp, the following were commandants of Neuengamme: • SS Hauptsturmführer Martin Gottfried Weiß , June 1940 – September 1942. His adjutant

6588-479: The guards. Although hospitals existed in the camp, medicine was scarce and entrance into the hospital was almost always a death sentence. In 1942, a typhus epidemic entreated the SS to allow former doctors imprisoned in the camp to work at the camp hospitals; prior to this reversal, the hospital staff comprised almost no former medical professionals. The hospitals were also used as a place to murder large groups of weakened Soviet prisoners via lethal injection. Work at

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6696-475: The integral box magazine of the G41(W). Soldiers armed with the weapon typically carried one standard stripper clip pouch and a Gewehr 43 pouch with two spare magazines. The G43 utilizes the same flapper-locked mechanism as its predecessor. The Gewehr 43 was put into production in October 1943 and followed in 1944 by the Karabiner 43 (K43), which was identical to the G43 in every way except for the letter stamped on

6804-532: The interwar period, including the United Kingdom , which had intended to replace the bolt-action Lee–Enfield with a self-loading rifle, but this plan had to be discarded when the Second World War became imminent, shifting its emphasis to speeding up re-armament with existing weapons. In Springfield, Massachusetts , John Garand , a Canadian -born firearms designer, was tasked with designing

6912-461: The main camp centered around brick production for the first half of the war. This included the construction of a canal on the small offshoot of the Elbe river located at the campsite in order to transport raw materials from Hamburg. Inmates were forced to excavate the heavy, peaty soil with inadequate tools, regardless of weather conditions or the state of their health. Once the prisoners finished building

7020-440: The main organization representing all former camp prisoners, the memorial was then expanded in 1965. In 1981, an exhibition building (German: Dokumentenhaus) was added, and the first exhibition on the history of the Neuengamme camp was inaugurated. All memorialization is still cut off from the main portion of the former concentration camp that included the barracks, brickworks, and death commandos. In 1984, protests successfully halted

7128-482: The many military fortifications and installations throughout Alderney. Norderney housed slave labourers mostly from eastern Europe and a smattering from Russia and Spain. Sylt held Jewish forced labourers. Lager Borkum was used for German technicians and volunteers from different countries of Europe. Lager Helgoland was filled with Russian OT workers. In March 1943, Lager Norderney with its Russian and Polish POWs and Lager Sylt and its Jews, were placed under

7236-515: The mechanism can negate the advantage of faster firing , potentially lowering the rate of fire compared to manually loaded rifles if not designed for easy manual reloading. The United Kingdom regarded the reliable rate of fire from manually loaded rifles to be nearly as high as self-loading rifles as recently as World War II . Semi-automatic rifles are uniquely susceptible to slamfire malfunctions caused by abrupt cartridge acceleration during self-loading. Slamfire discharges are unlikely to hit

7344-853: The more prominent firearms in sport shooting . There are various types of sport shooting, ranging from rapid fire shooting; target shooting, which is predominantly accuracy based; and distance shooting. Shooting clubs in America became increasingly commonplace in the 1830s, and have since grown in popularity. Semi-automatic rifles are commonly used in sport shooting events because of their accuracy, versatility, and their low weight, which has invited more people, specifically women and children, to compete as well. Semi-automatic rifles have grown in status among hunters. Many hunters are adopting semi-automatic rifles, particularly AR-15 style rifles to take advantage of their compact design and modularity, effectively making it easier to traverse rugged terrain while tracking

7452-726: The new Nazi regime, one of which was Hamburg. The banks of the Elbe river of Hamburg, considered Germany's "Gateway to the World" for its large port , were to be redone in the clinker brick style characteristic of German Brick Expressionism . To supply the bricks, the SS-owned company Deutsche Erd-und Steinwerke ( DESt ) (English: German Earth & Stone Works) purchased a defunct brick factory ( German: Klinkerwerk ) and 500,000 m of land in Neuengamme in September 1938. The SS established

7560-514: The new administration under Hamburg's social authority the DPs were now labeled as "homeless foreigners". On 18 March 1946, the trial of fourteen officials of the main Neuengamme concentration camp began before a British military tribunal, at the Curiohaus building in Hamburg, Germany, the first of 33 trials that would be held over a period of the next two years brought by the British against staff of

7668-456: The new brick factory in 1942, one of the most populated assignment was working in the clay pit, extracting and transporting clay from the main camp for brick production. Constructing the canal, digging the clay, and transporting the soil were known as the three "death commandos". Skilled labour was almost always given to prisoners on upper rungs of the Aryan hierarchy. From 1942 until the end of

7776-517: The other three to prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years. On 8 October 1946, the eleven men found guilty in the Neuengamme Trials were executed by hanging by the British executioner Albert Pierrepoint . These men were former commandant Max Pauly , SS Dr. Bruno Kitt, Anton Thumann , Johann Reese, Willy Warnke, SS Dr. Alfred Trzebinski , Heinrich Ruge, Wilhem Bahr, Andreas Brems, Wilhelm Dreimann, and Adolf Speck. The order to transfer

7884-550: The passenger liners Deutschland and Cap Arcona , and two large steamers, SS Thielbek and Athen . The prisoners were in the ships' hold for several days with no food or water. Concluding that the ships contained Norway-bound fleeing Nazi officials rather than thousands of prisoners, the Royal Air Force (RAF) Hawker Typhoons bombed the Thielbek , Cap Arcona and Deutschland on May 3. Intelligence that

7992-462: The plan itself called for scuttling the ships with the prisoners still aboard. Hunger reigned supreme. The food given to prisoners was so terribly insufficient that most died within three months of arrival. The meager portions available were of poor quality and were often inedible. The most lethal disease in the camp was dysentery . Many prisoners attempted to acquire food illegally, and others managed to survive through food packages from relatives and

8100-467: The principle of blowback to function semi-automatically. Designed by T.C. Johnson , the Model 1903 achieved commercial success and continued to be manufactured until 1932, when the Winchester Model 63 replaced it. By the early 20th century, several manufacturers had introduced semi-automatic .22 rifles, including Winchester , Remington , Fabrique Nationale , and Savage Arms , all using

8208-719: The prisoner population grew more diverse, and in the following years the Soviet group followed by the Polish prisoners made up the largest percentage of camp prisoners by nationality. Inmates were from 28 nationalities: Soviets (34,350), Polish (16,900), French (11,500), German (9,200), Dutch (6,950), Belgian (4,800), and Danish (4,800). The prisoner groups included those from the local Jewish community, communists , prostitutes , Gypsies , Jehovah's Witnesses , prisoners of war and many other persecuted groups. Of 106,000 inmates, almost half died. 23,394 victims of Neuengamme and

8316-624: The prisoners from the camps to the prison ships came from the Hamburg Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann who was himself acting on orders from Berlin. Although Kaufmann later claimed during the war crimes tribunal that the prisoners were destined for Sweden, the Higher SS and Police Leader of Hamburg, Georg-Henning Graf von Bassewitz-Behr , said at the same trial that the prisoners were, in fact, slated to be killed in compliance with Himmler's orders. It has been suggested that

8424-401: The raid; only 450 prisoners survived. 600–700 concentration camp prisoners remained in the main camp under SS orders to destroy all incriminating documentation, dismantle many areas of the camp, and tidy the site. On 2 May 1945, the SS and the last of the prisoners left the Neuengamme concentration camp. The first British soldiers arrived the next day and, seeing a barren and clean site, reported

8532-507: The sabotaging and bombing of a military factory in Montluçon . William discovered his singing voice while cheering his fellow prisoners at Neuengamme and went on to a prominent career as a singer of popular and gospel music . By the end of 1944, the total number of prisoners grew to approximately 49,000, with 12,000 in Neuengamme and 37,000 in the subcamps, including nearly 10,000 women in the various subcamps for women. On 15 March 1945,

8640-476: The satellite camps is further highlighted by the fact that toward the ends of the war three times more prisoners were in satellite camps than in the main camp." The Channel Islands were the only part of the British Commonwealth occupied by Nazi Germany . The Germans built four camps on the island of Alderney , two of which later became Neuengamme subcamps. The Alderney camps were named after

8748-580: The serial number and the serial number engraved by electro pencil on removable components. There were many small variations introduced on the G43/K43 throughout its production cycle. The important consideration is that no changes were made to the rifle design specifically to coincide with the nomenclature change from Gewehr to Karabiner, with the exception of the letter stamped on the side. A careful study of actual pieces will show that many G-marked rifles had features found on K-marked rifles and vice versa. There

8856-555: The ships carried concentration camp prisoners did not reach the squadrons in time to halt the attack. Survivors who jumped into the water were strafed by cannon fire from the RAF aircraft or shot by Nazi officials. Thousands of dead washed ashore just as the British Army successfully occupied the area on land. The British forced German POWs and civilians to dig mass graves for the dead. Approximately 7,100 prisoners and officials died in

8964-408: The side. The name change from Gewehr to Karabiner (carbine) was due to the fact the barrel was actually two centimeters shorter than the standard Karabiner 98k and therefore the term Gewehr (meaning: rifle) was somewhat unfitting. The Wehrmacht intended to equip each grenadier (infantry) company in the army with 19 G43s, including 10 with scopes, for issue as the company commander saw fit. This issue

9072-402: The site at the end of the war, only 10% of original documentation survives from the period. Despite this destruction, enough evidence has survived to allow scholars to conclusively prove exact numbers for some months of the entire 1938–1945 period. It is known exactly that by the end of 1940, 2,900 were imprisoned at Neuengamme and the known death toll was over 432. In 1941, the prisoners completed

9180-482: The site was used for German prisoners of war. Under the special requirement from the Soviet Union made in 1944 to take back all citizens, repatriation began on 9 May, only four days after the DP Camp was established. In general, the situation in the accommodations of DP's in Neuengamme is not well known. We only know from a war diary of the 53rd British Infantry Division about bad hygienic circumstances, which stemmed from

9288-400: The specific pressure behavior of the ammunition used. Semi-automatic rifle In 1883, Hiram Maxim patented a recoil-operated conversion of a Winchester rifle . Another of the first designs of a recoil-operated semi-automatic rifle is attributed to Ferdinand Mannlicher , who unveiled his design in 1885 based on work begun in 1883. Other non-gas operated semi-automatic models were

9396-577: The subcamps can be found listed by name in the Neuengamme Memorial Site's House of Remembrance. In reality, however, it is estimated that there were 26,800 victims of daily camp horrors and about 17,000 victims of the death marches and reception camps. At least 42,900 victims can be verified, even if not by name. According to the testimony of Wilhelm Bahr, an ex-medical orderly, during the trial against Bruno Tesch , 197 Soviet prisoners of war were gassed by prussic acid (Zyklon B) in

9504-411: The subcamps drastically differed from camp to camp with as many as 3,000 inmates to as few as 10 or less. Almost all women imprisoned at Neuengamme were interned in subcamps. In late 1943, most likely November, Neuengamme recorded its first female prisoners according to camp records. In the summer of 1944, Neuengamme received numerous transports of female prisoners from Auschwitz , as well other camps in

9612-433: The subcamps of Neuengamme at Boizenburg , Braunschweig SS-Reitschule, Hamburg-Sasel, Hamburg-Wandsbek, Helmstedt-Beendorf, Langenhorn , Neugraben , Obernheide , Salzwedel , and Unterluss (Vuterluss). Only a few have been tried for war crimes, and these include Anneliese Kohlmann , who served as one of six women-guards at Neugraben, and Gertrud Heise , Oberaufseherin at Obernheide. The administration of Neuengamme

9720-509: The target and may cause collateral damage . The time required for changing or reloading magazines can weaken the effectiveness of a rifle, as it imposes an effective duration limit on the continuous rate of fire of any rifle . High-capacity magazines increase the weight of the rifle and typically reduce feeding reliability due to the varying spring tension from a full to a nearly empty magazine. Detachable magazines in general are usually less durable than internal magazines. The complexity of

9828-623: The transfer of Scandinavian prisoners from other German camps to Neuengamme began, as part of the White Buses program. Neuengamme's subcamps were emptied later that month on death marches to the reception camps of Bergen-Belsen and Osnabrück , and, on 8 April, an air raid on a prisoner train transport led to the Celle massacre . Orders were issued for the evacuation of the main camp on 19 April. Between 20 and 26 April, over 9000 prisoners were taken from Neuengamme and loaded on four ships:

9936-716: The war, armaments production became the central focus of Neuengamme, with private business ventures profiting financially from the free labour of the prisoners. Several armaments companies, including Messap, Jastram, Walter-Werke and the SS-owned Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke (DAW), established facilities inside the Neuengamme concentration camp following negotiations with the Nazi regime. Walther used their factory to manufacture Gewehr 43 semi-automatic rifles. While conditions for prisoners working in these privately owned factories were better than those working in other kommandos, all prisoners worked under

10044-462: The work of amateur gunsmiths. Rifles with broken-off butts are common, as German soldiers were instructed to render semi-automatic rifles useless when in danger of capture. In June 1943 the Mauser Werke's Weapons Research Institute and Weapons Development Group decided to adopt the Gewehr 43 design to use a relatively cheap to produce roller locked action. The production pattern Gewehr 43 used

10152-488: Was Karl-Friedrich Höcker . • SS Obersturmbannführer Max Pauly , September 1942 – until liberation. His adjutant from May 1943 was Karl Totzauer . See also: List of subcamps of Neuengamme More than 80 subcamps were part of the Neuengamme concentration camp system. The first Neuengamme satellite opened in 1942, when inmates of Neuengamme were transported to the Arbeitsdorf subcamp. The number of prisoners within

10260-564: Was a network of Nazi concentration camps in northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps . Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg , the Neuengamme camp became the largest concentration camp in Northwest Germany. Over 100,000 prisoners came through Neuengamme and its subcamps , 24 of which were for women. The verified death toll

10368-457: Was a successor to earlier rifles that required manual cycling of the weapon after each shot, such as the bolt-action rifle or repeating rifles . The ability to automatically load the next round results in an increase in the rounds per minute the operator can fire. The main advantage of semi-automatic rifles is the ability to fire sequential shots in rapid succession without adjusting the aiming position to manually chamber cartridges . Engaging

10476-465: Was adjustable for elevation and windage using drums. The range drum on top featured bullet drop compensation in 50 m (55 yd) increments for ranges from 100 to 800 m (109 to 875 yd). No other known scope and scope mount combinations were installed by the German military on G43/K43's during World War II. Many strange variations have shown up after the war, but all have been proven to be

10584-602: Was established in Salzgitter , and in less than a year close to 80 subcamps were constructed. By the end of 1942, the death rate had risen to 10% per month. In 1943, the satellite camp on the Channel Island of Alderney was established. In July 1944, a special section of the camp was set up for prominent French prisoners, comprising political opponents and resistors against the German occupation of France. These prisoners included John William , who had participated in

10692-475: Was headed by SS-Sturmführer Alfons Bentele (September 1942 – March 1943). Alfred Trzebinski (1902–1946) was the SS-physician for the Neuengamme subcamps. Most SS officers had direct contact with the prisoners, and their harassment and mistreatment were daily markers of camp routine. In Neuengamme, there were three or four guard forces that would form a Sturmbann to guard the camp and the work details outside

10800-401: Was machined it was designed with pressing and stamping steel components production methods in mind to simplify mass production and keep production costs low. Only a few prototypes were built and the Gerät 03 never went into production, but the Gerät 03 was put through a 5,000-round endurance trial. The Gerät 03 semi-automatic rifle used a fully locked action design with a gas system, using

10908-486: Was merged with Geospatial Data in 2024. The first memorial is a simple monument erected on the leftmost (northernmost) edge of the grounds on the site of the former SS plant nursery that had used ashes from the crematorium as fertilizer, far from the contemporaneous prison and the former prisoners compound of the concentration camp. Following intense pressure from the Amicale Internationale de Neuengamme,

11016-404: Was never completely achieved. The iron sight line had a hooded pointed-post-type front sight and a tangent-type rear sight with a V-shaped rear notch. These standard sight lines consisted of somewhat coarse aiming elements, making it suitable for rough field handling, aiming at distant area fire targets, and low-light usage, but less suitable for precise aiming at distant or small point targets. It

11124-474: Was nicknamed "The Dragon of Wandsbek" by the prisoners while serving at Hamburg- Wandsbek ), Gertrud Heise , Frieda Ignatowitz, Gertrud Möller, who also served at the Boizenburg subcamp, Lotte Johanna Radtke, Chief Wardress Annemie von der Huelst, and Inge Marga Marggot Weber. Many of the women were later dispersed to female subcamps throughout northern Germany . Today it is known that female guards staffed

11232-400: Was not adjustable to various propellant and projectile-specific pressure behavior and so modern (higher pressure C.I.P. conform 7.92×57mm Mauser) ammunition can move the gas piston overly fast and hard against the bolt carrier which in turn hits the receiver harder. Especially on late war Gewehr 43's the steel quality of the sheet metal rear of the receiver could be poor and the heat treatment of

11340-468: Was patented by Garand in 1932, approved by the U.S. Army on January 9, 1936, and went into mass production in 1940. Thus, in 1936, the American M1 Garand rifle became the first gas-operated semi-automatic rifle to be adopted by a country as their standard-issue service rifle . General George S. Patton described the M1 Garand as " the greatest battle implement ever devised. " It replaced

11448-442: Was run under the SS practice of "extermination through labour" (German: Vernichtung durch Arbeit). Prisoners worked for 10–12 hours per day and were killed both due to the inhumane conditions in the camp as well as active violence from the guards. 42,900 prisoners died from difficult slave labour combined with insufficient nutrition, extremely unhygienic conditions contributing to widespread disease, and arbitrary brutal punishments from

11556-455: Was soon emulated by Walther in its successor to the G41 (W), producing the Gewehr 43 (or G43). The simpler, sturdier design and mechanism of the G43 made it lighter, easier to produce, more reliable, and also much tougher than the Gewehr 41; German mountain troops would use them as ladder rungs during climbing. The addition of a 10-round stamped-steel detachable box magazine was an improvement over

11664-538: Was supported by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). Displaced Persons received a special status under the British military government. It included people, who were in foreign countries because of the war and needed help returning home. This includes former slave laborers and concentration camp inmates. On the site of former Concentration Camp Neuengamme about ten thousand Soviet slave laborers were housed. A different part of

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