page_title: FG 42
section_title: Influences/derivatives
hierarchical_section_title: FG 42 / Influences/derivatives
caption_attribution_description: English: The experimental T44 machine gun. The T44 was chambered in .30-06 Springfield, and featured an unusual belt feed mechanism which ran belt vertically up the left side of the receiver. The gun is a conversion of the FG 42 German, Light, Magazine Feed Machine Gun, with the belt feeding mechanism of the MG42 German, Belt Feed Machine Gun. The mechanical solution for the conversion was provided by the Bridge Tool &amp; Die Works. — U.S. Cold War weapon.
context_page_description: The FG 42 is a selective-fire 7.92×57mm Mauser automatic rifle produced in Nazi Germany during World War II. The weapon was developed specifically for the use of the Fallschirmjäger airborne infantry in 1942 and was used in very limited numbers until the end of the war.
  It combined the characteristics and firepower of a light machine gun in a lightweight form slightly shorter than the standard-issue Karabiner 98k bolt-action infantry rifle. Considered one of the most advanced weapon designs of World War II, the FG 42 influenced post-war small arms development, and many features of its design, such as general shape, stock style, gas-rotating bolt operation and sheet metal and plastic construction were copied by the US Army when they developed the M60 machine gun.
context_section_description: The American M41 Johnson LMG has many parallels with the contemporary FG 42. Both had in-line stocks, fed from the left side, and both fired from the open bolt in automatic mode and closed bolt in semi-automatic mode. Despite these similarities, there is no evidence that either weapon had any effect on the design of the other. As they were both seeking to solve similar problems, it is reasonable to expect that each weapon's respective engineers approached these problems similarly but independently, unaware of the developments of their counterparts.
  It is not easy to determine the significance of the FG 42 in terms of weapons history. With a slightly longer barrel and belt-feeding the weapon would have been an excellent light machine gun. Its designer Louis Stange knew that, he also built a prototype with belt feed.
  Some features, such as the details of the gas-operated bolt selection process, were studied by US Army engineers after the war. These, along with some aspects of the MG 42 general-purpose machine gun, are commonly reported to have been incorporated in the similarly troubled M60 general-purpose machine gun. The last known derivatives of the FG 42 were the Swiss Sturmgewehr 52 and M60 machine gun.
caption: US experimental T-44 belt-feeding machine gun developed from the German FG 42 and MG 42
exif: {}