The Krummlauf is a fine example of Germany's late-war obsession with secret weapons to turn the tide of the Second World War. It is a curved barrel device that was clamped onto the end of an MP-44 rifle to allow soldiers to shoot behind cover without exposing themselves to return fire.
Development began in 1943, when early testing was done to attached a curved 20mm barrel to an 8mm rifle. In later tests. It turned out that a standard diameter barrel actually worked much better.
2 different versions of the Krummlauf were made. One had a 30 degrees bend to the barrel, and was for infantry use. The other had a much more severe 90 degrees bend, and was intended for mounting in armored vehicles. The vehicle model was designed so the rifle could sit in a vertical position, which would take up little space. The curved barrel went through a port in the vehicle's armor and could be turned around. The weapon would give the crew a way to shoot at enemies trying to approach the vehicle with explosives or firebombs
The infantry model's barrel was a total of 14 inches long, with a 4 inch straight barrel, then a 5.5 inch curved section, and then another 4.5 inches of straight barrel. It included a large mirror to allow a soldier using it to see where the gun was pointing while maintaining a standard hold and cheek weld. A front sight was mounted on the end of the Krummlauf, and a rear sight was placed just behind the mirror.
It was useless for anything but close ranges. A series of vent holes were drilled into the initial straight section of the barrel to relieve some of the gas pressure as the bullet entered the curved section, although this didn't prevent the device from having a service life of only a few hundred rounds.
Sources: www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a21800/forgotten-weapons-wwii-curve-a-bullet
Follow me as @darthnava: "If you will not turn to the Steem Side... then perhaps I will..."
well we heard that when there is a will there is a way and we get a perfect example in shape of that weird gun Krummlauf, the russian soldiers rush on to the tanks and in order to defend themselves from inside of the tank the Germans produce this incredible thing and then they can able to fire bullets even from inside of the tanks to keep the russian troops away from the tanks, fantastic development, it's no doubt a great weapon to used in war's, especially from inside of the tanks and vehicles, thank you my friend for sharing your good information and knowledge about guns with us, Stay happy
It is a great invention, I like the idea but I'm afraid at the same time, If this ends up in the wrong hands?
It never prospered because firing stressed out the barrel making it unusable after a few hundred rounds.
One of the best and sneakiest weapon by Germany in my opinion because of its use for defending German tanks against the Russian infantry who wants to torch the German tanks at battle. An ingenious weapon at close quarters.
A bad-ass gun for short people!
This is a weird but interesting weapon that was designed for a specific purpose.
hitler was obsessed with those prototypes of weapons. gladly they failed to build them.
great post i start following you if you have any free time please visite my profile on @iwant pleaseeeeeee
It is kind of an interesting one that is for sure
haha that's really weird
Such....a great tecnology...
Amazing weapons
Thank's for sharing
that is impressive gun as it have curve barrel with different advantage of mirror section, it was called high-tech gun of krummlauf.
great content!
This post has received a 12.63 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @darthnava.
This post has received a 1.96 % upvote from @buildawhale thanks to: @darthnava. Send at least 1 SBD to @buildawhale with a post link in the memo field for a portion of the next vote.
Steem WitnessTo support our daily curation initiative, please vote on my owner, @themarkymark, as a