Comments by "Kevin Oliver" (@kevinoliver3083) on "Germany Adopts the PPSh in 9mm: the MP-41(r)" video.

  1. The MP41 was not an official Wehrmacht weapon. It was built for export. So in bureaucratic terms there was no confusion between the MP41 and MP41(r). The (letter) suffix is important here. It indicates a captured foreign weapon that has been adopted by the Wehrmacht. In the case of the MP41(r) and MP717(r), the (r) stands for Russisch (Russian). The MP717(r) was the unmodified PPSh-41, in 7.63x25mm.
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  2. They did. But once Speer became Armaments Minister there was greater emphasis on rationalising production, including of small arms ammunition. So a simple gun modification, like the MP41(r) made sense if it allowed production of a non-standard round to be reduced. Or even ended altogether.
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  3.  @tedarcher9120  The PPSh-41 did not fire 7.65mm ammunition. And in 1944, steel cased 7.63x25mm ammunition was still being made. Using machines that could often be repurposed if they were made available. As Ian mentioned the barrels did not have to be made from scratch. MP40 barrels were readily available to reworked. The cost of making a barrel and magazine housing for an MP41 had to be balanced against the cost of manufacturing and distributing 7.63x25mm ammunition.
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  4. Government cartridge conversions are rarely about about the quality of the rifles. They're about having enough rifles firing a standard cartridge. Most M91 conversions to 7.92 Mauser were made in Poland in the 1920s. The Poles had inherited a hodgepodge of Austro-Hungarian, French, German and Russian weapons and ammunition after WW1 and the Polish-Soviet War. The Poles didn't have enough Mauser 98s for all their troops, including reserves. So, as a stopgap, they converted M91s to 7.92x57mm so they could at least simplify their logistics ASAP.
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  5. They didn't need to change springs. 7.63x25mm worked fine in both Soviet pistols and SMGs. It's when you try and feed a Mauser C96 a steady diet of 7.62x25mm that you get problems.
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  6. Because the Finns needed all the KP/-31s they could make for their own use.
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  7. The Wehrmacht used 7.63mm Mauser in Soviet pistols and SMGs.
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  8. 7.63mm was still made in WW2, initially for security forces and rear echelon troops. Production was stepped up to keep captured Soviet pistols and smgs in use.
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  9.  @RhodesianSAS-gn4qp  It does if you consider the benefits of removing, or least diminishing the presence, of a nonstandard calibre from the supply chain and industry. Especially when Germany had lost or was losing access to the arms industries of Occupied Europe.
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  10. In time of war logistics is more important than good quality weapon design.
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  11. ​ @itsconnorstime Because the Germans never managed to make enough standard weapons and ammunition to meet their needs. In some cases it was easier to use existing production lines, throughout Occupied Europe, to make useful but non-standard ammo than it was to convert them to standard types.
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