[jonesy-the-cat]

If I'm not mistaken, and I just saw it on the History Channel, the German light machine gun (STG44) was really the first assault rifle. It really was that good. In fact, STG stands for Sturm Gewehr, meaning basically 'assault rifle.' It weighed only 1 pound more than the MP40, but used bigger cartridges, and much faster rate of fire. One reason why so many Allies died per German killed. Once they developed it, the Germans DID want to get them to all the soldiers, but just couldn't produce them fast enough to do so before the war was over. MP = machine pistol, uses pistol rounds. Both were very light weight, lighter than the Thompson I think (MP40 7 lbs, STG44 8 lbs, Thompson 10 lbs). They were envied by the Allies.