__NOTOC__ The Vollmer M 35 (also known as Vollmer-Maschinenkarabiner or MKb 35) consisted of a series of experimental

automatic rifle An automatic rifle is a type of autoloading rifle that is capable of fully automatic fire. Automatic rifles are generally select-fire weapons capable of firing in semi-automatic and automatic firing modes (some automatic rifles are capable of ...

s developed by

Heinrich Vollmer Heinrich Vollmer (1885 in Altdorf, Esslingen–1961 in Tübingen) was a German small-arms designer. Vollmer began his manufacturing career by making parts for the German copies of the Maxim gun during the First World War. His first innovation wa ...

in the 1930s. The Vollmer rifles were chambered in an

intermediate cartridge An intermediate cartridge is a rifle/carbine cartridge that has significantly greater power than a pistol cartridge but still has a reduced muzzle energy compared to fully powered cartridges (such as the .303 British, 7.62×54mmR, 7.92× ...

that was co-developed with Gustav Genschow and Co. (GECO) starting in 1934, under a

Heereswaffenamt ''Waffenamt'' (WaA) was the German Army Weapons Agency. It was the centre for research and development of the Weimar Republic and later the Third Reich for weapons, ammunition and army equipment to the German Reichswehr ''Reichswehr'' () ...

contract.

Design

The M 35 was a gas-operated design, reminiscent of an earlier semi-automatic design of Vollmer—the 7.92×57mm Selbstladegewehr 29 (SG 29). Trials with Vollmer's Maschinenkarabine were conducted as early as 1935 at Biberach and later at

Kummersdorf Kummersdorf is the name of an estate near Luckenwalde, around 25 km south of Berlin, in the Brandenburg region of Germany. Until 1945 Kummersdorf hosted the weapon office of the German Army which ran a development centre for future weapons a ...

. The early version had a 20-round detachable box magazine and could fire at a rate of about 1,000 rpm. Development continued with the improved versions M 35A, M 35/II (1937) and M 35/III through 1938. The later versions had intentionally reduced rate of fire to only about 300–400rpm. It weighed about and was about long. About 25 prototypes were manufactured for testing. The gun was apparently very expensive to manufacture, costing 4000

Reichsmark The (; sign: ℛℳ; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until 20 June 1948 in West Germany, where it was replaced with the , and until 23 June 1948 in East Germany, where it was replaced by the East German mark. The R ...

s, although this was the unit cost for the prototype series. The cartridge developed also had several variants including 7.75×40.5 mm, 7.75×39.5mm, and possibly a 7.62mm version as well, and had a total length of approximately 55 mm. (The actual calibre was apparently 7.9mm, with a bullet 8.05mm in diameter.) Muzzle velocity was about 700 m/s (2,280 feet per second). The boat-tailed bullet weighted 140 grains (9 grams).P. Labbett
German Assault Rifle Ammunition Developments 1935–45
''Guns Review'', Volume 24, No. 4, April 1984. Ultimately, Nazi Germany would adopt a different intermediate cartridge and service assault rifle: the MKb 42 series leading to the

Sturmgewehr 44 The StG 44 (abbreviation of Sturmgewehr 44, "assault rifle 44") is a German assault rifle developed during World War II by Hugo Schmeisser. It is also known by its early designations as the MP 43 and MP 44 (''Maschinenpistole 43'' and ''44''). ...

. The later Soviet 7.62×39mm M43 cartridge bore more dimensional similarity to the GECO M 35 cartridge than it did to the German 7.92×33mm Kurz that was used in the Sturmgewehr.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20081230003642/https://municion.org/7mm/7_7x40GecoM35.htm {{in lang, el
Imagery
Assault rifles Rifles of Germany Trial and research firearms of Germany Machine guns of Germany 8 mm firearms

Design

See also

References

Further reading

External links