Ludwig Vorgrimler
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Ludwig Vorgrimler (7 September 1912 – 23 February 1983) is the man most commonly associated with the design of the Spanish roller-delayed
CETME rifle The CETME Model 58 is a stamped-steel, select-fire battle rifle produced by the Spanish armaments manufacturer Centro de Estudios Técnicos de Materiales Especiales (CETME). The Model 58 used a 20-round box magazine and was chambered for the 7. ...
, and its prolific offspring from the German gunmaker
Heckler & Koch Heckler & Koch GmbH (HK or H&K; ) is a German firearms manufacturer that produces handguns, rifles, submachine guns, and grenade launchers. The company is located in Oberndorf am Neckar, Baden-Württemberg and also has subsidiaries in the United ...
such as the G3, HK21, P9 and MP5.


Early career with Mauser

Born in
Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, Vorgrimler worked as an engineer for several arms manufacturers over his long career. He briefly worked for the
Krupp Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH), trade name, trading as Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany's premier weapons manufacturer dur ...
factory from January to November 1936. From there, he was recruited by Ott-Helmuth von Lossnitzer, the director of Mauser Werke's Weapons Research Institute and Weapons Development Group. He was assigned to Department 37, which was responsible for military small arms up to 15 mm in caliber and eventually led the sub-department in charge of aircraft weapon construction. During the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
the roller-delayed blowback firearm action was patented by Vorgrimler together with Wilhelm Stähle but the work was not entirely completed by the end of the war. Though appearing simple its development during World War II was a hard technical and personal effort, as German engineering, mathematical and other scientists had to work together on a like-it-or-not basis led by von Lossnitzer. Experiments showed roller-delayed blowback firearms exhibited bolt-bounce as the bolt opened at an extreme velocity of approximately during automatic fire. To counter bolt-bounce the perfect angle choice on the nose of the bolt head had to be found to significantly reduce the opening velocity of the bolt. The extremely high bolt carrier velocities problem was not solved by trial and error but mathematician Karl Maier finally provided a numerical analysis of the components and assemblies in the development project.Do You Know Your HK’s Parents?
/ref> By January 1944, Vorgrimler was ordered to design a heavy machinegun using the roller-delayed blowback operating system then under development for military rifles. In response, Vorgrimler attempted to convert the
gas-operated Gas-operation is a system of operation used to provide energy to operate locked breech, Semi-automatic firearm, autoloading firearms. In gas-operation, a portion of high-pressure gas from the Cartridge (firearms), cartridge being fired is used t ...
roller-locked In firearms operating systems, the term roller locked refers to locking the bolt with rollers. Notable examples of firearms using this method are the Polish wz.37 semi-automatic rifle designed by Edward Stecke, MG 42 general-purpose machine gun, w ...
MG215 to the roller-delayed system. He would later claim that he participated in the development of the MG 45, a conversion of the roller-locked
MG 42 The MG 42 (shortened from German: ''Maschinengewehr 42'', or "machine gun 42") is a German recoil-operated air-cooled general-purpose machine gun used extensively by the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS during the second half of World War II. Enter ...
to roller-delayed operation. Vorgrimler remained with Mauser until August 1945.


After World War II

After the war ended, Mauser's Department 37 development group was placed under control of the
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
War Department's armament group, Direction des Etudes et Fabrication d'Armament (DEFA). The Mauser factory was renamed the DEFA Development Center, Oberndorf. The French continued work there through 1946, when workers and equipment began to be transferred to the
Mulhouse Mulhouse (; ; Alsatian language, Alsatian: ''Mìlhüsa'' ; , meaning "Mill (grinding), mill house") is a France, French city of the European Collectivity of Alsace (Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region of France). It is near the Fran ...
area of
Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...
. This became the Centre d'Etudes et d'Armament de Mulhouse (CEAM). The transfer of operations to Mulhouse was complete by March 1948. In February 1948, Vorgrimler and fellow Mauser engineer Theodor Löffler were assigned the development of roller-delayed carbines for the French. They worked separately on carbines for the experimental 7.65×35mm cartridge, developed by Cartoucherie de Valence. Their carbines were patterned upon the prototype StG45, which had been under development at Mauser prior to the end of the war. The French ultimately abandoned their 7.65×35mm cartridge in favor of the US .30 Carbine cartridge. Vorgrimler and Löffler then went to work on roller delayed carbines for the latter cartridge. Ultimately, Löffler's designs won out. Vorgrimler then devoted his efforts to improving Löffler's designs. Eventually, Vorgrimler tired of this and left CEAM at the end of June, 1950. Vorgrimler was recruited to work for CETME in Spain. The French initially attempted to prevent him from leaving the country, but Vorgrimler and family were allowed to move to
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
in September 1950. Once there, Vorgrimler went to work on a roller-delayed rifle chambered for the experimental 7.92×40mm cartridge. Former
Rheinmetall Rheinmetall AG () is a German automotive and arms manufacturer, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was promoted to the DAX, Germany's leading stock market index, in March 2023. It is the largest German and fifth largest Europe ...
engineers led by Hartmut Menneking already had a nine-month head start on the gas-operated Modelo 1, but Vorgrimler and his team of former Mauser engineers had their own Modelo 2 prototype ready by December 1950. The Spanish government selected the Modelo 2 for continued development in July, 1952.


CETME Modelo B

Beside the interest at home in Spain, the Modelo 2 attracted a lot of attention from the West German Border Guards (
Bundesgrenzschutz Bundesgrenzschutz (; abbreviation: BGS; ) is the former name of the German ''Bundespolizei'' (Federal Police). Established on 16 March 1951 as a subordinate agency of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the BGS originally was primarily focu ...
), which sought a new service rifle. Not willing to accept a cartridge outside of the
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
specification, the Germans asked CETME to develop a 7.62 mm version of the rifle. Misunderstanding the German request, CETME developed a 7.62 mm version of the 7.92×40mm cartridge. The Germans then had to explain that they wanted a version chambered for the standard
7.62×51mm NATO The 7.62×51mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 7.62 NATO) is a rimless, straight walled, bottlenecked, centerfire rifle cartridge. It is a standard for small arms among NATO countries. First developed in the 1950s, the cartridge had first be ...
. Instead, the resulting CETME Modelo A was chambered for the 7.62×51mm CETME cartridge, which had identical chamber dimensions but a reduced-power load compared to the standard NATO round. Further development of the rifle produced the CETME Modelo B, which had been "improved" with the help of Heckler & Koch, receiving several modifications including the ability to fire from a closed bolt in both semi-automatic and automatic firing modes, a new perforated sheet-metal handguard (the folding bipod had been the foregrip in previous models), improved ergonomics, and a slightly longer barrel with a rifle grenade launcher mount. In 1958, this rifle was introduced into service with the Spanish Army as the Modelo 58. For his efforts in developing the rifle, Vorgrimler was awarded the Encomienda de Alfonso X el Sabio. In 1956, the Bundesgrenzschutz canceled its planned procurement of the CETME rifles, adopting the
FN FAL The FAL (, English: Light Automatic Rifle) is a battle rifle designed in Belgium by Dieudonné Saive and manufactured by FN Herstal and others since 1953. During the Cold War the FAL was adopted by many countries of the NATO, North Atlantic Trea ...
(G1) instead. However, the newly formed West German Army (
Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...
) now displayed interest and soon purchased a number of CETME rifles for further testing. The CETME, known as the ''Automatisches Gewehr'' G3, competed successfully against the
SIG SG 510 The Sturmgewehr 57 (Stgw. 57 ) is a selective fire battle rifle designed by Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (now Swiss Arms, SAN Swiss Arms) of Switzerland. The Stgw. 57 assault rifle uses a Blowback (arms)#Roller-delayed, roller-delayed bl ...
(G2) and
AR-10 The ArmaLite AR-10 is a 7.62×51mm NATO battle rifle designed by Eugene Stoner in the late 1950s and manufactured by ArmaLite (then a division of the Fairchild (aircraft manufacturer), Fairchild Aircraft Corporation). When first introduced in 1956 ...
(G4) to replace the previously favored G1 rifle. In January 1959, the Bundeswehr officially adopted the CETME rifle. The CETME design was licensed by the West German government, and production was transferred to German manufacturers, Heckler & Koch and Rheinmetall. Heckler & Koch would go on to develop an entire family of weapons based on the G3, including the
HK33 The Heckler & Koch HK33 is a 5.56×45mm NATO, 5.56mm assault rifle developed in the 1960s by West Germany, West German armament manufacturer Heckler & Koch, Heckler & Koch GmbH (H&K), primarily for export. Building on the success of their Heckler ...
rifle, HK21 machine gun, and MP5 submachine gun.


Later years

In the summer of 1956, Vorgrimler moved back to West Germany. Despite the recruiting efforts of Heckler & Koch engineering director (and former Mauser Department 37 colleague)
Alex Seidel Alex Seidel (4 July 1909 – 24 October 1989) was a German weapons manufacturer and the co-founder of Heckler & Koch Heckler & Koch GmbH (HK or H&K; ) is a German firearms manufacturer that produces handguns, rifles, submachine guns, and gr ...
, Vorgrimler returned to work at Mauser as the head of research and development. By then, Mauser and CETME had entered a working alliance. Soon after, Vorgrimler developed a companion machinegun based on the CETME rifle design. While commercially unsuccessful, it inspired Heckler & Koch's HK21 introduced years later. Vorgrimler continued to be granted patents for his work throughout the 1960s and 1970s. This included work on commercial sporting rifles,
caseless Caseless ammunition (CL), or caseless cartridge, is a configuration of weapon-cartridge that eliminates the cartridge case that typically holds the primer, propellant and projectile together as a unit. Instead, the propellant and primer are fitt ...
infantry rifles, and an automatic cannon with Mauser and Industriewerke Karlsruhe.


References

*Vorgrimler, Ludwig, ''Entwicklungsgeschichte CETME-Gewehr - Deutsches-Bundeswehrgewehr G3'', 1977.


External links


International patents of Ludwig Vorgrimler
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vorgrimler, Ludwig Firearm designers 1912 births 1983 deaths Engineers from Freiburg im Breisgau German expatriates in Spain