The Karabiner 98k remained the weapon that most German soldiers fought and died with. They did develop the world’s first true assault rifle at the end of the war, but it never saw widespread use. Stuck with the karabiner 98k, partly because of tactical reasons (they based their squad tactics on light machine guns rather than riflemen) and partly because as German loses mounted, they couldn’t produce anything else.
Even after the introduction of semi-automatic and automatic weapons, the Germans Of all the bolt action rifles that saw service during the war, the Karabiner 98k is considered to be the best. Still, the Karabiner 98k was a stalwart of the German Army and remained in production right up until the German surrender in 1945. Based on the military doctrine that armies primarily fought each other at long distances across open terrain, rifles like the Karabiner 98k were designed for a kind of war that was rapidly fading into history. They had dominated armed conflict since the end of the 19 th century, and were still used by some armies after the war, but never again would a major nation’s army enter a battle armed with bolt action rifles as standard issue.
The Second World War was the swansong for the bolt action rifle. These are the Top Ten infantry weapons of the Second World War. Weapons that defined the iconography of a global struggle. Weapons that saved their lives and ended those of their enemies. Weapons that gave them a sliver of advantage over their enemies. Weapons they carried, relied on, and cared for as they trudged across the burned out cities of Europe, the deserts of Africa, and the sweltering jungles of the South Pacific. Although it is often remembered as the first technological war, many of the battles of WWII were fought by nothing more advanced than men and their weapons.
Millions were killed, empires rose and fell, and no corner of the planet was spared the destruction, fire, and death it left in its wake. The Second World War was the greatest, bloodiest conflict in human history.