My German Empire - Chapter 7: Walter

Speaking of the German Walter pistol, anyone who knows a little about firearms will know.

The Karl Walter Weapon Manufacturing Plant, like other traditional German weapons manufacturing plants, originated in Thuringia, Germany, which established the first firearms industry association as early as 1953. As early as the autumn of 1886, Karl Walter created a small workshop that would later become Karl Walter’s weapons factory.

At the beginning, the workshop was very simple, with only a foot lathe, a vise and a casting furnace. At the age of 28 that year, he started a gun-making journey with an apprentice.

Carl’s greatest interest was the development of automatic pistols, which was an unprecedented new technology at the time. The Walter family has made a great contribution in this field, especially Freitz Walter has shown extraordinary expertise in this technology. In 1908, they produced the first automatic pistol, the 6.35mm Walter M1 pistol, which was carried by almost every German officer in World War I. In the following years, four other automatic pistols similar to the M1 were produced.

The First World War gave a huge boost to the development of the Walter Weapon Factory, which had more than 500 employees at that time. Karl Walter died in 1915, and several of his sons inherited his career.

Now the eldest son is sitting in Wilhelm’s office crying about his company’s situation. “I can barely make ends meet. If I can’t receive orders, I’m afraid I can only declare bankruptcy.”

Wilhelm nodded slowly, motioning for him to fully understand. “I want 12% of your company.”

“Puff!” The coffee that Walter had just put in his mouth sprayed back into the coffee cup. If the person opposite is not the honorable Royal Highness, he might immediately jump up and scold his mother. This is daylight robbery. “The price given by your Royal Highness is?”

But Wilhelm’s words almost made Walter vomit blood. “I do not have money.”

“…!!!” He has no money and he is even saying it so confidently. This is taking advantage of the fire to rob, this is being robbed clearly, even the royal family must abide by the rules of the game, if there is such a mess, who would dare to invest and do business in Germany? ?

When Walter was thinking about such things, Wilhelm picked up a few pieces of paper on the table and flicked it. “Here are three-point drawings, and I promise to sell more than 500,000 weapons from each drawing.”

“…” Walter, who just felt the blood rush, calmed down. “His Royal Highness, can I take a look at the drawings first?”

“No.” Wilhelm shook his head. “You have to make a decision first. Agree or disagree. If you agree, everyone is happy. If you don’t agree, you can go out directly. Then I will find another weapon dealer to cooperate.” In some respect, he does not need someone as a partner. All he needs is complete obedience. He wants these businessmen to understand that as long as they obey him, there will be meat to eat and soup to drink. If they want to share the meat, just follow him obediently.

This is simply gambling. Walter was wiping the sweat on his forehead, thinking carefully, if he really left , he might be hated by the crown prince, and the company would really go bankrupt within a few days. Yes, I am about to go bankrupt and I still consider so much nonsense. If I give 12% of the shares to His Royal Highness, then he has to give some orders. If the company has an order, then His Highness will also have a profit. The more orders, the greater the profit for His Highness, and of course he also earns more.

Thinking of this, Walter nodded heavily. “His Royal Highness, I agree to exchange 12% of the company’s shares for those three drawings.”

“Sure enough, I didn’t read you wrong.” Wilhelm smiled. “It’s fun to deal with smart people, so take it.”

Walter took the blueprint handed over by Wilhelm with a bumpy look, but he couldn’t move his eyes again with just one glance. “It’s so beautiful! Your Royal Highness, who designed these?” This is clearly drawn by a master’s hand, he has never heard of such an expert in this industry?

Touching his nose, Wilhelm “admitted” cheekyly. “I designed it myself, how about it?” In fact, I still feel a little sad. These designs are what Walter Company developed a few years later. Is this blatant plagiarism ?

But this is also one of the benefits of crossing.

He gave Walter the design drawings of the G43 semi-automatic rifle, P38 pistol, and PPK pistol.

The Kar-98K rifle, which was widely installed by the German army before the outbreak of World War II, was only considered to meet the demand. Therefore, the development of semi-automatic rifles lags behind the United States and the Soviet Union. Especially between 1941 and 1942, the standard rifle Kar98k of the German army on the eastern front In terms of firepower, it cannot compete with Soviet semi-automatic rifles. The MP-40 submachine guns equipped by the Germans often failed to respond effectively due to insufficient range. As a result, the agenda of equipping the army with a semi-automatic rifle that can effectively compete with the Soviet SVT-40 rifle was immediately brought up.

In 1941, the two major German ordnance companies, Mauser and Walter, launched their semi-automatic rifles almost simultaneously.

However, Mauser’s products failed in the competition, and the German army decided that Walter design a new semi-automatic rifle to replace the old K-98 rifle as the army’s standard equipment, named Gewehr 41 (referred to as G41).

As a result, its accuracy, firing speed, and operability made the German soldiers on the front line give a very “high” evaluation: Why is this girl’s rate of fire so slow? How can this girl’s bullets be so difficult to load , How come this girl has to shoot twice, this girl is not oiled…

Because of these tides of “acceptance”, Mauser 98K, which was originally going to be further returned, continues to be produced, and the output and orders had to be increased.

Until the Soviet Union’s Tokarev automatic system was discovered by the Germans, and successfully improved. G43 was born like this. It is better to use than Mauser 98K, and it can play far away, not worse than Mauser. More importantly, he can put bullets in the magazine more easily.

Relying on pneumatic mechanical devices, it makes its rate of fire faster than G41, although this is just the shooter’s own feeling. But its weight is twice as light.

Walter’s eyes lit up. These pieces of paper are simply treasures! But he also found a strange problem. This PPK, if he didn’t understand the error, should be the abbreviation of “Polizei Pistole Kriminal” Criminal Police Pistol. But what do the numbers in G43 and P38 mean? years? 1843, 1838? 1943, 1938? Immediately, I stopped thinking about this question. Since His Royal Highness has all of them numbered , just use it.

“How? Is it worth it?”

“It is worth it, it is worth it. Thank you, His Royal Highness. I’ll go back and complete the formalities immediately and send it to you. ”

“That’s good.” After sending Walter away, he called the Mauser company. However, this negotiation did not go smoothly. The Mauser representative looked lacking in interest, but due to Wilhelm’s status he did not refuse on the spot, but Wilhelm clearly saw the disdain in his eyes.