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Extremely Rare World War II Three Digit Serial Number Krieghoff FG42 Type I Paratrooper Rifle, Class III/NFA C&R Fully Transferable Machine Gun - Serial no. 190, 7.92 mm Mauser
cal., 19 inch round bbl., black finish, metal stock. Developed in the 1940s, the FG42 stands as
one of the most distinctive weapons on any side of World War II. Developed on special order by Luftwaffe commander-in-chief Hermann Goering himself due to political friction with the Army,
the Fallschirmjaegergewehr (Paratrooper Rifle) was intended to be a “universal weapon”, colored
by the needs of airborne warfare. Prior doctrine called for the deployment of airborne troops with conventional infantry weaponry, but weight/bulk limits meant that individual troopers jumped with at most a SMG, with the bulk of the unit’s arms coming down separately in drop pods. This had dire consequences for the paratroopers deployed at Crete, who found themselves scrambling to recover their rifles and machine guns while under fire from the island’s defenders, causing heavy casualties and robbing them of operational momentum. The FG42, then, was intended to be a weapon to replace all prior categories; enough range to replace the rifle, enough suppressive power to replace the machine gun, and agile enough to replace the SMG. It could also double as a sniper/designated marksman weapon, with the addition of a scope, and carried an on-board spike bayonet for close- in work. In essence, the FG42 would be the spiritual father of the full powered battle rifles that dominated the early phases of the Cold War, and were the de-facto standard Western infantry rifle until the rise of the intermediate caliber assault rifle.
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