Which one, German main?
2 Likes
For Germans, the Zk, for your Italian men, the beretta. Ta daa
6 Likes
I prefer the ZK-383 for it’s higher fire rate and better dispersion, but if you have bad trigger discipline you might want to use Beretta 38
2 Likes
Don’t beretta have better dispersion?
0.53 vs 0.65, ZK-383 is one the most accurate SMGs in the game.
5 Likes
Ahah, I didn’t even know that!
It’s been a while I played with axis I fear… I only just tried the new map yesterday for the first time, with sovs 
I use both on my Germans. The Germans liked their stolen, I mean borrowed SMGs.
I regularly switch between the MP 40, MP 41(r), Beretta M38A and ZK 383 in my BR III line up, just like the veriaty. Right now I have all ZKs, except my Premium APC squad which still has Berettas.
2 Likes
ZK for me
The berretta is a great all-rounder, jack of all trade master of none : good rpm, good ammo size, good accuracy.
The Zk is better in terms of raw power because of its very low dispersion and higher rpm.
It depends what you value the most.
I would say that if you have the captured PPSh box in 9mm, there is no need to use the Zk. But otherwise I would say that both the Berretta and the Zk are valuable BR3 weapons.
1 Like
I don’t even remember what my br3 axis use. I know I have a few mp41(r), as it’s unbeatable (it’s Soviet, go figure) but don’t recall what else.
I know I use a bunch of g41 riflemen though. Perhaps the worst br3 semi, but I always liked the thing in most ww2 games I played.
3 Likes
Honestly I use the Beretta more because of that, it would be more common than the ZK at least, though I do prefer the ZK in use.
Saying that, the MP-41(r) is king when you have it, because soviet SMGs are kinda busted, both in game and in reality in the war too.
1 Like
Actually, if we only count the very low production of the M38A, and not later versions which were more numerous, and the fact that about ca 20k of them went to Romania (so weren’t in Italian hands for the Germans to steal from), then there’s a very good case to be made that there was a lot more ZK-383s in German service than the M38A, possibly as much as x5 more ZKs.
Of course, the ZKs were specificly issued to the SS, so you could also argue that the M38A is in fact a better fit for the regular infantry or luftwaffe forces.
Beretta M38A 40
I thought there was only like 13k ZK’s made? Not to mention I can relatively easily pretend they were Romanian guns pressed into german service following one of the many romanian divisions being pretty much destroyed.
1 Like
It’s more like 20k (in total, pre war and during the war), but yes I have re-evaluated my figures, I didn’t account for the fact that not all of the guns went directly to Germany. Ca 10k were made during the war under occupation specificly for Germany, another thousand were made for the Slovakian puppet state and we can assume some thousands were also captured from Yugoslavia (they had 5k in total, I doubt all were taken control of, but presumably a significant ammount), so we’re looking at about 13-15k in German service (including police, apparently).
Which, all to say, about a third the number I originally estimated, I just assumed all 20k-ish total pre-war and war production went into German hands, which isn’t really accurate.
Still, that puts it about on the same level as Italian M38As in Italian service in total, and that’s the optimistic number.
I doubt many M38A guns from Romania saw their way into German service, the “destroyed” divisions would have been destroyed by the Soviets, so they would have been the ones to capture them, and when Romania switched sides they actually did quite well and fairly quickly threw out the Germans. They basicly stoped fighting the Russians, turned around and started fighting the Germans instead, no occupation or forced disarmament on a large scaled happened, so I again doubt a significant ammount got into German hands.
1 Like
ZK-383 had a modest but still relatively successful mass production with about 30 000 made during and before WW2. 8000-9000 were purchased by Bulgaria.
A few thousand were probably used by the Slovakian army.
The rest were used by the German Heer making it most likely more common than the Beretta 38 which was also manufactured in modest numbers because it was time consuming to make while the simplified Beretta 38/42 was 10x times more common in Both Italian and German service.
2 Likes
A generous number, but I won’t dispute it.
My estimate purpusfully left out guns going to Bulgaria or Latin America, as they’re not remotely close to coming into German hands, hence why I settled on the 20k.
1 Like
with how many ZKs were exported, I would say 15k used for occupation and by waffen-SS but Im just guessing and have no data.
2 Likes
ZK is 100% better is basically a nerfed ppsh41 box due fire rate and more dispersion at least it have more damage
Yep, checks out.
Though my estimate does include some thousands of presumed captured Yugoslav examples, but we’re really splitting hairs at this point.
2 Likes