With the Wehrmacht’s fading fortunes of war and the approaching Allies, the partisan movements in the occupied countries became stronger. As their operations tied up a large number of German troops for security tasks, the Allies attempted to support the French Résistance with supplies. The British, for example, sent containers with firearms, ammunition, explosives and other useful equipment that were dropped to the French Résistance from the air. However, only a small part of it reached the right receiver – a large part was collected by the Germans. The weapons were mainly British Sten submachine guns.These were cheap to produce and space-saving for packing in airdrop containers. Also the Résistance could use captured German 9mm ammunition with these guns.
A large stock of air-dropped Sten guns was collected. These were put into storage in the Reichssicherheitshauptamt “RSHA” (Reich Security Main Office) in Paris. After the Allied landings in Normandy a lot of captured weapons came in addition. In view of the shortage of their own submachine guns, the police and SS filled up their stock from this booty storage.
In the fall of 1944, the Mauser company was given a contract to develop drawings of a direct copy of the British Sten gun (code named Gerät Potsdam) and to manufacture 10,000 of them. In fact, they were to make two different sets of drawings; one suitable for large factory use (like their own) and one for use with distributed small shops making parts for final assembly elsewhere (which is how much of British Sten production was done). The contract was fulfilled and 9972 guns in total were produced and accepted by the German military in November and December of 1944.
Photo of a Gerät Potsdam
More about the history of Gerät Potsdam
In the monthly reports by Mauser, the Gerät Potsdam was mentioned for the first time in September 1944. Due to changes in the aircraft program, the work on the MG215 (V.7077) by the special commission “Automatic Cannons” was discontinued the month before. Soon after that the involved employees were appointed to the new project “Gerät Potsdam” (V.7081). They made good progress and already in October the monthly report of the Weapons Research Institute says, “Two new sets of drawings were drawn up, one for the manufacture by arms factories and one for a manual production in small workshops. The first named set was handed over to the production company, where a series of 10,000 pieces is in preparation. The other set was handed over to the department. Prototypes must now be made to check
Immediately after delivery of the drawings, Mauser began with serial production and by November, 5,300 weapons were finished. In December, 5,100 pieces followed and then the order was completed. According to a survey of Mauser showing the monthly output of weapons, only the actually ordered 10,000 weapons were shipped. What happened to the 400 surplus weapons is not known.
According to the documents from Mauser, the Gerät Potsdam should have been made in small local workshops scattered throughout the Reich. But this never happened. Even before the production at Mauser was set into operation correctly, the company received an instruction by the Sonderkommission Infanteriewaffen (Special Commission infantry weapons) to simplify the Gerät Potsdam and to reduce the manufacturing requirements to a minimum.
More photos of Gerät Potsdam
Specifications
Cartridge 9x19mm
Weight 3.2kg
Weight Unloaded 3.0kg
Length 762 mm
Barrel Length 196 mm
Magazine 32 rounds
Rate of Fire 550
Muzzle velocity 365 m/s
Sources
Sten - Wikipedia
MP 3008 - Wikipedia
Gerät Potsdam : Germany (DEU)
Get_Em_Puppy's World SMGs
SIMPLIFIED SUBMACHINE GUNS FOR THE GERMAN VOLKSSTURM - Small Arms Review
Gerat Potsdam: Mauser Copies the Sten Gun - Forgotten Weapons
Германский STEN: Gerät Potsdam: kosta_g — LiveJournal
Weapon Type
Submachine gun
Battle Rating (BR)
BR1
Type
Event Squad (A Volkssturm Squad in my opinion)
Availability
A Event Squad with this weapon in the game would be really cool and unique, and Germany would have a submachine gun with a good amount of ammo in magazine with a good rate of fire in BR1
Gameplay Purpose & Role
It doesn’t fill any gap, just a new submachine gun for the BR1 but Germany would have a submachine gun with a good amount of ammo in magazine with a good rate of fire in BR1
Gerät Potsdam should be added to the game?
- Yes
- No
0
voters
If Yes,How?
- BP
- TT
- Event weapon (without Squad)
- Event weapon (with squad)
- Premium Squad
0
voters
