Volksmaschinenpistole - Mod. 3008.
On December 8th 1944 the Reichsminister für Bewaffnung und Munition (German armaments ministry) presented the Weapons Committee with proposals for the arming and equipping of the German peoples army, the Volkssturm. Despite the dire situation of the ever pressing enemy forces from both the East and the West the Germans still managed to produce weapons to arm the Volkssturm. This very rare weapon was recently found in a German cellar. It is an example of the Volksmaschinenpistole MP3008 or "Gerät Neumünster". The Reichszentrale Committee sub contracted the production of the weapon out to 30 small workshops and 14 separate assembly locations. For the benefit of visitors we will show the weapon stripped down here.
From the outset the apparent lineage of the MP3008 is clear. The Germans were greatly impressed by the British Sten gun and it was on this weapon that they based the MP3008. The steel stock is a mirror copy of the Sten, although this soon had to be replaced with wooden stocks as the material shortages became acute for some contractors to cope with. This weapon took the standard MP38/40 magazine, holding 32 9mm rounds. The order for 1 million weapons to arm the Volkssturm was never completed. The best estimates by historians and the Allies after the war was that little over 3500 weapons were ever completed.
Above we show a close up of the crude assembly. The similarity to the barrel of a Sten is obvious.
There was some surface rust on this very rare weapon, but there are absolutely no markings to be found whatsoever! We will never know how this came to be left in a cellar for over half a century undiscovered, this alone is hard to believe. It may be that one of the workers took a weapon to defend himself?
