Weaponry: Krummer Lauf

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Schaede’s Krummer Lauf device featured a special clamping apparatus that enabled the barrel to be fitted to the MP.43 muzzle and bolted into place. Relatively heavy and unwieldy, the first Krummer Lauf design sported an actual barrel length of nearly 19 inches. The barrel’s diameter was just under an inch, bored and rifled in standard armory fashion, then cold-bent to a 90-degree angle. These original versions initially appeared without sights.

With the backing of Albert Speer, Schaede and a Professor Wenniger of the RmB firm demonstrated the invention to officers of the weapons division on July 6, 1944. Because of the weapon’s heavy recoil, the Krummer Lauf appeared destined for use on panzers and self-propelled guns, where the vehicle’s superstructure could be utilized for firing stability. Unfortunately, the added length of the Krummer Lauf and its recoil made it a cumbersome weapon for infantry use. The demonstration, however, proved a success, and in August 10,000 Krummer Lauf devices were ordered for combat.

The Krummer Lauf won immediate praise from tank crews, who used it to fight off anti-tank squads, particularly on the Eastern Front. Crewmen no longer had to expose themselves to enemy fire to clear away attackers. By September, an additional 20,000 Krummer Lauf attachments per month were ordered for panzer use. In November 1944, Schaede was promoted to colonel and awarded the Knight’s Cross to the War Service Cross with Swords for his work on tank development and his invention of the bent-barrel design.

The notion of a Krummer Lauf for infantry use still plagued Schaede. He developed an 11-inch-barrel model that featured a lesser bend. Only .787 inches in diameter, the infantry model barrel was bored and rifled, then cold-bent to a 30-degree downward angle. The new design also featured an adapter so that a special grenade launcher could be used.

Schaede next turned his attention to a sighting apparatus for the Wehrmacht. The famed Zeiss optical firm helped develop a prismatic visor/sight. A special set of mirrors in the angled visor could be aligned with the iron sight near the muzzle to allow the shooter to accurately fire around a corner. The reduced recoil of the 30-degree Krummer Lauf, coupled with the Zeiss sight, enabled the bent barrel to be used more easily by the infantry. Production on the new model began in early 1945.

The addition of the Krummer Lauf to the Nazi arsenal proved to be far too little and much too late. By the time the new weapon was ready for production, Allied planes ruled the skies, relentlessly bombing remaining German industrial centers. While factory output continued to be fairly stable, the difficulty lay in transporting weapons and munitions to front-line troops. The German rail system had been severely crippled, and there were shortages of trucks and fuel.

Besides the original order for 10,000 Krummer Lauf attachments placed in December 1943, an additional 20,000 of the 90-degree models were ordered per month beginning in September 1944. Thirty thousand 30-degree bent barrels were ordered for infantry use in January 1945, along with an equal number of Zeiss prismatic sights. The Krummer Lauf orders simply outstripped the Reich’s ability to manufacture them. Firearms historian Michael Marine estimates that about 10,000 bent barrels were actually produced, with about 5,000 ticketed for the Wehrmacht. Of those, he suggests, probably 4,000 were delivered to troops fighting the Russians.

Several Krummer Lauf devices were captured by American and British forces during the last battles of the war. Captain Philip B. Sharpe of the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps tested the 90-degree model. Over two-thirds of the bullets were torn into two or three pieces–but at very short range it would have been deadly, Sharpe wrote after the war. When fired from the hip as an ‘around-the-corner-gun,’ not more than three shots could be fired in one burst–it would spin the shooter 90 degrees in three shots–a vicious attachment. Sharpe also noted that when mounted on a tank, the Krummer Lauf shot excellently.

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