During the battle of Crete, German paratroopers jumped armed with pistols mainly. Their weapons were dropped in crates, which they had to recover under heavy fire. The fallschirmjägers suffered very heavy casualties during this operation, which brought the Luftwaffe to request the design of a full power shoulder rifle with select fire. This weapon was made to be easy to jump with, and was even capable of being shot during the descent (though it was probably never used that way). The FG42 ended being a fairly good weapon for the German paratroopers, it's main problem being the fact that only 7000 were made. It was improved upon constantly during the war (this is the early model), and most of the guns are slihgly different to the rest
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