A US Army soldier tests a StG-44 captured from the Vietcong during the Vietnam War
These guns were not as rare as one might imagine after WWII. Despite the relatively small (compared to the 98k rifle) number made before Germany’s surrender, a disproportionate quantity was retained due to the weapon’s modern nature. Tens of thousands were captured by the Soviets in 1945; later in that decade some were transferred to the new client regimes in East Europe, notably East Germany and (especially) Czechoslovakia. By the latter half of the 1950s, these armies had moved on to the SKS and AK-47 and began doling out their StG-44s abroad. North Vietnam’s StG-44s came from at least two sources: the USSR, as part of it’s late-1950s first tranche of military aid; and then a smaller quantity from Czechoslovakia. It’s possible that a very small number were also delivered from East German reserve warehouses in the early 1960s. These guns were never “common” but at least very early in the Vietnam War, they were not particularly rare either. These guns were rarely seen after the January 1968 Tet offensive.
