"State Committee of Defense
to comrade L.P. Beria
Several major German small arms designers remain in the German territory occupied by Soviet troops.
- Stange, creator of the MG-34 and MG-42 machine guns as well as other systems. Stange worked at the Rheinmetall-Borsig design bureau in Sömmerda.
- Grune, creator of the MG-42 and MG-45 machine guns. He led the design bureau at the Johannes Grossfuss company in Döbeln.
- Horn, creator of a new automatic carbine. He worked together with Grune at the Johannes Grossfuss design bureau in Döbeln.
- Schmeisser, creator of the MP-40 submachine gun, MP-44 automatic carbine, and a number of other systems. Schmeisser owns the Haenel factory in Suhl.
- Barnitzke, creator of anti-tank rifles and a new automatic carbine. Barnitzke led a design group at the Gustloff-Werke factory in Suhl since 1925.
- Gropp, a specialist in automatic carbines and semiautomatic rifles, worked in Barnitzke's group at the Gustloff-Werke factory in Suhl.
- Ladek, a pistol specialist. Worked in Barnitzke's group at the Gustloff-Werke factory in Suhl.
- Lorentz, leader of the ammunition group at the Polte factory design bureau in Magdeburg. Creator of the model 1943 intermediate round.
Due to the high level of qualification of the aforementioned designers, it is sensible to recruit them to work in a special design bureau.
Chief of the Red Army GAU, Marshal of Arillery, Yakovlev
September 4th, 1945."
Isayev notes that the descriptions of the German designers' achievements is not necessarily correct. For instance, Schmeisser didn't create the MP-40 (which is correctly reflected in lower level reports).
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