Externally, the StG45 was of a conventional design with its fixed wooden shoulder stock, angled pistol grip, and a receiver fitting the barrel assembly. The magazine was set in a traditional fashion ahead of the trigger group with all pertinent internal functions housed in the receiver. A charging handle was set to the receiver side with a prominent protrusion. A fire selector was set near the thumb for quick access. and included three modes labeled "S", "E" and "D". A rear sight was fitted ahead of the receiver while a forward site sat atop the muzzle. Construction of the receiver was of steel stampings with welding at certain joints. Magazines were to be curved in the traditional sense and included a 10-round capacity version for testing and a 30-round capacity version intended for the full-scale production model (the StG45 is oft-pictured with the shorter 10-round version). All told, the StG45 effort was roughly half the cost and material required to produce when compared to the earlier StG44 series. It also weighed in at under 9lbs to the StG44's 10lb empty weight.
After the war, it was quite common to find German engineers having relocated their talents to other countries. Some Mauser personnel ended up in France where work continued on a similar automatic weapon firing the US 30 M1 Carbine cartridge with the roller-delayed action but this was ultimately abandoned due to lack of funds. Engineers also made their way to Spain where they worked for the government-sponsored CETME group which refined the roller-delayed blowback action into a workable prototype firing a 7.92mm cartridge. The Spanish government took delivery of a modified form firing a low-powered 7.62mm CETME cartridge as the "CETME Model 58" of 1958 while the weapon was also marketed to the West German Army which accepted the weapon for local production through the Heckler & Koch concern as the "HK G3 Battle Rifle" of 1959 - this firing the full-power 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge. In these ways, the German wartime roller-delayed blowback system of operation endured and went on to be used in a variety of HK products thereafter (including the excellent HK MP5 submachine gun), thus proving the concept a sound alternative to more expensive gas-operated weapons.
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