The Menneking Prototype: A Forgotten Spanish Assault Rifle.1950

[klem]

Like the other nations of Europe, Spain also wanted to acquire a high-performance assault rifle by recruiting former German engineers. For this purpose, the CETME center was created, which brought together former members of Rheinmetall and Mauser. Hartmut Menneking's group had already been working for nine months at CETME on model 1 and Ludwig Vorgrimler's group (the only one from Mauser at CETME) was working on model 2. Arrived at CETME and strong in his experience at Mauser and CEAM , after three months, he finalized his model 2 which was accepted by the Spanish general staff in December 1950 to the detriment of the model 1 of Menneking who also presented his prototype towards the end of 1950 and in 1952 three different versions of the Model 1 were presented to the head of state. But his model was not ready during the 1951 trials. There were still initial problems with his gas-operated rifle. Vorgrimler's Model 2 prototype was ready in December 1950. The Spanish government selected it for further development in July 1952, which marked the end of the Menneking Model 1 adventure and the start of the CETME assault rifle's career .(Full Circle: A Treatise on Roller Locking-R Blake Stevens-Collector Stage Publications.2006)-(lucas molina franco- jose maría manrique garcía: CETME 50 años del fusil de asalto español - la esfera de los libros- 2005 )

 

[klem]

Prototype 1-a of the Cetme mod.1 assault rifle with gas-operated system, according to the preliminary project of 1950 .(lucas molina franco- jose maría manrique garcía: CETME 50 años del fusil de asalto español - la esfera de los libros- 2005 )