In the closing stage of the war, nine of the Grossfuss Sturmgewehr prototypes were captured by the advancing Red Army; five of these were found at the
Kummersdorf testing site. These guns were given the name "Avtomat Horn" (Horn assault rifle) in the Soviet documents analyzing them. The Soviets also captured schematics for the gun) Although the total number of Grossfuss Sturmgewehrs manufactured is not known, the numerous differences (noted by the Soviets) in part dimensions between the blueprints and the captured exemplars pointed to the experimental nature of the guns, suggesting that design adjustments were still being made. According to the personal notes of Horn, the
Heereswaffenamt requirements for this gun were as follows: it had to use the
blowback principle of operation, use the ammunition and magazines of the
MKb 42(H), have a cyclic rate of fire of 500 rounds per minute, a mass of 4 kg, and have the same barrel and overall length as the MKb 42(H). The requirement to use blowback as principle of operation was interpreted as asking for a gun that was cheap to build, because it translated in a simple design with few parts. The
7.92×33mm Kurz cartridge was however considerably more powerful than the pistol rounds used in
submachine guns, so it would have normally required a
bolt weighing about 1.5 kg, which was difficult to reconcile with the target weight for the gun. A single, slightly incomplete exemplar remains in existence at the
Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signal Corps in Saint Petersburg. ==See also==