Maschinengewehr 08
 |
MG08 with optical sight. |
The
Maschinengewehr 08, or
MG08, was the
German Army's standard
machine gun in the
First World War and comprised an almost direct copy of
Hiram S. Maxim's original
1884 Maxim Gun. It was produced with a number of variations during the war. The MG08 remained in service until the outbreak of the
Second World War due to a shortage of its successor, the
MG34. It was retired from front-line service by
1942.
Like the Maxim Gun, the Maschinengewehr 08 (or MG08) — so-named after
1908, its year of adoption (itself based upon an earlier
1901 model) — was
water-cooled (via a jacket around the barrel that held approximately one
gallon) and could reach a firing rate of up to 400 7.92 mm rounds from a 250-round fabric belt per minute, although sustained firing would lead to over-heating. It was a development of the license made
Maschinengewehr 01.
The MG08, like the Maxim Gun, operated on the basis of a toggle lock; once cocked and fired the MG08 would continue firing rounds until the trigger was released. Its practical range was estimated at some 2,200 yards up to an extreme range of 4,000 yards. The MG08 was mounted on a sledge (
Schlitten) that was ferried between locations either on carts or else carried above men's shoulders in the manner of a stretcher.
Pre-war production was by
Deutsche Waffen und Munitions Fabriken (DWM) in
Berlin and the government
arsenal at
Spandau (so that the gun was often referred to as a
Spandau MG08). When war began in August
1914, approximately 12,000 MG08s were available to battlefield units; production, at numerous factories, was however markedly ramped up during wartime. In 1914 some 200 fresh MG08s were produced each month; by
1916 — once the device had established itself as the pre-eminent defensive battlefield weapon — the number had increased to 3,000; and a year later to a remarkable 14,400 per month.
A revised version of the MG08 was produced in
1915 — the
MG08/15 — which featured a
bipod rather than sledge mount plus a
pistol butt. At 18 kg, it was lighter and less cumbersome and was intended to demonstrate better mobility on the battlefield; it nevertheless remained a bulky weapon which was chiefly used for defensive purposes. It was, however, placed to some use as an
aircraft weapon.
The designation lives on as an
idiom in the German language,
08/15 ('Null-acht-fünfzehn') being used like an
adjective to denote something 'standardized' and unremarkable.
A lightened air-cooled version, the
IMG08/15, was developed for fixed aircraft applications. This version eliminated the stock, grip, and bipod and perforated the water jacket to allow the air flowing around the aircraft to provide cooling. A more robust version, the
LMG08/15, quickly superseded it. (The "L" is variously described as standing for
leicht (light),
luft (air), or
luftgekühlt (air cooled).)
In
1918 an air-cooled and genuinely mobile model — the
MG08/18, weighing 15 kg — entered into production intended for forward use by advancing infantrymen, i.e. as an aggressive rather than simply defensive weapon. These proved of most use in covering the German Army's withdrawal during the latter half of 1918.
*Calibre: 7.92 mm (0.312 in)
*Load: 250-round fabric belt
*Rate of fire: 300 to 450 round/min
*Weight: 62 kg (136.7 lb)
*Muzzle velocity: 900 m/s (2953 ft/s)
References
"The Devil's Paintbrush.Sir Hiram Maxim's Gun",Dolf L.Goldsmith,1989,Collevctor Grade Publications,ISBN 0-88935-056-6
*
Maxim Model of 1908 Machine Gun
