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Nov 1: The beginning with Sir Hiram Maxim’s guns: MG 99 and MG 01

In 1888 Hiram Maxim presented the latest product of his inventive genius to the Prussian Rifle Examining Commission (Gewehr-Prüfungs-Kommission, G.P.K.) at Spandau: a machine gun which he not immodestly called “The World Standard”. Maxim adapted the weapon to the German M 1871 rifle cartridge solely for this test and also had a thousand rounds of ammunition hand loaded for the exhibition. The members of the G.P.K. were thoroughly impressed by the weapon, and fired thousands of rounds, but without placing any orders.

The problem now was that Germany was just in the process of converting to the new smokeless Gewehrpatrone 88 rifle cartridge, calibre 7.92 mm x 57, and further tests would only make sense if the machine gun was adapted to use the new “small calibre” cartridge with its lighter bullet. The recoil produced by this ammunition no longer provided sufficient impulse, as the previously used heavy bullet of the black powder M 1871 cartridge had, and it therefore required a change to the lock and the toggle mechanism of the “World Standard” Maxim Gun. Maxim got to grips with the design changes, and in 1890 and 1891 he sent weapons with the necessary modifications for the new calibre to Spandau at his own expense for further testing.

However, the Type 88 ammunition’s cartridge material became a problem. There were large numbers of stoppages caused by broken cartridge cases, causing stoppages during firing which were difficult to clear. The only solution would have been special ammunition for the machine gun. The Prussian War Ministry balked at the resulting added financial and logistical burdens and temporarily halted further trials with the machine gun “for army purposes” in March 1892. Although the first attempt to sell machine guns to the German Army was a disappointment, the Imperial Navy remained as a potential customer for Maxim.

Ludwig Loewe & Co., the biggest German producer of hand-weapons already had a license agreement to copy the technically outdated Gardner machine gun. The company now tried to do business with Maxim and gain the rights to this superior design for the German market, even if at first it was only “reserve capacity”. Weapons whose selling price was then between 280 and 320 Pounds (5,700 to 6,500 Marks), or between 85,000 and 98,000 Euros in today’s purchasing power, were interesting. The license agreement was signed on January 28, 1892. It gave Loewe complete access to the design documentation of the World Standard Gun, the machine tools for its manufacture and its further developments (Article I and Article III of the contract). Production rights, however, were limited to the territory of the German Empire (“within the territory of the German Empire, Article I”). For a company geared toward the export of weapons this was a significant restriction.

But even more important: all orders from German government departments were to be made through the Maxim Nordenfelt Company. Ludwig Loewe & Co. was expressly not authorized to accept contracts from the German government. Pricing was also a matter for Maxim. The profit from sales was split in a ratio of 66⅔ percent for Maxim Nordenfelt and 33⅓ percent for Loewe. In the final article it was clarified that this contract was in no way intended to establish a partnership. This agreement had a term of seven years and was, as Goldsmith rightly noted, a “leash agreement”. The leash was, however, loosened for the first time soon afterward, and under new management that had been a one-sided business relationship became something which one could now call a union of interests.

In 1897 Loewe changed the company name to “Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken” (DWM), German Arms and Ammunitions Factories, and with the contract supplement of 1898 the passage that had allowed Vickers to influence Loewe / DWM’s sales policy for machine guns in Germany was dropped. After 1901 DWM was able to sell worldwide, with the exception of Great Britain, France and the USA. And in 1914 – right before the Great War started – the license fees to Vickers for machine gun sales to the German armed forces were dropped.

The first machine guns produced on an experimental basis, with vital parts still imported from England, were delivered for the Imperial Navy. In Navy Gazette No. 21 of October 3, 1892, Kaiser Wilhelm II issued a supreme cabinet order authorizing the introduction of the “8-mm Maxim machine gun into the naval artillery”. Unlike the army, the navy dispensed with an expensive selection process for choosing the “right” type of weapon. The machine guns, which were only envisaged in small numbers for cruisers of the surface fleet and landing parties, could easily be added to the navy’s arsenal. The army introduced machine guns only seven years later in 1899.

With the army models MG 99 and MG 01, the weapon was mounted to a carriage by arranging two vertical trunnions at the rear end of the barrel jacket, top and bottom, and connecting them to a two-part bracket attached to the carriage. Two horizontal swivel pins made the gun free to pivot – the typical German sledge mount was born to meet the G.P.K.’s demand for a stable firing platform. DWM was even issued a British patent with the number 20,865 for this on February 1, 1901. The actual hour of birth of the German Army’s machine gun units, however, was March 26, 1901, when a cabinet-level directive ordered that five machine gun Abteilungen be formed on October 1, 1901:

• Garde MG-Abteilung (Potsdam, allocated to the Garde Jäger Bataillon)
• MG-Abteilung Nr. 1 (Ortelsburg, allocated to Jäger Bataillon 1, later allocated to 1. Bataillon IR 51),
• MG-Abteilung Nr. 2 (Bitsch in Lorraine, allocated to Jäger Bataillon 4, from Oct. 1, 1906 to I. Bataillon, IR 43in Strasbourg in Alsace, later allocated to III. Bataillon, IR 29),
• MG-Abteilung Nr. 3 (Bitsch, allocated to Jäger Bataillon 10, later allocated to I Bataillon, IR 97),
• MG-Abteilung Nr. 4 (Kulm, allocated to Jäger Bataillon 2, later allocated to the I. Bataillon, IR 21).

Apart from their unit commands, the Prussian Abteilungen also fell under the Inspectorate of Light Infantry and Rifle Units. Following a cabinet-level directive of March 20, 1902, on October 1, 1902 seven more machine gun Abteilungenwere added:

• Garde MG-Abteilung Nr. 2 (Gr. Lichterfelde, allocated to the Garde Schützen Bataillon, later allocated to the II. Bataillon, Garde Grenadier Regiment 4),
• MG-Abteilung Nr. 5 (Lötzen, allocated to the II. Bataillon, IR 146, on October 1, 1906 allocated to the II. Bataillon, IR 45),
• MG-Abteilung Nr. 6 (Sensburg, allocated to the I. Bataillon, IR 146, later allocated to the I. Bataillon, IR 67),
• MG-Abteilung Nr. 7 (Lübben, allocated to Jäger Bataillon 3, later allocated to the I. Bataillon, IR 58),
• MG-Abteilung Nr. 8 (Oels, allocated to Jäger Bataillon 6, in 1906 reorganized into the Königlich Sächsischen MG-Abteilung Nr. 8 (Royal Saxon Machine gun Abteilung) in Leipzig, there allocated to the I. Bataillon, IR 107),
• MG-Abteilung Nr. 9 (Colmar in Alsace, allocated to Jäger Bataillon 14, disbanded in 1913),
• MG-Abteilung Nr. 10 (Schlettstadt in Alsace, allocated to Jäger Bataillon 8, disbanded in 1913).

Then in 1902 in Bavaria, the 1. MG-Abteilung of the Royal Bavarian Army was formed in Augsburg and allocated to the III. Bataillon K.B. IR 3. In 1905 it was decided that there would be no further increases in peacetime strength for the next five years (Quinquennat) and War Minister v. Einem did not want to risk an addendum with the expected debates in the Reichstag, and therefore the army was forced to improvise. The formation of the first twelve Abteilungen still followed the outlined scheme. “On October 1, 1907, Kaiser Wilhelm II., approved the further formation of 12 experimental infantry machine gun Abteilungen as follows:

4 Abteilungen in Berlin

1 Abteilung in Strasbourg

1 Abteilung in Diedenhofen

1 Abteilung in Thorn

one Abteilung each in the II., IV., V., VII. and VIII. Armeekorps. As these were not budgeted test Abteilungen, they also do not appear in the army register (Rangliste)! The idea of organizing infantry machine gun companies differently, so that they could be distributed among the battalions by section, was quickly rejected. The War Ministry was of the opinion that the machine gun was a weapon for “professionals”, who required a special type of organization to operate the complicated and cumbersome weapon. The formation of machine gun companies in the infantry regiments was done “provisionally”, and they were therefore not included in the budget at first. Local commands formed a “13th company” from the regiment’s existing personnel. Officers and NCOs were sent there from other companies. This also explains why in 1906 to 1913, machine gun companies did not appear in the army registers. The machine guns themselves were paid for from the “test budget”.

Captions:

Marineverordnungsblatt_1892.jpg

Kaiser Wilhelm II issued a supreme cabinet order on October 3, 1892, authorizing the introduction of the 8-mm Maxim machine gun into the naval artillery.

Armee-Verordnungs-Blatt_Kaiser_Preis_MG-1903.jpg