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Nov 8: The standard machine-gun of the German army: MG 08

In 1906-07, the formation of a machine gun company with “old type” equipment (meaning the MG 01 with Type 06 or 07 ammunition wagon), with six machine guns and one reserve MG, cost approximately 200,000 Marks. The actual – now German made by DWM – machine gun alone cost 14,000 Marks. Not included here are the possible costs for quarters, stables, stable accessories, gunsmith workshop, blacksmith’s workshop, etc., so that the total cost can surely be reckoned at a level of 250,000 Marks. In 1907 the Prussian War Ministry calculated a financial requirement of about 30,000 Marks solely for the erection of the necessary buildings to house a machine gun company or MG-Abteilung. To obtain a picture of the obviously very high costs in modern-day currency, it would be interesting to convert these prices into Euros. Such a conversion is relatively difficult, however. The German Federal Reserve Bank ties such a conversion to various buying power equivalents in present-day currencies. But as the prices of different consumer goods from the shopping cart have developed very differently over the past century—measured in terms of purchasing power, foods, for example, are much cheaper today than they were in 1914—determining a uniform conversion factor becomes difficult. The Deutsche Bundesbank has come up with factors ranging from barely 5 to more than 20.

It therefore seems to make more sense to tie the development in purchasing power to the development of real estate prices. There are very reliable methods of calculation, as the standard values of buildings in Germany, as well as their insurance values, are frequently calculated based on the 1914 value in order to have a standard basis for comparison. The resulting comparison factor for the year 1914 would have a value of 17.39. To simplify the calculation, here we will use the rather conservative factor of 15 and round off the sums. As inflation in the years prior to 1914 was almost zero because of the gold standard, we will use this conversion factor as the number for the entire period between 1900 and 1914. It was not until the ending of the gold standard at the time of mobilization and the methods used to finance the war, that significantly appreciable inflation began in the years 1914 to 1918, which then continued as hyperinflation after the war, especially in the years 1922 and 1923.

Using this formula, the DWM calculated a price of 14,000 Marks for an MG 01 machine gun—equal to about 210,000 Euros in present-day currency! And this didn’t even include the sledge mount, tools and other necessary accessories. The machine gun company, broken down in more detail above, which including quarters would have cost the budget about 250,000 Marks, would cost about 3,750,000 Euros in modern currency. This is all the more remarkable when one considers that the planned procurement of an automatic pistol, which in 1907 would have cost 55 Marks, would now result in an expenditure of about 825 Euros. Between 1900 and 1912 the procurement cost of a Gewehr 98 rifle was between 51.33 and 52.74 Marks—about 770 to 790 Euros after conversion.

Meanwhile the existing machineguns were intensely tested by the army leading into a number of improvements – many of them to reduce the unbearable heavy weight of the MG 01 on the sledge mounts 01 or 03. These improvements led to the introduction of an improved machinegun MG 08 on a new sledge mount 08.

MG 08 Specification:

Manufacturer: Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken Berlin (DWM), Spandau Arsenal, amongst others

Operating principle: Recoil loader with short recoil and toggle lock

Calibre:                                                                       7.92 mm x 57 IS

Rate of fire:                                                                 400-450 rounds per minute

Ammunition feed:                                                       fabric belt with 250 rounds 

Range of elevation:                                                     -3º to +37º

Range of traverse with traverse stop:                         12º left/right

Range of traverse without traverse stop:                    24º left/right

Sight, open:                                                                 400-2,000 m

          optical (Zielfernrohr 12 telescopic sight

          with magnification of 2.5)                                400-2,000 m

Weight of the “actual machine gun” with water:       26.3 kg

Sledge mount:                                                             37 kg

Overall length:                                                            1,190 mm

Barrel length: 720 mm (without recoil booster), right hand twist with 4 grooves

Width:                                                                         180 mm

Height:                                                                                    420 mm

Sledge length:                                                             1,270 mm

The fear that prevailed before the war that providing replacement ammunition for the machine guns might present great difficulties, and the striving for long-duration continuous fire, were reasons for reducing the rate of fire to a theoretical 300 to 350 rounds per minute. As a result of this reduction, the weapon often did not work properly, the force of the recoil being barely sufficient to operate the highly complex Maxim self-loading mechanism.

Initial combat experience showed, however, that lengthy continuous fire at a recognizable enemy was a peacetime anomaly. In combat targets were usually visible only briefly, for a few seconds, therefore only short bursts of fire with a high firing rate were effective. The Type 08/S recoil booster, introduced at the end of 1914, increased the rate of fire to 450 rounds per minute. The recoil booster blocks expanding powder gases at the barrel muzzle this increases the recoil. When barrels were changed the recoil booster was not to be unscrewed. A metal plate at the end of the recoil booster’s cone dampened the muzzle flash to obscure machinegun positions and to reduce blinding of the gunner at night. For shooting blank cartridges with their blue wooden bullets, which would never have produced the necessary pressure on the muzzle, the Type P recoil booster began to be issued as early as 1908.

Even more important than the MG’s continued accuracy during sustained fire was its resistance to jams and stoppages. Only Maxim’s lock with its extractor, or “Four-move Carrier” as it was more vividly called in the English patent document, forcibly fed the cartridges from beginning to end on a precisely-designed path through the mechanism. The loading and firing procedures were practiced in drill-like fashion. The recognition and clearance of stoppages in this complex automatic loading and firing process required well-trained operating personnel. The gunner (Gunner 2), for example, had to be able to tell from the position of the bolt handle if the extractor had not risen all the way, whether the extractor arms were stuck on or under the lock guide piece, and why this was jamming the barrel’s counterrecoil.16 No less than six (!) pages were dedicated to this chapter in Guidelines Relevant to the 08 Machine Gun of May 17, 1909:

1. Introduce belt, crank handle forward, manually pull belt to the left,
2. Crank handle back. The extractor grips the first cartridge in the belt.
3. Crank forward again. The extractor has dropped down in the rear, the first

    cartridge is in front of the chamber (at the time it was said: “in front of the barrel”).

4. Pull belt, crank handle back. The first cartridge is in the barrel’s cartridge chamber.

    The second cartridge is gripped by the extractor in the feed. The MG is loaded for

    continuous fire.

5. Fire. The first cartridge is fired, after firing the first cartridge is pulled out of the

    chamber, moved further downward by the extractor and is now in front of the ejector

    tube, the second cartridge in front of the barrel. The first recoil was ended, the first

    counter recoil began.

6. The spent casing is in the ejector tube, the second cartridge is in the barrel, the third

    cartridge is gripped by the extractor.

7. Fire. The second recoil takes place. The first casing is still in the ejector tube, the

   second casing is in front of the ejector tube, the third cartridge is in front of the

   chamber. The lock moves forward again. The first casing is ejected, the second casing 

   is in the ejector tube, the third in the chamber, the fourth is gripped. The processes

   repeat themselves in continuous fire mode as long as the gunner presses the trigger.

Processes in the weapon when fired.

• As described above, if the machine gun was loaded for continuous fire, the lock was cocked, a cartridge gripped by the extractor was in the chamber, and the next cartridge in the feed mechanism had already been gripped by the extractor. The bolt lock had moved out of the firing pin detent.
• By pressing the trigger, the sear was now moved back, its upper arm moving the trigger lever back with it. This caused the upper arm of the trigger lever to leave the detent of the cocking slide, releasing it and the firing pin.
• The firing pin raced forward and ignited the cartridge.
• The recoil momentum acted upon the base of the cartridge and the extractor and was augmented by the recoil booster on the muzzle of the barrel. This caused all sliding parts to recoil together in locked condition. 
• The recoil was transmitted to the bolt shaft; first to the “rigid extended linkage” of the lock with angle lever and bolt base, then to the slide mechanism with barrel.
• All sliding parts together moved back about 3 mm, with rigid locking of the barrel guaranteed until the bullet left the barrel.
• While sliding back about 25 mm, after about 3 mm the lock lever ran onto the lock lever slide roller and caused a downward rotation of the lock shaft. The lock base pulled the angle lever downward, causing the connection of lock shaft and lock base to jack-knife. As a result, the rigid lock between barrel and lock was released.
• The subsequent recoil of the barrel and slide mechanism was about 22 mm. The belt-feed pawl crank, which engaged a cut-out in the left side plate, transmitted its rearward movement into a rightwards movement of the belt slider. The feed lever slid over the next cartridge in the belt and dropped behind it. Simultaneously the connector tensioned the safety spring as it slid backward.
• The extractor pulled the empty casing from the barrel and the cartridge in the feed mechanism’s cartridge discharge from the belt. The extractor continued to slide back and dropped under its own weight, placing the cartridge in front of the chamber and the empty casing in front of the ejector tube.
• The angle cam tensioned the bolt, its rear end pressing on the lower arm of the tension lever as it moved backward, so that its upper arm led the firing pin back until it snapped into the bolt lock and thus tensioned the firing pin spring.
• The counter recoil of all sliding parts (25 mm) was caused by the force of the tensioned fusee spring and by the short arm of the forward-rushing bolt handle, which pressed from below on the bolt handle slide roller. The barrel and slide mechanism also raced forward again.
• The feed lever, which had to perform a movement to the left, pushed the cartridge belt sufficiently far to the left for the next cartridge to be grasped by the claw of the cartridge withdrawal spring.
• The safety spring moved the connector and slide mechanism forward and rotated them. As the bolt shaft followed the rotation, the folded connection was extended. The lock was moved forward, pushing the cartridge into the barrel and an empty casing into the ejector tube. Cocking lever and firing pin were released.
• Through the pressure of the angle lever on the rear arm of the extractor lever, the extractor rose. It was held in its highest position by the two extractor springs. The rigid lock, caused by the bolt shaft and bolt base moving into a straight position, was restored.
• The second shot was fired and the processes repeated themselves as long as the gunner pressed the trigger.

When the war started, German machinegun crews very soon found the heavy and bulky sledge mount difficult to handle and redundant. After the first British Vickers machineguns got captured army workshops very soon manufactured improvised and expedient tripod mounts following the British example. Further malfunctions were caused by the cartridge catch of the sledge mount 08, that was closed by a corrugated iron sheet to the front. Spent empty cartridges could be stored there leading to stoppages. By the end of 1914 this front cover was opened and further sledge mounts 08 were only made with an open front cover.