MG 34
The
Maschinengewehr 34, or
MG 34, was a
German machine gun that was first produced and accepted for service in
1934, and first issued to units in
1935. It was an air-cooled machine gun firing
7.92 mm Mauser rounds and had similar performance to other medium
machine guns.
However, it was also designed to perform both as a light
squad machine gun and also in heavier roles, in an early example of a
general-purpose machine gun. In the light role, it was intended to be equipped with a
bipod and 75-round drum. In the heavier role it was mounted on a larger
tripod and was
belt-fed. In practice the infantry usually just belt-fed the bipod version, resulting in it functioning as a classic medium support weapon.
The MG 34 was used as the primary infantry machine gun during the
1930s, and remained as the primary tank and aircraft defensive weapon. It was intended that it would be replaced in infantry service by the related
MG42, but there were never enough of the new design to go around, and MG 34s soldiered on in all roles until the end of
World War II. It was intended that it would replace the
MG-13 and other older machine guns, but these ended up still being used in WWII as demand was never met.
It was designed primarily by
Heinrich Vollmer from the
Mauser Werke, based on the recently introduced
Rheinmetall-designed
Solothurn 1930 (
MG30) that was starting to enter service in
Switzerland. The principal changes were to move the feed mechanism to a more convenient location on the left of the breech, and the addition of a shroud around the barrel. Changes to the operating mechanism improved the rate of fire to between 800 and 900 RPM.
The new gun was accepted for service almost immediately and was generally liked by the troops. It was used to great effect by German soldiers assisting the
fascists in the
Spanish Civil War. At the time it was introduced it had a number of advanced features and the
GPMG concept that it aspired to was an influential one. However the MG 34 was also expensive, both in terms of construction and the raw materials needed (49 kg of steel) and it was unable to be built in the sorts of numbers required for the ever expanding German army. It also proved to be rather temperamental, jamming easily when dirty.
The MG 34 could use both magazine-fed and belt-fed 7.92 mm ammunition. Belts were supplied in 50-round single strips or 250-round boxes. The drums held either 50 rounds in the standard version, or 75 in the "double drum" version. Early guns had to be modified to use the drums by replacing a part on the gun, but this modification was later supplied from the factory.
In the light machine gun role it was used with a bipod and weighed only
12.1 kg. In the medium machine gun role it could be mounted on one of two tripods, a smaller one weighing
6.75 kg, the larger 23.6 kg. The larger tripod, the
MG-34 Laffette, included a number of features such as a
scope and special sighting equipment for indirect fire. The legs could be extended to allow it to be used in the anti-aircraft role (and many were), and when lowered it could be placed to allow the gun to be fired "remotely" while it swept an arc in front of the mounting with fire, or aimed through a periscope attached to the tripod.
MG 34/41
The MG 34/41 was requested as the first war experiences in the beginning of the
World War II proved that a higher fire rate generates more dispersion of the bullets. The MG 34/41 could cope with a fire rate of 1200 rpm (MG 34 could cope with 800-900 rpm). The weight of the MG 34/41 was 14 kg, slightly more than the original MG34 version (12,1 kg). A limited number of MG 34/41 was produced (300 pcs send to the Eastern Front).
MG 34-T
Tanks normally use the
MG 34-T model, whose main difference was that it had a different
barrel sheath that was heavier and had not the normal ventilation holes from MG 34 on it.
MG81
The MG 34 was also used as the basis of a new
anti-aircraft gun, the
MG81. For this role the breech was slightly modified to allow feeds from either side, and in one version two guns were bolted together on a single trigger to form a weapon known as the
MG81Z (for
zwilling, German for "twin"). Production of the MG 34 was never enough to satisfy any of its users, and while the MG81 was a huge improvement over the earlier MG30-based
MG15 and
MG17, those guns could be still found in use until the end of the war.
Not a variant, but a modified derivative of the MG 34, the
MG42 was designed in the late 1930s in an effort to simplify the MG 34. The MG42's square barrel cover made it unsuitable for use in tank cupolas however, and the MG 34 remained in production until the end of the war for this role.
After WWII some MG42s were in turn rechambered for the new (at the time)
7.62 x 51 mm NATO cartridge and classified as
MG2 while a slight redesign was called the
MG1. The seventh and final design iteration of the MG1 was called the
MG3 and it currently (as of 2006) still in service around the world.
*
List of World War II firearms of Germany *
MG30, predecessor
*
MG42, derivative successor
*
Nazarian's Gun's Recognition Guide*
Guns.ru page with photos and information
