Gallery Title
Gallery Title
German Maschinengewehr
Accession Number NWHRM : 2730
Description
German machine gun; Maschinengewehr Modell 1908/15 (MG 08/15). On the right side of the receiver is painted: ‘CAPTURED BY 7th NORFOLK Rgt 28-9-18’. Stamped on the top is the serial number and manufacturer ‘2568 MG 08/15 S. & H. BERLIN 1917’. S & H were Siemens and Halske Berlin. Deactivated
Read MoreGerman Maschinengewehr
This machine gun was the German response to British use of the Lewis gun as a section weapon. By adapting and lightening the MG 08 they produced a ‘light machine gun’ carried in the front line of the attack and fired from a bipod. As a water-cooled, belt-fed gun it weighed nearly 19 kg with 100 rounds and 3 litres of water. Once in position, however, it was as lethally efficient as the Lewis gun. The weapon first reached the front line at the end of 1916 and about 130,000 were produced by the end of the war.
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