In 1943, the "machine gun famine" began in the Wehrmacht. The Eastern Front mercilessly grinded the human and material resources of Nazi Germany. Due to the overload of military orders, a shortage of raw materials, qualified personnel and machine-tool equipment, the factories of the European occupied by the Germans no longer fully satisfied the needs of the German army. The increasing bombing of the allies played a significant role in reducing the volume of production of weapons and equipment. Under these conditions, the Germans were forced to seek all kinds of reserves. One of the ways to equip the infantry units with the necessary amount of weapons was the alteration of rifle-caliber aircraft machine guns. By 1942, it became clear that 7, 92-mm machine guns, due to the increased security and flight speed of combat aircraft, became ineffective, and therefore, as part of the weapons of fighters, attack aircraft and bombers of the Luftwaffe, they began to be replaced with large-caliber 13, 2-15-mm machine guns and 20-30mm cannons.
By the beginning of World War II, German aviation small arms and cannon weapons did not shine with high performance. The first aircraft machine gun to enter service with the Luftwaffe after the restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles were lifted was the MG.15 7, 92 mm. This weapon was designed on the basis of the MG.30 light machine gun, which, in turn, traced its lineage to the S2-100, created in 1929 by the Swiss company Waffenfabrik Solothurn AG. This company was acquired by the German concern Rheinmetall-Borsig in order to circumvent the terms of the Versailles Treaty and develop modern small arms and artillery weapons.
Prior to its official adoption, the aircraft machine gun was designated Rheinmetall T.6-200. The automatic machine gun used the recoil of the barrel with its short stroke. The barrel was closed by a rotary coupling with an intermittent thread, mounted on the breech, which, during rotation, coupled the barrel with the bolt, which had a corresponding thread in the head. Shooting was carried out from an open bolt.
At the time of its appearance, it was a solid middle peasant, surpassing in its characteristics many foreign samples of a similar purpose. At that time, in the defensive turret mounts of the Red Army Air Force aircraft, a 7.62-mm DA machine gun with disk power, created on the basis of the manual DP-27, was used. And in Great Britain, until the beginning of the 40s, the aircraft version of the Lewis machine gun chambered for the 7.7 mm.303 Britis cartridge was in service. However, against the background of the rapid-fire Soviet ShKAS, the mass production of which began in the second half of the 30s, the German MG.15 looked pale. According to reference data, the official adoption of the MG.15 into service took place in 1936, more than 17,000 machine guns were produced in total.
The machine gun with a length of 1090 mm without cartridges weighed 8, 1 kg. Rate of fire - 900-1000 rds / min. The sighting device consisted of a ring sight and a weather vane-front sight. Due to its low weight, the MG.15 could be quickly transferred to the turrets in extreme positions. However, given that the 75-round double drum magazine, so beloved by the Germans, was used to power the machine gun with cartridges, the practical rate of fire was low. That, naturally, had a negative effect on the defensive capabilities of the turret installations of German bombers and reconnaissance aircraft.
During the Spanish Civil War, several MG.15s were at the disposal of Soviet military intelligence. After studying them by our specialists, it was concluded that this sample is not of interest. In the same place, in Spain, faced with a shortage of anti-aircraft weapons, the German armourers of the Condor Legion first adapted the MG.15 for firing at air targets, mounting a machine gun on a ground pivot mount.
Already at the beginning of 1941, the Luftwaffe command considered the MG.15 obsolete, but it was operated on certain types of combat aircraft until 1944. The machine guns available in the warehouses of aviation weapons were also used to strengthen the air defense of airfields.
Around the beginning of 1942, the MG.15 aircraft began to be massively modified for the needs of the Luftwaffe airfield divisions. Removed from MG.15 aircraft were installed on tripod machines from the Norwegian m / 29 Browning heavy machine guns and converted into light machine guns. To do this, they were equipped with a metal shoulder rest, a bipod and a carrying strap. A significant number of MG.15 received lightweight anti-aircraft tripods made of aluminum alloy.
Roughly the same story happened with the MG.17 machine gun, which was actually a belt-fed MG.15, designed for firing through an area swept by a propeller, with a synchronizer in fixed firing installations. In MG.17, the drum-type feeder used a one-piece metal strip with a semi-closed link to feed the cartridges. A standard link for 50 rounds was assembled into strips of multiple lengths by connecting a pin-axis.
Since the MG.17 used belt feed, its practical rate of fire was slightly higher compared to the MG.15. In total, the Reich factories produced about 24,000 MG.17 machine guns. The mass of the machine gun without ammunition was 10, 2 kg, the length was 1175 mm. The rate of fire without using a synchronizer is up to 1100 rds / min.
After the Luftwaffe began to abandon the MG.17, several thousand machine guns accumulated in warehouses. They tried to install them on machines from MG.34 and use them in stationary positions. However, this experience was not very successful, the loading system, the trigger and sights required a lot of improvement. As a result, most of the MG.17 was used in twin and quad anti-aircraft mounts. Where they, taking into account the fairly high rate of fire and the presence of a tape feed, proved to be quite good. The machine guns were mounted on frames welded from metal pipes. The electric escapement was replaced by a mechanical one, and the recharge system was also altered.
Another German aviation rifle caliber machine gun, which was used in significant quantities as part of anti-aircraft machine gun installations, was the MG.81. This weapon, structurally having much in common with the MG.34, was created by Mauser Werke AG in accordance with the Luftwaffe's requirement for a sharp increase in the rate of fire of aircraft machine guns. The MG.81 machine gun was supposed to replace the earlier models, and was originally developed in turret, wing and synchronous versions. Serial production of the new machine gun was launched in 1939. Since by that time there was an abundance of MG.17, MG.81 was used to a limited extent in offensive machine gun installations. Mainly these weapons were used in defensive movable turrets, mechanized and manual installations. When designing the MG.81, the Germans managed to come close to the rate of fire of the Soviet ShKAS aircraft machine gun. The rate of fire of the MG.81 of the later modifications was 1600 rds / min. At the same time, the German machine gun was much lighter and more technologically advanced than the Soviet one. For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that by the time the MG.81 appeared, the ShKAS had already been produced for at least five years, and the relevance of rifle-caliber aircraft machine guns due to the increased survivability and flight speed of combat aircraft had significantly decreased by that time. Nevertheless, in the period from early 1939 to the end of 1944, over 46,000 MG-81 machine guns of all modifications were produced.
The machine gun, which weighed only 6.5 kg, had a length of 1065 mm. Since at a high flight speed, weapons on mobile installations at large heading angles were difficult to aim at the target, the barrels were shortened from 600 to 475 mm. In this case, the total length of the weapon was 940 mm, and the muzzle velocity of the bullet decreased from 800 to 755 m / s.
To increase the mass of a second salvo, a special modification was developed with a rate of fire increased to 3200 rds / min. This was implemented in a twin turret system MG.81Z (German Zwilling - twin), with a double-sided tape feed. For fire control, a pistol grip with a trigger was located on the left machine gun.
Initially, MG.81 and MG.81Z machine guns were used in ZPUs, covering German airfields from low-altitude attacks by Soviet aviation. The calculations usually included ground technical personnel, including gunsmiths, capable of competently maintaining machine guns and repairing them. However, as the situation deteriorated on the fronts, the Luftwaffe was forced to share its reserves. Part of MG.81 was converted into manual ones, and anti-aircraft twin guns were very often installed on self-propelled chassis.
Also known is a rarer version of the anti-aircraft gun using eight MG.81. Due to the cumbersomeness and significant mass, the eight-barreled installations were placed in stationary positions. The total rate of fire of this multi-barreled machine-gun monster exceeded 12,000 rounds per minute, that is, more than 210 rounds per second. Even an armored Il-2 could not be very good, if he got under such a lead broom. But, fortunately, the Germans considered this version of the ZPU an unaffordable luxury and built few of them.
In general, the very successful MG.81 and MG.81Z aircraft machine guns, in terms of the complex of combat and service-operational characteristics, were best suited for use as part of light anti-aircraft machine gun installations of rifle caliber. In the post-war period, part of the MG.81 and MG.81Z was redesigned for the 7, 62x51 mm cartridge of the NATO standard and was used by the armed forces of Western countries for installation on transport and combat helicopters and patrol boats.
As you know, the armed forces of Nazi Germany very widely used equipment and weapons produced in other countries. These could be both trophies and new weapons released at industrial enterprises of the occupied states. Among the countries whose industry worked for the defense of the Reich, the Czech Republic stands apart. Products of Czech gunsmiths, distinguished by a fairly high quality and good combat characteristics, accounted for a significant share of the total volume of small arms and armored vehicles fighting on the Eastern Front.
In 1926, the ZB-26 light machine gun, created by designer Vaclav Holek, chambered for the German 7, 92 × 57 mm cartridge, entered service with the Czechoslovak army. The automatics of the machine gun functioned by diverting part of the powder gases from the bore, for which a gas chamber with a regulator is located under the barrel in front of it. The barrel was locked by tilting the bolt in the vertical plane. The trigger mechanism allowed firing single shots and bursts. With a length of 1165 mm, the mass of the ZB-26 without cartridges was 8, 9 kg. Food was carried out from a box magazine for 20 rounds, inserted from above. The creators of the weapon believed that the location of the receiving neck from above accelerates loading and facilitates firing from a stop without "clinging" to the ground by the magazine body.
The rate of fire was 600 rds / min, but due to the use of a small-capacity magazine, the practical rate of fire did not exceed 100 rds / min.
The ZB-26 machine gun and its later version ZB-30 have established themselves as a reliable and unpretentious weapon. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany in March 1939, the Germans got more than 7,000 ZB-26 and ZB-30 machine guns, and a significant number of ZB-26 were captured in Yugoslavia (they were designated MG.26 (J)). The machine guns captured in Czechoslovakia were put into service under the indexes MG.26 (t) and MG.30 (t) and were produced until 1942 at the Zbrojovka Brno enterprise. These weapons were used mainly by the occupation, security and police units, as well as by the Waffen-SS formations. In total, the German army received 31,204 Czech light machine guns.
Although the ZB-26 was originally designed as a manual one, in a number of cases it was installed on machine tools and light anti-aircraft tripods. Especially often MG.26 (t) and MG.30 (t) machine guns with anti-aircraft sights were used in the SS troops and Slovak units that fought on the side of the Germans. Although Czech-made light machine guns, due to the relatively low rate of fire and magazines for 20 rounds, turned out to be not optimal for firing at air targets, their great advantage was their low weight and reliability.
Another Czech-made machine gun chambered for 7, 92 × 57 mm, widely used on the Eastern Front, was the ZB-53 easel. This sample was also designed by Vaclav Cholek and entered service in 1937. In the German army, the ZB-53 received the designation MG.37 (t). According to the principle of automation, the machine gun belongs to the models of automatic weapons with the removal of powder gases through a side hole in the wall of the barrel. The barrel bore is locked by tilting the bolt in the vertical plane. The barrel could be replaced if necessary. The machine gun had a firing rate switch of 500/800 rds / min. A high rate of fire was essential when firing at aircraft. The mass of the machine gun with the machine was 39.6 kg. For anti-aircraft fire, the machine gun was mounted on a swivel of a folding sliding rack of the machine. Anti-aircraft sights consisted of a ring sight and a rear sight.
Due to the relatively small mass for a heavy machine gun, high quality workmanship, good reliability and high accuracy of firing, the ZB-53 was in demand among the troops of the first line. His reputation was no worse than that of the German MG.34 and MG.42. The German command as a whole was satisfied with the characteristics of MG.37 (t), but based on the results of combat use, it demanded to create a lighter and cheaper version, as well as to bring the rate up to 1350 rds / min when firing at air targets. The specialists of the Zbrojovka Brno enterprise, in accordance with these requirements, created several prototypes, but, after the curtailment of production of the ZB-53 in 1944, work in this direction was stopped.
In total, the Wehrmacht and SS units received 12,672 Czech-made heavy machine guns. Although the ZB-53 machine gun was deservedly considered one of the best heavy machine guns in the world, its excessively high manufacturing complexity and high cost forced the Germans to abandon the continuation of its production and reorient the Brno arms factory to release MG.42.
By June 1941, the German army had at its disposal many thousands of machine guns captured in Austria, Belgium, Greece, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Poland, France, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. However, most of this wealth required its own ammunition and spare parts suitable only for them, which prevented the widespread use of captured machine guns at the front. As a result, machine guns captured in Europe were most often used by the occupation and police units as weapons of a limited standard, and were transferred to the Allies. Beginning in 1943, machine guns for non-standard Wehrmacht ammunition were sent for installation in the pillboxes of the Atlantic Wall - a system of permanent and field fortifications over 5000 km long, created along the European coast of the Atlantic.
Rather limitedly on the Eastern Front, the German army used the Polish Ckm wz.30 machine guns, which were Browning M1917 under the German cartridge 7, 92 × 57 mm. The standard tripod machine gun of the Ckm wz.30 machine gun allowed anti-aircraft fire, which predetermined its use for air defense purposes.
In the initial period of the war against the USSR, the German army managed to capture a large amount of equipment and weapons at the disposal of the Red Army. Among the trophies were many machine guns. First of all, this applied to the Maxim's easel machine guns of the 1910/30 model and the DP-27 hand-held machine guns. Captured Soviet Maxim machine guns (under the name MG.216 (r)) and Degtyarev's hand-held machine guns (designated MG.120 (r)) were used by the Wehrmacht and entered service with paramilitary and security-police formations in the occupied territory of the USSR. However, hundreds of Soviet anti-aircraft machine gun installations also fell into the hands of the enemy: quadruple, twin and single, as well as infantry machine guns on the Vladimirov's tripod-wheeled machine, model 1931, which allows the machine gun to fire at air targets.
In 1941, the main military air defense system in the Red Army was a quadruple 7, 62-mm anti-aircraft machine gun M4 mod. 1931, developed under the leadership of N. F. Tokarev. It consisted of four Maxim machine guns arr. 1910/30 g, mounted on an anti-aircraft machine in one plane. For better cooling of machine-gun barrels during intensive shooting, a forced water circulation device was used. With a good fire density, the M4 anti-aircraft gun was too heavy. Its mass in the firing position, together with a water cooling system and a welded frame for installation in a car body, exceeded 400 kg. Also in the troops at the beginning of the war there were in significant numbers: paired anti-aircraft guns mod. 1930 and single arr. 1928 g.
Although the Soviet ZPU based on the Maxim machine gun arr. 1910/30 were not officially adopted by the Wehrmacht, they were used in noticeable numbers as supernumerary air defense systems. Since the mass and dimensions of obsolete machine-gun installations were too large, they were installed in stationary positions: to guard bridges, pontoon crossings, material and technical warehouses, fuel and ammunition storage facilities. In addition, captured anti-aircraft Maxims, when placed on self-propelled chassis, protected German transport convoys and trains from air attacks and attacks by partisans. In order to reduce the weight of the quad units, they were sometimes transferred to air cooling, for which the forced water circulation system was dismantled, and cutouts were made in the casing of water cooling of machine guns. The experience of the combat use of the Maxim machine gun showed that without overheating the barrel it was possible to fire a continuous burst of up to 100 shots. However, German troops did not use captured 7.62-mm ZPU for long; by mid-1942, most of them were transferred to Finland.
Already in 1942, the role of rifle-caliber anti-aircraft machine gun installations in the armed forces of Nazi Germany decreased. This, first of all, was associated with an ever-growing number of Il-2 armored attack aircraft supplied by the Soviet aviation industry to assault aviation regiments. As already mentioned in the first part of the review, even 7, 92-mm armor-piercing bullets with a carbide core in most cases could not overcome the armor protection of a Soviet attack aircraft, and their destructive effect in the event of hitting the wing, tail unit and unarmored parts of the fuselage was insufficient. In this regard, small-caliber anti-aircraft guns began to play the main role in providing anti-aircraft cover for German troops in the front-line zone.
