How the Russian army mastered Danish weapons
Madsen's light machine gun is a unique weapon of its kind. This is actually the first serial light machine gun in history. This is one of the most famous weapons "long-livers" - launched into production in 1900, he has faithfully served in the army of his native Denmark for more than half a century. And, finally, this weapon is a clear example of debunking the myths of Soviet propagandists and filmmakers. Through their efforts, Russia's participation in the Great War was brought to complete primitiveness, both ideologically and technically: if a soldier, then only with a Mosin rifle, if a machine gunner, then only with a Maxim, if an officer, then with a Nagant. In fact, everything was much more complicated. "Madsen", developed and produced in Denmark, took part in almost all military conflicts in which the Russian imperial army operated until its abolition by the Bolsheviks in 1918. He, moreover, was armed with both allies and opponents of Russia.
Son of a self-loading rifle
Mass serial production of Madsen M1902 machine guns continued until the beginning of the 50s of the twentieth century, and it was possible to individually order them in a small series from the catalog of the Danish company DISA until the mid 60s. At the same time, the machine gun could be delivered to the customer in any of the existing rifle calibers from 6, 5 to 8-mm, including the new 7.62 mm NATO (308 Winchester) caliber at that time.
Such a remarkable longevity of the Madsen machine gun is no coincidence. The idea and the brilliant technical embodiment of this weapon reflected, no doubt, the talent of the extraordinary personality of its creator Wilhelm Madsen: a military officer, mathematician, ballistics researcher, industrialist and prominent politician in Denmark.
In 1890, on the initiative of the then Lieutenant Colonel Wilhelm Madsen and the director of the Royal Arms Factory in Copenhagen, Julius Rasmussen, work began on the creation of a light machine gun based on the bolt group of the Jens Schoubo (Skouba) self-loading rifle. In the process, relatively little remained of the Shoubeau rifle's own mechanism in the new light machine gun. The weight of the weapon increased to 9 kg, the machine gun acquired a characteristic barrel cooling jacket and bipods for firing from a stop.
In 1900 the Dansk Rekyl Riffle Syndikat (DRRS) company began the serial production of the Madsen machine gun. The further success of this weapon was largely determined by the appointment in 1901 of Wilhelm Madsen as Minister of War for Denmark. With his inherent energy and talent as an industrialist, Madsen began to promote his machine gun to the foreign market. A large order for the manufacture of this weapon was placed at the DRRS plant by the Danish military department - the machine gun passed military tests, was put into service and received the official name "General Madsen's machine gun".
In recent history, the Madsen machine gun was officially supplied to Great Britain, Russia, China, Holland, Portugal, Mexico, Finland, South Africa and many other countries in Asia and Latin America. Even today, somewhere in the mountains of Bolivia or on a remote ranch in Mexico, you can find a carefully oiled Madsen, which, on occasion, will provide its owner with the opportunity to effectively fend for himself.
Cossack's best friend
The Madsen light machine gun made a brilliant career in tsarist Russia. In some weapons research, you can read that one of the "lobbyists" of this machine gun in the Russian military department was allegedly the Empress Mother Maria Feodorovna, the wife of Alexander III, nee Princess Dagmara of Denmark. If this is really so, then the Dowager Empress should be thanked: the Madsen machine gun, produced on Danish machines by Danish hands, was indeed an excellent weapon, and during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. at the front allowed to save many lives of Russian soldiers.
However, it seems that the version that Dagmara Danish had nothing to do with the fate of the Madsen machine gun is, apparently, much more correct. At the turn of 1904, the Russian military department, with all its desire, could not choose anything worthwhile from other machine-gun systems - there were no products comparable in tactical and technical characteristics to Madsen at that time either in Russia or abroad.
General Wilhelm Hermann Olaf Madsen. Photo: Det Kongelige Bibliotics billedsamling
On the eve of the war with Japan, the Russian army had a small number of 7, 62-mm Maxim machine guns. The simplicity and reliability of the "Maxim" was above all praise, but its combat weight on the machine (without cartridges) exceeded 65 kg, that is, it was de facto approaching the weight of a light weapon. And it was not easy to carry the heavy, clumsy "Maxim" along the hills of Manchuria.
Trying to somehow reduce the huge shortage of machine-gun "barrels" in the Manchurian army before the expected war with Japan, the Russian military department opted for Madsen. The famous Russian weapons expert S. L. Fedoseev cites information that in September 1904, at the Main Artillery Range near St. Petersburg, the Madsen, received through the representative of the DRRS plant in St. Petersburg, A. I. Paltova.
In the official test report, the Danish machine gun, named after the French model - the submachine gun, received a very good response. "The submachine gun has quite good accuracy," experts from the Officer Rifle School pointed out, "it is distinguished by its lightness, mobility, ease of use to the terrain and, at the same time, it is a small target, which is why it will undoubtedly benefit the army."
As a result of the tests carried out on September 28, 1904, the Ministry of War of the Russian Empire signed the first contract with DRRS for the supply of 50 Madsen machine guns for the Russian welted 7.62 mm rifle cartridge, with a sight designed for firing up to 1700 meters.
Later, when defeats in land battles with the Japanese raised the issue of re-equipping the front-line regiments of the Russian Manchurian army, another contract was signed - for 200 machine guns. Madsen were purchased with pack saddles, cartridge bags and saddle holsters. Then came the third contract - already for 1000 machine guns.
In 1905, the machine guns supplied by the DRRS plant were distributed among 35 horse-drawn machine-gun teams. Such a staff consisted of 27 soldiers, 40 horses, had two sled carts, but at the same time its machine-gun armament consisted of only six Madsen.
The use of Madsen light machine guns on the Russian-Japanese front in Manchuria caused an ambiguous reaction in the troops.
Commander of the Manchurian Army, General N. P. Linevich (in March 1905 he replaced General AN Kuropatkin in this post) telegraphed to the Main Artillery Directorate of the War Ministry: "Machine gun guns [Madsen] in no way can replace Maxim's machine guns." Weapon expert S. L. In this regard, Fedoseev notes: "The submachine guns were originally considered as a replacement for" real "machine guns, and since they could not give the same intense and well-aimed fire, they caused some disappointment in the units."
General Nikolai Linevich. Photo: D. Yanchevetsky - At the walls of motionless China: the diary of a correspondent of the "New Land" on the theater of operations in China in 1900
There is also another negative review of the use of a Danish machine gun by the command of the 1st Siberian Infantry Corps. “The submachine guns (of the Danish model),” reported the Siberians, “as having no machine tool and refrigerator (a cooling jacket that protects the barrel of a machine gun from overheating - RP), turned out to be of little use in trench conditions. When shooting, they give a strong blow to the shoulder, which, with increased shooting, noticeably affects the accuracy of the shooting, tires the shooter and, at the same time, responds to fire control."
Fair reviews of the Danish machine gun by infantry officers reflect the front-line reality to about the same extent as the statement about the uselessness of a soldier's marching bowler hat and a spoon for digging full-profile trenches.
Light machine gun "Madsen" was created, of course, not in order to hold many days of defense in the bunker (long-term firing point). His return was, of course, excessive for a puny, undernourished descendant of former serfs, whose extremely low educational level did not allow him to understand even such initial shooting categories as "aiming line" and "firing distance".
In those cases when Madsen was used in accordance with its purpose, as a light, well-transportable weapon of highly mobile professional units, its use caused the most enthusiastic responses.
The Madsen light machine gun was popular in the Cossack regiments of the Manchurian army, and later in the Cossack formations of the Caucasian front of the Great War of 1914-1918. The Cossacks quickly figured out the real combat properties of Madsen: the ability of this machine gun to create a high density of effective fire in mountainous terrain and with the maximum concealed position of the shooter.
On the Russian-Japanese front in Manchuria, there were funny cases when the Cossacks, who traditionally did not disdain to “borrow” valuable trophies from the enemy and the surrounding non-Cossack population, arranged genuine bargaining among themselves for the right to possess a Danish machine gun. Silver Chinese dishes, trophy samurai swords, ivory luxury items, high-quality tobacco, new saddles were in the bargaining - just to become the happy owner of the state-owned Madsen, distributed, finally, to their hundred.
Madsen machine gun. Photo: Imperial War Museums
The Main Artillery Directorate of the Russian General Staff drew the correct conclusions from the experience of the combat use of the Madsen light machine gun during the Russo-Japanese War. At the beginning of 1906, immediately after the conclusion of the Portsmouth Peace with Japan, most of the Madsen were withdrawn from the Russian infantry units and redistributed to the primary Cossack formations of the Caucasian Military District. Subsequently, part of the machine guns from the final, third delivery from Denmark was transferred to arm cavalry units in other military districts, at the rate of 6 combat and 1 training Madsen per regiment.
Link in the fortress
In 1910, the question of a more effective use of machine guns in cavalry units arose again. This year, a new machine gun for the Maxim machine gun designed by Sokolov was adopted by the Russian army. It made it possible to quickly remove the machine gun from it and transport the entire system, divided into two parts, approximately the same in weight, in a pack on a horse. The emergence of new items led the General Staff to the idea of unification of the entire machine-gun potential of the army on the basis of the "Maxim" machine gun.
On January 1, 1911, the 141 Cossack and cavalry military units of the Russian army were armed with 874 Madsen light machine guns. In addition, 156 machine guns remained in the warehouses, and 143 Madsen's had educational institutions. By the standards of the early twentieth century, this was a very significant potential. During the time that has passed since the Russo-Japanese War, the troops were able to master the new machine gun in a calm atmosphere and develop tactical methods for using it. Light machine guns began to gradually return to the armament of infantry regiments, for example, the 177th Izborsky, 189th Izmail, 196th Ingarsky and others.
In these conditions, to deduce "out of state", i.e. to hand over to warehouses, and even more so to invent some new use for a very promising weapon was, it would seem, irrational. Nevertheless, the Russian military department took this path.
They decided to transfer Madsen submachine guns for the re-equipment of the fortresses. From a tactical point of view, it looked almost insane. Fortress fortifications provided almost ideal conditions precisely for placing heavy machine guns - here the question of special masking of machine-gun nests, their rapid movement from one combat position to another, etc. was obviously removed. On the contrary, the massive use of light machine guns in the defense of fortresses, as well as any other long-term defensive structures, looked more like nonsense for a mobile, compact weapon of relatively low firepower.
Test of the Madsen machine gun. Photo: Det Kongelige Bibliotics billedsamling
But the order to transfer light machine guns from the cavalry to the fortress followed on 25 July 1912. Over the next three months, according to the official "Bulletin of the distribution of Madsen's machine guns for fortress artillery", 1127 Madsen's were transferred to 24 fortresses of various military districts, in addition, another 18 machine guns remained in artillery schools for training cadets.
Weapons of the Great War
The very first battles of the First World War demonstrated the stupidity of the previous decision. The well-known expert on the history of weapons S. L. Fedoseev writes in his research: “With the beginning of the war, the troops began to send more and more requests for machine guns [Madsen], which could follow everywhere in infantry lines, quickly take up a position and open fire. The submachine gun was not required to "flood" the enemy positions with fire, they made it possible to increase the force of fire, at the same time reducing the number of shooters in the chain during the offensive, and "save" shooters in the forward trenches on the defensive."
Regimental and corps applications for staffing both cavalry and infantry formations with light machine guns were sent to the headquarters of the fronts and to the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. General A. A. Manikovsky in his major work "Combat Supply of the Russian Army in the World War" recalls: "As soon as the first German volleys were heard, the cavalry units, as they say," with their hands "tore them [Madsen machine guns] at the Main Artillery Directorate."
Despite efforts to return the Madsen to the cavalry and infantry formations at the fronts, the shortage of manual automatic weapons could not be eliminated. Already a year after the start of the war, in August 1915, GAU reported to the request of the Headquarters that in the military warehouses "Madsen's machine guns are now not available at all."
In the summary of the headquarters of the High Command, it was reported that on February 1, 1916, there were relatively few Madsen light machine guns in the Russian army: the Northern Front had 191, the Western Front - 157, the South-Western Front - 332 machine guns. The supply services of all fronts urgently asked for the allocation of Madsen, but the GAU did not physically have them - all active weapons of this type were received by orders from the times of the Russo-Japanese War.
At the beginning of 1916, the special commission of the Headquarters stated that all the Madsenes in the troops had actually exhausted their technological resources. It was necessary to urgently establish the production of spare parts for them, but due to the complexity of the Madsen design and the high demands on the quality of milling of parts, it was not possible to organize this at domestic factories.
Attempt to arm aviation
Only in the last year before the war in Russia began more or less systematic research on the use of automatic weapons from airplanes. In 1913, a new experimental biplane was tested by I. I. Sikorsky, on which the Madsen machine gun was installed in the center section of the upper console.
In frontline conditions, the use of "Madsen" in aviation revealed a number of contradictions.
On the one hand, this machine gun was undoubtedly convenient for firing a single pilot with a special turret, since it allowed one-handed reloading. The aeronautical department of the Main Directorate of the General Staff, in its recommendations to the fronts, indicated in this connection that "the most convenient weapon for firing from aircraft would be the Madsen machine gun system."
On the other hand, the Madsen's relatively low combat rate of fire - about 200 rounds per minute - in a short air battle did not allow confidently hitting enemy airplanes even when entering the most advantageous combat course.
The obvious convenience of the general configuration of the Madsen machine gun when installed on airplanes did not leave room in aviation for its competitors, with the exception of a compact light machine gun of the I. Lewis system. The aeronautical department of the GUGSH, in its application to the GAU, noted: “To arm the airplanes, it is urgently necessary to obtain at least 400 submachine guns. Of the systems tested, the Lewis submachine guns proved to be suitable for this purpose, and Madsen's submachine guns are relatively suitable.
During the Great War, Madsens were installed on the Moran-J fighters, on the Farman-XXII two-seater reconnaissance aircraft, and also on the Ilya Muromets heavy bomber.
Plane "Ilya Muromets", 1914. Photo: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive
Particularly successful was the use of "Madsen" with "Ilya Muromets", on which several machine guns were mounted at once. The last modification of the Ilya Muromets of the E series could be armed with eight machine guns at once, of which three, according to the design features of the aircraft, were supposed to be Madsen.
In an attempt to make the fire of light machine guns from airplanes more effective, the Petrograd Cartridge Plant launched at the beginning of 1917 the production of special "aviation" rifle cartridges of caliber 7, 62R. These cartridges were equipped with elongated hollow bullets weighing 11 g, which were filled with a special incendiary mixture based on berthollet salt and tetrile.
Design features "Madsen"
There was a joke among the machine gunners servicing the Madsen machine gun - the most surprising thing about his system is not that it works well, but that it works at all. Experts note the complexity of the trajectory of the cartridge feeding from the magazine to the barrel, as well as the need to synchronize a significant number of parts during the automatic cycle of this system.
Automation of the Madsen machine gun is based on the use of the energy of the recoil of the shot with a short stroke of the barrel with the use of a bolt of complex shape swinging in a vertical plane.
The most original design feature of the machine gun, as experts say, is the locking unit. Before a shot, a heavy powerful bolt is in the middle position, ensuring reliable locking of the barrel with a cartridge sent into it. After the shot, the barrel with the bolt connected to it begins to roll back under the action of the recoil force until the figured groove on the bolt forces the front of the bolt to rise sharply upward, opening the breech of the barrel. At this time, a special extractor throws out a spent cartridge case from the barrel, which falls down through a window in the bottom of the receiver.
Design features of the Madsen machine gun
During the return stroke of the barrel, under the action of the return spring, the next cartridge was fed from the store through a rotary cutter. Then the cartridge was picked up and fed forward with a special lever swinging in a vertical plane, fixed on the barrel shank. At the end of the roll cycle, the shaped groove forced the bolt to return to its original middle position, thereby locking the barrel.
The Madsen's barrel was cooled by air. The barrel had transverse ribbing along its entire length and was covered with a special protective-cooling casing, on which, with an offset to the right, the front sight and sector sight were attached. A detachable box magazine was installed on the machine gun from above with an offset to the left and was fixed with a latch with a leaf spring. The store consisted of 25 rounds, which provided an experienced shooter with the ability to fire 5-6 short bursts.
The machine gun had a powerful wooden butt, with a pistol neck protrusion and a folding metal shoulder pad. The safety of the shooter and the surrounding soldiers in the event of a fall or sudden movement of a loaded, ready-to-fire machine gun was provided by a flag, very reliable fuse, which blocked the trigger.
Pros and cons of "Devil's balalaika"
"Devil's balalaika", as the machine gun "Madsen" was sometimes called with annoyance in the Russian troops, despite its Danish origin, was a typical brainchild of the German weapons school. The conceptual requirements of this school at the turn of the twentieth century presupposed the manufacture of high-quality, technically very durable weapons capable of providing an accurate shot at the maximum distance for a given type of weapon. At the same time, the complexity of the weapon mechanism was not regulated.
Excessive complexity of the design, if it sometimes arose, was overcome by the use of advanced technologies with deliberately precise, filigree processing of individual parts. In Denmark, as well as in Germany, it was unthinkable to manufacture, for example, an infantry rifle with such technological tolerances that distinguished the Mosin rifle. Accordingly, in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century, it was unthinkable to organize the production of such a complex weapon product as the Madsen machine gun.
The Danish "Madsen" for the 8-mm wafer cartridge Mauser was extremely high-tech for its time, a very high-quality product, with many complex parts that could not be made without a milling cutter. The total number of parts in Madsen is 98. For comparison, the total number of parts in the Fedorov assault rifle, which was far from primitive in terms of weapon manufacturing technology, is only 64.
Among the details are all the problems of using the Danish machine gun by Russian soldiers on the Russian front. Yesterday's peasant, who finished with a sin in half three classes of the parish school and immediately forgot even this "science", was not ready not only for repairs, but even for the proper operation of Madsen. This machine gun could not be repaired or "made" to work with the use of an infantry bayonet and a railroad crutch that had turned up under the arm, as the barrel of a Mosin rifle was sometimes hastily "repaired" on the Russian front. "Madsen" could not tolerate locomotive fuel oil or boot tar instead of gun grease, which the unassuming "Maxim" forgave the Russian soldiers.
Higher shooting school. Photo: Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents of St. Petersburg
"Madsen" demanded the hands of a professional, well-trained machine gunner, and in the absence of such - the presence of a mobile repair base near the trenches. Both were in short supply in the Russian army during the Great War. Otherwise, at the most inopportune moment, the machine gun could turn into a "damn balalaika".
Shot "Madsen" Danish production excellent. The low rate of fire and the significant weight of this weapon (9 kg) had their positive downside - "Madsen" gave an accurate long-range shot in a short burst. Its reliability when firing native flangeless cartridges was also above all praise. A reliable case is known when 9600 rounds of ammunition were fired from an ordinary serial Madsen during trials in England - and the machine gun did not give a single delay or breakdown.
The "Achilles heel" of the Russian "Madsen", made for the Russian 7, 62-mm welted (flanged) cartridge, was the occasional sticking of cartridges in the complex shutter mechanism. This feature has become an inevitable payback for the use of a long-obsolete welted cartridge in the automatic mechanism. The Danes, having received an order for their machine guns chambered for the Russian cartridge, conscientiously tried to "cure" the Madsen mechanism from the periodic chewing of the welted sleeve. But it was still not possible to fully "cure" the machine gun - primarily because of the large tolerances in the manufacture of cartridge cases at Russian factories. Therefore, the front-line nickname arose - "devil's balalaika".
