“Everything will be the way we want it.
In case of various troubles, We have a Maxim machine gun, They don't have Maxim"
(Hilary Bellock "New Traveler")
Two materials published in a row about machine guns of the First and Second World Wars aroused great interest of the VO readership. Someone even said that there is no better "maxim". And is it possible to argue here, when after the battle of Omdurman they calculated the approximate number of killed dervishes, and it turned out that out of 20,000, at least 15,000 were killed by fire from the "maxims". Naturally, the British, and after them the armies of other countries, urgently began to take this machine gun into service. And here it is interesting, so to speak, how national approaches to this new weapon were embodied in metal and what came of it as a result. Moreover, we will take only Europe so far, because in America the machine-gun business was somewhat different from the European one.
Machine gun "Vickers" Mk I, during the First World War. Museum of Horse and Field Artillery. Australia.
It should be noted here that the only country where the "maxim" was able to really improve and improve its performance characteristics was again Great Britain. So in the British armed forces the Vickers Mk I became the main heavy machine gun. The classic machine gun, which can still be found in the most remote corners of the globe. "Vickers", in essence, was the same machine gun "Maxim", produced for the British army earlier. But it also had some differences. For example, Vickers engineers have reduced its weight. Having disassembled the Maxim, they found that some of its parts were unreasonably heavy. In addition, they decided to flip the linkage so that it opens up instead of down. Thanks to this, it was possible to significantly reduce the weight of the shutter. Well, the reloading system remained "Maksimovskaya" - reliable and durable, it was based on the principle of barrel recoil. The middle hinge bar in the straightened state locked the barrel at the time of the shot. However, when fired into the muzzle device, some of the gases were removed, pushing back the barrel, coupled with the bolt. The sleeve pushed it back, and the joint movement of the barrel and bolt back continued until the rear shoulder of the hinge bar hit the curly protrusion on the box and folded up. Then the bolt was disengaged from the barrel, and then the usual cycle went: removing and removing the sleeve, cocking and reloading.
"Maxim" of the British army, who participated in the battle under Omdurman.
Vickers Mk I machine gun tripod marking.
The weight of the Vickers Mk I machine gun reached 18 kg without water. It was usually mounted on a 22 kg tripod machine. As on the machine gun for the Hotchkiss machine gun, the vertical installation of the machine gun was carried out by a screw mechanism. Sights allowed for indirect fire and shooting at night. The 7, 7-mm rounds were fed from a cloth tape for 250 rounds.
Mk 7 -.303 inch 7.7mm standard British Army cartridge during World War II. The cartridge has a rim - a welt and this is both its advantage and disadvantage. Rant chucks are less sensitive to machine tool calibration; they can also be produced on second-rate equipment. But they require more non-ferrous metal. They also create problems for store-bought weapons. Stores under them have to be bent so that they do not cling to the rims. But for belt-fed machine guns, it's the perfect ammunition.
The machine gun could fire at a speed of 450-500 rounds per minute as long as it was poured into the casing. Continuous fire was often practiced during the first period of the war, although streams of steam escaping from the casing unmasked the position. The casing contained four liters of water, which boiled after three minutes of firing at a speed of 200 rds / min. The problem was solved by using a condenser, where steam was diverted, which turned into water there, and the water returned back to the casing.
Side view of the Vickers Mk I machine gun.
Machine guns were produced with both smooth and corrugated casing. The steam outlet pipe and the condenser tank are clearly visible.
At the beginning of the war, machine guns were distributed in two copies per infantry battalion. However, the need for this weapon was so great that special machine-gun troops were formed to meet it.
The emblem of the British machine gun forces.
These were well-trained units, able to quickly eliminate the delay in firing that was attached to the infantry battalions. Another useful skill of the machine gun soldiers was the ability to quickly change the barrel. Indeed, even with constant water addition, the barrel had to be changed every 10,000 shots. And since in battle such a number of shots were sometimes fired in an hour, a quick barrel change became vital. A trained crew could replace the barrel in two minutes, with almost no water loss.
The butt plate of the Vickers machine gun.
Shutter cocking handle.
The presence of our own troops, trained crews and servants also caused growing tactical requirements for the use of machine guns in trench warfare. It is not surprising that the Vickers machine gun was then regarded as an example of light artillery. This point of view can be illustrated by the role of heavy machine guns in World War I, in an operation conducted by the 100th Machine Gun Company at the Battle of High Wood during the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916. On August 24, it was decided that the infantry attack would be supported by the fire of 10 machine guns of the 100th machine gun company, secretly placed in the trenches. Two infantry companies gave their ammunition to the machine gunners. And during the attack, the soldiers of the 100th company fired continuously for 12 hours! Naturally, the fire was fired from carefully placed positions in the targeted area. The barrels were changed every hour. The first and second numbers of the crews were replaced at short intervals so that the company could conduct continuous hurricane fire to support infantry attacks and prevent German counterattacks. On that day, in 12 hours of battle, 10 machine guns of the 100th machine gun company used up about one million cartridges!
The machine gun had a tape receiver of bronze …
… as well as many parts of his tripod, which is considered one of the best in its class.
Russia, which fought on the side of the allies, also had its own modification of the Maxim machine gun, which received the official name "Maxim machine gun of the 1910 model." It was similar to the 1905 model machine gun, only it differed in the presence of a steel rather than a bronze casing. Heavy and expensive Maxim machine gun mod. The 1910, however, was an excellent weapon suited to Russian requirements for simplicity and reliability. This fact confirms that the Maxim machine gun in Russia was produced until 1943, this is a kind of record for the production of Maxim machine guns. The machine gun weighed 23, 8 kg, and it is interesting to compare it with the 18 kg "Vickers". The Russian machine gun was mounted on a small wheeled machine, which, together with a shield, weighed 45, 2 kg. The caliber of the machine gun was 7, 62 mm, the supply of cartridges was also carried out from a cloth tape and also for 250 rounds. The rate of fire was 520 - 600 rounds per minute, that is, higher than that of the Vickers machine gun. The fact that the lever mechanism was not changed in the Russian Maxim machine gun explains the increased size of the receiver below the level of the barrel.
Vickers with an improved muzzle.
To ensure the efficiency of the automation, it was necessary to ensure reliable recoil of the barrel. For this purpose, the British screwed on its muzzle a cup, which, together with the barrel, was inside a spherical muzzle. When fired, the gases coming out of the barrel were forced into this cup, which increased the recoil of the barrel. The shutter spring (in the photo it is taken out of the box), as in the "maxim", is on the left. For confident shooting, the force of its tension should be regularly measured and, according to a special table, either weakened or, on the contrary, tightened it. For example, if it was planned to shoot at planes, the spring should have been tightened, and if it was necessary to fire from top to bottom, then weakened somewhat. It also depended on the season!
View of the machine gun to the right. On the barrel there is a heat-insulating cover that protected the calculation from burns.
The German machine gun of the 1908 model (MG08) was also the Maxim machine gun. As in the Russian version, it used the mechanism without any changes, as a result, the receiver turned out to be high. The machine gun was produced under the standard German caliber 7, 92 mm, the cartridges were fed from a tape for 250 rounds. The rate of fire of 300-450 rounds per minute was lowered, since the Germans believed that it was not the rate of fire and massive fire that was important, but accuracy and efficiency.
German MG08.
This approach made it possible to alleviate problems with ammunition and barrel change. The machine gun was known under the name "Spandau" by the name of the plant where it was produced. The weight of the machine gun reached 62 kg with a tripod machine and spare parts. The Germans installed a machine gun on a sled for increased mobility. The German machine gunners were selected very carefully, the command, taking into account the events of the end of 1914, believed that the machine gun had become the master of the battlefield. The machine gunners were distinguished by an excellent level of training and skillful skills, as evidenced by the losses of the French and British in the battles of Chem-de-Dame, Lohse, Nu Chapelle and in Champagne.
Details of the standard muzzle with a cup.
Muzzle at the end of the barrel.
All of these machine guns: the Vickers, MG08 and the Maxim machine gun of the 1910 model - were created on the basis of the same design. However, the Vickers machine gun had an initial bullet speed of 744 m / s with a barrel length of 0.721 m. The German bullet speed was 820 m / s with a barrel length of 0.72 m, but our machine gun had 720 m / s with a barrel 0, 719 m. The Austro-Hungarian machine gun "Schwarzlose", which was already described at VO, worked satisfactorily, but the barrel of 0, 52 m was too short for an 8-mm cartridge. As a result, the Schwarzlose machine gun was often identified by a powerful flash of muzzle flame when fired. Food was carried out from a tape for 250 rounds, the muzzle velocity of the bullet was low - 620 m / s. The rate of fire is 400 rounds per minute.
"Vickers", used during the Second World War.
Calculation of the Vickers machine gun in the Libyan desert.
… And a set of figurines for gluing, made from this photo!
As for the "Vickers", this machine gun is still in service in some countries of the world. For its time, it was a successful and reliable weapon capable of shooting for hours and conducting indirect fire. The French of that time rightfully enjoyed the fame of avid creators of all kinds of modifications. As a variation of the Hotchkiss machine gun, the Puteaux, Saint-Etienne and Benet-Mercier machine guns appeared. Only all of them were unsuccessful copies, mainly due to unreasonable changes in the design. The best Hotchkiss machine gun was the "Model 1914", which used all the improvements of the previous models to create a really successful machine gun with a relatively low weight.
Machine gun Perino 1901
Now Italy somehow does not seem to us as a "great machine-gun power". But at the dawn of their creation, it was in Italy that one of the most brilliant samples of all time appeared - the Perino machine gun of 1901. The Italians were very pleased with the new machine gun, but preferred to keep its creation a secret for a long time. The purchase of a large batch of Maxim machine guns, in order to only hide the fact of the presence of a new weapon, shows what a veil of secrecy the Italian machine gun was surrounded by. In this air or water-cooled machine gun, an original power system was arranged using clips of 25 rounds each, which were fed in turn from the cartridge box installed on the left, and on the right came out stacked in the same clip! Since the cartridges in such a power system were aligned, there were practically no delays in their supply. Any delay was quickly eliminated by pressing a button, which removed the problem cartridge. The weapon showed many other remarkable qualities, but the Italians delayed its production, which forced them to use Maxim machine guns and 6.5 mm Revelli machine guns - a mediocre weapon, the mechanisms of which were carried out due to the recoil of the barrel and a semi-free bolt. The shutter, of course, could be called lockable, but it would be said loudly.
Perino machine gun device.
Machine gun Perino, converted to feed belt.
At that time, there were other models of machine guns. But the types of weapons described above dominated the battlefields of the First World War. It was a grandiose battle, in which, during positional battles, the superiority of this type of weapon was finally proved, which led to the characteristic methods of warfare.
Vickers and Schwarzlose (in the background).
