Maxim's youth, Maxim's maturity, Maxim's return
Choo, choo, choo! Knocking, knocking hooves
Choo, choo, choo! The machine gun hit.
The White Guard is utterly defeated,
And no one will break the Red Army!
Lyrics: Julius Kim
Choo, choo, choo! The machine gun hit.
The White Guard is utterly defeated,
And no one will break the Red Army!
Lyrics: Julius Kim
Weapon XXI century. The first time I heard the name Maxim was when I watched the film trilogy Maxim's Youth, Maxim's Return, and The Vyborg Side on TV. It was in the year of the 60th of the last century.
From childhood, the song was especially remembered: “The blue ball is spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning overhead ...” Then we, the boys, how did we live? From one "movie" on "TV" to another. They show "Maxim" - everyone sings about the "blue ball", about Chapaev - they pull him to play "black crow, I'm not yours."
Classics of the genre: shots from the film "Chapaev" with Anka the machine gunner
And it is clear that by that time I had already seen the “namesake machine gun”, and more than once. But he didn't know the name. I asked my grandfather and he told me that it was "Maxim". "Why Maxim?" “And he invented it!” Well, since Maxim, it is clear that he was invented by a Russian. AND…
I thought so for quite some time. Until I got into the hands of the TSB, where something completely different was written. And the films with maxim went on and on: “Thirteen”, “Tachanka from the South”, “Package”, “They were the first” ...
Today, many have already forgotten it, although the film is very good. Frame from the movie "Thirteen"
Well, then I already found out what outstanding fighting qualities this machine gun possessed. I read in the instruction that with a supply of ammunition and water, a bold and skillful calculation - this machine gun is inaccessible to enemy infantry.
Well, “live” in our local history museum, he also impressed me, although even outwardly it was clear how heavy and clumsy he was. There, in the museum, next to the maxim, there was also a Goryunov machine gun, and again, even outwardly it was clear that it was much lighter than its predecessor.
Hiram Maxim firing his machine gun. Impressive, isn't it?
Gradually I came to know history maxim in chronological order, from the execution of the Matabele Negroes to his participation in the Korean War.
And it was also written everywhere that it was complex, expensive, heavy, but ... very reliable. That in the British army the main heavy machine gun was the Vickers Mk I - a classic machine gun that can still be found today even in the most remote corners of the planet, but in fact - the same "Maxim". It's just that Vickers engineers reduced its weight somewhat, when they took it apart, they found that some of its parts were completely unreasonably overweight. At the same time, they turned over the lever mechanism, and it began to open up, not down, which made it possible to significantly reduce the weight of the shutter.
And this is how the French at the beginning of the twentieth century imagined the war of 2000!
They also improved the muzzle device, where the gases were discharged during the shot and pushed the barrel back, which was the work of the automation. Their joint backward movement continued until the rear shoulder of the hinge bar hit the curly ledge and folded up. After that, the shutter was disengaged from the barrel, the empty cartridge case was removed and removed, and then cocked and reloaded.
The Vickers Mk I weighed 18 kg without water, and was mounted on a tripod machine that weighed 22 kg. Like the Hotchkiss machine gun, which had the same tripod, the barrel was aimed vertically by a screw mechanism. Sights made it possible to conduct even indirect fire and ... shoot at night. Cartridges of 7,7 mm caliber were loaded into a cloth tape for 250 rounds. Moreover, the rate of fire: 450-500 rds / min was quite high, although the machine gun could shoot only as long as water was poured into its casing.
One of the first versions of the maxim, 1890 Royal Arsenal, Leeds
At the beginning of the First World War, continuous fire was often practiced, although the trickles of steam knocked out of the casing unmasked the machine gun and machine gunners. Four liters of water could be poured into the casing, but still it boiled after three minutes of firing at a speed of 200 rds / min. However, the problem was solved by using a condensate tube that returned water back to the casing.
British Vickers. National Army Museum, Stockholm
The Russian maxim of the 1910 model on a wheeled machine with a shield weighed 45,2 kg. The rate of fire of 520-600 rds / min was higher than that of the Vickers. The speed of our rifle bullet was also higher.
"Maxims", "Schwarzlose" and "Colt-Browning" 1895 in service with an armored train car
Interestingly, at the beginning of the twentieth century, namely in 1904, the United States also adopted the Maxim machine gun, manufactured by the Colt company. 287 pieces were bought from British firms and another 197 were produced by Colt. The first British machine guns were chambered in .30-03, and all Colts chambered in the later .30-06.
So he was - the American "Maxim" in 1904. By the way, do not think that he has such a bulky gun carriage. A removable tripod is provided under the barrel, which is attached to the wheel travel! Photo forgottenweapons.com
The Model 1904 was the heaviest Maxim machine gun ever made: the machine gun itself weighed 24,8 kg and the gun carriage weighed 36 kg. Despite its superior reliability and durability, it was so heavy and bulky that American soldiers hated it. The final order for the M1904 was placed in 1908, but the very next year, the light M1909 Benet-Mercier of the Hotchkiss model was put into service.
By the time the First World War began, all these maxims had long since been put into storage. And I had to get them from warehouses to train troops before sending them to Europe, but these machine guns never found a more serious military application.
A feature of the machine gun was a very powerful muzzle, which hid the “cup” put on the muzzle. Thanks to this, the gas pressure on the barrel was used as efficiently as possible.
By the way, they also did not like them because it was very difficult to maintain such machine guns. For example, after every 10 shots, the barrel had to be changed. An experienced calculation needed only ... two minutes, with almost no loss of water. The adjustment of the cylindrical mainspring took a lot of effort. That is, Maxim and Vickers were not such machine guns that everyone could lie down behind them and shoot successfully.
Flip-up sight and spring tension regulator (“threaded wheel” on the left). This improvement, unlike the basic maxim, was very convenient for machine gunners, because it made it possible to adjust the spring tension in a much easier way.
But trained machine gunners showed class!
An example is the actions of the 100th machine gun company in the battle of High Wood on the Somme in the summer of 1916. In preparation for the attack on August 24, it was decided to support the infantry with the fire of 10 machine guns from the 100th machine gun company. In addition to their own ammunition, two infantry companies immediately gave their cartridges to the machine gunners. And during the attack, machine gunners fired continuously for 12 hours! The barrels were changed every hour. The first and second crew numbers were also changed so that the company could conduct heavy fire on German positions. Later it turned out that during the 12 hours of the battle, these 10 machine guns of the 100th machine gun company fired almost one million rounds of ammunition!
Very primitive handles. They could have been made out of wood. And so in winter all fingers will freeze! In the center is an iron semicircular corrugated safety key. Behind her is a T-shaped trigger
And here is how J. Hutchison described this combat episode in his book “The History of the 33rd Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps”:
“Ten machine guns were concentrated in the Savoy Trench, from where there was a magnificent view of the German line from a distance of about 2 yards ...
On the afternoon of 23 August and the following night, our entire company, in addition to the two infantry companies assigned specifically for this purpose, brought water and ammunition to this point. <…>
During the attack on the 24th, ten machine guns fired only 250 rounds less than a million; to cool the constantly boiling guns, absolutely all the water stored in gasoline cans was used, in bottles collected from all companies, and when it was still not enough, tins for soldier urine were collected from all over the neighborhood, ammunition was brought almost continuously.
Each fighter of the machine-gun crew who fired the most shots was promised a bonus of five francs. The money, as well as the Distinguished Service Medal, went to the crew of Sergeant P. Dean, who set a record by firing more than 120 shots.
On the afternoon of 23 August and the following night, our entire company, in addition to the two infantry companies assigned specifically for this purpose, brought water and ammunition to this point. <…>
During the attack on the 24th, ten machine guns fired only 250 rounds less than a million; to cool the constantly boiling guns, absolutely all the water stored in gasoline cans was used, in bottles collected from all companies, and when it was still not enough, tins for soldier urine were collected from all over the neighborhood, ammunition was brought almost continuously.
Each fighter of the machine-gun crew who fired the most shots was promised a bonus of five francs. The money, as well as the Distinguished Service Medal, went to the crew of Sergeant P. Dean, who set a record by firing more than 120 shots.
(About the British attack on the High Forest at the Battle of the Somme in 1916)
Machine gun "Vickers" Mk I period of the First World War. Museum of Horse and Field Artillery. Australia
Interestingly, according to the experience of the war in the 30s, attempts were made to provide machine guns of the Maxim type with the ability to fire at distant invisible targets. Such shooting was to be carried out with the help of a monocular machine-gun sight and a machine-gun goniometer - a quadrant.
However, the practice of using machine guns during the Second World War showed that it was simply not possible to massively train machine gunners in such shooting. The need for mathematical calculations, and rather complex ones, and often the educational level of the soldiers themselves did not allow them to confidently master this type of fire. In addition, how to correct this very fire? After all, even flashes from explosive bullets with such shooting are not visible to machine gunners. Therefore, the machine gun, up to the present day, has remained a weapon of “direct fire”, that is, the principle of “I don’t see, I don’t shoot” was put at the forefront of its use.
And, of course, the “mobility” of weapons, on which many armies were literally obsessed, so that even gun frames began to be made of titanium. The maxim machine gun was written off as obviously outdated, but today's media reports that somewhere a rifle-caliber machine gun was fired continuously for one hour cause genuine delight.
The Russian PKP Pecheneg machine gun weighs 8,7 kg and has a cooling system similar to the Lewis machine gun. Thanks to this, it can fire 600 shots in a row without overheating!
Meanwhile, for maxim machine guns, this is ... not an indicator at all.
Likely return of maxim
And today, when we see an amazing return to trench warfare, it makes sense to think about the "return of the maxim." And about returning on a new basis. In symbiosis with a reconnaissance UAV, which from a height would correct the firing of such a machine gun at an invisible target. And in a certain sense, such fire would be more profitable and more effective than mortar shelling. An invisible rain of bullets falling from the sky will undermine the stamina of any number of fighters who find themselves under such a “rain”. For example, a heavy bullet of the 7,62-mm D grade, developed in the USSR back in 1930, pierced a standard army helmet at a distance of 1 m. .
Well, what if we replace them with the same proven bullet shape, but with a steel core and a signal explosive charge in the back? Then she will be able to hit the target, and hitting such bullets will not be difficult to track with modern drone. And then the data from it is transmitted to the ballistic computer, including wind speed parameters, and it gives out a ready-made sight. Well, the current adjustment is carried out according to the same flashes from bullets when firing.
The American "electric machine gun" "Minigun" M134 is undergoing ground tests in Vietnam. Weight 30 kg. Maximum range: 300 m (effective); 1 m (lethal), 500 m (bullet flight). Cartridge 3 × 000 mm NATO
When firing at such an intensity, it will be difficult for the enemy soldiers, if it is simply impossible, to go “before the wind”, not to mention firing from trenches through the parapet!
High ammo consumption? Well, this is how to say, besides, the war today is already becoming more expensive day by day. And if today 100-200 people are considered significant losses, then the time will soon come when even 1-2 people killed will be considered a serious success.
One of the ground mounting options for the M134 GAU-2 B/A "Minigan" machine gun. It cannot withstand any comparison with the maximum in terms of weight, compactness and reliability. Although, probably, with the adjustment with the help of the UAV, it is also likely that it can bring down “bullet rain” on the enemy. Royal Arsenal, Leeds
It is interesting that constructively the “new maxim” can only be improved purely technologically. Lighten all heavy parts through the use of modern high-strength alloys. Make the water cooling casing titanium. The machine is universal, allowing firing from closed positions and also against enemy UAVs. Accordingly, the tape should be metal, link ...
In the conditions of a positional war, such a machine gun will be just a godsend for the one who makes it and will be the first to use it on the battlefield!
So we had the “youth of maxim”. There was also his maturity, proven in battles. Whether the “return of the maxim” awaits us (except for the already existing use of old stocks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine) - who knows ?!
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