MG 34: The world's first single machine gun

The German MG 34 machine gun, created by Rheinmetall in 1934, was used by the Wehrmacht simultaneously as a light, heavy, anti-aircraft, tank and even aircraft machine gun.

The idea of ​​implementing a universal machine gun was justified by several arguments.

First, based on the experience of the First World War, the Germans came to the conclusion that the wide variety of light and heavy machine guns would not allow the infantry to quickly respond to changing battle conditions.

Secondly, one machine gun for all needs is practical. After all, machine gunners for any type of troops could be trained according to a single program, but this weapons there will be a single spare parts park.

Taking into account the fact that Germany was prohibited from developing such weapons under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the universal Maschinengewehr 34, which became the first single machine gun not only for the Wehrmacht, but throughout the world, was created on the basis of the Austrian MG-30. However, the latter was only developed in 1929 in Austria, and its creator was the same German Rheinmetall.

As a result, the use of new weapons by infantry looked like this. If the MG 34 was used on a tripod (even sometimes with an optical sight), it served as a heavy machine gun. When it was removed from the machine and placed on the ground on a bipod, it served as a light machine gun. At the same time, no design changes needed to be made.

It is worth noting that at that time not all countries appreciated the idea of ​​​​a universal machine gun. Therefore, only the Wehrmacht entered World War II with a single MG 34 machine gun, which remained in service with the German army until the end of the war. In total, Germany produced about 477 Maschinengewehr 000.

When using an easel tripod and optics, the MG 34 could hit targets at a distance of up to 3 km. Moreover, among light machine guns it was distinguished by its high rate of fire - up to 900 rounds per minute at a distance of 200-2000 meters.

Thanks to the use of the Maschinengewehr 34, the Wehrmacht was able to implement the heavy fire concept, in which a single machine gun could hold off an advance of a company of up to 120 men. In this regard, in the Red Army and the Allied forces, assault infantry battalions underwent separate training on how to take cover from German machine gun fire and attack it while changing the barrel.

Comments

[Nexcom]

The forty-second MG was cheaper and easier to produce, the barrel change scheme was simplified, and there were many stamped parts. And, by the way, it is still produced and served in a number of countries under different names. Even in Yugoslavia it was produced under the Zastava M53 brand (with a Serbian nickname: Garonya - Black Bull).

Well, then the Yugoslavs then creatively sawed down the MP-40 into 7.62x25 and a sector banana magazine. The result was a kind of Yugovsky PPS in the outlines of the MP-40 and simplified internals without a telescopic pneumatic damper-return spring casing. I forgot what its Outpost number was?

[nazgul-ishe]

One can only admire this weapon.

[Parvis rasulov]

The main nonsense is that they consider the MG 34 type to be the first single machine gun, if based on universal solutions, then the first single machine gun in the world is the English Lewis light machine gun and the second most popular Soviet machine gun DP 27, on the basis of which there were four different versions of the machine gun: tank, easel, anti-aircraft, aviation, DT (Degtyarev Tank), DA (Degtyarev Aviation) and by the way the same DT on tanks was used as an anti-aircraft gun, so considering the MG 34 the first single machine gun is not correct since there were already universal machine guns before it...

[ss29]

And what doesn’t suit you, besides Lewis there was also the Vickers infantry easel. And besides Degtyarev, we fought with Maxims, DShK, ShKAS. And the Germans had a single mg 34.

[faiver]

In addition to the advantages indicated in the article, there were also disadvantages - high cost, difficulty in production, required highly qualified service, and was afraid of frost and dirt. As a result of the experience gained, the Mg-42 was born....

[svp67]

The design is not indisputable, but the concept is for centuries... It also happens... An ingenious solution of the “gloomy German genius”

[IRA1777]

The "coaxial" barrel replacement scheme for the MG34 was adopted in order to be able to replace barrels from inside the tank hill. The simplification of the MG42 made it unsuitable for this, so the MG34 continued to be produced in parallel.

[AlexWar]

The Germans made a beautiful machine gun. As a child, I liked films with these machine guns

[Larich]

The concept of a single machine gun was very controversial and much discussed before WWII. Still, there were strong arguments against it. All opponents of the Wehrmacht did not have uniform machine guns until the 50s

[Altmann]

Thank you, the entire documentary definitely lived up to my expectations. A wonderful description of the main machine guns of the world war. We elders remember a lot. Czech machine gun vz. 26 we used as a school machine gun and I think that it was almost ideal. We personally had the opportunity to verify the excellent level of Soviet machine guns, and we also had German machine guns at school. I managed to become very familiar with machine guns. But with my teenage years, this machine gun era is ending.

[mat-vey]

The world's first single machine gun is the Madsen machine gun. The MG-34 even has a machine from it, practically unchanged.

[agond]

Is there a need for a single machine gun at all? Why doesn’t anyone come up with the idea of ​​coming up with, for example, a single adjustable wrench (well, if it’s an adjustable one), because there are no adjustable wrenches with many numbers and even more types. A single machine gun requires the presence of a single cartridge, but if this cartridge allows you to fire a burst of 2-3 shots and hit where you want, then it will be weak for a full-fledged machine gun, if the cartridge is more powerful, then everyone except the machine gunner must shoot single shots from rifles. It must be determined that more necessary, by the way, Maxim in the First World War could also have laid claim to the role of a single machine gun, because everyone then had three-line guns.

[mat-vey]

Quote: agond

By the way, in the First World War Maxim could also have laid claim to the role of a single machine gun, because everyone then had three-line guns.

27 kg for hand-held shooting is somehow not very suitable for unity...