#Schwarzlose machine gun

[captain-price-unofficially]

German gunner with a WWI-vintage Schwarzlose machine gun in an improvised wooden bunker on a train near Smolensk in 1942

[historyofguns]

Crazy water-cooled machine gun!

[gun-identifier]

Top Image, left to right: Bergmann MP-18 Mauser Tankgewehr M1918 Winchester M1887 Mars Pistol (although the barrel looks too long for me to say with certainty) Middle Top Image, left to right: Judging by time period, H&H .450 Nitro Express Rifle (uncertain) Vickers Machine Gun (in turret) Schwarzlose Model 1898 4 Maxim guns in the cabinet Madsen Machine Gun Large Bore Maxim Gun Punt Gun M1911 Webley MK V/IV Mauser C96 Bergman-Bayard Pistol, German Variant SMLE Rifle (MK III, uncertain, but an SMLE for sure) Unknown rifle Farquharson Rifle (Uncertain) Unknown Rifle Middle Bottom Image, left to right: Becker Type M2 20mm Cannon (turret) Winchester Model 1907 Springfield M1903 Unknown SMG? Looks like a KEDR went back in time Bottom Image, left to right: Winchester Model 1907 Bonus guns: Picture of John Browning, Middle Top: Browning Auto 5

by vombavr

[carbone14]

Servants d'une mitrailleuse Schwarzlose MG M.07/12 à la bataille de Radzymin – Guerre soviéto-polonaise – Pologne – 14 août 1920

[historicalfirearms]

Schwarzlose M.07/12

Rob of vbbsmyt returns with another excellent animation showing the workings of Andreas Schwarzlose’s M.07/12 machine gun. Using a delayed blowback action to bypass Hiram Maxim’s toggle-locked action Schwarzlose’s design used a heavy recoil spring and a toggle to slow the opening of the breech to allow the projectile to leave the barrel and bleed off some propellant gas. 

Two Schwarzlose machine guns in action c.1915 (source)

The Austrian Army used the Schwarzlose throughout the First World War on the Eastern and Italian fronts. It continued to be used during the Second World War. The video shows the loading, workings and disassembly of the Schwarzlose including the cartridge oiling reservoir, the toggle system and the feeding mechanism. 

Video Source

[thisdayinwwi]

Sep 3 1917 in WWI

Imperial Austro-Hungarian Army machine gun units, armed with the  Schwarzlose M.07/12 MGs on the  Isonzo Front.

Two Austro-Hungarian machine gunners. One carries a Schwarzlose MG on a light tripod with a belt of ammo around his neck. 

Maschinengewehrabteilung, Transport - BildID=15603294

Austro-Hungarian machine gunners with Schwarzlose M.07/12 MGs fitted with bi-pods and mounted on the lighter "Backpack-mount".

Maschinengewehrabteilung, a.d. Isonzofront - BildID=15603301

Soldiers on the Ternovanerwalde, note the chair lift.

Lagernde Truppen im Ternovanerwalde - BildID=15603686

Chairlift

Dratseilbahn im Ternovanerwalde - BildID=15603693

Machine gun division training

Maschinengewehrabteilung, Uebung - BildID=15603287

3.9.17.

3 September 1917-09-03

[dieselfutures]

Austro-Hungarian Machine Gunners

[ebert1f]

Austrian machine gun Schwarzlose on the Alpine front

[weaponvault]

Czechoslovak experimental machine gun Praga II A with water cooling

During the first years of the republic's existence, the Czechoslovak armed forces acquired a rather varied collection of weapons, the composition and total quantity of which did not meet the ideas of a modern and, above all, within the limits of its capabilities, uniformly armed army. Among the heavy machine guns, the Austrian Schwarzlose M.7/12 (4,773 pieces) and the M.16 A machine guns originally modified for aviation purposes (600 pieces) were the most important. The water-cooled German MG 08 and MG 08/15 machine guns did not fit into the armament concept, so they were later sold abroad. The French air-cooled Hotchkiss Mle. 1914 heavy machine guns had already had their day, so it is not surprising that by the end of 1921 the Ministry of Defence approved the sale of all 960 units. Weapons of Austrian provenance outnumbered other types, in the given situation the army had to count on them, albeit with reservations, in the future. With the introduction of the German 7.92 mm Mauser cartridge, the Schwarzlose machine guns were adapted during the 1920s, but the MNO did not consider the issue of heavy machine guns to be resolved.

A pressing problem in connection with the adopted French training doctrine, emphasizing the assembly of mobile battle groups with a core consisting of just a light automatic weapon, not a heavy, mostly stationary machine gun, was the absence of a suitable light machine gun. Therefore, in the spring of 1923, the Artillery and Ordnance Department of the MNO began trials of light machine guns and automatic rifles, inviting not only foreign manufacturers but also providing opportunities for domestic designs. The actual commencement of the trials in Milovice did not take place until 15 March 1923, when the Danish Madsen machine gun, the French Darne, Vickers-Berthier and Hotchkiss machine guns, the Belgian Browning M1919 and the Czechoslovak Praga II A machine gun designed by Václav Holek of Zbrojovka Praga in Vršovice competed in the light machine gun competition. In the crossbows category, the Czech arms factory in Strakonice entered Netsch system weapons, the French company Vickers-Berthier entered an automatic rifle and Zbrojovka Praga came to Milovice with a Krnka crossbow.

At the end of February, a test commission started its activity in Milovice, which gradually took over and fired the imported weapons. Zbrojovka Praga brought to the competition four Praga II A machine guns with serial numbers 10, 13, 15 and 14, differing in barrel length. Two of them had a barrel length of 740 mm, the other two had a barrel length of 650 mm. Holka's machine gun operated on the principle of a locked breech with gas pressure extraction on the piston with belt feeding of cartridges. The slide system with a folding bolt was complemented by a sledge feeding device, which ensured that the cartridge was pulled out of the belt and, when the slide moved forward, was guided into the barrel chamber. The 30-round belt was coiled in a drum box suspended in the lower part of the gun case. The trigger and percussion mechanism, consisting of a hammer, allowed firing only in continuous mode. The piston, housed in a gas tube under the barrel shroud, passed at the rear into a sledge-feeder control column connected to the bolt carrier. A cylindrical tensioning handle protruded from the outside of the sculpture. The recoil spring, housed in a piston rod, was held in the rear by a strut securing the gas tube in parallel with the barrel shroud. The barrel was fitted with three channels at the front, through which the gases flowed into the expansion sleeve and acted on the piston face.

Although the test commission in Milovice was primarily tasked with evaluating the optimum type of light machine gun that would be the future Czechoslovak light machine gun. army would be armed with in the future, the commission met the request of the 16th Department (Infantry Department) and accepted the offer of Zbrojovka Praga to test a variant of the machine gun with water cooling. The question of a definitive model of the heavy machine gun was not satisfactorily and definitively solved at that time, so it was not a bad idea to test a home-made machine gun in a water-cooled version.

On 10 April 1923, the Praga Armoury delivered to Milovice one example with a backup barrel, modified from the original air-cooled machine gun II A with number 13. Due to time constraints, it used the standard Austrian M. 7/12 base and, due to the outer diameter of the radiator, resigned from the design of the sights; the gun was to be used only for functional tests.

During the following day, the test committee fired 3,168 rounds from the machine gun at a theoretical rate of fire of 375 rounds per minute. The defects in the extraction of the cartridges were attributed by the committee to the wear and tear of the weapon's mechanism, since, as the factory management stated, the armoury had used an older weapon with badly worn components to produce the specimen. As early as 17 April 1923, the chairman of the testing department, Colonel Mrákota, drew up a report summarizing the results of firing with the Praga heavy machine gun. Over the course of four days, the weapon fired 10,687 shots, during which ten different mechanism malfunctions occurred. On the one hand, Colonel Mrákota admitted that the Praga light machine gun could be adapted to a heavy machine gun relatively easily, but with proper sizing of components, especially the barrel. However, in the final verdict, the test department opposed water cooling of the weapon for the very reason that the combustion temperature of the 7.92 mm Mauser cartridge is higher than that of the Austrian M.93 cartridges, which causes rapid evaporation of water and the formation of unmasking steam after only 250 shots. This problem was also encountered by Zbrojovka Ing. F. Janeček when reconstructing the Austrian machine guns to the introduced cartridge, eventually finding a solution in barrel extension and increased cooling volume.

Although the water-cooled Praga II A machine gun did not mark further development, it is an example of the ways in which the search for an optimal light automatic weapon for the Czechoslovakia was carried out. army took. A year later, the Praga Armoury prepared another type of heavy machine gun, but with an air-cooled barrel.

The museum acquired the specimen with the number 13 in 1995 by transferring it from Prototypy a. s. Brno.

Calibre: 7.92 mm Mauser

Overall length: 1032 mm (with extended shoulder rest: 1200 mm)

Barrel length: 692 mm

(without sights)

Weight without magazine: 13 980 g

[jfkwarren]

Pilot and observer/gunner in an Austro-Hungarian Hansa-Brandenburg plane. Note the water-jacket-less Schwarzlose machine guns for aviation use. Also note the ammo box for the forward firing gun underneath the top wing. https://t.co/BEQjrXGHUu

[captain-price-unofficially]

Hungarian soldiers man a Schwarzlose machine gun on AA mount at the Pécs railway station, 1941

[vonholeczek]

Czechoslovak Financial guard border checkpoint at Štůrovo, East Slovakia. You could see members of one Financial guard inspectorate with three infantry soldiers transferred to this checkpoint as heavy machine gun Schwarzlose operators. Photo was taken probably during autumn mobilization in 1938. On barrel of Schwarzlose is skull from unknown source...

[scrapironflotilla]

Austro-Hungarian troops manning a Schwarzlose machine gun in the trenches on the Eastern Front.

[historicalfirearms]

Bergmann MP18,I

By 1915, the Imperial German Army had begun developing infiltration tactics to overcome the stalemate of the Western Front. The formation of dedicated, specialist Sturmtruppen units in 1915-16 saw the army call for new light weapons suitable for the rapid assaults and close quarter fighting that Sturmtruppen found themselves engaged in.  

The German Army asked the Gewehr-Prüfungs-Kommission (GPK) to begin a programme to select a new lightweight, fully automatic assault weapon. The weapon, chambered in 9x19mm, would later come to be commonly known as the submachine gun. A number of manufacturers developed and submitted designs including Mauser, Rhinemetall, Walther, Bergmann and Schwarzlose.

The GPK’s specification called for a fully automatic weapon that fired from closed-bolt. Despite firing from an open bolt, using a blowback action, the Bergmann MP18,I’s simplicity impressed the GPK and the army adopted the Bergmann at the end of 1917, ordering 50,000. The MP18,I was first issued in 1918, seeing action during the 1918 Spring Offensive. 

MP18,I with a Trommelmagazin, without an over insertion sleeve (source)

Designed by a team lead by Hugo Schmeisser at Bergmann Industriewerke, the MP18,I became the basis for a whole family of submachine guns. Initial prototypes fed from a box magazine, however, it seems that this was changed to  the 32-round Trommelmagazin, which had entered production in late 1916. This suffered from feed issues in the mud of the western front. The ‘snail drums’ were also tedious to load and not an ideal shape for carrying. The MP18,I’s magazine housing was angled at 60 degrees to enable proper feeding. The housing, however, is shorter than a Luger P08′s grip and a special sleeve had to be issued to prevent over insertion which could lead to jams and damage to the feed lips.

Schmeisser’s design was protected by two patents filed in 1917 and early 1918, however, they were placed under the owner of the company, Theodor Bergmann’s name. The MP18,I used a blowback action with a simple trigger mechanism. Its only safety was a safety notch marked ‘S’ into which the retracted bolt could be placed. Schmeisser patented this under his own name in 1920, after he left Bergmann Wekre. These were features that continued to be seen in subsequent submachine guns for decades to come.

Stormtrooper with an MP18,I (source)

The second patent covered the weapon’s hinged receiver design, which allowed it to be easily disassembled, with the disassembly catch at the rear of the receiver tube. The weapon had a 20cm (8 inch) barrel inside a perforated barrel jacket for cooling and a simple tangent rear sight. The MP18,I’s rate of fire was relatively slow at ~450 rounds per minute and despite not having a select fire capability an experienced user could fire single shots. While handy, with an overall length of 81.3cm (32 inches), the MP18,I was heavy weighing 4.17kg (9lb 3oz). 

When the MP18,I was first issued to Sturmtruppen, each submachine gunner was assigned one or two ammunition bearers, although sources suggest ammunition carriers were not always necessary. Combined with hand grenades, pistol carbines, light machine guns like the MG15nA and the MG08/15 and handy carbines like the K98a the Sturmtruppen were extremely well equipped. While these new units made remarkable progress during the Spring Offensive, Germany was unable to maintain the momentum and by the end of the year the Army on the Western Front had collapsed and an armistice was signed.  

By the end of World War One only 17,677 MP18,Is of the 50,000 ordered had been delivered. Despite this the MP18,I began a long line of submachine guns which were developed throughout the interwar period including the MP28,II as well as copies such as the British Lanchester and the Spanish Modelo 1929. Schmeisser’s MP18,I remained in service with German police for decades and influenced many of the submachine gun designs that followed it. 

Sources:

Images: 1 2 3 4 5 6

The Schmeisser Myth - German Submachine Guns Through Two World Wars, M. Helebrant (2016)

‘Maschinenpistole mit Traegheitsverschluss’, T Bergmann, German Patent #319035, 16/12/1920, (source)

‘Maschinenpistole mit Traegheitsverschluss’, T. Bergmann, German Patent #334450, 16/03/1921, (source)

‘Sicherung an selbsttaetigen Feuerwaffen‘, H. Schmeisser, German Patent #351621, 29/031922, (source)

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[monty-madam-witch]

Crosshairs felt something for sure special when he saw that heavenly faced mech. And he was not one to be easily flustered. He was going to chase this feeling, and see it through. No matter the cost.

The first event was speed. To see who could unassenble and reassemble three different types of firearms in the fastest time. Now only that, they would then have to shoot three targets per gun in record time as well.

The first. An octagon .22 pump action rifle.

The second. A simple handheld glock.

The third. A schwarzlose machine gun on a semi tripod.

Some's speed was like watching lightening streak through their fingertips. Others that fumbled and dropped their weapon were immediately eliminated.

Once Crosshairs' turn came up, he took a deep breath and got to moving like he was jolted awake from a trance once he heard the starting bell. The guns seemed to systematically fall apart then magnetize together and assemble themselves under his touch.

The targets were rapidly whirring plates being thrown into the air. Crosshairs hit each of them effortlessly before they had even reached their highest point in the air.

'New record' he grinned.

Shot To The Heart

@swiftshocksblog

The crowds gathered in the square for the 125th annual Sharp Shooters and Marksman Competition.

Everyone from inventors to firearm enthusiasts, be they participant or spectator was there. A good handful of them trickling in for the simple promise of watching things blow up in small flaming masses.

Two bots in particular attended this rallying test of skill. One of them being non other than Crosshairs, who was on his way to the sign in, when he saw a familiar black and neon green frame come walking in the same direction as he was.

“Swiftshock.” he said casually, calmly continuing to look forward.

[dieselfutures]

Maschinengewehr (Schwarzlose) M. 7