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Description: | 1. M.G. 08/15.
2. S. & H. BERLIN. 1917.
The MG 08/15 was the standard light machine-gun of the German Army during the First World War. Its origins lay in a wish to respond to the British deployment of the Lewis Gun (see FIR 8047) on the Western Front.
Effective light machine-gun designs were already available to the Germans; notably the Danish Madsen (see FIR 8045) and the promising Bergmann LMG 15 n.A. (see FIR 9219), but it was decided for manufacturing reasons to adapt the standard issue medium machine-gun, the MG 08 (see FIR 9295). Consequently the new weapon retained working parts which were identical to those of the MG 08, while the body and water-jacket were lightened. The MG 08/15 was fired from a rigid bipod and was fed from a 100 round belt carried in a drum.
The decision to base the new weapon on an existing gun certainly aided production, which commenced in late 1916. By the end of the war 130,000 MG 08/15s had been produced - compared with 72,000 MG 08s. However, as a weapon the 08/15 proved to be an unhappy compromise. It was light in name only (22Kg with ammunition belt and water) and the central position of the bipod made it difficult to shoot accurately.
feed mechanism has feed pawl finger, jacket has repair to damage and remnants of camouflage paint | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Siemens & Halske, Berlin, Germany | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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