MG08 with optical sight.

The Maschinengewehr 08, or MG08, was the German Army's standard machine gun in the First World War and comprised an almost direct copy of Hiram S. Maxim's original 1884 Maxim Gun. It was produced with a number of variations during the war. The MG08 remained in service until the outbreak of the Second World War due to a shortage of its successor, the MG34. It was retired from front-line service by 1942. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... A machine gun is a fully-automatic firearm that is capable of firing bullets in rapid succession. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... Hiram S. Maxim Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (February 4, 1840 - November 24, 1916) was the inventor of the Maxim Gun in 1884, the first portable, fully automatic machine gun. ... 1884 is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar). ... An early Maxim gun in operation The Maxim gun was the first self-acting machine gun. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... MG34 The Maschinengewehr 34, or MG34, was a German machine gun that went into production and was accepted for serivce in 1934 and first issued to units in 1935. ... 1942 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Like the Maxim Gun, the Maschinengewehr 08 (or MG08) — so-named after 1908, its year of adoption (itself based upon an earlier 1901 model) — was water-cooled (via a jacket around the barrel that held approximately one gallon) and could reach a firing rate of up to 400 7.92mm rounds from a 250-round fabric belt per minute, although sustained firing would lead to over-heating. 1908 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1901 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Watercooling is a method of heat removal from components. ... The gallon is a unit of volume used for measuring liquids (as well as dry matter). ...

The MG08, like the Maxim Gun, operated on the basis of a toggle lock; once cocked and fired the MG08 would continue firing rounds until the trigger was released. Its practical range was estimated at some 2,200 yards up to an extreme range of 4,000 yards. The MG08 was mounted on a sledge (Schlitten) that was ferried between locations either on carts or else carried above men's shoulders in the manner of a stretcher.

Pre-war production was by Deutsche Waffen und Munitions Fabriken (DWM) in Berlin and the government arsenal at Spandau (so that the gun was often referred to as a Spandau MG08). When war began in August 1914, approximately 12,000 MG08s were available to battlefield units; production, at numerous factories, was however markedly ramped up during wartime. In 1914 some 200 fresh MG08s were produced each month; by 1916 — once the device had established itself as the pre-eminent defensive battlefield weapon — the number had increased to 3,000; and a year later to a remarkable 14,400 per month. Deutsche Waffen und Munitions Fabriken, known as DWM, was an arms company in Imperial Germany created when Ludwig und Loewe merged with several other companies. ... Berlin (pronounced: , German ) is the capital of Germany and its largest city, with 3,426,000 inhabitants (as of January 2005); down from 4. ... An Arse is an establishment for the construction, repair, receipt, storage, and excretion and issue of weapons and ammunitionand random iraqis. ... Spandau is the westernmost borough (Bezirk) of Berlin, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and along the western bank of the Havel. ... 1914 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ...

A revised version of the MG08 was produced in 1915 — the MG08/15 — which featured a bipod rather than sledge mount plus a pistol butt. At 18 kg, it was lighter and less cumbersome and was intended to demonstrate better mobility on the battlefield; it nevertheless remained a bulky weapon which was chiefly used for defensive purposes. It was, however, placed to some use as an aircraft weapon and lives on as an idiom in the German langauge, '08/15' ('Null-acht-fünfzehn') being used like an adjective to denote something 'standardized' and unremarkable. 1915 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... A bipod is a device similar to a Tripod or monopod, but with only two legs. ... A pistol or handgun is a usually small, projectile weapon, normally fired with one hand. ... An aircraft is any machine capable of atmospheric flight. ... Look up Idiom in Wiktionary, the free dictionary An idiom is an expression whose meaning is not compositional—that is, whose meaning does not follow from the meaning of the individual words of which it is composed. ... An adjective is a part of speech which modifies a noun, usually making its meaning more specific. ...

In 1918 an air-cooled and genuinely mobile model — the MG08/18, weighing 15kg — entered into production intended for forward use by advancing infantrymen, i.e. as an aggressive rather than simply defensive weapon. These proved of most use in covering the German Army's withdrawal during the latter half of 1918. 1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

Statistics (MG08)

• Calibre: 7.92 mm (0.312 in)
• Load: 250-round fabric belt
• Rate of fire: 300 to 450 round/min
• Weight: 62 kg (136.7 lb)
• Muzzle velocity: 900 m/s (2953 ft/s)

External links

• Maxim Model of 1908 Machine Gun (http://users.erols.com/hyattg/usmcguns/max_08st.htm)