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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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