Retro Machine Gun Still Serves

[unhappycamper]

Retro Machine Gun Still Serves
March 17, 2009
Tactical Life|by Christian Shepherd

During the Second World War, Germany achieved many great technological advances in the field of weaponry. Most historians would agree that Germany gave birth to the first practical general purpose machine guns during that war.

The first of these was the MG34, or Maschinengewehr 34. The MG34 was an excellent weapon and although it remained in production until war's end it was difficult and expensive to manufacture.

As early as 1938 German engineers were testing prototypes of a new machine gun, that was less complicated than the MG34 and made extensive use of stampings. The result was the Maschinengeweher 42, or MG42. The MG42 was an air cooled, belt fed, recoil-operated machine gun suitable for short burst or sustained fire. It was chambered to fire the 7.92x57mm cartridge. It fired an astounding 1,200 rounds per minute.

German soldiers loved the weapon. It was reliable, relatively lightweight and accurate. The unique sound of the MG42 firing became a familiar noise in North Africa, on the Russian Front, and across Europe. As much as it was loved by the Germans, the MG42 was equally hated by Allied soldiers. Because it was such an effective weapon, there were even attempts by the U.S. Army to reverse-engineer the MG42 and adapt it to fire the .30-06 cartridge. This proved unsuccessful due to the difficulty of making adequate design drawings from measurements taken from captured weapons. Eventually the MG42 was, in part, a major influence on the design of the much less successful U.S. M60 machine gun.

During the Cold War, Germany re-introduced the MG42 into service, but in modified form to fire the new NATO standard 7.62x51mm ammunition. The Rheinmetall industrial concern in Düsseldorf was awarded a contract by the German government in 1956 to remanufacture war time stocks of MG42 machine guns that had been returned to their control. The primary steps would be to replace barrels and modify the receivers to accommodate the 7.62x51mm cartridge. Rheinmetall would also be responsible for setting up a production line in order to construct new MG42 machine guns. The first new MG42 machine guns came off the assembly line in December 1957.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/retro-machine-gun-still-serves.html?col=1186032310810

[Sherman A1]

1. the MG42 was a fine weapon and to continue it's use

only makes sense. The down side of course is that we continue to need weapons and can't simply find ways to do without them.