Steampunk machine guns. Max Damage

“Everything will be as we want.
In case of various troubles,
We have a machine gun "Maxim",
They don't have Maxim.
(Hilary Bellock "New Traveler")

Two materials published in a row about machine guns of the first and second world wars aroused great interest among the VO readership. Someone even said that it’s better, they say, there is no “maxim”. And is it possible to argue here when, after the battle of Omdurman, they calculated the approximate number of killed dervishes, and it turned out that out of 20,000, at least 15,000 were killed by fire from the “maxims”. Naturally, the British, and after them the armies of other countries, urgently began to take this machine gun into service. And here it is interesting, so to speak, how national approaches to this new one were embodied in metal and what came out of it as a result. Moreover, we will take only Europe for now, because in America the machine-gun business differed from the European one in some way.

Machine gun "Vickers" Mk I, during the First World War. Museum of horse and field artillery. Australia.

It should be noted here that the only country where the "maxim" managed to really improve and improve its performance characteristics was, again, Great Britain. So in the British armed forces, the Vickers Mk I became the main heavy machine gun. A classic machine gun that can still be found in the most remote corners the globe. "Vickers", in essence, was the same machine gun "Maxim", produced for the British army earlier. But he also had some differences. For example, Vickers engineers reduced its weight. Having dismantled the Maxim, they found that some of its parts have unreasonably big weight. They also decided to reverse the linkage so that it opens up instead of down. Thanks to this, it was possible to significantly reduce the weight of the shutter. Well, the reloading system remained "Maximov" - reliable and durable, it was based on the principle of barrel recoil. The middle hinge bar in a straightened state locked the barrel at the time of the shot. However, when fired at the muzzle device, some of the gases were vented, pushing back the barrel, coupled with the bolt. The sleeve pushed him back, and the joint movement of the barrel and bolt back continued until the rear shoulder of the hinge bar hit the figured ledge on the box and folded up. Then the bolt disengaged from the barrel, and then the usual cycle followed: extraction and removal of the cartridge case, cocking and reloading.

The weight of the Vickers Mk I machine gun reached 18 kg without water. Usually it was mounted on a tripod machine weighing 22 kg. As on the machine gun for the Hotchkiss machine gun, the vertical installation of the machine gun was carried out by a screw mechanism. Sights allowed to conduct indirect fire and shoot at night. The supply of 7.7 mm cartridges came from a cloth tape for 250 rounds.

The machine gun could fire at a rate of 450-500 rounds per minute as long as the casing was poured. Continuous fire was often practiced during the first period of the war, although wisps of steam escaping from the casing unmasked the position. The casing contained four liters of water, which boiled after three minutes of firing at a speed of 200 rds / min. The problem was solved by using a condenser, where steam was removed, which turned into water there, and the water returned back to the casing.

At the beginning of the war, machine guns were distributed in two copies per infantry battalion. However, the need for this weapon was so great that special machine-gun troops were formed to meet it.

These were well-trained units, able to quickly eliminate the delays in firing that were given to infantry battalions. Another useful skill of the soldiers of the machine-gun troops was the ability to quickly change the barrel. After all, even with a constant addition of water, the barrel had to be changed every 10,000 shots. And since in battle such a number of shots were sometimes fired in an hour, a quick change of barrel became vital. A trained crew could replace the barrel in two minutes, with almost no loss of water.

The presence of own troops, trained crews and servants also caused growing tactical requirements for the use of machine guns in positional warfare. It is not surprising that the Vickers machine gun was then considered as a model of light artillery. This point of view can be illustrated by the role of heavy machine guns in the First World War, in the operation carried out by the 100th machine gun company at the battle of High Wood during the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916. On August 24, it was decided that the infantry attack would be supported by the fire of 10 machine guns of the 100th machine gun company, hidden in the trenches. Two infantry companies gave their ammunition to machine gunners. And during the attack, the soldiers of the 100th company fired continuously for 12 hours! Naturally, the fire was fired from carefully placed positions on the targeted area. The barrels were changed every hour. The first and second numbers of the calculations were replaced at short intervals so that the company could conduct continuous heavy fire to support infantry attacks and prevent German counterattacks. On that day, in 12 hours of combat, 10 machine guns of the 100th machine gun company used up about one million rounds of ammunition!

Russia, which fought on the side of the Allies, also had its own modification of the Maxim machine gun, which received the official name "Maxim Machine Gun Model 1910". It was similar to the 1905 model machine gun, only differing in the presence of a steel rather than a bronze casing. Heavy and expensive Maxim machine gun arr. 1910, however, was an excellent weapon, suitable for Russian requirements for simplicity and reliability. This fact confirms that the Maxim machine gun was produced in Russia until 1943, this is a kind of record for the production of Maxim machine guns. The machine gun weighed 23.8 kg, and it is interesting to compare it with the 18 kg of the Vickers. The Russian machine gun was mounted on a small wheeled machine, which, together with the shield, weighed 45.2 kg. The caliber of the machine gun was 7.62 mm, the supply of cartridges was also carried out from a cloth tape and also for 250 rounds. The rate of fire was 520 - 600 rounds per minute, that is, higher than that of the Vickers machine gun. The fact that the lever mechanism was not changed in the Russian Maxim machine gun explains the increased size of the receiver below the level of the barrel.

To ensure the efficiency of the automation, it was necessary to ensure reliable recoil of the barrel. For this purpose, the British screwed a cup onto its muzzle, which, together with the barrel, was inside a spherical muzzle. When fired, the gases coming out of the barrel were forcefully given into this cup, which increased the recoil of the barrel. The shutter spring (in the photo it is removed from the box), as well as on the “maxim”, is on the left. For confident shooting, the force of its tension should be regularly measured and, according to a special table, then weaken it, then, on the contrary, tighten it. For example, if it was planned to shoot at aircraft, the spring should be tightened, and if it was necessary to fire from top to bottom, then loosen it somewhat. It also depends on the time of year!

The German machine gun of the 1908 model of the year (MG08) was also a Maxim machine gun. As in the Russian version, it used the mechanism without any changes, resulting in a tall receiver. The machine gun was produced under the standard German caliber 7.92 mm, the supply of cartridges was carried out from a tape for 250 rounds. The rate of fire of 300-450 rounds per minute was lowered, as the Germans believed that it was not the speed of fire and massive fire that was important, but accuracy and efficiency.

This approach made it possible to alleviate problems with ammunition supply and changing the barrel. The machine gun was known under the name "Spandau" by the name of the factory where it was produced. The weight of the machine gun reached 62 kg with a tripod machine and spare parts. The Germans mounted a machine gun on a skid machine to increase mobility. The German machine gunners were selected very carefully, the command, taking into account the events of the end of 1914, believed that the machine gun had become the master of the battlefield. The machine gunners were distinguished by an excellent level of training and skillful skills, which is confirmed by the losses of the French and British in the battles of Chem-de-Dam, Loze, Nue Chapelle and in Champagne.

All these machine guns - Vickers, MG08 and the Maxim machine gun of the 1910 model - were created on the basis of the same design. However, the Vickers machine gun had an initial bullet speed of 744 m / s with a barrel length of 0.721 m. The German bullet speed was 820 m / s with a barrel length of 0.72 m, but our machine gun had 720 m / s with a barrel of 0.719 m The Austro-Hungarian Schwarzlose machine gun, which was already mentioned at VO, worked satisfactorily, but the 0.52 m barrel was too short for an 8 mm cartridge. As a result, the Schwarzlose machine gun was often identified by a powerful muzzle flash when fired. Power was supplied from a tape for 250 rounds, starting speed the bullet was small - 620 m / s. Rate of fire 400 rounds per minute.

As for the Vickers, this machine gun is still in service in some countries of the world. For its time, it was a successful and reliable weapon, capable of firing for hours and conducting indirect fire. The French of that time rightfully enjoyed the fame of avid creators of all kinds of modifications. As varieties of the Hotchkiss machine gun, the machine guns of Puteaux, Saint-Etienne and Benet-Mercier appeared. Only they were all unsuccessful copies, mainly due to unreasonable changes in the design. The best Hotchkiss machine gun was the "Model 1914", which used all the improvements of previous models to create a really successful machine gun with a relatively low weight.

Now Italy somehow does not appear to us as a "great machine-gun power." But at the dawn of their creation, it was in Italy that one of the most brilliant examples of all time appeared - the 1901 Perino machine gun of the year. The Italians were very pleased with the new machine gun, but preferred for a long time keep its creation a secret. The purchase of a large batch of Maxim machine guns, just to hide the fact of the presence of a new weapon, shows what a veil of secrecy the Italian machine gun was surrounded by. In this machine gun with air or water cooling, an original power supply system was arranged using clips of 25 rounds each, which were fed in turn from the cartridge box installed on the left, and on the right came out packed in the same clip! Since the cartridges in such a power system were aligned, there were practically no delays in their supply. Any delay was quickly eliminated by pressing a button that removed the problematic cartridge. The weapon showed many other remarkable qualities, but the Italians delayed its production, which forced them to use Maxim machine guns and 6.5-mm Revelli machine guns - mediocre weapons, the operation of which was carried out due to the recoil of the barrel and a semi-free shutter. The shutter, of course, could be called lockable, but that would be loudly said.

At that time, there were other models of machine guns. But the types of weapons described above dominated the battlefields of World War I. It was a grandiose battle, in which, during positional battles, the superiority of this type of weapon was finally proved, which led to the characteristic methods of warfare.

“Everything will be as we want.
In case of various troubles,
We have a machine gun "Maxim",
They don't have Maxim.
(Hilary Bellock "New Traveler")

Only the lazy did not write about Maxim's machine gun. But ... it always happens when you collect material for several years, there is, firstly, a lot of it, and secondly, it contains a lot of things that previously escaped the attention of the authors. Therefore, sometimes it is worth returning to any topic, including the “maxim machine gun theme”, which fully claims to become a real “poem”. It is strange, of course, to feel reverence for a person who is most famous for the fact that the invention he created killed the most people on planet Earth. But it just so happened that this is exactly what delights everyone, but the fact that he created a device that killed the most mice - a mousetrap, is somehow forgotten. By the way, it is for the mousetrap that he deserves a monument, and for his machine gun damnation forever and ever. But since we live in our traditional world… let it be the other way around. Let's not break tradition! And if so, then let's once again get to know the person who created this murderous invention, and with his machine gun itself, in the most intimate way.

Maxim was born in Sangville, Maine on February 5, 1840. He became an apprentice to a blacksmith (otherwise known as a carriage maker) at the age of 14, and ten years later took a job with his uncle Levi Stevens in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Subsequently, he worked in different places and changed many professions. But everywhere he was distinguished by such qualities as an inquisitive mind and a desire for invention.

Hiram Maxim with his first machine gun.

Interestingly, his brother, Maxim Hudson, was also a military inventor who specialized in the development of explosives. For the time being, they worked quite closely together, but then they had disagreements over a patent for smokeless powder. The patent claimed by Hiram was signed "H. Maxim", and because of this, they quarreled. Now it is difficult to say which of them borrowed what from whom, but jealousy and disagreements between us caused such discord that it lasted all of them. later life, because of which, by the way, Hudson remained in the United States, and Hiram was forced to leave for Europe. Two bears in one den turned out to be crowded!

Sample machine gun 1884 in section.

Hiram Maxim first married Englishwoman Jane Budden on May 11, 1867 in Boston, Massachusetts. Children Hiram Percy Maxim, Florence Maxim and Adelaide Maxim were born. Hiram Percy Maxim followed in the footsteps of his father and uncle, and also became a mechanical engineer and weapons designer. Later, he wrote a book about his father called "Genius in the Family", containing about 60 funny stories from his life with his father. Most of these stories are very interesting and give the reader a visual representation of the personal and family life a man of such multifaceted talent. Interestingly, in 1946 it was even made into a feature film.

Patent No. 297278 in 1884 for the M1876 hard drive reloading mechanism. As you can see, the device is very simple. The plate on the back of the stock is connected by a spring-loaded lever to the bolt. The recoil force pushes the plate and at the same time actuates the shutter. Everything is very simple. Easier than this system was perhaps one of the first systems of automatic Browning guns with a cup at the muzzle of the barrel with a crank and a long thrust to the bolt. When fired, the bullet flew into the hole in the cup, but the gases pressed on it, threw it back on the crank and forced the rod and the shutter to move. A very workable design. But very uncomfortable!

He remarried his secretary and mistress, Sarah, daughter of Charles Haynes of Boston, in 1881. The marriage was registered at Westminster in London in 1890. In addition, there was a woman named Helen Leighton who claimed that he married her in 1878 and that "he deliberately committed bigamy" while married to his current wife, Jane Budden. She claimed to have given birth to a daughter by him, to whom he subsequently left £4,000. It is quite possible (although the claims of this woman were not proven in court) that such generosity could have some basis.

Another Maxim's patent for an automatic rifle. A massive shutter rests on a rod with a spring located in a tube in the butt. Well, there is nothing to explain here. Before us is a diagram of a finished submachine gun, which simply did not occur to anyone!

I must say that Maxim was the author of a mass of useful inventions, and they were often born spontaneously, as he personally needed. For example, he suffered from bronchitis for a long time and ... made and then patented a pocket menthol inhaler, and then a larger desktop steam inhaler that used pine steam, which, according to him, could relieve asthma, tinnitus, fight with hay fever and catarrh. And when he was reproached that with his machine gun he added suffering to people, he invariably answered that no one counted how many people he brought relief from suffering.

Hiram Maxim crowned with glory!

So, one large furniture factory often suffered from fires, and Maxim was invited for a consultation on how to prevent their recurrence. As a result, Maxim invented the first automatic fire sprinkler, which also reported a fire to the fire station. He also designed and installed the first electric lights in New York (The Fair Life Building at No. 120 Broadway) in the late 1870s. How significant his work in the field of electrification was, is evidenced by his lawsuit with Edison himself over the patent rights to the incandescent light bulb. Working in this field, he came to England in 1881 to reorganize the London offices of the Electric Electricing Company. And here in Vienna (at least, so says the legend, the author of which, most likely, was himself) in 1882, he met an American acquaintance who advised him to give up chemistry and electricity and come up with something deadly, because this is the only thing you can do well earn.

"Maxim" Mk.I model 1892. Already pretty close to what we know.

And I must say that in childhood, Maxim was knocked down by the recoil of the butt of a rifle when fired, and this led him to the idea of ​​​​using this recoil to create an automatically reloading weapon. In the period from 1883 to 1885, Maxim patented a number of mechanisms that use the force of recoil. It was then that he moved to England, settled in a large house, formerly owned by Lord Thurlow in West Norwood, where he developed his recoil-powered machine gun. He advertised in the local press that he was going to experiment with firearms in my garden and asked the neighbors to open their windows to avoid trouble with broken glass.

"Maxim-Nordenfeld" - an ultra-light model of 1895. At that time, the very idea of ​​\u200b\u200bwater-cooling the barrel and all this fuss with topping up water seemed absurd to many military men. They rightly noted that the soldiers may not always have water, especially in such quantities as Maxim's machine gun devoured it. In addition, with a water casing and water in it, it was much heavier than without them. And in general, the weapon, in their opinion, was too heavy ... And Maxim did not argue, but immediately made a model of a machine gun, firstly - extremely lightweight, and secondly - with air cooling.

1895 machine gun of the year under the British caliber .303.

We also note that Maxim was not only a good inventor, but also a skilled manager. He regularly invited crowned persons to demonstrate his machine guns. different countries, and when they honored him with their visit, he took pictures with them and immediately published these photographs in print!

King Edward VII of England personally fires a Maxim machine gun. This is how you promote your inventions!!!

On March 8, 1888, the Russian emperor fired from a Maxim machine gun Alexander III in the arena of the Anichkov Palace. After testing, representatives of the Russian military department ordered Maxim 12 machine guns of the 1885 model under the 10.67-mm Berdan rifle cartridge. In 1914, this machine gun to the Artillery historical museum Petersburg was presented by the Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich. For some reason, the caliber of 11.43 mm is indicated on the signature under the machine gun. Museum workers made a mistake. Berdan's rifle had a caliber of 4.2 Russian lines, which is exactly 10.67 mm. (Photo by N. Mikhailov)

Highly interesting pattern and above all, the fact that it has both a pistol grip and a trigger, and handles with a trigger. That is ... to choose from! If you want - so, if you want - like this: “Any whim for your money!” An excellent marketing ploy. (Photo by N. Mikhailov)

To be continued…

From Experienced Purchasing late XIX century to the end of WWII.

And use in irregular formations (from Makhno with Antonov to Brat2).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1kQcqfnHJw

Lurkmore ()

“Everything will be as we want. In case of various troubles, We have a Maxim machine gun, They don’t have Maxim.
»
- Quote from Hilaire Bellock's poem "New Traveler".

Canonical, arr. 1941. The Maxim machine gun is a famous weapon, the progenitor of all modern automatic weapons.

History of creation History of creation “Ah, here, Wikipedia says that “The traditional spring mousetrap was invented by Hiram Maxim, who also invented the Maxim machine gun.” Yes, the dude was not a humanist.
»
- Habrahumorists

The machine gun was invented by the racial English Pindos Khairam Maxim (yes, my young friend, Maxim is a surname, not a name, in which there is also an accent on the first syllable, Maxim!) already in the dense 1883. It was the first to apply the successful implementation of the idea of ​​​​using recoil energy to reload weapons, which in the days of single-shot army rifles, which were just beginning to have a magazine and manually operated shotguns, was just fucking high-tech (especially the fact that the designer wanted to gash an automatic rifle, but looking at the size of the brainchild, he said “Well, fuck it !! 1” and decided to sculpt a machine gun). The weapon quickly had the disposition of English racial colonialists, as it allowed the crowd of wild nigr, Chinese and Malays to quickly and without losses quickly and without loss, extracting a considerable profit out of this. Subsequently, the cunning Pindos ported the weapon to other calibers and sold a license for it to almost everyone European countries, which, in turn, made a bunch of modifications and reworks of alterations on their own.

Technical features Technical features The machine gun originally had liquid cooling, which was both a plus in the form of the ability to shoot long bursts without the risk of sticking the barrel from the very first tape, and a minus, expressed in large weight, the need to carry a supply of water with you and problems when used in winter time. Cunning Russian designers, after many complaints about the lack of water, washed down a version with a lid in the casing - to pile snow instead of water (however, racial Finns were the first to use this idea unrestrictedly).
Could be used both on a wheeled machine and on a tripod. And cunning Germans also from bipods and hands. However, not only them.
Initially, the Russian version was equipped with a high shield to protect against bullets, which greatly unmasked the shooter. During the war years, machine gunners often removed this shield themselves, relying more on stealth and good camouflage of positions. However, the shield provided good protection arrow, so according to the statement knowledgeable people, even a "digged" shield can withstand a bullet from a Mauser rifle fired at close range.
In this country In this country
Antipsychotic useIn Russia, the machine gun appeared in 1887, and in 1888 it was personally approved by Tsar Alexander III, after which it was put into service. Initially, machine guns were assigned to artillery, put on heavy carriages, assembled into batteries and used in defense, which did not allow them to be used effectively. However, one such battery shredded quite a few Japanese during the day. Russo-Japanese War.

Civil War Civil War The Maxim machine gun is one of the symbols of the Civil War. It was actively used by both Reds and Whites, and the Makhnovists even came up with a cart by installing a machine gun on a horse-drawn cart. Subsequently, Chapai copied her and even got himself a specially trained machine gunner.

Great Patriotic War Great Patriotic War
Severe and pretentious machine gunner. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Maxim was outdated and was discontinued. However, the Degtyarev machine gun, washed down in 1939 to replace it, turned out to be not without childhood illnesses, therefore, in the first years of the war (in order not to be left without machine guns at all), the long-established production of maxims was restored. Back in 1909, a cover was added to the barrel casing so that cooling water could be made right on the spot and straight from the snow. By the same time, a metal tape was already used to power the machine gun instead of canvas (in fact, both options were produced). By the end of the war, he was still removed from production, and this time - completely.

Four times more leadAlso, on the basis of Maxim, a four-barreled anti-aircraft gun for drinking Nazi Junkers and Heinkels, and the racially correct English “pom-pom” anti-aircraft gun (double / quadruple automatic cannon) is simply Maxim, swollen to a caliber of 37 millimeters.

Also, is the source of the local Brest defensive meme "water only for the wounded and machine guns."

And even before the First World War, the British developed a tactic of firing from machine guns from closed positions (at sighted points), which made it possible in the First World War not to let the enemy get out of the trenches and made it possible to hit the enemy in the trenches or fire over the heads of their advancing infantry. This tactic was taught in this country until the start of the war.

Another Also. On the Sokolov machine gun, the first semblance of a grenade launcher (in the sense of rocket acceleration in flight) was washed down from this machine gun - three RS-82s on rails. With remote ignition by wires. This evil little thing was washed down to the delight of the German panzergrenadiers. And rejoiced. But only up to 200 m - further dispersion and all that. Not everything is clear with armor penetration, but you can vouch for 30 mm (the caterpillar breaks at once).

After the war After the war Despite the appearance of advanced units such as AK / PK / RPK and others like them, Maxims removed from service lay peacefully in warehouses, just in case. And every chance nevertheless came when the Chinese communist friends decided to grab the little-known Damansky Island, located in the Primorsky Territory, from the Soviet revisionists. In the end, the crowd of Chinese advancing in "small groups" was stopped only with the help of a prodigy (MLRS "Grad").

During the debriefing, it turned out that against the Chinese zerg rush, the Soviet infantry really did not have a suitable small arms, because after intensive shooting of several magazines in a row, AK (as well as other shooters with air-cooled barrels) overheats and becomes temporarily useful a little more than nothing. This is where Maxims come in handy, thanks to their water cooling, they are able to mow down enemies in quantities of over 9000 without any fatigue. After that, all Maxims in the USSR were collected and transported to the Soviet-Chinese border, where they were stored for another 30 years.

I fell in love with the device in fraternal countries (they generally loved everything that shoots). For example, with the help of Maxims, the Koreans reduced the number of each other, and the Vietnamese communists reduced the number of Vietnamese non-communists and their masters from across the ocean. Who knows, maybe right now some Nigra drank another of the antiquity of Maxim.

In the unconscious In the unconscious
Medvedev with a subject. Judging by the look, this is a special presidential meditation.
The canonical Maxim on a machine with a shield symbolizes the USSR, communists, commissars, detachments and mass executions.

Currently, Maxim is one of the favorite objects for conversion into the MMG “Grad” installation, because it symbolizes very high quality, and is still lying around in warehouses in incredible quantities.

In music In music "His wings machine-gun belt Its fire is irresistible Its blued barrel is its super-dick And it is full of iron forces "Maxim machine gun", 1990
»
- Agatha Christie
“Look at the map, Where it ripens in March, Where the first orange ripens in March. Where in the shade of the olive Looks at the valleys, Looks at the valleys Machine gun Maxim ...
»
- The Dartz
“From the bell tower he watered everyone with living water The new forty-pound machine gun "Maxim"
»
- "Gypsy", gr.Pilot

Cinema Cinema Machine gun Maxim present in huge number films, of which 2 can be distinguished large groups: pro civil war(in particular, "Chapaev", where Anka the machine-gunner fired from it) and about the Great Patriotic war. From the new machine gun lit up in the film "Brother 2", where two cars with bandits were brutally shot from it.

Literature Literature In Remarque's novel "All Quiet on the Western Front" German soldiers, left without water, "refuel" the machine gun with urine. Later, having recaptured the trench from the French, the same soldiers drink water from the casing of an enemy machine gun (however, there were risky guys. Or just really thirsty.).

Also, in G. Wells, in his “War of the Worlds”, troops armed with (especially emphasized) Maxim machine guns oppose tripods. With clear results.

Canonical, arr. 1941

Machine gun Maxim(Maxim's automatic shotgun) - the famous means of cutting out running men on an industrial scale, the first successful example of automatic small arms.

History of creation

The machine gun was invented by the racial English Pindos Hiram Maxim (yes, my young friend, Maxim is a surname, not a name, in which there is also an accent on the first syllable, Maxim!) already in the dense 1883. It was the first to apply the successful implementation of the idea of ​​​​using recoil energy to reload weapons, which in the days of single-shot army rifles, which were just beginning to have a magazine, and manually operated shotguns, was just fucking high-tech (especially delivers the fact that the designer wanted to gash an automatic rifle , but looking at the size of the brainchild, he said “Well, fuck it !! 1” and decided to sculpt a machine gun). Subsequently, the cunning Pindos ported the weapon to other calibers and sold the license for it to many European countries, which, in turn, made a bunch of modifications and alterations on their own.

The tachanka, sobssno, was not invented by the Makhnovists at all. Even during the First World War, on the southwestern front, Russian troops used spring wagons made by racial Russian Germans in the Crimea aka Tavrida to transport machine guns. [ prooflink?] The very word "tachanka" is a distorted "taurian", according to the place of origin. And already in the Civil Carts grandfather Budyonny introduced into mass use, the idea was picked up by the Makhnovists and other participants in the general mess. Grandfather Chapai generally preferred motorcycles and afftos, his division was so motorized that it was just right to call it “motorized rifle”.

The Great Patriotic War

Another Also. On the Sokolov machine gun, the first semblance of a grenade launcher (in the sense of rocket acceleration in flight) was washed down from this machine gun - three RS-82s on rails. With remote ignition by wires. This evil little thing was washed down to the delight of the German panzergrenadiers. And rejoiced. But only up to 200 m - further dispersion and all that. Not everything is clear with armor penetration, but you can vouch for 30 mm (the caterpillar breaks at once).

After the war

Despite the introduction of a single PK machine gun into the army, which replaced the outdated machine guns, the Maxims, which were decommissioned, lay peacefully in warehouses, just in case. And every chance nevertheless came when the Chinese communist friends decided to grab the little-known Damansky Island, located in the Primorsky Territory, from the Soviet revisionists. In the end, the crowd of Chinese advancing in "small groups" was stopped only with the help of a prodigy (MLRS "Grad").

During the debriefing, it turned out that against the Chinese zerg rush, Soviet infantrymen really do not have suitable small arms, because after intensive shooting of several magazines in a row, the AK (as well as other air-cooled shooters) overheats and becomes temporarily useful a little less than a club. This is where Maxims come in handy, thanks to their water cooling, they are able to mow down enemies in quantities of over 9000 without any fatigue. After that, all Maxims in the USSR were collected and transported to the Soviet-Chinese border, where they were stored for another 30 years.

I fell in love with the device in fraternal countries (they generally loved everything that shoots). For example, with the help of Maxims, the Koreans reduced the number of each other, and the Vietnamese communists reduced the number of Vietnamese non-communists and their masters from across the ocean. Who knows, maybe right now some Nigra drank another of the antiquity of Maxim.

Also, if the oldfags don’t lie (and this sin doesn’t happen to anyone), it’s the barrels from the classic “Max” of the 1910 model, devoid (unlike the three-ruler barrel) of unnecessary devices, that fit perfectly into the barrel of an ordinary 12-gauge hunting shotgun with cylindrical drilling (or, possibly, with pay), regularly serving the so-called. caliber converter and turning a peaceful civilian buggy into a chthonic, fiercely illegal rifled fucker.

Today, anyone can purchase for personal use a civilized version of the legendary meat grinder, passing according to the documents, attention! hunting carbine. Only the absence of a five-year tenure can prevent the fulfillment of a childhood dream civilian weapons(because Maksimka is rifled) and a very non-acidic price, fluctuating around 300 thousand wooden ones.

In the unconscious

Canonical Maxim on the machine with a shield symbolizes the USSR , communists , commissars , detachments and mass executions .

Currently, Maxim is one of the favorite objects for conversion into the MMG “Grad” installation, because it symbolizes very high quality, and is still lying around in warehouses in incredible quantities.

Well, if you have a pink piece of paper, you can buy Maxim. The stoned guys from the Vyatka-Polyansky arms factory certified it as a hunting carbine. The price tag, however, anon will not like ...

In music

Movie

The Maxim machine gun is present in a huge number of films, of which 2 large groups can be distinguished: about the Civil War (in particular, "Chapaev", where Anka the machine gunner fired from it) and about the Great Patriotic War. From the new machine gun lit up in the movie "Brother 2", where two cars with bandits were juicily shot from it into a sieve. However, SUDDENLY appeared in the film "The Return of the Hero", where Arnie himself stood behind him! But anon should know that this is actually Vickers - the British version of Maxim. Nevertheless, over the brain he is called "a real Russian killer of Nazis." Although in the original he was simply a "fascist killer"

Literature

In Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front, German soldiers, left without water, "refuel" the machine gun with urine. Later, having beaten off a trench from the French, the same soldiers drink water from the casing of an enemy machine gun (however, there were risky guys. Or just really thirsty.). However, in reality, the French machine guns were completely air-cooled without any water tanks there ... [ prooflink?]

Also Ernst Junger in steel thunderstorms, as far as I remember, mentioned the use of antifreeze.

see also

• 37mm Maxim - for shooting at whatnots, but for zeppelins, slaughter was still not enough

Notes

Good grandfather Maxim.

In 1870, an unknown Swedish lieutenant D. H. Friberg patented the principle of operation of an automatic weapon, which would later be called a machine gun. The oldest surviving drawing dates from 1883. The inventor was noticeably ahead of his time by presenting a design unsuitable for the era of black powder. At the time, no one was interested. Only in 1907, another Swede, Rudolf Henrik Kjellman, combined a long-standing patent with new smokeless powder parons and received an Fm / Kjellman light machine gun, quite reliable, but released due to the high cost of production in a series of only 10 pieces. But the shutter according to the principle of D. H. Friberg in the future will be in such cult machine guns of the next era as the DP and MG-42.
But back to the 1880s... The famous American inventor Hiram Maxim ( Hiram Stevens Maxim) of his more than two hundred inventions, among other things, he invented a mousetrap, a vacuum cleaner, a gas generator, a bulletproof vest, acorn coffee, a pocket inhaler, a "flying car" - an attraction that brought him a fair income, sued Edison over the authorship of the invention of an electric light bulb, and received from under an agreement on annual payments for refusing further inventions in the field of electricity, he thought about using recoil energy to reload weapons. What came of it - we know:

Whatever happens, we have got The Maxim gun, and they have not.
Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc

Roughly translated as: We will answer any of your questions we answer: " We have a machine gun, and at you don't have it!"

For several years he unsuccessfully worked on the invention automatic rifle. In the end, he managed to design all the main components of an automatic weapon, but it turned out to be so bulky that it looked more like a small gun. The rifle had to be abandoned. Instead, Maxim assembled in 1883 the first working example of his famous machine gun. Shortly thereafter, he moved to England and set up his own workshop here, which later merged with the Nordenfeldt arms factory.
The first machine gun test was carried out at Enfield in 1885. In 1887, Maxim offered the British War Office three different models of his machine gun, which fired about 400 rounds per minute. In subsequent years, he began to receive more and more orders for him. The machine gun was tested in various colonial wars that England was waging at that time, and excellently proved itself to be formidable and very effective weapon. Great Britain was the first state to adopt a machine gun into service with its army. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Maxim machine gun was already in service with all European and American armies, as well as the armies of China and Japan.
At the same time, one should not forget that a machine gun costs a lot of money and is a real high-tech era. There, the accuracy of processing parts is in thousandths of an inch, which requires high-quality machines and, most importantly, workers. ..... Cartridges must also meet the requirements.
The most interesting options for Maxim were the Germans and the British. In addition to Maxim, several other machine gun systems appeared, including light ones ....
And now - GALLERY!

Light machine gun Friberg/Kjellman 1907

The Maxim family.

Prototype machine gun Maxim.

Swiss machine gun Maxim model 1894

Early British air-cooled Maxim, Boer War.

Early Maxim-Nordenfeld 1890s.

Maxim-Nordenfeld on a machine - a tripod, which has become the hallmark of the British.

Early Vickers-Maxim, WWI.

Vickers Mk1.

German "maxim" MG-08

The skid machine is clearly visible.

Booking machine gun and shooter.

With a large armored shield.

Without flame arrester.

On a lighter later machine.

Early Russian Maxim-Sokolov.1905. Pay attention to the abundance of brass in the design.

A story about the machine guns of that time cannot do without the French Hotchkiss machine gun. Its characteristic feature was a solid plate clip.

Pancho Villa with Hotchkiss.

Its direct predecessor is the St.Etienne M1907.

General view on a late machine.

Clips are clearly visible.

There was also an advanced version with tape power, but reliability was lame there.

The machine is a tripod.

Air cooling.

Colt-Browning 1895 became another independent machine gun. Nicknamed by the soldiers as a "potato digger" for the mobile system under the barrel, it became the first machine gun of the US Army.

Modification on a wheeled machine, used in 1898 in Cuba.

On a high tripod.

And low.

Lightening the design and abandoning the machine led to the emergence of "light" machine guns, which could be controlled by one fighter.

The most massive, but possessing high firepower, was the German Maxim MG 08/15 converted from an easel.

Here, the differences between the easel and light models are clearly visible.

In fact, this is the first rather unsuccessful ancestor of single machine guns ...

The French went in a similar way - their Hotchkiss 1909 system in a lightweight version, also produced in the USA as Benet-Mercie, was in fact the first converted machine tool.

In this case, this is the American version on the bipod.

The British Hotchkiss 1909 Portable light machine gun featured a small tripod and interchangeable barrel.

But the first really successful light machine gun was the famous Lewis Lewis(in this case with a 63-round disc)

Watch... admire.

It was this machine gun that first made small groups of infantry a force.

Characteristic aluminum casing on the barrel - business card systems.

Others, really sad, famous light machine gun became the French Shosh Chauchat...

AT public opinion the conviction of his extreme unreliability was firmly fixed.

Which is 50% typical for the French version and 100% for the American version.

The first really successful light machine gun was Madsen.

The serial model saw the light in 1902.

It is paradoxical but true - this machine gun, which did not receive special recognition, was in service with many countries for almost the entire twentieth century ...