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Maxim
The Maxim was the first true self-powered machine gun*, a recoil-operated fully-automatic belt-fed weapon produced by Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim, an American-born inventor who moved to England at the age of 41.
Maxim's attention was drawn to guns in 1881 when a friend famously advised him "If you want to make a pile of money, invent something that will enable those fool Europeans to cut each other's throats with greater facility." He produced his first gun in 1885, an extremely bulky device with a distinctive bulge at the rear for a rotary crank to reverse the movement of the block, and a unique pointer-operated fire regulator which allowed the weapon to fire at any speed from 1 RPM to 600. Both were eliminated in later designs for simplicity, the crank assembly is replaced with a toggle joint that was the forerunner of that used on the Borchardt C-93 and Luger P08.
Despite some skepticism from early buyers (the Tsar of Russia's officers, when the 1885's mechanism was explained to them, laughed and stated nobody could operate the crank 600 times a minute, while the King of Denmark, on being told how much each round cost, told Maxim one of his guns would bankrupt Denmark in half a day) the gun was an instant success and was adopted by many national militaries in a variety of variants and calibers. It saw combat from British use in The Gambia in 1888 to the end of the Second World War, eventually being supplanted by lighter and more efficient designs. British use led to a popular saying: "Whatever happens, we have got / The Maxim gun, and they have not." Larger versions of the Maxim were also used as anti-aircraft guns, with the most well-known examples being the British "pom-pom" guns.
Maxim's gun company was established with the help of the Vickers steel company of Great Britain and ultimately absorbed into it, joining with rival Nordenfeldt of Sweden in between; Albert Vickers would later produce his own redesigns of the Maxim, the Maxim-Vickers and later the Vickers Gun.
(*While a Swedish Army Lieutenant, D.H. Friberg, had patented a design for a recoil-operated firearm action using locking lugs similar to those used by many later automatic weapons (such as the Russian DP-28) in 1870, with early drawings for a weapon based on it dating back to 1882, Friberg's design was impractical due to rapid residue buildup from use of black powder, and it is unclear if any firing weapon was produced before Maxim's gun in 1885. Rudolf Henrik Kjellman latter refined Friberg's design to use Swiss 6.5x55mm smokeless powder cartridges in 1907, adding a bipod, water jacket, and forward grip and replacing Friberg's hopper feed with a detachable box magazine: this, the "Kjellman Light Machine Gun," was a commercial failure with only ten examples produced.)
The Maxim and variants can be seen in the following films, television series, video games, and anime used by the following actors:
Maxim 1895
Film
| Title | Actor | Character | Notation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October: Ten Days That Shook the World (Oktyabr) | Red Guards | Russian M1905 | 1927 | |
| Carry on, Sergeant! | Canadian soldiers | 1928 | ||
| North West Frontier | S.M. Asgaralli | Havildar | 1959 | |
| Herbert Lom | Van Layden | |||
| Kenneth More | Capt. Scott | |||
| Wilfrid Hyde-White | Mr. Bridie | |||
| 100 Rifles | Mexican soldiers, Indians | 1969 | ||
| Companeros | Franco Nero | Yodlaf Peterson | A mockup | 1970 |
| Rebellion in Patagonia | Argentinian soldiers | Argentine version | 1974 | |
| Breaker Morant | Edward Woodward | Morant | 1980 | |
| Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows | assassins | 2011 | ||
| The Legend of Tarzan | Samuel L. Jackson | George Washington Williams | 2016 | |
| Belgian and Force Publique soldiers |
Television
| Show Title / Episode | Actor | Character | Note | Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born by Revolution: Hard Autumn (Rozhdyonnaya revolyutsiey: Trudnaya osen) | Red Guards | Russian M1905 | 1974 | |
| Rough Riders | Chris Noth | Wadsworth | Argentine Maxim | 1997 |
| Spanish troops | ||||
| Lock 'n Load With R. Lee Ermey | R. Lee Ermey | Himself | Ep. 1: Machine Gun Educations | 2009 |
| Ripper Street | Ian McElhinney | Theodore Swift | "The Peace of Edmund Reid" (S3E08) | 2014 |
Video Games
| Game Title | Appears as | Notation | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team Fortress 2 | Unusable weapon; cut from game | 2007 | |
| Red Dead Redemption II | "Maxim Gun" | Mounted on Browning M1917 tripod | 2018 |
Anime
| Title | Character | Note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Girls und Panzer: der Film | mounted on 1889 quadricycle | 2015 | |
| Golden Kamuy - Season 1 | Russian soldiers | Ep. Wenkamuy" and in "Complication" | 2018 |
| Tsurumi | Ep. "Gleaming" | ||
| Golden Kamuy - Season 2 | Abashiri Prison security forces | Ep. "Overwhelmed" | 2018 |
| Golden Kamuy (OVA) | Kiichirou Wakayama | Ep. "Monster" | 2018 - 2020 |
Maxim MG08
The German version of the Maxim gun, adopted in 1908 and classified MG'08 accordingly. Usually seen on its unique four-legged 'sledge' mounting which could be folded up to drag the gun across the ground.
The reports and experiences of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) also led to the construction of machine guns in Germany being promoted. Due to some changes and improvements to the MG 01 and the Schlittenlafette 03 (Schlitten 03), the MG 08 with the Schlittenlafette 08 was created in 1908, which became the standard heavy machine gun of the German Army in World War I. The weapon was considerably lighter than its predecessor models and, when filled with four liters of cooling water, weighed 24 kg. The MG 08 was designed for direct shooting, i.e. for shooting at targets visible to the shooter, equipped with a sight from 400 to 2000m with a division of 100m. A target optic (Zielfernrohr ZF 12) with the same division could be placed on the left side of the housing.
The MG 08 was initially only built by the DWM company (Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken AG), and the Spandau rifle factory was also producing the machine gun as early as 1911. When the war broke out, the number of MG 08s in Germany was still very low with 4918 weapons. Soon after the outbreak of World War I, the efficiency of the machine guns showed through the great firepower. The MG 08 was manufactured in ever-increasing numbers during the entire duration of the First World War without any major changes and has proven itself to be extremely reliable. Some improvements were made to the MG 08 during and after World War I, for example, a holder was riveted to the right side of the housing, into which the drum holder of the MG 08/15 could be inserted to hold the 100 round cartridge drum of the MG 08 / 15 to use. In 1916 the Dreifuss 16 was introduced for the MG 08 and it is a replica of the tripod mount, as it was made by DWM for the Modell 1909 (export model).
The MG 08 was the only heavy machine gun in the German army until 1936 and was then replaced by the introduction of the MG34 as a new standard machine gun. However, the MG 08 remained in use in the secondary war theaters of World War II until the end of 1945.
Specifications
- Weight, Gun Only: 58lb 5oz (26.44kg)
- Weight, On 'Sledge' Mounting: 136lb 11oz (62kg)
- O/A Length: 46.25in (1175mm)
- Barrel length: 28.3 in (719 mm)
- Cartridge: 7.92x57mm Mauser
Film
| Title | Actor | Character | Notation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hearts of the World | German soldiers | 1918 | ||
| The Big Parade | German soldiers | Some mounted on a plane and other fitted with Patronenkasten 16 belt drum | 1925 | |
| The Merry Widow | 1925 | |||
| Wings | German soldiers | 1927 | ||
| Four Sons | German soldiers | 1928 | ||
| Verdun: Visions of History | German soldiers | 1928 | ||
| Carry on, Sergeant! | German soldiers | 1928 | ||
| Journey's End | German soldiers | 1930 | ||
| All Quiet on the Western Front | German soldiers | 1930 | ||
| The Other Side | German soldiers | 1931 | ||
| Shanghai Express | Chinese Government and Rebel troops | 1932 | ||
| Wooden Crosses | German soldiers | 1932 | ||
| Dawn | British sailors | 1933 | ||
| My Motherland (Moya Rodina) | 1933 | |||
| Heroes for Sale | German soldiers | 1933 | ||
| Captured! | Leslie Howard | Capt. Fred Allison | 1933 | |
| German prison guards | ||||
| Shock Troop | German soldiers | 1934 | ||
| The World Moves On | German soldiers | footage from Wooden Crosses | 1934 | |
| The Lives of a Bengal Lancer | 1935 | |||
| The General Died at Dawn | General Yang's troops | 1936 | ||
| Secret Agent | German soldiers | 1936 | ||
| The Road to Glory | German soldiers | footage from Wooden Crosses | 1936 | |
| They Gave Him a Gun | German soldiers | 1937 | ||
| La Grande Illusion | German Prison guards | 1937 | ||
| Knight Without Armour | White and Red soldiers | 1937 | ||
| The Fighting 69th | German soldiers | 1940 | ||
| Forty Thousand Horsemen | Turkish soldiers | 1940 | ||
| Sergeant York | German soldiers | 1941 | ||
| Fighting Film Collection No. 9 (Boyevoy kinosbornik No. 9) | German soldiers | 1942 | ||
| Fighting Film Collection No. 11 (Boyevoy kinosbornik No. 11) | Emmanuil Geller | Tryasku | 1942 | |
| German soldiers | ||||
| How the Steel Was Tempered (Kak zakalyalas stal) | German Imperial troops | 1942 | ||
| Sahara | German soldiers | Mounted on a halftrack | 1943 | |
| In the Name of the Fatherland (Vo imya Rodiny) | German soldiers | 1943 | ||
| The Front | Seen on the battlefield | 1943 | ||
| Wait for Me (Zhdi menya) | Boris Blinov | Nikolai Yermolov | 1943 | |
| Ekaterina Sipavina | Pasha | |||
| The Battle of the Rails (La bataille du rail) | German soldiers | 1946 | ||
| Zigmund Kolosovskiy | Seen among Polish partisans weapons; also in footage | 1946 | ||
| Ernst Thälmann - Son of his Class | German soldiers and Communists | 1954 | ||
| Ernst Thälmann - Leader of his Class | 1955 | |||
| Five Branded Women | German troops | 1960 | ||
| Taxi for Tobruk (Un taxi pour Tobrouk) | Germán Cobos | Jean Ramirez | Mounted on jeep | 1961 |
| The Taste of Violence (Le goût de la violence) | Government troops and guerrillas | On Schwarzlose 07/12 tripods | 1961 | |
| The Longest Day | German soldiers | 1962 | ||
| The Train | German soldiers | 1964 | ||
| Is Paris Burning? | German soldiers | 1966 | ||
| Shock Troops (Un homme de trop) | Patrick Préjean | Lecocq | 1967 | |
| Charles Vanel | Passevin | |||
| I Was Nineteen (Ich war neunzehn) | German soldiers | 1968 | ||
| Bonnot's Gang (La bande à Bonnot) | French Zouaves | 1968 | ||
| How I Unleashed World War II | German soldiers | 1970 | ||
| Duck, You Sucker! | Rod Steiger | Juan Miranda | 1971 | |
| The Wind and the Lion | Marc Zuber | Sultan of Morocco | 1975 | |
| March or Die | French Foreign Legionnaires | 1977 | ||
| Death is My Trade | Uncredited | Becker | 1977 | |
| Hermann Günther | Schmitz | |||
| Kai Taschner | Younger Franz Lang | |||
| The Battleflag | Austro-Hungarian soldiers | 1977 | ||
| Rebellious "Orion" (Myatezhnyy "Orion") | German sailors | 1978 | ||
| All Quiet on the Western Front| | | German soldiers | 1979 | ||
| Gallipoli | Turkish soldiers | 1981 | ||
| The Ace of Aces (L'As des as) | German soldiers | 1982 | ||
| The Living Daylights | 1987 | |||
| The Lighthorsemen | Turkish soldiers | 1987 | ||
| Ay, Carmela! | Spanish Republicans | 1990 | ||
| Chunuk Bair | Turkish soldiers | 1992 | ||
| Legends of the Fall | German soldiers | 1994 | ||
| The Lost Battalion | German soldiers | 2001 | ||
| A Very Long Engagement | seen in German trench | 2004 | ||
| The Bridge | Alexander Becht | Ernst Scholten | 2008 | |
| German soldiers | ||||
| Guard No. 47 | Austro-Hungarian soldiers | 2008 | ||
| The Red Baron | German soldiers | 2008 | ||
| Passchendaele | German soldiers | with Panzermantel and shield | 2009 | |
| Dnieper Line: Love and War | German soldiers | 2009 | ||
| The Warrior's Way | The Colonel's men | 2010 | ||
| Beneath Hill 60 | German soldiers | 2010 | ||
| Battle of Warsaw 1920 | Natasza Urbanska | Ola Raniewska | 2011 | |
| Polish soldiers | ||||
| Day of the Falcon (Or noir) | Nasib's oilfield guards | 2011 | ||
| War Horse | German troops | 2011 | ||
| Emden Men | German Sailors | 2012 | ||
| Stalingrad | Russian sailors | mounted on a boat | 2013 | |
| The Water Diviner | Greek and Turkish soldiers | 2014 | ||
| Blizzard of Souls | German soldiers | 2019 | ||
| The King's Man | German soldiers | 2021 | ||
| Death on the Nile | German soldiers | 2022 | ||
| All Quiet on the Western Front | German and French soldiers | 2022 |
Television
| Show Title / Episode | Actor | Character | Note | Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front Without Mercy (Front ohne Gnade) | Seen among Italian troops; Ep.5 | 1984 | ||
| Anzacs | Mark Hembrow | Dick Baker | 1985 | |
| German and Turkish troops | ||||
| The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles | Daniel Craig | Captain Schiller | "Daredevils of the Desert" (S2E15) | 1992-1993 |
| The Somme | Adam Ganne | German soldier | 2005 | |
| German soldiers | ||||
| The Somme – From Defeat to Victory | German soldiers | 2006 | ||
| Verdun: Descent into Hell | German and French soldiers | 2006 | ||
| The Caravan of Sailors | German sailors | 2006 | ||
| 14 - Diaries of the Great War | German soldiers | Episode 8 | 2014 | |
| Gallipoli | Turkish troops | 2015 | ||
| Deadline Gallipoli | Turkish soldiers | Episode 2 | 2015 | |
| Glitch | S1E05 "The Impossible Triangle" | 2015 | ||
| Les Fusillés | German soldiers | 2015 | ||
| And Quiet Flows the Don (Tikhiy Don) | Austro-Hungarian soldiers | On Dreifuss 16 tripod and on sledge mounted | 2015 | |
| Demon of the Revolution (Demon revolyutsii) | German soldiers | Seen in documentary footage | 2017 | |
| Babylon Berlin - Season 1 | 2017 | |||
| Babylon Berlin - Season 2 | German soldiers | 2017 |
Video Games
| Game Title | Appears as | Mods | Notation | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BloodRayne | "Kaxik 08" | 2002 | ||
| Rise of Nations | Used by the Machine Gun unit | 2003 | ||
| Battlefield: 1918 | 2004 | |||
| Darkest of Days | "Machinegun" | With Maxim M1910/30's barrel jacket | 2009 | |
| 7554 | "MG 08" | 2011 | ||
| The Great War 1918 | "MG 08" | 2013 | ||
| Battle of Empires: 1914-1918 | "MG08" | 2015 | ||
| Battlefield 1 | Mounted on A7V Tanks | 2016 | ||
| Tannenberg | "Maschinengewehr 08" | With shield and Panzermantel | 2019 | |
| Land of War: The Beginning | "Wz. 08 Maxim" | Polish variant | 2021 | |
| Beyond The Wire | "Maschinengewehr 08" | With Panzermantel | 2022 | |
| Isonzo | "Maschinengewehr 08" | Introduced in Caporetto expansion | 2022 |
Anime
| Title | Characters | Notation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Porco Rosso | Porco | Custom lMG 08 | 1992 |
| Air Pirate | Ground version | ||
| Girls und Panzer | Mounted on German A7V tank | 2012 | |
| Suisei no Gargantia | Pirates | incorrectly equipped with a top-mounted magazine together with a belt box | 2013 |
| Saga of Tanya the Evil | Empire soldiers | with disk-shaped muzzle from Chinese Type 24 Maxim | 2017 |
| Golden Kamuy - Season 1 | Ep. "Grim Reaper" | 2018 | |
| Saga of Tanya the Evil: The Movie | Empire soldiers | with disk-shaped muzzle from Chinese Type 24 Maxim | 2019 |
Animation
| Title | Voice Actor | Characters | Notation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Love, Death & Robots - Season 1 | mounted on the A7V heavy tank in "Alternate Histories" (S1E17) | 2019 |
Maxim MG 08/15
Starting in, 1915 the MG 08/15 was developed to create a weapon faster to manufacture than the Madsen machine gun for the LMG role. Another goal was to increase portability of the weapon to support storm trooper tactics. To this end, the boxy profile of the original MG 08 receiver was shortened and shrunk where possible, resulting in a distinct "step" at the top of the receiver, and the cooling jacket's diameter was reduced to to 92.5 mm (3.64 in). In the summer of 1917, the MG 08/15, designated leichtes, was issued to the troops. The new variant was designed to be taken along with assault troops rather than left back in the trenches. Too many infantry attacks failed due to lack of machine gun support and too many machine guns were lost because they could not be dismantled in time. Therefore, the machine gun was now designed as a light machine gun with a bipod and shoulder stock. Each company initially received two MG 08/15s, later four. In early 1918, the number was increased to six. For the transport of the MG 08/15 and accompanying ammunition, companies were assigned two field cars.
According to the Treaty of Versailles, the Reichswehr only had 1,926 (+4% reserve) machine guns of all types approved. However, a secret inventory of about 12,000 machine guns existed in 1927. Through the 1920s - 1930s, machine guns were improved and updated in a variety of ways, specifically: anti-aircraft sights and mounting brackets, oiler bottle in the stock, additional mount for bipod at the muzzle, new water drain and fill plugs, modified drum hanger bracket, feed block for both cloth Maxim belts and metal MG34 belts, leather pistol grip cover, and top cover locking latch.
After the renaming of the Reichswehr in Wehrmacht, the MG 08 and MG 08/15 were phased out in 1936, starting with the active infantry divisions, by the MG34. The MG 08/15, MG 08/18, and MG 08, as well as their machine gun wagons and handcars, were handed over to the reserve or Landwehr infantry divisions to be filled up in the mobilization case with reservists. Occasionally it was used until 1941 on the Eastern Front.
Trivia: By far the most common German machine gun of WWI with a total production of around 130,000, it was so ubiquitous that "08/15" (pronounced Null-acht-fünfzehn) is still used in German to refer to something mundane.
Specifications
- Weight: 31lb (14.06kg) empty, 46lb (20.8kg) with water jacket filled
- O/A Length: 57.0in (1448mm)
- Barrel length: 28.3 in (719 mm)
- Cartridge: 7.92x57mm Mauser
- Magazine: 100- or 250-round cloth belt carried in an ammo chest or 100-round cloth belt loaded in a metal Patronenkasten 16 belt carrier drum. It feeds from the right and ejects the spent brass from the left.
Film
| Title | Actor | Character | Notation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Big Parade | German soldiers | 1925 | ||
| The Merry Widow | 1925 | |||
| 7th Heaven | French soldiers | 1927 | ||
| Wings | A German soldier | 1927 | ||
| Two Arabian Knights | German soldiers | 1927 | ||
| All Quiet on the Western Front | A German soldier | 1930 | ||
| Westfront 1918 | Gustav Diessl | Karl | 1930 | |
| German soldiers | ||||
| Doughboys | Buster Keaton | Elmer J. Stuyvesant Jr. | 1930 | |
| German soldiers | ||||
| The Other Side | German soldiers | 1931 | ||
| Captured! | German soldiers | 1933 | ||
| Shock Troop | German soldiers | 1934 | ||
| Hell's Angels | Ben Lyon | Monte Rutledge | MG08/15 aircraft version | 1930 |
| La Bandera | Jean Gabin | Pierre Gilieth | 1935 | |
| The General Died at Dawn | General Yang's troops | 1936 | ||
| Knight Without Armour | White Army soldiers | 1937 | ||
| The Fighting 69th | German soldiers | 1940 | ||
| Forty Thousand Horsemen | German and Turkish soldiers | 1940 | ||
| Native Shores (Rodnye berega) | German soldiers | 1930s modification with a fore mounted bipod | 1943 | |
| Ernst Thälmann - Son of his Class | German soldiers | 1930s modification with a fore mounted bipod | 1954 | |
| Signum Laudis | Vítezslav Jandák | Pvt. Müller | 1980 | |
| Zdenek Dusek | Pvt. Kostka | |||
| High Road To China | Chinese Warlord's soldiers | 1983 | ||
| Deal of the Century | MG08/15 aircraft version; Seen in the Gundealer's Room | 1983 | ||
| Biggles: Adventures in Time | MG08/15 air cooled | 1986 | ||
| The Lighthorsemen | German troops | MG08/15 aircraft version | 1987 | |
| Ararat | Armenian resistance fighter | 2002 | ||
| Flyboys | German pilot | MG08/15 aircraft version | 2006 | |
| The Red Baron | Matthias Schweighöfer | Manfred von Richthofen | air cooled, twin mounted on Fokker Dr.I | 2008 |
| German soldiers | ||||
| Battle of Warsaw 1920 | Polish pilot | MG08/15 aircraft version | 2011 | |
| Rear-gunner | MG08/15 air-cooled | |||
| Day of the Falcon (Or noir) | Nasib's pilot | MG08/15 aircraft version | 2011 | |
| Batalion | seen in the Russian trench | 2015 | ||
| Wilson City | Hungarian solders | Fitted with drum magazine | 2015 | |
| Wonder Woman | German solders | Fitted with drum magazine | 2017 | |
| Blizzard of Souls | A German soldier | 2019 | ||
| 1917 | Aircraft version; mounted on Albatross biplane | 2019 |
Television
| Show Title / Episode | Actor | Character | Note | Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waves of the Black Sea (Volny Chyornogo morya) | Russian Imperial soldiers and revolutionaries | Film 1; mounted on tripod | 1976 | |
| Shattered Sky (Raskolotoe nebo) | Aristarkh Livanov | Daniil Shchepkin | Mounted on airplane | 1979 |
| Anzacs | German and Australian troops | 1985 | ||
| Journey's End | German soldiers | 1988 | ||
| The Somme – From Defeat to Victory | German soldiers | 2006 | ||
| Downton Abbey | German soldiers | S2E05 | 2011 | |
| Trotsky | Red Army men | 2017 |
Anime
| Title | Character | Note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Castle in the Sky | hanging on a wall | 1986 | |
| Porco Rosso | Aircraft version; mounted in Hansa Brandeburg CC aircrafts | 1992 | |
| The Mystic Archives of Dantalian | Mounted on Fokker Dr. I triplane | 2011 |
Video Games
| Game Title | Appears as | Notation | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi | "Machine Gun" | 2003 | |
| Battlefield: 1918 | 2004 | ||
| NecroVisioN | "MG 08/15" | 2009 | |
| The Great War 1918 | 2013 | ||
| Call of Duty: Black Ops II | "MG08/15" | Included in the Apocalypse DLC | 2013 |
| Battle of Empires: 1914-1918 | "MG 08/15" | 2015 | |
| Verdun | "Maschinengewehr 08/15" | 2015 | |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops III | "MG-08/15" | Included in the Zombies Chronicles DLC | 2015 |
| Battlefield 1 | "MG 08/15" | 2016 | |
| Screaming Steel: 1914-1918 | "MG 08/15" | 2018 | |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 | Zweihänder | Included in the Zombies Chronicles DLC | 2018 |
| Battlefield V | unusable | 2018 | |
| 11-11: Memories Retold | 2018 | ||
| Beyond The Wire | "MG 08/15" | 2022 | |
| Isonzo | "Maschinengewehr 08/15" | Introduced in Caporetto expansion | 2022 |
Maxim MG08/18
The rare MG08/18 was an experimental heavy-barrel air-cooled version under testing at the very end of the WW1. The demand for further weight savings compared to the MG 08/15 as well as the fact that water-cooled weapons always needed a supply of water and the risk of cooling water freezing in winter was very high, led to the development of the air-cooled, lighter Maxim. The MG 08/18 was almost identical to the MG 08/15, but instead of the cooling water jacket only had a perforated jacket tube with a diameter of 37mm around the barrel, which was provided with a handle and a hinged front sight. The jacket tube had a clamp with a bayonet lock to accommodate the fork support (bipod) at the rear. The major disadvantage was that a hot-shot barrel was only possible by opening the rear wall of the lockbox and dismantling the moving parts. This was due to the typical Maxim design and a change of barrel was not planned in the field. The MG 08/18 was only produced in small numbers and was still used like the MG 08/15 after the First World War.
Video Games
| Game Title | Appears as | Notation | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verdun | "Maschinengewehr 08/18" | 2015 | |
| Battlefield 1 | "lMG 08/18" | "Apocalypse" DLC | 2016 |
Maxim M1910
Russian-adopted version of the Maxim, adopted originally in 1905 with a bronze water-jacket but modified and standardized to a corrugated-type jacket in 1910. A simplified version with smooth water jacket was adopted in October 1914 and manufactured until the late 1920s. Usually seen on the 'Sokolov' mounting which was wheeled with a small turntable.
Specifications
- Weight, Gun Only: 52lb 8oz (23.8kg)
- Weight, On 'Sokolov' Mounting: 99lb 11oz (45.22kg) (Including Shield)
- O/A Length: 43.6in (1107mm)
- Barrel length: 28.4 in (721 mm)
- Cartridge: 7.62x54mm-R, early prototypes chambered for Berdan 10.14 mm
Film
Television
| Show Title / Episode | Actor | Character | Note | Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Adjutant of His Excellency (Adyutant ego prevoskhoditelstva) | Yuriy Solomin | Pavel Koltsov | 1969 | |
| Angel's brigands | ||||
| How the Steel Was Tempered (Kak zakalyalas stal) | Vladimir Konkin | Pavel Korchagin | 1973 | |
| Fyodor Panasenko | Anton Tokarev | |||
| Vladimir Talashko | Vladimir Okunyov | |||
| Red Army men, Komsomol activists | ||||
| Born by Revolution: Hard Autumn (Rozhdyonnaya revolyutsiey: Trudnaya osen) | Red soldiers and sailors | Seen in documentary footage | 1974 | |
| Here Lies the Border (Zdes prokhodit granitsa) | Soviet border guards and volunteers | Ep.1 | 1975 | |
| Omega Option (Variant "Omega") | Soviet sailors | Seen in documentary footage | 1975 | |
| Born by Revolution: On the Night of the 20th (Rozhdyonnaya revolyutsiey: V noch na 20-e) | Moscow People's Militia | 1976 | ||
| The Strogovs (Strogovy) | White troops and Red partisans | Ep.7,8 | 1976 | |
| Eternal Call (Vechnyy zov) - Season 1 | Ivan Lapikov | Pankrat Nazarov | Ep.4 | 1976 |
| Red Guards, White Army soldiers | Ep.4,5 | |||
| The Road to Calvary (Khozhdenie po mukam) | Aleksandr Lazarev, Sr. | Poruchik Zhadov | Ep.3 | 1977 |
| Valeriy Zotov | Kvashnin | Ep.5 | ||
| Konstantin Grigoryev | Chugai | Ep.11 | ||
| Austro-Hungarian soldier | Mocked up as MG08; Ep.2 | |||
| Red and White soldiers | ||||
| It Was in Kokand (Eto bylo v Kokande) | Otabek Ganiyev | Yusup | 1977 | |
| Aleksandr Denisov | Likholetov | |||
| Red soldiers | ||||
| The State Border: Film 1 | Red Army soldiers | 1980 | ||
| German soldiers | modified to resemble German MG08 | |||
| The State Border: Film 2 | Russian Border guards | 1980 | ||
| The Meeting at High Snows (Vstrecha u vysokikh snegov) | Red Army soldiers | 1981 | ||
| The State Border: Film 3 | Russian Border guards | 1982 | ||
| 20th of December (20-e dekabrya) | Red Guards | 1982 | ||
| Take Him Alive (Vzyat zhivym) | Soviet soldiers | 1983 | ||
| The State Border: Film 4 | Russian Border guards and Turkestan Communist fighters | 1984 | ||
| Makar the Pathfinder (Makar-sledopyt) | Red and White troops | Also mounted on "British tank" | 1984 | |
| Fiery Roads (Ognennye dorogi) | Natalya Varley | Maria Kuznetsova | Ep.15 | 1985 |
| Red Army soldiers | Ep.13,15 | |||
| Confrontation (Protivostoyanie) | German soldiers | Visually modified to resemble MG08 | 1985 | |
| The State Border: Film 5 | Russian Border guards | on wheel mount and M-4 AA quad mount | 1986 | |
| Special Operations Squad (Otryad spetsyalnogo naznacheniya) | Soviet partisans | 1987 | ||
| And Quiet Flows the Don (Tikhiy Don) | Red and White troops | 2006 | ||
| The White Guard (Belaya gvardiya) | White Guard soldiers | 2012 | ||
| Clara Immerwahr | French soldiers | 2014 | ||
| And Quiet Flows the Don (Tikhiy Don) | Red Cossacks | 2015 | ||
| Demon of the Revolution (Demon revolyutsii) | Mounted on Russian armoured car; Seen in documentary footage | 2017 | ||
| Trotsky | Russian soldiers, Red Guards | 2017 | ||
| The Kitchenblock | Vladimir Butenko | White Army officer | 2021 |
Video Games
| Game Title | Appears as | Notation | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conflict: Vietnam | 2004 | ||
| Forgotten Hope 2 | 2007 | ||
| Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad | 2011 | ||
| Battle of Empires: 1914-1918 | "Maxim MG" | 2015 | |
| Battlefield 1 | 2016 | ||
| Tannenberg | "Maxim Machine Gun" | 2019 |
Anime
| Film Title | Character | Note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Momotaro: Sacred Sailors | British soldiers | 1945 | |
| Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood | Ishvalan resistance fighter | 2009 - 2010 | |
| Suisei no Gargantia | Sailors | 2013 |
Maxim M1910/30
Film
Television
| Show Title | Actor | Character | Note / Episode | Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stawka wieksza niz zycie | Polish troops | 15/ "Oblezenie" | 1966-1968 | |
| Czterej pancerni i pies | Soviet and Polish troops | 1966-1970 | ||
| Shadows Disappear at Noon (Teni ischezayut v polden) | Red partisans, brigands | Ep.1 | 1972 | |
| Omega Option (Variant "Omega") | Soviet soldiers | Seen in documentary footage; on Sokolov mounting and M-4 quad mounting | 1975 | |
| Born by Revolution: On the Night of the 20th (Rozhdyonnaya revolyutsiey: V noch na 20-e) | Moscow People's Militia, soldiers | 1976 | ||
| The Strogovs (Strogovy) | Anatoliy Semenov | Commissar Krayukhin | Ep.8 | 1976 |
| White troops and Red partisans | Ep.7,8 | |||
| The Road to Calvary (Khozhdenie po mukam) | Red and White troops | 1977 | ||
| The Twelve Chairs (12 stulyev) | Saveliy Kramarov | Viktor Polesov | 1977 | |
| Shattered Sky (Raskolotoe nebo) | Abesalom Loria | Yakov Gnevnyy | 1979 | |
| Red Army soldiers | ||||
| Syndicate-2 (Sindikat-2) | White Army soldiers | 1981 | ||
| The Meeting at High Snows (Vstrecha u vysokikh snegov) | Red Army soldiers | 1981 | ||
| Long Road in the Dunes (Ilgais cels kapas) | Red Army soldier | Ep.4 | 1982 | |
| Peace to Your House (Mir vashemu domu) | Nikolay Kochegarov | Mikhail Kobrin | 1982 | |
| Red Army soldiers, Basmachi | ||||
| Eternal Call (Vechnyy zov) - Season 2 | Soviet troops | 1983 | ||
| M-4 AA quad mounting; Seen in documentary footage | ||||
| Makar the Pathfinder (Makar-sledopyt) | Aleksandr Bakharevsky | Red Army commander | 1984 | |
| Red and White troops | Also mounted on "British tank" | |||
| Special Operations Squad (Otryad spetsyalnogo naznacheniya) | Soviet partisans | 1987 | ||
| Ultimate Force | Serbian paramilitaries | Something to Do with Justice | 2002 | |
| Liquidation (Likvidatsiya) | Soviet soldiers | 2007 | ||
| Rasputin | Russian soldiers | 2011 | ||
| The White Guard (Belaya gvardiya) | Aleksey Serebryakov | Col. Feliks Nay-Turs | Visually modified to resemble MG08 | 2012 |
| The White Guard (Belaya gvardiya) | Mounted on armoured car | 2012 | ||
| Red Mountains (Krasnye gory) | Brigand | 2013 | ||
| Our Mothers, Our Fathers | Soviet soldiers | 2013 | ||
| Black Cats (Chyornye koshki) | Soviet soldiers | Seen in documentary footage | 2013 | |
| Bitch War (Suchya voyna) | Soviet soldiers | Seen in documentary footage | 2014 | |
| The Executioner (Palach) | Viktoriya Tolstoganova | Antonina Malyshkina | 2015 | |
| Clash of Futures | Ep. 07 "Betrayal" | 2018 | ||
| The Saboteur 3: Crimea (Diversant. Krym) | Soviet sailors | 2020 | ||
| Alex the Fierce (Alex Lyutyj) | Seen in museum | 2020 | ||
| Alyosha | Ilya Yasinskiy | A Soviet Lieutenant | 2020 |
Video games
| Game Title | Appears as | Mods | Notation | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commandos: Strike Force | It has unlimited ammo | 2006 | ||
| Company of Heroes 2 | 2013 | |||
| World of Guns: Gun Disassembly | Maxim gun | 2014 | ||
| Heroes & Generals | M-4 Quad AA (Stationary and GAZ-AAA truck) | 2016 | ||
| Enlisted | 2021 | |||
| Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront | 2021 |
Anime
| Title | Character | Note | Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Castle in the Sky | Soldiers | 1986 | |
| New Dream Hunter Rem: Massacre in the Phantasmic Labyrinth | is seen in the Geppetto base | 1992 | |
| First Squad: The Moment of Truth | 2009 |
Maxim-Tokarev
Maxim-Tokarev (MT or sometimes M-T) is a Soviet light machine gun, based on Maxim M1910. It was designed by Fedor Tokarev in the early 1920s and put into service in 1925. MT has a perforated barrel cover instead of a water jacket of original Maxim; the barrel itself was shortened. A rifle stock and a folding bipod with tubular legs replaced the spade grips and wheeled carriage. The canvas belt capacity was reduced to 100 rounds. Maxim-Tokarev satisfied Red Army only marginally so it was manufactured only in small numbers (according to various sources, about 2,400 or about 3,500). When DP-27 was produced in large numbers, MT was dismissed from service. Most of the MTs were sold to Republican Spain and China.
Film
| Title | Actor | Character | Notation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sniper | German troops | Stands for some German machine gun | 1931 | |
| Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre | Japanese troops | Captured from Chinese troops | 1995 |
Video games
| Game Title | Appears as | Mods | Notation | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heroes & Generals | 2016 | |||
| Enlisted | 2021 |
PV-1
PV-1 (Pulemyot Vozdushny, airborne machine gun) is a Soviet aircraft-mounted version of Maxim M1910. It was designed in the mid-1920s by Alexander Nadashkevich and put into service in 1928. Unlike the base Maxim, PV-1 was air-cooled and had ROF increased to 750 rpm. About 18,000 PV-1s were manufactured in 1927-1939. PV-1 was the main weapon of many Soviet fighter planes, like Polikarpov I-5 and I-15, and Tupolev I-4, and also mounted on reconnaissance planes Polikarpov R-5/R-Z and its ground attack variant R-5Sh. In August 1941 large stocks of PV-1s, removed from obsolete planes, were converted to triple anti-aircraft mountings, designed by Nikolay Tokarev (son of Fyodor Tokarev). In 1942, about 3,000 PV-1 guns were converted to infantry weapons by mounting them on the Sokolov 1910 carriage.
Film
| Title | Actor | Character | Note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nail in the Boot (Gvozd v sapoge) | Mounted on R-3 reconnaissance plane | 1932 | ||
| Squadron No. 5 (Eskadrilya No. 5) | Mounted on I-15bis fighter planes | 1939 |
Television
| Title | Actor | Character | Note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Black Sea (Chyornoye more) | Soviet sailors | In triple AA mounting | 2020 |
Video games
| Game Title | Appears as | Note | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heroes & Generals | Mounted on R-Z reconnaissance plane | 2016 |
Anime
| Game Title | Character | Note | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Wind Rises | mounted in Polikarpov I-15 fighters | 2013 |
Maxim M/09-21
As the Finnish army realized after the fighting in 1918 that the Maxim was a reliable weapon and the machine gun in the army and the Guardia Civil was taken into service, there were further Finnish modifications. The Solokov wheeled bicycle rack created problems and was not the best choice for the forests, snowy landscapes, and marshy areas of Finland. So one dealt with the problem and one began to develop 1921 the first Finnish variant. The tripod mount of the German Maxim DWM model 1909 was used as the starting point for the design of a new steel-cane carriage, which could be folded up for easy transport. It was developed shortly before the First World War. These new tripod m / 21 masts were first produced by Crichton-Vulcan (Turku) and later by the Finnish Army Arms Depot No. 1 (A.V. 1, Helsinki).
Specifications
- Weight: 24 kg
- Weight of tripod: 24 kg
- Length: 1110 mm
- Barrel length: 720 mm
- Rate of Fire: 500 - 600 rpm
- Cartridge: 7.62x54mm R
- Ammunition: 250-round continious metallic belt
Film
| Title | Actor | Character | Notation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Unknown Soldier | Finnish soldiers | 1955 | ||
| The Unknown Soldier | Finnish soldiers | 1985 | ||
| The Winter War | Finnish troops | 1989 | ||
| The Warrior's Heart | Finnish and Soviet soldiers | 1992 | ||
| Beyond the Front Line | Finnish troops | 2004 | ||
| Tali-Ihantala 1944 | Finnish troops | 2007 | ||
| Max Manus: Man of War | Soviet troops | 2008 | ||
| The Unknown Soldier | Eero Aho | Cpl. Rokka | 2017 | |
| Finnish soldiers |
Maxim M/09-31 VKT
- The Finnish 7.62 ItKk/31 VKT (7.62 mm antiaircraft machinegun M/31 VKT) is a double-linked version of the Maxim rifle used as an anti-aircraft weapon. The weapon was adapted to feed ammunition from the right and left sides.
- The Finnish 7.62 mm Maxim M/09-31 (tank) machinegun : This was a special application of the right hand and left hand side machineguns used in 7.62 ItKk/31 VKT anti-aircraft machinegun. Finnish Army used them in machinegun-version of Renault FT-17 tanks in 1937 - 1943 and as a coaxial turret machinegun in Vickers 6-ton tanks in 1939 - 1940. They used similar disintegrating steel ammunition belts as ItKk/31 VKT anti-aircraft machinegun. The version used in Renault FT 17 was with right side feed, while the one used with Vickers 6-ton tanks was fed from the left side. But since the side from which the individual machinegun was fed with ammunition belts could be changed from one side to another in seconds by simply replacing the feed block of the machinegun, there was not much practical difference between the two versions. One would suspect that the high rate of fire (900 rounds/minute) combined with air-cooling might have caused some problems with overheating, but apparently these were not reported during their short service career. Instead a notably reported problem was unreliability of ammunition belt feed when used in Vickers 6-ton tanks - this seems to have been at least partly due to too long distance between ammunition belt box (attached to left side wall of the tank turret) and the machinegun. When Finnish Army equipped remaining Vickers 6-ton tanks with captured Soviet weapons around 1940 - 1941, all 762 Maxim M/09-31 tank machineguns were replaced with Soviet 7.62-mm DT machineguns.
- Weight: 23.5 kg
- Length: 113 cm
- Barrel length: 72,3 cm
- Rate of Fire: 900 rpm
- Cartridge: 7.62x54mm R
- Ammunition: 250-round continious metallic belt
Video Game
| Game Title | Appears as | Note | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront | 2021 |
Maxim M/32-33
Maxim M/32-33 is a Finnish machine gun, based on Russian Maxim M1910. It was developed by Aimo Lahti and put into service in 1932. The rate of fire was increased to 850 rpm. A distinctive feature of M/32-33 is a snow filling cap to the water jacket that was later copied on the 1941 version of Soviet Maxim M1910/30.
Specifications
- Weight: 24 kg
- Weight of tripod: 30 kg
- Length: 1180 mm
- Barrel length: 720 mm
- Rate of Fire: 600 or 850 rpm
- Cartridge: 7.62x54mm R
- Ammunition: 200-round continious metallic belt
Film
| Title | Actor | Character | Notation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| We Will Come Back (Sekretar raykoma) | German troops, Soviet partisans | 1942 | ||
| Kotovsky | Imperial German soldiers | 1942 | ||
| The Unknown Soldier | Finnish troops | 1985 | ||
| Tali-Ihantala 1944 | Finnish troops | 2007 |
Type 24 Heavy Machine Gun
The Type 24 Heavy Machine Gun is the Chinese variant of the Maxim and can be identified by the muzzle disk mounted on the barrel just ahead of the water jacket. Due to the increasing Japanese threat, China was required to produce its own machine guns. Due to the Sino-German cooperation (1926–1941), the Type 24 machine gun was manufactured in 1935 with the help of former DWM employees, based on construction drawings of the DWM Modell 1909. The name Type 24 came about because 1935 was the 24th year of the Chinese revolutionaries under Sun Yatsen. Up until the Japanese invasion in 1937, between 1935 and 1937 over 36,000 Type 24 machine guns in 8x57mm caliber were manufactured in the Hanyang Arsenal (21st arsenal).
After the victory of the Communist Party, the People's Republic of China was proclaimed in 1949, and most of the Type 24 machine guns were changed to the Russian caliber 7.62x54R with the use of Russian metal belts.
Film
| Title | Actor | Character | Notation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Red Detachment of Women (Hong se niang zi jun) | Kuomintang troops | 1961 | ||
| The Bamboo House of Dolls | Imperial Japanese Army soldiers, partisans | 1973 | ||
| Magnificent Warriors | Michelle Yeoh | Fok Ming-Ming | 1987 | |
| Assembly (Ji jie hao) | Gu's company | Barrel is in the center of the water jacket, which appears to be incorrect | 2007 | |
| Lu | ||||
| John Rabe | Nationalist Chinese soldiers | 2009 | ||
| Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen | Japanese, French and German troops | 2010 | ||
| Death and Glory in Changde | Chinese soldiers | Tripod mounted | 2010 | |
| Back to 1942 | Chinese soldiers | 2010 | ||
| Shaolin | 2011 | |||
| The Eight Hundred | Nationalist Chinese soldiers | AA Duty | 2020 |
Video games
| Game Title | Appears as | Note | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men of Valor | 2004 | ||
| Shellshock Nam '67 | 2004 | ||
| Shellshock 2: Blood Trails | 2009 | ||
| Far East War | "Type 24 HMG" | 2013 |
Maxim-Nordenfelt QF 1-pounder
This gigantic 410-pound variant of the Maxim was originally designed in the late 1880s by Hiram Maxim himself, originally as a direct-fire infantry weapon and later as a naval quick-firing gun for attacking torpedo boats and a light antiaircraft gun. It was the first autocannon to enter service and the first AA gun to be used by many of the powers that purchased it: about 450 were produced for various clients. Due to rules regarding minimum weight for explosive ammunition designed for use against infantry, the gun had to fire a projectile weighing not less than 400 grams (0.88 pounds): the final 37mm design fired a 1-pound projectile, hence the name: the nickname of "pom-pom" gun was originated by South Africans due to the slow, drumbeat-like rate of fire. Earlier versions were marked Maxim-Nordenfelt, while later British production versions were instead marked as Vickers, Sons & Maxim (VSM) after Vickers bought out Maxim-Nordenfelt in 1897.
These weapons could penetrate an inch of cast iron plate at 100 yards in the ground role, and proved extremely effective against early aircraft: however, they were practically useless against Zeppelins, since the rounds they fired were delay-impact-detonated and so would have to hit the steel frame of the airship or they would simply pass straight through it. Towards the end of WW1, they started to be replaced in British service by even more scaled-up Maxims, first by the 37mm QF 1.5-pounder and then by the much more powerful 40mm QF 2-pounder, listed below.
In German use it was known as the 3.7 cm MK and produced locally by Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken, while the US Navy adopted it as the 1-pounder Mark 6.
Specifications
(1890s-1918)
- Type: Autocannon
- Caliber(s): 37x94mmR (1.457in) 1-pound Common Shell
- Weight: 410 lbs (186 kg) (gun + mount, empty with water jacket and hydraulic buffer filled), 97 lbs (44 kg) (gun alone, naval variant with no bottom plate)
- Length: 6ft 1in (1.85m)
- Barrel length(s): 3ft 7in (1.09m)
- Capacity: Various feeding mechanisms
- Fire Modes: Auto, 300rpm
Video games
| Game Title | Appears as | Note | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battlefield: 1918 | 2004 | ||
| Assassin's Creed Syndicate | 2015 | ||
| Battlefield 1 | 2016 |
Vickers QF 2-pounder
The QF 2-pounder Mk II (not to be confused with the Ordnance QF 2-pounder anti-tank gun) was developed during World War I from the earlier QF 1-pounder and QF 1.5-pounder. Only slightly over one hundred of the original Mk I guns were produced, while nearly 800 Mk IIs were produced by Britain. Like its predecessor, it was commonly nicknamed "pom-pom" due to its firing sound.
The Mk II would also be sold to and/or produced locally by Italy (as the Vickers-Terni 40/39 Modello 1915 and Modello 1917), Japan (as the Type Bi, "bi" being phonetically interchangeable with "vi", from "Vickers"), and a small number by Russia. By WWII it had been largely phased out of service in these navies, replaced by the Breda 37/54 Modello 1932 in Italy and 25mm Type 96 in Japan.
In the early 1920s, after testing an experimental sextuple Mk II mount, Vickers developed the QF 2-pounder Mk VIII octuple gun, which entered Royal Navy service in 1930. A quad version was developed in the mid-'30s for use on smaller ships. The Mk VIII was also sometimes found in single mounts. Although considered obsolescent by World War II due to its low muzzle velocity and lack of tracer rounds, the octuple "pom-pom" continued to serve the Royal Navy throughout World War II, alongside the newer Oerlikon and Bofors.
Specifications
(Mk II - 1915 / Mk VII octuple - 1923 / Mk VII quadruple - 1936)
- Type: Autocannon
- Caliber(s): 37x94mmR
- Weight: 850 lb (390 kg)
- Length: 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
- Capacity: Various feeding mechanisms
- Fire Modes: 115 rpm (per barrel)
Video Games
| Game Title | Appears as | Note | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| World of Warships: Legends | 2019 |
Anime
| Title | Character | Note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strike Witches 2 | Mk VIII mounts on King George V-class battleships | 2010 | |
| Strike Witches: Operation Victory Arrow | Mk VIII mounts on King George V-class battleships | 2014-2015 | |
| Brave Witches | Mk VIII quad mounts on Bellona-class cruiser and Type II Hunt-class destroyers | 2016-2017 | |
| Mk II mounted on Diana-class cruiser |