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Schwarzlose Machine Gun Model 07/12
The Schwarzlose machine gun is a water-cooled, belt-fed machine gun designed by Andreas Wilhelm Schwarzlose for the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1907. Following the release of the Maxim design, many states of the world placed orders with the large manufacturers Vickers and DWM or applied for their own production. The K.u.K. monarchy of Austria-Hungary took another path. Around 1902, the Berlin engineer Andreas Schwarzlose had applied for a patent for his own machine gun design. Steyr-Werke acquired the license in 1905 and in 1907 it was introduced in the Austrian armed forces as the M.07 in the caliber 8x50R. The model of 1907 has a gap between the top cover and the water jacket. This was changed with the MG M. 7/12. Some improvements after 1912 led to the version M.07 / 12.
Schwarzlose, who had previously attracted attention through technically highly interesting constructions in the field of weapons technology, took a completely new approach. His MG had a fixed barrel and is based essentially on the functioning of a delayed spring-mass closure. During the shooting process, the spent cartridge blows back the bolt rearward, but without locking it, thus giving a momentary delay. During this delay, chamber pressure drops enough to be safe. The use of a strong recoil spring along with a heavy bolt and series of levers led to retarding of the rearward motion from recoil, ensuring in conjunction with its relatively short barrel that the bullet exists the weapon before recoil forces move the bolt back and dissipate the high pressure left behind. A small blemish on this ingenious design is the need for an oil pump, which was considered necessary prevent problems with extracting cartridges. An oil filling of five liters was enough for about 4,500 cartridges. The Austro-Hungarian Aviation Troops were equipped with the M.07/12/R16, which was an air-cooled version of the M. 7/12. During World War I, Austria-Hungary exported the MG M. 7/12 to Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire.
The nature of the construction initially suggests that the Schwarzlose MG relies too heavily on given functional parameters such as caliber, laboratory and, in particular, run length, to be easily adapted to other versions of the same caliber or other calibers. Interestingly enough, however, the MG was successfully designed to use such different calibers as the improved cartridge M.31 (Austria, Hungary after 1931), 6.5mm Mannlicher-Schönauer, 6.5mm Swedish or even 8mm Mauser.
It was used in the two world wars and then on many fronts, from Scandinavia to North Africa.
Manufacturers were from 1905 to 1918 OeWG and Steyr and from 1914 to 1918 FGGY in Budapest. Another manufacturer was in Holland based on the M.07 under the names M.07, M08/13, M08/15 and chambered in 6.5×53mmR (Artillery Inrichtingen, M08, about 2000 pieces). In Sweden, it was manufactured as the Kulspruta M/1914 (which looks exactly the same like the M. 7/12, but on the water cooling jacket is the Swedish national coat of arms.) and was used for decades in the Swedish army and built by Carl Gustav. It adorns to this day the medal of the Swedish MG gunners.
Specifications
Schwarzlose Machine Gun Model 07/12
- County of Origin: Austria
- Type: Machine Gun
- Calibers: 8mm Mannlicher, 7.92mm Mauser, 6.5mm Mauser
- Capacity: 250 round fabric belt
- Cyclic Rate: 400 rds/min
- Length: 42.00in(1066mm)
- Barrel Length: 20.75in(526mm)
- Weight: (unloaded) 44lbs (19.9kg)
The Schwarzlose Machine Gun Model 07/12 and variants can be seen in the following films, television series, video games, and anime used by the following actors:
Film
| Title | Actor | Character | Note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mountains on Fire | Austrian soldiers | M. 7/12 | 1931 | |
| If War Comes Tomorrow (Esli zavtra voyna) | Seen in documentary footage | 1938 | ||
| Operation Amsterdam | Dutch M. 08/15 (anti-aircraft version) | 1959 | ||
| Hell Is for Heroes | German soldiers | Stock footage | 1962 | |
| The Four Days of Naples | Italian Resistance fighters | 1962 | ||
| The Shortest Day (Il giorno più corto) | Italian solders | M. 7/12 | 1963 | |
| The Desert of the Tartars (Il deserto dei Tartari) | Austro-Hungarian soldiers | 1976 | ||
| From Hell to Victory | British soldiers | Standing for Vickers | 1979 | |
| The Roses of the Desert | Italian soldiers | mock-up | 2006 |
Television
| Title | Actor | Character | Note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front Without Mercy (Front ohne Gnade) | Seen among Italian troops; Ep.5 | 1984 |
Video Game
| Game Title | Appears as | Note | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battlefield: 1918 | 2004 | ||
| Battle of Empires : 1914-1918 | 2014 | ||
| Tannenberg | "Schwarzlose MG" | 2019 |
Schwarzlose M1907/24
Czechoslovakia took over a larger number of these machine guns in the inventory of their forces. In 1924 these weapons have been converted to the caliber 7.92 × 57 mm and designated as M. 07/24; note that it has longer barrel and jacket. After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the M. 07/24 was used by the Wehrmacht.
Film
| Title | Actor | Character | Notation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Stolen Border (Uloupená hranice) | Czechoslovak troops | 1947 | ||
| Wolves' Lairs (Vlcie diery) | Slovak insurgents | 1948 | ||
| Captain Dabac | Slovak soldiers | 1959 | ||
| Forty-Four Mutineers | Dusan Blaskovic | Tono Mikles | standing for M. 7/12 | 1964 |
| Austro-Hungarian soldiers | ||||
| A Star Called Wormwood (Hvezda zvaná Pelynek) | Rudolf Deyl | Pvt. František Noha | standing for M. 7/12 | 1959 |
| Bosnian guards | ||||
| Von Ryan's Express | German guards | 1965 | ||
| The Day That Shook the World | Austro-Hungarian soldiers | standing for M. 7/12 | 1975 | |
| The World Knows Nothing (Svet nic neví) | Czechoslovak troops | 1987 | ||
| Capitaine Conan | Philippe Torreton | Captain Conan | standing for M. 7/12 | 1996 |
| Bulgarian and French soldiers , Bolsheviks | ||||
| Company of Heroes | German soldiers | 2013 |