Heavy machine gun
Maschinengewehr
18
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Type
| Heavy machine gun
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Place of origin
| German Empire
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Designer
| Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nurnberg (
MAN
)
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Designed
| 1917
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Manufacturer
| MAN
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Produced
| 1918
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No.
built
| 50
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Mass
| 133.7 kg (294.8 lb) total
37 kg (81.6 lb) gun
86 kg (189.6 lb) carriage
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Length
| 1.59 m (5 ft 3 in)
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Barrel
length
| 96.01 cm (3 ft 1.80 in)
[1]
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Crew
| 6
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Cartridge
| 13×92mm TuF
(TuF variant)
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Action
| Short recoil
, toggle locked
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Rate of fire
| 500 rpm cyclic
300 rpm practical
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Muzzle velocity
| 550 m/s (1,804 ft/s)
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Effective firing range
| 500 m (547 yd) horizontal
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Maximum firing range
| 6,400 m (6,999 yd) horizontal
3,000 m (9,843 ft) vertical
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Feed system
| 75-round belt (anti-tank)
50-round drum (anti-aircraft)
[1]
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The
Maschinengewehr 18 Tank und Flieger
or
MG 18 TuF
, is a German dual-purpose
heavy machine gun
that was designed to fill both
anti-tank
and
anti-aircraft
roles. Developed at the end of the
First World War
, it fired the same
13.25 × 92mm SR
or
tankpatrone 18
armor-piercing round later used by the
Mauser 1918 T-Gewehr
anti-tank rifle.
History
[
edit
]
The genesis of the MG 18 was closely linked to the appearance of the first British and French tanks on the
Western Front
during
1916-1917
. In October 1917, the
Gewehr Prufungs Kommission
(GPK), on behalf of the Ministry of War, announced a six company competition for the construction of an automatic weapon capable of firing the new 13.25 × 92mm SR ammunition designed by the
Polte cartridge factory
in Magdeburg.
[2]
[3]
The two finalists in this competition were
Rheinmetall
and
Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nurnberg
(
MAN
). The Rheinmetall design used a top mounted
pan magazine
similar to the
Lewis gun
, while the MAN design was a
belt-fed
gun. After a series of tests and modifications, the MAN design was officially adopted by the
German army
on August 13, 1918.
[2]
It was planned that some 4,000 MG 18s would be built starting in January 1919.
[1]
However, it is estimated that only 50 guns were actually built before the
Armistice of 11 November 1918
and none were used in combat. Besides the end of the war, there were other factors which limited the number of MG 18s produced, such as lack of production capacity, cost, complexity, weight and poor mobility. The collapse of the
German Empire
and the prohibition of design and production of weapons imposed by the
Versailles Treaty
stopped any further development of the MG 18.
[1]
Description
[
edit
]
The MG 18 was essentially a scaled-up
MG 08
heavy machine gun, the MG 08 itself being a licensed derivative of the
Maxim gun
. The MG 18, like the Maxim gun, was a belt-fed, water-cooled heavy machine gun which operated on the basis of
short recoil
and a toggle lock. Once cocked and fired, the MG 18 would continue firing rounds until the trigger was released or until all available ammunition was expended. In the anti-tank role the gun was fed by a 75-round belt, while in the anti-aircraft role it was fed by a 30-round
drum magazine
.
[1]
Due to the weight of the gun, 133.7 kg (295 lb), a two-wheeled carriage was provided and a crew of 6 men were needed to service the gun.
[1]
The MG 18 was designed for the ammunition of the
Mauser 1918 T-Gewehr
anti-tank rifle. With its much shorter barrel, the muzzle velocity only reached 550 m/s (1,804 ft/s), compared to 785 m/s (2,575 ft/s) for the Mauser 1918; however, this was still sufficient to penetrate 20 mm (0.79 in) of
face-hardened
steel armor plate at 100 m (110 yd), and 15 mm (0.59 in) at 300 m (330 yd).
[1]
References
[
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See Also
[
edit
]
Hotchkiss 13.2 mm machine gun
, French inter-war period 13.2mm heavy machine gun
M2 Browning
, American inter-war period 12.7mm heavy machine gun
MG 131
machine gun, World War II 13 mm German aircraft-mounted gun
DShK
,
NSV
, and
Kord
, Soviet/Russian 12.7 mm machine guns.
External links
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Stationary machine guns
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Portable machine guns
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Heavy machine guns
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