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The MG 42 (shortened from German: ''Maschinengewehr 42'', or "machine gun 42") is a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
recoil-operated air-cooled
general-purpose machine gun A general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) is an air-cooled, usually belt-fed machine gun that can be adapted flexibly to various tactical roles for light and medium machine guns. A GPMG typically features a quick-change barrel design calibered for v ...
used extensively by the
Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...
and the
Waffen-SS The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...
during the second half of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. Entering production in 1942, it was intended to supplement and replace the earlier
MG 34 The MG 34 (shortened from German: ''Maschinengewehr 34'', or "machine gun 34") is a German recoil-operated air-cooled general-purpose machine gun, first tested in 1929, introduced in 1934, and issued to units in 1936. It introduced an entirely n ...
, which was more expensive and took much longer to produce, but both weapons were produced until the end of World War II. Designed to use the standard German
7.92×57mm Mauser The 7.92×57mm Mauser (designated as the 8mm Mauser or 8×57mm by the SAAMI and 8 × 57 IS by the C.I.P.) is a rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge. The 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge was adopted by the German Empire in 1903–1905, and was the Ge ...
rifle round, be low-cost and easier to
mass-produce Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch ...
, the MG 42 proved to be highly reliable and easy to operate. It is most notable for its very high cyclic rate for a gun using full-power service cartridges, averaging about 1,200 rounds per minute compared to around 850 for the MG 34, and 450 to 600 for other common machine guns like the
M1919 Browning The M1919 Browning is a .30 caliber medium machine gun that was widely used during the 20th century, especially during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The M1919 saw service as a light infantry, coaxial, mounted, aircraft, and ...
,
FM 24/29 The Fusil-mitrailleur Modèle 1924 M29 (or MAC 24/29), designed in 1924 by the Manufacture d'Armes de Châtellerault, was the standard light machine gun of the French Army from 1925 until the 1960s and was in use until 2000-2006 with the Nation ...
or
Bren gun The Bren gun was a series of light machine guns (LMG) made by Britain in the 1930s and used in various roles until 1992. While best known for its role as the British and Commonwealth forces' primary infantry LMG in World War II, it was also use ...
. This ability made it extremely effective in providing
suppressive fire In military science, suppressive fire is "fire that degrades the performance of an enemy force below the level needed to fulfill its mission". When used to protect exposed friendly troops advancing on the battlefield, it is commonly called cove ...
, and its unique sound led to it being nicknamed "Hitler's buzzsaw". The MG 42 was adopted by several armed organizations after the war, and was both copied and built under licence. The MG 42's lineage continued past Nazi Germany's defeat, forming the basis for the nearly identical ''MG1'' (MG 42/59), chambered in
7.62×51mm NATO The 7.62×51mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 7.62 NATO) is a rimless, bottlenecked rifle cartridge. It is a standard for small arms among NATO countries. First developed in the 1950s, the cartridge had first been introduced in U.S. service fo ...
, which subsequently evolved into the MG1A3, and later the
Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...
's
MG 3 The MG3 is a small car produced by the Chinese automotive company SAIC. The first generation, marketed as the MG3 SW, is based on the British made Rover Streetwise, which itself was based on the Rover 25, while the second generation, introdu ...
, Italian MG 42/59 and Austrian
MG 74 The MG 42 (shortened from German: ''Maschinengewehr 42'', or "machine gun 42") is a German recoil-operated air-cooled general-purpose machine gun used extensively by the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS during the second half of World War II. Enter ...
. It also spawned the Yugoslav unlicensed nearly identical Zastava M53. The MG 42 lent many design elements to the Swiss MG 51 and
SIG MG 710-3 The SIG MG 710-3 is a Swiss 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) designed and manufactured by SIG - Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (currently Swiss Arms AG). The weapon was developed as a commercial venture primarily for export, si ...
, French AA-52, American M60 and Belgian MAG general-purpose machine guns and the Spanish 5.56×45mm NATO Ameli
light machine gun A light machine gun (LMG) is a light-weight machine gun designed to be operated by a single infantryman, with or without an assistant, as an infantry support weapon. LMGs firing cartridges of the same caliber as the other riflemen of the ...
.


History


Before World War I

Even before
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, the German military was already looking forward to replacing the heavy machine guns which proved to be such a success in that war. The
MG13 The MG 13 (shortened from German Maschinengewehr 13) is a German light machine gun developed by converting the Dreyse Model 1918 heavy water-cooled machine gun into an air-cooled version. History Dreyse Model 1918 Machinegun: In 1907 Louis Schmeis ...
was one of the first developments toward a goal of producing a weapon that could perform multiple roles, rather than just one. The MG13 was the result of reengineering the Dreyse Water-cooled machine gun to fit the new requirement. The twin-barreled
Gast gun The Gast gun was a German twin barrelled machine gun that was developed by Karl Gast of Vorwerk und Companie of Barmen and used during the First World War. Its unique operating system produced a very high rate of fire of 1,600 rounds per minute ...
was developed with the goal of providing a high cyclic
rate of fire Rate of fire is the frequency at which a specific weapon can fire or launch its projectiles. This can be influenced by several factors, including operator training level, mechanical limitations, ammunition availability, and weapon condition. In m ...
weapon for anti-aircraft use which was reported to have reached cyclic rates of fire as high as 1,600 rounds per minute.


1930s

This eventually led to the ''Einheitsmaschinengewehr'' (Universal machine gun) introducing an entirely new concept in automatic firepower. By changing its mount, sights and feed mechanism, the operator could radically transform an ''Einheitsmaschinengewehr'' for several purposes. The
MG 34 The MG 34 (shortened from German: ''Maschinengewehr 34'', or "machine gun 34") is a German recoil-operated air-cooled general-purpose machine gun, first tested in 1929, introduced in 1934, and issued to units in 1936. It introduced an entirely n ...
is considered to be the first modern
general-purpose machine gun A general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) is an air-cooled, usually belt-fed machine gun that can be adapted flexibly to various tactical roles for light and medium machine guns. A GPMG typically features a quick-change barrel design calibered for v ...
or ''Einheitsmaschinengewehr''. It was developed to use the standard German 7.92×57mm Mauser full-power rifle round. It was envisaged and well developed to provide portable
light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 t ...
and
medium machine gun A medium machine gun (MMG), in modern terms, usually refers to a belt-fed machine gun firing a full-powered rifle cartridge, and is considered "medium" in weight (). Medium machine guns are light enough to be infantry-portable (as opposed to a h ...
infantry cover, low level anti-aircraft coverage, and even sniping ability. Equipped with a quick-change barrel and fed either with non-disintegrating metallic-link belts, or from a 50-round ''Gurttrommel'' (belt drum) or a 75-round spring-loaded saddle-drum ''Patronentrommel 34'' magazines (with a simple change of the feed cover for a Trommelhalter magazine holder), the MG 34 could sustain fire for much longer periods of time than other portable squad-level weapons such as the American
M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) is a family of American automatic rifles and machine guns used by the United States and numerous other countries during the 20th century. The primary variant of the BAR series was the M1918, chambered for the ...
(BAR), Soviet
Degtyaryov machine gun The Degtyaryov machine gun (russian: Пулемёт Дегтярёвa Пехотный, Pulemyot Degtyaryova Pekhotny literally: "Degtyaryov's infantry machine gun") or DP-27/DP-28 is a light machine gun firing the 7.62×54mmR cartridge that was ...
(DP-27) and the British
Bren gun The Bren gun was a series of light machine guns (LMG) made by Britain in the 1930s and used in various roles until 1992. While best known for its role as the British and Commonwealth forces' primary infantry LMG in World War II, it was also use ...
, which were fed by
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, while also being much lighter and more portable than crew-served weapons like the Browning M1919, SG-43 Goryunov or
Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public i ...
machine guns (which also lacked quick-change barrels). The MG 34 was also quite versatile; not only was it able to be fed from belted ammunition or a saddle drum magazine, it could also be fired from a bipod, an innovative ''Lafette 34''
tripod A tripod is a portable three-legged frame or stand, used as a platform for supporting the weight and maintaining the stability of some other object. The three-legged (triangular stance) design provides good stability against gravitational loads ...
or various pintle mounts for armored vehicles. Switching between a bipod and a tripod required no special tools, as the mounting latch was spring-loaded. As the MG 34 ''Panzerlauf'', it was used throughout the war as secondary armament on
panzer This article deals with the tanks (german: panzer) serving in the German Army (''Deutsches Heer'') throughout history, such as the World War I tanks of the Imperial German Army, the interwar and World War II tanks of the Nazi German Wehrma ...
s and other vehicles. However, the MG 34 did have fundamental drawbacks, such as sensitivity to extreme weather conditions, dirt and mud, and comparatively complex and expensive production. Attempts to incrementally improve the basic MG 34 design failed. During the period between 1934 and the adoption of the final MG 34 production version the ''
Waffenamt ''Waffenamt'' (WaA) was the German Army Weapons Agency. It was the centre for research and development of the Weimar Republic and later the Third Reich for weapons, ammunition and army equipment to the German Reichswehr and then Wehrmacht ...
'' (German Army Weapons Agency) realized the MG 34 ''Einheitsmaschinengewehr'' was too complex and expensive to
mass-produce Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch ...
and started looking for ways to simplify and rationalize the technical concept.


Development of the MG 42

In order to address these issues, a draft specification was made and a contest was held for an MG 34 replacement. Three companies were asked in February 1937 to submit designs: Metall und Lackierwarenfabrik Johannes Großfuß AG of
Döbeln Döbeln ( hsb, Doblin) is a town in Saxony, Germany, part of the Mittelsachsen district, on both banks of the river Freiberger Mulde. History * 981: First written mention of Döbeln ( Margravate of Meissen). * Around 1220: Döbeln is describ ...
, Rheinmetall-Borsig AG of
Sömmerda Sömmerda is a town near Erfurt in Thuringia, Germany, on the Unstrut river. It is the capital of the district of Sömmerda. History Archeological digs in the area that is now Sömmerda, formerly Leubingen, have uncovered prominently buried h ...
, and Stübgen AG of
Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits in ...
.Willbanks, James: ''Machine Guns: An Illustrated History of Their Impact'', page 115. ABC-CLIO, 2004. The design and mock-up gun proposals were submitted in October 1937. Großfuß AG's entry proved to be the best design by far, employing a unique
recoil-operated Recoil operation is an operating mechanism used to implement locked breech, autoloading firearms. Recoil operated firearms use the energy of recoil to cycle the action, as opposed to gas operation or blowback operation using the pressure of the ...
roller locking mechanism whereas the two competing entries used a
gas-actuated Gas-operation is a system of operation used to provide energy to operate locked breech, autoloading firearms. In gas-operation, a portion of high-pressure gas from the cartridge being fired is used to power a mechanism to dispose of the spent ...
system. The Großfuß company had no earlier experience in weapons manufacture, specializing in pressed and stamped steel components (the company's staple product was
sheet metal Sheet metal is metal formed into thin, flat pieces, usually by an industrial process. Sheet metal is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and it can be cut and bent into a variety of shapes. Thicknesses can vary significantly; ex ...
lantern A lantern is an often portable source of lighting, typically featuring a protective enclosure for the light sourcehistorically usually a candle or a oil lamp, wick in oil, and often a battery-powered light in modern timesto make it easier to ca ...
s). Dr.-Ing.
Werner Gruner Werner Gruner (1904–1995) was a small-arms designer, mechanical engineer, university teacher and from 1958 to 1961 rector of the Dresden University of Technology. Life and work before 1945 Gruner was born on June 7, 1904 in the village Ter ...
, one of the leading design engineers with Großfuß, knew nothing about machine guns when he was given the task of being involved with the project, although he specialized in the technology of mass production. Gruner would attend an army machine gunner's course to familiarize himself with the utility and characteristics of such a weapon, also seeking input from soldiers. He then recycled an existing
Mauser Mauser, originally Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik ("Royal Württemberg Rifle Factory"), was a German arms manufacturer. Their line of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic pistols has been produced since the 1870s for the German arm ...
-developed operating system and incorporated features from his experiences with army machine gunners and lessons learned during the early stages of the war. Being made largely out of pressed and stamped appropriately hardened
carbon steel Carbon steel is a steel with carbon content from about 0.05 up to 2.1 percent by weight. The definition of carbon steel from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) states: * no minimum content is specified or required for chromium, coba ...
metal, only the most important parts were elaborately milled from solid steel, and using
spot welding A spot welder Spot welding (or resistance spot welding) is a type of electric resistance welding used to weld various sheet metal products, through a process in which contacting metal surface points are joined by the heat obtained from resistanc ...
and riveting to connect parts the new design required considerably less machining and fewer high grade
steel alloys Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
containing metals that became scarce in Germany during World War II. It was much simpler to build than other machine guns — it took 75 man hours to complete the new gun as opposed to 150 man hours for the MG 34 (a 50% reduction), of raw materials as opposed to for the MG 34 (a 44% reduction) — and cost 250 RM as opposed to 327 RM (a 24% reduction). The initial trials of the Großfuß functional model presented in April 1938 gave rise to improvement requests by the machine gun contest board. The resulting Großfuß MG 39 prototype gun presented in February 1939 remained similar to the earlier MG 34 overall, a deliberate decision made to maintain familiarity and capability to use the various mounts and other accessories developed for the MG 34 to adapt the gun to different roles. The only major changes from the gunner's perspective were dropping of the saddle-drum-magazine feed option, leaving the weapon to fire belted ammunition, or from a single 50-round drum-shaped ''Gurttrommel'' belt container fitted to the gun's receiver, and simplifying the weapon's
open sights Iron sights are a system of physical alignment markers (usually made of metallic material) used as a sighting device to assist the accurate aiming of ranged weapons (such as a firearm, airgun, crossbow or even compound bow), or less commonly a ...
for aiming purposes. All these changes were intended to increase, maintain, or accommodate the gun's high cyclic rate of fire and dispersion. Although made of relatively inexpensive and simple parts, the prototypes proved to be considerably more rugged and resistant to jamming than the precisely machined and somewhat temperamental MG 34. Further trials resulted in selecting the Großfuß MG 39 prototype gun for final production development. A limited run of about 1,500 of further improved MG 39/41 pre mass-production model guns, was completed in 1941 and by the end of 1941 tested in combat trials.


Adoption of the MG 42

In early 1942 the final model of the weapon was officially accepted, and manufacturing of the mass-production model began, as the MG 42, contracts going to Großfuß, Mauser-Werke, Gustloff-Werke,
Steyr Steyr (; Central Bavarian: ''Steia'') is a statutory city, located in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria. It is the administrative capital, though not part of Steyr-Land District. Steyr is Austria's 12th most populated town and the 3r ...
and others. The MG 42 was first deployed in May 1942 by the ''
Deutsches Afrikakorps The Afrika Korps or German Africa Corps (, }; DAK) was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African Campaign of World War II. First sent as a holding force to shore up the Italian defense of its African colonies, the ...
'' (German Africa Corps expeditionary force in Africa) and introduced by mid-1942 on all fronts. Production during the war amounted to over 400,000 units (17,915 units in 1942, 116,725 in 1943, 211,806 in 1944, and 61,877 in 1945). In 1943, MG 42 production surpassed MG 34 production and continued to do so until the end of the war. The Germans nevertheless continued widespread production of MG 34s in parallel until the end of the war.


MG 42 nicknames

The distinctive sound caused by the high cyclic firing rate gave rise to a variety of nicknames. The Germans called it the ''Hitlersäge'' (
Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
’s Saw), ''Schnellespritze'' (Fast Sprayer), ''Knochensäge'' (Bone Saw), ''Tripperspritze'' (Gonorrhoea Syringe) and ''elektrisches MG'' (Electric MG). The Soviets called it the "Linoleum Ripper", and British and American troops called it "Hitler's
Buzzsaw A circular saw is a power-saw using a toothed or abrasive disc or blade to cut different materials using a rotary motion spinning around an arbor. A hole saw and ring saw also use a rotary motion but are different from a circular saw. ''Cir ...
", or "Hitler's
Zipper A zipper, zip, fly, or zip fastener, formerly known as a clasp locker, is a commonly used device for binding together two edges of fabric or other flexible material. Used in clothing (e.g. jackets and jeans), luggage and other bags, camping ...
". Like the MG 34, British troops sometimes called it a "Spandau", a traditional generic term for all German machine guns, left over from the famous Allied nickname for the
MG 08 The ''Maschinengewehr'' 08, or MG 08, was the German Army's standard machine gun in World War I and is an adaptation of Hiram S. Maxim's original 1884 Maxim gun. It was produced in a number of variants during the war. The MG 08 served during Wo ...
Maxim Maxim or Maksim may refer to: Entertainment * ''Maxim'' (magazine), an international men's magazine ** ''Maxim'' (Australia), the Australian edition ** ''Maxim'' (India), the Indian edition *Maxim Radio, ''Maxim'' magazine's radio channel on Sir ...
-derivative used by German forces during World War I and derived from its manufacturer's plates noting the city of
Spandau Spandau () is the westernmost of the 12 boroughs () of Berlin, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and extending along the western bank of the Havel. It is the smallest borough by population, but the fourth largest by land ...
where some were produced. Brazilian expeditionary soldiers fighting in Italy used to refer to the MG 42 as ''Lourdinha''; this nickname is due to the fact that the bride of one of the soldiers, named Maria de Lourdes, was a seamstress and the sound of MG 42 was similar to the sound of her sewing machine (''Lourdinha'' is a common nickname in Brazil for women called Maria de Lourdes).


Small arms doctrine

The German tactical infantry doctrine of the era based a (10-man ''Gruppe'')
squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army d ...
's firepower on the general-purpose machine gun in the light machine gun role so that the role of the
rifleman A rifleman is an infantry soldier armed with a rifled long gun. Although the rifleman role had its origin with 16th century hand cannoneers and 17th century musketeers, the term originated in the 18th century with the introduction of the ri ...
was largely to carry ammunition and provide covering fire for the machine gunners. The advantage of the general purpose machine gun concept was that it added greatly to the overall volume of fire that could be put out by a squad-sized unit. It was possible for operating crews to lay down a non-stop barrage of fire, pausing only when the barrel had to be replaced. This allowed the MG 42 to tie up significantly larger numbers of enemy troops than was otherwise possible. The Americans and the British trained their troops to take cover from the fire of an MG 42, and assault the position during the sub 10 seconds time window of barrel replacement. The
Allied nations The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Ita ...
' infantry doctrines of World War II based a squad's/rifle section's firepower centered on the rifleman and/or a magazine fed light machine gun (BAR, Bren, DP-27/DPM, FM 24/29), and they utilised weapons with cyclic fire rates of typically 450–600 rounds per minute. The (slower) rapid firing rate used in emergency/final defensive line situations of the MG 42 was up to 500 rounds per minute. The Allied nations had machine guns with similar rates of fire, but mounted them almost exclusively in aircraft, where the fleeting opportunities for firing made such high rates necessary. The Allies did have similar weapons, such as the M1919 Browning machine gun and the Vickers K machine gun, but these were issued more sparsely than the MG 42, with the Vickers K being an aircraft machine gun, only issued to infantry in specialized circumstances.


Light machine gun fire support role

A German infantry ''Gruppe'' (squad) at the start of the war consisted of ten men; a non-commissioned officer or ''
Unteroffizier () is a junior non-commissioned officer rank used by the . It is also the collective name for all non-commissioned officers in Austria and Germany. It was formerly a rank in the Imperial Russian Army. Austria , also , is the collective name to ...
'' squad leader, deputy squad leader, a three-man machine gun team (machine gunner, assistant gunner/loader and ammunition carrier) and five riflemen. As personal small arms, the squad leader was issued a
rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...
, or as of around 1941 a
submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an autom ...
, the machine gunner and his assistant were issued
pistol A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, a ...
s and the deputy squad leader, ammunition carrier and the riflemen were issued rifles. The riflemen carried additional ammunition,
hand grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade ...
s, explosive charges or a machine gun tripod as required and provided security and covering fire for the machine gun team. Two of the standard issue bolt-action Karabiner 98k rifles in the squad could be replaced with semi-automatic Gewehr 43 rifles and occasionally, StG 44 assault rifles could be used to re-arm the whole squad, besides the machine gun. A full ''Gruppe'' (squad) carried 1,800 rounds of ammunition for the machine gun between them.


Medium machine gun fire support role

In the German
heavy machine gun A heavy machine gun (HMG) is significantly larger than light, medium or general-purpose machine guns. HMGs are typically too heavy to be man-portable (carried by one person) and require mounting onto a weapons platform to be operably stable or ...
(HMG)
platoon A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads, sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, but a platoon can be composed of 50 people, although specific platoons may rang ...
s, each platoon served four MG 34/MG 42 machine guns, used in the sustained fire mode mounted on tripods. In 1944, this was altered to six machine guns in three sections with two seven-man heavy machine gun squads per section as follows: *Squad leader (NCO)
MP40 The MP 40 (''Maschinenpistole 40'') is a submachine gun chambered for the 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge. It was developed in Nazi Germany and used extensively by the Axis powers during World War II. Designed in 1938 by Heinrich Vollmer with i ...
*Machine gunner (private) MG 34/MG 42 and
Walther P38 The Walther P38 (originally written Walther P.38) is a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol that was developed by Carl Walther GmbH as the service pistol of the Wehrmacht at the beginning of World War II. It was intended to replace the costly Luger P08 ...
*Assistant gunner (private) pistol *Three riflemen (privates) rifles *Horse leader for horse, cart and trailer (private) rifle The optimum operating crew of an MG 42 in its medium machine gun role was six men: the squad leader, the machine gunner who carried and fired the gun, the assistant gunner/loader who carried the tripod, and three riflemen who carried 1,800 rounds of ammunition between them, spare barrels, entrenching tools, and other items. To enable the machine gun for its long-range
direct fire Direct fire or line-of-sight fire refers to firing of a ranged weapon whose projectile is launched directly at a target within the line-of-sight of the user. The firing weapon must have a sighting device and an unobstructed view to the target, w ...
and
indirect fire Indirect fire is aiming and firing a projectile without relying on a direct line of sight between the gun and its target, as in the case of direct fire. Aiming is performed by calculating azimuth and inclination, and may include correcting aim ...
support roles, optical sights could be added to a ''Zielfernrohrhalter'' (optical sight mounting bracket) on the
tripod A tripod is a portable three-legged frame or stand, used as a platform for supporting the weight and maintaining the stability of some other object. The three-legged (triangular stance) design provides good stability against gravitational loads ...
, allowing operating crews to continue using advanced planned and unplanned firing methods developed during World War I, though
plunging fire Plunging fire is a form of indirect fire, where gunfire is fired at a trajectory to make it fall on its target from above. It is normal at the high trajectories used to attain long range, and can be used deliberately to attack a target not susce ...
or indirect fire methods were not as commonly used by machine gunners during World War II as they were during World War I.


Operation

One of the ''Einheitsmaschinengewehr'' (Universal machine gun) roles was to provide low-level anti-aircraft coverage. A high cyclic rate of fire is advantageous for use against targets that are exposed to a general-purpose machine gun for a limited time span, like aircraft or targets that minimize their exposure time by quickly moving from cover to cover. For targets that can be fired on by a general-purpose machine gun for longer periods than just a few seconds, the cyclic firing rate becomes less important. As a consequence, one of the MG 42's most notable features was its high cyclic rate of fire of about 1,200 to 1,500 rounds per minute, twice the rate of the Vickers and Browning machine guns, which fired at a rate of about 600 rounds per minute. The ear could not easily discern the sound of individual shots being fired, hearing a sound described as like "ripping cloth" or a buzzsaw. The MG 42's high cyclic rate of fire sometimes proved a liability mainly in that, while the weapon could be used to devastating effect, it could quickly exhaust its ammunition supply. For this reason, it was not uncommon for all soldiers operating near an MG 42 to carry extra ammunition, thus providing the MG 42 with a backup source when its main supply was exhausted. Another disadvantage of the MG 42 was that the high cyclic rate of fire led to the barrel overheating quickly during rapid fire. After around 150 rounds of rapid fire, the gun operator would open a side hatch (leading to the barrel) and replace the hot barrel with a new cooler one. Non-observance of this technical limitation renders the barrel prematurely unusable. The machine gun crew member responsible for a hot barrel change was issued protective
asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...
mitts to prevent burns to the hands. The German military instructed that sustained fire must be avoided at all costs. They ruled that the results of sustained fire were disappointing and that the expenditure of ammunition involved was "intolerable." In the bipod-mounted light machine gun role, MG 42 users were trained to fire short bursts of 3 to 7 rounds and strive to optimize their aim between bursts fired in succession. According to comparative tests by the US military under battle conditions, 5 to 7 rounds bursts with 22 bursts in a minute were most effective. For its medium machine gun role, the MG 42 was matched to the newly developed ''Lafette 42'' tripod. In the tripod-mounted medium machine gun role, MG 42 users were trained to fire short bursts and bursts of 20 to 50 rounds and strive to optimize their aim between bursts fired in succession. As a consequence of factors like the time spent reloading, aiming, changing hot barrels if necessary to allow for cooling, the MG 42's practical effective rate of fire was 154 rounds per minute, versus 150 rounds per minute for the MG 34.


Design details

The MG 42 is a
7.92×57mm Mauser The 7.92×57mm Mauser (designated as the 8mm Mauser or 8×57mm by the SAAMI and 8 × 57 IS by the C.I.P.) is a rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge. The 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge was adopted by the German Empire in 1903–1905, and was the Ge ...
, air-cooled, belt fed,
open bolt A firearm is said to fire from an open bolt if, when ready to fire, the bolt and working parts are held to the rear of the receiver, with no round in the chamber. When the trigger is actuated, the bolt travels forward, feeds a cartridge from t ...
, recoil-operated machine gun with a quick change barrel. Its parts are attached to a thick stamped sheet metal housing that functions as the receiver and barrel sleeve. It weighed 11.57 kg in the light machine gun role with the
bipod A bipod is a V-shaped portable attachment that helps support and steady a device, usually a weapon such as a long gun or a mortar. The term comes from the Latin prefix ''bi-'' and Greek root ''pod'', meaning "two" and "foot" respectively. Bip ...
, lighter than the MG 34 and easily portable. The bipod, the same one used on the MG 34, could be mounted to the front or the center of the gun depending on how and where it was being used. The shoulder stock is designed to permit gripping with the left hand to hold it secure against the shoulder. The MG 42 incorporated lessons hard-won on the Eastern Front. Both the cocking handle and the catch for the top cover to the working parts were designed so that the gunner could operate them wearing arctic mittens or with a stick or rod. This was vital for winter conditions where contact by bare flesh on cold metal could cause severe injury, such as instant
frostbite Frostbite is a skin injury that occurs when exposed to extreme low temperatures, causing the freezing of the skin or other tissues, commonly affecting the fingers, toes, nose, ears, cheeks and chin areas. Most often, frostbite occurs in t ...
. The MG 42 also functioned well in other climates; dust and dirt in North Africa and Italy was less likely to jam the MG 42 than the more temperamental MG 34. The MG 42 is capable only of
fully automatic An automatic firearm is an auto-loading firearm that continuously chambers and fires rounds when the trigger mechanism is actuated. The action of an automatic firearm is capable of harvesting the excess energy released from a previous discha ...
fire. Single shots are difficult, even for experienced operators, due to the weapon's high cyclic rate of fire and the ability to fire a short burst of no more than three rounds was usually accepted as the training standard. The weapon features a
recoil booster A muzzle booster or recoil booster is a device fixed to the muzzle of a firearm, intended to harness the energy of the escaping propellant to augment the force of recoil on portions of the firearm. In spite of its name, a muzzle booster does not ...
at the muzzle which adds extra rearwards force to augment that caused by
recoil Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the rearward thrust generated when a gun is being discharged. In technical terms, the recoil is a result of conservation of momentum, as according to Newton's third law the force r ...
, thereby improving functional reliability and rate of fire. Besides amplifying recoil and managing and timing rearwards force exerted by propellant gas generated pressure, the recoil booster assembly ends in a
muzzle shroud A muzzle shroud, linear compensator, blast shield, forward blast diverter or concussion reduction device (CRD) is a sleeve (either circular or otherwise) that attaches to and extends beyond the muzzle of a firearm in order to redirect some of t ...
and also functions as a guide sleeve for the barrel and a muzzle flash arrester. The method of barrel change made the MG 42 unsuitable for internal secondary or co-axial armament on World War II era German tanks or other armored vehicles with the exception of the
Jagdpanzer IV The ''Jagdpanzer'' IV, Sd.Kfz. 162, was a German tank destroyer based on the Panzer IV chassis and built in three main variants. As one of the casemate-style turretless Jagdpanzer (tank destroyer, literally "hunting tank") designs, it was develop ...
. Early versions of the Jagdpanzer IV carried two standard (no modification made) MG 42s on both sides of the main gun mantlet/glacis, firing through a
firing port A firing port, sometimes called a pistol port, is a small opening in armored vehicles, fortified structures like bunkers, or other armored equipment that allows small arms to be safely fired out of the vehicle at enemy infantry, often to cover v ...
which was protected by an armored cover plate (with the MG 42 retracted) when not in use. Later version Jagdpanzer IVs carried only one MG 42 as internal secondary armament. The MG 42 belt-feed mechanism inspired the design used in the
M60 machine gun The M60, officially the Machine Gun, Caliber 7.62 mm, M60, is a family of American general-purpose machine guns firing 7.62×51mm NATO cartridges from a disintegrating belt of M13 links. There are several types of ammunition approved fo ...
.Military Small Arms of the 20th Century. 7th Edition. by Ian V. Hogg & John S. Weeks. Krause Publications. 2000. page 379. The trigger mechanism of the
FN MAG The FN MAG is a Belgian 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun, designed in the early 1950s at Fabrique Nationale (FN) by Ernest Vervier. It has been used by more than 80 countries and it has been made under licence in several countries, in ...
or MAG-58 is a virtual copy of the MG 42's and the FN MAG's belt-feed mechanism is also very similar.


Operating mechanism

The roller-locked bolt assembly consists of a bolt head, two rollers, a striker sleeve featuring a wedge-shaped front, bolt body, and a large multi strands around a central coil return spring, which is responsible for pushing the bolt assembly into battery (the locked position) and returning it there when it is unlocked and pushed backwards by the recoil of firing or by the charging handle. As the striker sleeve is movable back and forth within the bolt assembly, the return spring is also responsible for pushing the striker sleeve forward during locking (described below). The bolt assembly locks with the barrel's breech (the end the cartridge is loaded into) via a prong type barrel extension behind the breech. As it is recoil-operated and fired from an open bolt, the weapon must be manually charged with the side-mounted charging handle. The roller-locked recoil operation functions as follows: two cylindrical rollers, positioned in tracks on the bolt head, are pushed outwards into matching tracks in the barrel extension by the striker sleeve and lock the bolt in place against the breech. In the locked position during firing the rollers rest on parallel surfaces relative to the
bore axis The bore axis of a firearm is the longitudinal axis through the geometric center of the gun barrel. In a rifled barrel, the projectile (bullet/ball, pellet or slug) will spin around the bore axis as it goes through the barrel. Boresighting is a ...
on the bolt head ensuring a full lockup. Upon firing, rearward force from the recoil of the cartridge ignition combined with the additional rearward force generated by the muzzle booster start to move the barrel and bolt assembly rearwards for a total distance of . These two parts start the unlocking sequence after the barrel and bolt assembly have moved rearwards when the parts have moved far back enough that the rollers start the rest on angled/oblique surfaces and allow the rollers to move inwards, controlled by the wedge-shaped front of the striker sleeve, back to their previous position, unlocking the bolt head and allowing the bolt assembly to further recoil rearwards, extracting the spent cartridge case and ejecting it downwards through an ejection port normally covered by a spring-loaded dust cover at the bottom of the receiver, just in front of the trigger group. The spring-loaded dust cover automatically opens when the gun is fired, but the user has to close it after firing to prevent dirt entering the receiver through the open port. Simultaneously the barrel is pushed forward by a recuperator spring to its starting position. The three-wire braided return spring then pushes the bolt assembly forwards again, pushing a new cartridge out of the belt into the breech. The sequence repeats as long as the trigger is depressed. The original MG 42 roller-locked action had an undesirable tendency to exhibit bolt-bounce. It was possible to unintentionally have high pressure gas moving backwards in the MG 42 towards the operator(s) when the action was not fully locked. This causes unacceptable dangerous conditions and out of battery ignitions can result in catastrophic gun failures. Enough guns were damaged and put out of action for repair or lost to warrant finding the cause and a solution. After investigation using
high-speed photography High-speed photography is the science of taking pictures of very fast phenomena. In 1948, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) defined high-speed photography as any set of photographs captured by a camera capable of 69 ...
the rollers in the bolt were found to "bounce" back and forth or oscillate up to when lock up is proceeding and then they settle into full lock up. Once the problem was identified, the temporary solution was to design and manufacture extra sturdy ammunition with primers with a slightly slower ignition time which allowed the rollers to settle into lockup and issue that ammunition specifically for MG 42 use. A more practical solution to control the harmonics problem in the roller/wedge system and make the MG 42 less ammunition ignition timing sensitive was needed. The roller-locking system inherent problem was solved after World War II by developing and adding bolt-bounce preventing bolt catches to the action. These can also be retrofitted to MG 42 bolts. The cyclic firing rate of the MG 42 can be altered by installing different bolts and return springs. A heavier bolt uses more recoil energy to overcome inertia, thus slowing the cyclic rate of the machine gun. Heavy bolts also were used along with stiffer return springs. The standard MG 42 bolt weight for a 1,500 rounds per minute cyclic rate of fire is .


Sights

The open-type
iron sight Iron sights are a system of physical alignment markers (usually made of metallic material) used as a sighting device to assist the accurate aiming of ranged weapons (such as a firearm, airgun, crossbow or even compound bow), or less commonly ...
ing line has a relatively short radius and consists of a "∧-type" height adjustable front sight on a folding post and a leaf rear sight with an open V-notch sliding on a ramp, graduated from in increments. An auxiliary anti-aircraft "spider web" ring sight is kept in the maintenance kit, that can be fitted on the barrel jacket to be used in conjunction with a folding anti-aircraft rear peep sight that is attached by a hinge to the rear sight element base. An active infrared device, intended primarily for night use, and consisting of a specialized mount, active infrared spotlight and accompanying infrared image converter was developed that could be used with the MG 42 and MG 34. In the later stages of World War II the bulky ''Fahr- und Zielgerät FG 1250'' (driving and aiming device
FG 1250 The FG 1250 or ''Fahr- und Zielgerät FG 1250'' (driving and aiming device FG 1250) was a German active infrared night-vision device mounted on tanks and other armored vehicles. It was developed by Ing Gaertner of the German optics company Carl Ze ...
) active infrared unit was paired on Sd.Kfz. 251/1 ''Falke'' half-track armored personnel carriers to some MG 42 and MG 34 machine guns.


Feeding

left, upMethod of joining German non-disintegrating metallic-link ammunition machine gun belts The MG 42 could use non-disintegrating metallic-link belts, which have links that wrap around the cartridge case and are linked by a coiling wire on each side. The belts are intended for multiple reuse. As in the MG 34, operation through the feed block is by a feed arm housed in the feed cover. The feeding system was based on the direct push-through of the cartridge out of the belt link into the gun's chamber. Accordingly, the link had to be of the half-open type to enable the motion of the bolt through the link. New in the MG 42 was that two belt feed pawls are linked to the front end of the feed arm by an intermediate link, in such a way that when one pawl is feeding, the other pawl is riding over the next round in the belt. Because of that, feed is performed in two steps, on both the opening and closing movement of the bolt, instead of one step as in the earlier MG 34. This enhances the smoothness of the feeding process by improved ammunition belt retention for more precise indexing with the feedway and reduces mechanical stress put on the feed unit and belt links. According to
Infantry Journal ''Infantry'' is the professional journal of the U.S. Army soldier, published by the United States Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Following the success of ''ARMOR'' magazine (first published 1888), ''Infantry'' was launched in 1904 ...
in 1947, the operating momentum driven MG 42 feed system will not function reliably under a cyclic firing rate of 850 rounds per minute. During World War II the ''Gurt 34/41''-belt family was introduced. ''Gurt 34/41'' belt links and wire spirals were made of thinner material — the ''Gurt 34'' links were made of and ''Gurt 34/41'' links of thick stamped steel sheet metal — that saved ⅓ of metal and counterintuitively yielded improved performance. Belts were supplied in a fixed length of 50 rounds, but could be linked up to make longer belts for sustained firing. Ammunition boxes contained 250 rounds in five 50-round belts. A 250-round ''Patronengurt 33'' belt was also issued to machine guns installed in fixed emplacements such as bunkers. ''Patronenkasten 34'' and ''Patronenkasten 41''
ammunition box An ammunition box or cartridge box is a container designed for safe transport and storage of ammunition. It is typically made of metal and labelled with caliber, quantity, and manufacturing date or lot number. A rubber gasket is commonly fou ...
es could hold up to 300 belted rounds and were used in more static non-highly mobile situations. The ''Patronenkasten'' could contain an ''Einführstück'' belt starter-segment.
The ''Gurttrommel'' assault drum was an alternative feed option and designed to be clipped to the left side of the gun. It was not a true magazine but held a coiled 50-round belt and corresponding ''Einführstück'' starter-segment preventing it from snagging, twisting and getting stuck during mobile assaults. The ''Gurttrommel'' belt container was commonly used until the end of World War II, with the MG 42 and the earlier MG 34.


Barrel

The long barrel and its prong type barrel extension used for lock up, made up the barrel unit of the MG 42. It could be quickly changed by the machine gun crew and weighed including the locking piece. The barrels could have traditional
rifling In firearms, rifling is machining helical grooves into the internal (bore) surface of a gun's barrel for the purpose of exerting torque and thus imparting a spin to a projectile around its longitudinal axis during shooting to stabilize the ...
or
polygonal rifling Polygonal rifling ( ) is a type of gun barrel rifling where the traditional sharp-edged "lands and grooves" are replaced by less pronounced "hills and valleys", so the barrel bore has a polygonal (usually hexagonal or octagonal) cross-sectional ...
. Polygonal rifling was an outgrowth of a cold-hammer forging process developed by
German engineers German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
before World War II. The process addressed the need to produce more durable machine gun barrels in less time than those produced with traditional methods. Later produced barrel bores featured hard-chrome plating to make them more durable. The different versions meant that the service life of an MG 42 barrel varied between 3,500 and 8,000 rounds assuming the barrel was used according to the regulations, which prohibited rapid fire beyond 150 rounds. Excessive overheating caused by rapid firing about 500 rounds through a barrel resulted in unacceptable wear of the bore rendering the barrel useless. For carrying and protecting spare barrel units, consisting of a barrel and its locking piece, the ''Laufschützer 42'' (barrel protector) was used as a field accessory. When closed the ''Laufschützer 42'' looked like a tubular container with mountings at its ends to attached a carrying/shoulder strap. During a barrel change a cool MG 42 barrel unit coming out of the ''Laufschützer 42'' can be inserted in the machine gun and the replaced hot barrel unit can be placed in or on the opened ''Laufschützer 42'' to cool down. The ''Laufschützer 42'' was derived from the ''Laufschützer 34'' that served the same purpose for MG 34 barrel units. Later in the war the universal ''Laufschützer 43'' was introduced that could be used with MG 43 and MG 42 barrel units.


''Lafette 42'' tripod

For the medium machine gun role a large tripod, the ''Lafette 42'', was available that included a number of features, such as recoil absorbing buffer springs, a ''Zielfernrohrhalter'' (optical sight mounting bracket) for mounting an MG Z 34 or MG Z 40 periscope-type 4× power
telescopic sight A telescopic sight, commonly called a scope informally, is an optical sighting device based on a refracting telescope. It is equipped with some form of a referencing pattern – known as a '' reticle'' – mounted in a focally appropriate ...
containing special sighting equipment for
indirect fire Indirect fire is aiming and firing a projectile without relying on a direct line of sight between the gun and its target, as in the case of direct fire. Aiming is performed by calculating azimuth and inclination, and may include correcting aim ...
, or the late World War II MG Z 44, designed for direct fire only. Fitting such an optical sight enabled the machine gun to deliver direct fire out to . An accessory to lengthen these sights' periscope was available to use these sights behind cover. The ''Lafette'' could be set up in a prone, kneeling or high position. The ''Lafette 42'' weighed on its own and was a simplified version of the ''Lafette 34'' used for the MG 34, as the MG 42 could be operated more easily from a ''Lafette'' and featured no semi-automatic firing mode. The legs could be extended with a ''Lafetteaufsatzstück'' to allow it to be used in the low level anti-aircraft role, and when lowered, it could be placed to allow the gun to be fired "remotely" while it swept an arc in front of the mounting with fire. Mounted to the Lafette and aimed through the MG Z 34 or MG Z 40 telescopic sight, the effective range of the MG 42 could be extended out to when fired indirectly. The indirect firing method exploits the ''s.S. Patrone'' useful maximum range, that is defined by the maximum range of a small-arms projectile while still maintaining the minimum kinetic energy required to put unprotected personnel out of action, which is generally believed to be 15 kilogram-meters (147 J / 108 ft⋅lbf). The ''Lafette 42'' tripod also had a bolt box to store a (spare) bolt and return spring. Another unique feature of German World War II machine guns was the ''Tiefenfeuerautomat'' feature on the ''Lafette 42'' and ''Lafette 34'' tripods. It lengthened the beaten zone by walking the fire in wave-like motions up and down the range in a predefined area. The length of the beaten zone could be set on the ''Tiefenfeuerautomat''. E.g., being unsure whether the real distance was , the gunner could make the mount do an automatic sweep between the elevations for and back. This sweeping of a selected beaten zone continued as long as the gun fired. The ''Lafette 42'' had a ''Richt- und Überschießtafel'' (Overhead firing table) riveted to the rear body of the searchfire mechanism from the very start of production until the very end of it. In the later stages of World War II ballistic correction directions were added for overshooting friendly forces with S.m.E. - ''Spitzgeschoß mit Eisenkern'' (spitzer with iron core) ammunition of which the external ballistic behaviour started to significantly deviate from upwards compared to the ''s.S. Patrone'' (s.S. ball cartridge). A trigger handle, which enabled the operator to fire the gun without affecting the aim, was attached to the ''Tiefenfeuerautomat'' searchfire unit. There were numerous other specialist mounts for the MG 42. The ''Dreibein 34'', for example, was a simple high-standing tripod for mounting the gun in anti-aircraft mode. There were also mounts for various vehicles, motorcycle sidecars, and fortress positions. MG 42s were mounted in multiple-gun arrangements, particularly for low level anti-aircraft defence. The butt-stock was produced in various wood and bakelite versions.


Variants and developments


Finnish MG 42

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...
acquired 5 MG 42s in July 1943 for evaluation. Three were tested with front units. Finland decided to produce 4,000 MG 42s modified to fire
7.62×54mmR The 7.62×54mmR is a rimmed rifle cartridge developed by the Russian Empire and introduced as a service cartridge in 1891. Originally designed for the bolt-action Mosin–Nagant rifle, it was used during the late tsarist era and throughout th ...
cartridges but only one modified prototype was ever made.


MG 45

In 1944, the material shortages in
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
led to the development of a newer version, the
MG 45 MG, Mg, or mg and variants may refer to: Organizations * MG Cars, an automotive marque of the now defunct MG Car Company * MG Motor, a present-day car manufacturing company * MG JW Automobile, a Pakistani automobile manufacturer * Champion Air ( ...
(or MG 42V), which had a different operating mechanism that used
roller-delayed blowback Blowback is a system of operation for self-loading firearms that obtains energy from the motion of the cartridge case as it is pushed to the rear by expanding gas created by the ignition of the propellant charge. Several blowback systems exist wi ...
as opposed to roller locking. For this reason, the MG 45 is considered a different type of firearm, as the mechanisms of these two guns are different. It used steel of lesser quality, which reduced weight to , while retaining the horizontal cocking handle. First tests were undertaken in June 1944, but development dragged on and eventually only ten were built. The tested MG 45/42V fired 120,000 rounds in succession at a cyclic rate of fire around 1,350 to 1,800 rounds per minute. The MG 42V had some influence in the post-war development of roller-delayed blowback system, as employed in issued
CETME CETME () is a Spanish government design and development establishment. While being involved in many projects CETME was mostly known for its small arms research and development. The CETME Model 58 and CETME Model L are its most notable project ...
, SIG and
Heckler & Koch Heckler & Koch GmbH (HK; ) is a German defense manufacturing company that manufactures handguns, rifles, submachine guns, and grenade launchers. The company is located in Oberndorf am Neckar in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, and also ...
small arms.


T24 machine gun

The
T24 machine gun The T24 machine gun was a prototype reverse engineered copy of the German MG 42 general-purpose machine gun developed during World War II as a possible replacement for the Browning Automatic Rifle and M1919A4 for infantry squads. The T24 was cham ...
was a prototype reverse engineered copy of the German MG 42 general-purpose machine gun developed during World War II as a possible replacement for the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle and M1919A4 for infantry squads. The T24 was chambered for the
.30-06 Springfield The .30-06 Springfield cartridge (pronounced "thirty- aught-six" ), 7.62×63mm in metric notation, and called the .30 Gov't '06 by Winchester, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in military use ...
cartridge. By February 1943, US ordnance authorities published the first report on the MG 42, following testing of a captured gun. The quick barrel changing and belt feed systems were considered some of the best design features. The US Army wanted to be able to manufacture this general-purpose gun because it was technically advanced and much easier to make than the World War II US light and medium machine guns and it was decided to convert several MG 42s to fire .30-06 Springfield M2 ball ammunition.The M60 Machine Gun, Kevin Dockery, pages 12–13, Retrieved 1 May 2018US T24 Machine gun (MG42)
forgottenweapons.com; Retrieved 1 July 2014
Saginaw Steering Gear Division of General Motors received a contract to construct two working converted MG 42 prototypes designated as the T24 machine gun. It could also be used on an
M2 Tripod The M2 Tripod is a U.S. machine gun tripod originally used with the Browning M1919 infantry machine gun. Since then, it has seen several redesigns, but remained largely the same. In this fashion, the M2 tripod has seen combat service in every con ...
. The gun was made as an almost exact copy of the MG 42 which was chambered in 7.92×57mm Mauser. Some engineering changes were to use a barrel chambered for the .30-06 Springfield service round and an extremely increased weight bolt and stiffer return spring in an effort to reduce the cyclic rate consistent with US rate requirements. Saginaw Steering Gear did not adjust the prototypes for the longer .30-06 Springfield (7.62×63mm) cartridge case. When one of the two T24 machine gun prototypes was fired at
Aberdeen Proving Ground Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) (sometimes erroneously called Aberdeen Proving ''Grounds'') is a U.S. Army facility located adjacent to Aberdeen, Harford County, Maryland, United States. More than 7,500 civilians and 5,000 military personnel work a ...
, it fired only one shot and failed to eject the cartridge. A second attempt had the same result. The other prototype was plagued with excessive ejection failures and to a lesser extent failures to feed. The average cyclic rate of fire of the tested weapon was 614 rounds per minute. During January to February 1944, testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground were unsatisfactory. Firings were discontinued in February 1944 after 51 malfunctions and firing a total of 1,583 rounds by authorization of Major C. Balleisen, O.C.O. In March 1944 the US military concluded that functioning of the T24 machine gun prototype was unsatisfactory and recommended that further development was required before this weapon be subjected to the lengthy and severe standard light machine gun test. However, the realization that the .30-06 Springfield cartridge was too long for the prototype gun's mechanism to easily and reliably work with resulted in the discarding of the project. Saginaw Steering Gear did not get the opportunity to correct the flaws that caused the inability to obtain reliable uninterrupted automatic functioning and further optimize and ready the weapon for mass production before World War II ended.


MG 51

The Swiss MG 51 or ''7.5 mm Maschinengewehr 1951'' was based on the design of the MG 42 chambered for 7.5×55mm Swiss GP 11. The final design, which appeared in 1950, was in most respects still similar to the MG 42, although many components were produced by machining instead of stamping, which increased the weight, the stability and the production costs of the machine gun. To prevent short shots
Waffenfabrik Bern ''Waffenfabrik Bern'' (Weapons Factory Bern), also known as W+F Bern, was an arms manufacturer in Bern, Switzerland, which was a government-owned corporation producing firearms for the Swiss Armed Forces. List of W+F weapons *Vetterli rifle *S ...
changed the locking system from roller to
flapper locking Flapper locking is a type of locking mechanism used in self-loading firearms. It involves a pair of flappers on the sides of the bolt that each lock into an outwards recess in the receiver as the bolt is in battery. As the bolt is forced backwards ...
. These locking methods are similar in concept. The resulting weapon had a cyclic rate of fire of 1,000 rounds per minute, was in the light machine gun role heavier than the German MG 42, and much more finely made and finished.


M53

In
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...
this MG 42 variant was built at the state-owned Zavodi Crvena Zastava company as the ''Zastava M53'' using original German
machinery A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecul ...
, retaining the 7.92×57mm Mauser chambering. By doing so, the Yugoslavs retained the original weapon's design features, making the M53 a near exact copy of the German MG 42. The only major differences were a slower 950 rounds per minute cyclic rate of fire and no
anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...
sight mount.G3 Defence Magazine August 2010
En.calameo.com (2010-08-04). Retrieved on 2010-10-18.
The aiming range of the M53 is , and the terminal range of the bullet is , the same as the MG 42. MG 42s captured in Yugoslavia at the end of World War II were put into reserve of
Yugoslav People's Army The Yugoslav People's Army (abbreviated as JNA/; Macedonian and sr-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенска народна армија, Jugoslovenska narodna armija; Croatian and bs, Jugoslavenska narodna armija; sl, Jugoslovanska ljudska ar ...
as M53/42s. The last military use of M53s in Yugoslavia was in 1999. Some quantities of M53s were exported to Iraq in the 1980s and saw extensive action during both
Gulf war The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
s. The M53 was known under the nickname Шарац (''Šarac'').


MG 3

At the end of World War II the original technical drawings and data for the MG 42 were captured by the Soviets. These would eventually find their way to Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The MG3 (originally the MG 1 launched in 1958) is the MG 42 design rechambered to
7.62×51mm NATO The 7.62×51mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 7.62 NATO) is a rimless, bottlenecked rifle cartridge. It is a standard for small arms among NATO countries. First developed in the 1950s, the cartridge had first been introduced in U.S. service fo ...
. It remains a primary general-purpose machine gun of the modern German armed forces (''
Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...
'') until being replaced by the
Heckler & Koch MG5 The Heckler & Koch MG5 (in the development phase also known as the HK121) is a belt-fed 7.62×51mm NATO general-purpose machine gun manufactured by German firearm manufacturer Heckler & Koch. The MG5 resembles the 5.56×45mm NATO Heckler & Koch M ...
during the 2020s. The MG3 has been used by more than 40 countries around the world, and it remains in widespread service today. The MG 3 and its preceding variants all share a high level of parts interchangeability with the original MG 42. Like the MG 42, the MG3 cyclic rates of fire can be altered by exchanging the standard weight (about ) bolt used for the standard 1,100–1,300 rounds per minute rate of fire for an extra weight (about ) bolt for a reduced 800–950 rounds per minute rate of fire. Those bolts also are used along with different recoil springs. The Italian MG 42/59 licensed MG 3 variant produced by Beretta, Whitehead Motofides and Franchi since 1959, features an extremely heavy bolt which reduces the cyclic rate of fire to around 800 rounds per minute.


MG 74

The final variant to date is the MG 74, developed by Austria and since 1974 it is the standard machine gun of the
Austrian Armed Forces The Austrian Armed Forces (german: Bundesheer, lit=Federal Army) are the combined military forces of the Republic of Austria. The military consists of 22,050 active-duty personnel and 125,600 reservists. The military budget is 0.74% of nati ...
. After its founding in 1955, the Austrian army was equipped with old guns temporarily out of U.S. stocks. Starting in 1959 these Browning M1919s were largely replaced by the MG 42 with modified barrel and bolt for the new 7.62×51mm NATO. But to introduce a modern weapon of its own production the Office of Defence Technology, in cooperation with
Steyr Mannlicher Steyr Arms () is a firearms manufacturer based in Sankt Peter in der Au, Austria. Originally part of Steyr-Daimler-Puch, it became independent when the conglomerate was broken up in 1989. Prior to 1 January 2019, the company was named Steyr M ...
and
Beretta Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta (; "Pietro Beretta Weapon Factory") is a privately held Italian firearms manufacturing company operating in several countries. Its firearms are used worldwide for a variety of civilian, law enforcement, and milita ...
developed a gun specifically for the Austrian Army. The German MG 42/59 that was introduced in 1959 with the Bundeswehr to replace the U.S. machine guns, served as the basis, which was similar to the Austrian 7.62 mm MG 42. Targets were to reduce, among other things, the cyclic rate of fire and weight and have more versatile sights and mount. The development of the weapon was completed in 1974. It replaced from this year the MG 42 as the MG 74 of the Austrian Federal Army. The modifications to the basic MG 42 design include an extra heavy bolt ( vs. the MG 3 bolt) which reduces the cyclic rate of fire to around 850 rounds per minute. The rate of fire can be varied up to cyclic rate of fire of around 1,150 rounds per minute, if necessary, by changing the bolt and return spring. In addition, a select fire trigger group was added to allow semi-automatic fire (single shot) compared to the traditional fully automatic only fire capability of the original MG 42 design. The MG 74 also has a modern polymer stock and handgrips (usually colored green) to save weight, adjustable rear sight (35° horizontal, vertical 15°) and additional anti-aircraft sight or (low light) optical sights can be mounted optional.


SIG MG710

The Swiss
SIG MG 710-3 The SIG MG 710-3 is a Swiss 7.62 mm general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) designed and manufactured by SIG - Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (currently Swiss Arms AG). The weapon was developed as a commercial venture primarily for export, si ...
general-purpose machine gun was based on the design of the MG42V/MG45 using a slight modification of the roller-delayed action and chambered for 7.62×51mm NATO. Its cyclic rate of fire is 900 rounds per minute. The first version looks very much like the MG42.


Influence on other designs

The MG 42's belt-feed mechanism was copied and used in the design of the M60 machine gun. The trigger mechanism of the FN MAG or MAG-58 is a virtual copy of the MG 42's and its belt-feed is also very similar.


Users

*: Used by the National Liberation Front. *: Used by
Mukti Bahini The Mukti Bahini ( bn, মুক্তিবাহিনী, translates as 'freedom fighters', or liberation army), also known as the Bangladesh Forces, was the guerrilla resistance movement consisting of the Bangladeshi military, paramilitary ...
forces during the
Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali ...
*: Received from Nazi Germany *: Used the M53 model. * : Used for evaluation only * * * * *: Received 440 units from Germany in 1943. * *: Used ex-German MG-42s. Two of an intended batch of ten MG 42s were converted in Norway to
.30-06 Springfield The .30-06 Springfield cartridge (pronounced "thirty- aught-six" ), 7.62×63mm in metric notation, and called the .30 Gov't '06 by Winchester, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in military use ...
and designated as MG42F1. The conversion project abruptly ended as most of Norway's stockpile of MG 42s was sold abroad at the same time. *: Known as ''m/944'' and was later replaced by the FN Minimi Mk3. *: Used the M53 model. * * : Used during the
Bizerte crisis The Bizerte crisis (; ) occurred in July 1961 when Tunisia imposed a blockade on the French naval base at Bizerte, Tunisia, hoping to force its evacuation. The crisis culminated in a three-day battle between French and Tunisian forces that ...
* * – Produced as M53. * – MG-42 and M53


See also

* CETME Ameli, Spanish GPMG *
FG 42 The FG 42 (German: ''Fallschirmjägergewehr'' 42, "paratrooper rifle 42") is a selective-fire 7.92×57mm Mauser automatic rifle produced in Nazi Germany during World War II. The weapon was developed specifically for the use of the ''Fallschirm ...
*
ShKAS machine gun The ShKAS (Shpitalny-Komaritski Aviatsionny Skorostrelny, Shpitalny-Komaritski rapid fire for aircraft; Russian: ШКАС - Шпитального-Комарицкого Авиационный Скорострельный) is a 7.62 mm calibre ...
, Soviet aircraft ordnance, only Allied machine gun that could fire faster than the MG 42


References


Bibliography

* *


External links

* *
Nazarian`s Gun`s Recognition Guide (FILM) MG 42, proper assault (video clip)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mg 42 7.92×57mm Mauser machine guns General-purpose machine guns Machine guns of Germany Medium machine guns MG 42 derivatives Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1942 World War II infantry weapons of Germany World War II machine guns