Great War Infanterie Machine-gun Platoon, with four Maxim HMGs, Infanteriekompanie New

Great War Infanterie Machine-gun Platoon, with four Maxim HMGs, Infanteriekompanie

Infanterie Machine-gun Platoon
includes four Machine-gun Sections, four Medium four-hole bases and one plastic hole plug sprue.

The MG08 (or Maschinengewehr 08) was the standard machine-gun of the German Army during the First World War. Adapted from Hiram Maxim’s 1884 design, the MG08 (designating the year of its adoption i.e. 1908) fired the 7.92x57mm round at the rate of up to 400 rounds per minute.

Feed by 250-round ammunition belts, any prolonged periods of sustained fire meant the gun would rapidly overheat. To prevent this, the barrel was surrounded by a water jacket which contained one gallon (3.78 litres) of water.

When deployed, the gun was fired from a sled mount that could be transported around the battlefield either on a man’s shoulders or via a cart. However, the total weight of the weapon system (gun, sled mount and water) was a whopping 69kg (152lbs) without taking ammunition into account severely limiting its mobility.