MG-34
The MG-34 first entered service with the German Army as their standard general-purpose
machine gun in 1934. The concept of the general-purpose machine
gun is itself attributed to the post-World War I officer staff of the Reichswehr,
who upon analyzing the contemporary state of infantry warfare decided that
the battlefield required a weapon possessing the advantages of both a light
and heavy machine gun combined into one. The Germans had meddled with some
initial
designs such as the MG-29 and MG-30 until the combined work of the Rheinmetall-Borsig
AG and Mauser-Werke AG firms produced the world’s first real
service-quality general-purpose machine gun, the 7.92mm MG-34.
As a general-purpose machine gun the MG-34 was designed to be used in both
the light and heavy roles. To this end, there were two basic configurations
used for
the MG-34 depending on the required use – either mounted on a tripod
for use as a fixed-position heavy machine gun or equipped with a small bipod
for portable
use as the squad’s light machine gun. Aside from being capable of serving
in either the light or heavy machine gun role, the MG-34 included a number
of other innovative features, although some were only borrowed from earlier
designs like the MG-30. Among these innovations was the double-crescent trigger
– pressing
the upper segment of the trigger produced single-shot fire, while pressing
the lower segment produced full-automatic fire. The MG-34 had a cyclic rate
of fire of
900 rounds per minute, with a practical rate of fire of 100 – 200 rounds
per minute. Barrel changes needed to be performed frequently – usually
after every 250
shots of burst fire. The MG-34 weighed 11.42kg (24.2 lbs.) unloaded.
-Specifications-
| Trigger | double-crescent trigger – pressing the upper segment of the trigger produced single-shot fire, while pressing the lower segment produced full-automatic fire. |
| cyclic rate of fire | 900 rounds per minute |
| practical rate of fire | 100 – 200 rounds per minute |
| weighed | 11.42kg (24.2 lbs.) unloaded |
Barrel changes needed to be performed frequently – usually after every 250 shots of burst fire.