Maxim Gun (MG08)
Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken · Machine Gun · Discontinued · 1908
Also known as: Maschinengewehr 08, MG08, Spandau MG, Maxim Machine Gun, Vickers-Maxim, PM M1910 (Russian derivative), Type 24 (Chinese derivative), ckm wz.08 (Polish designation)
Overview
The Maxim Gun, patented in 1884 by American-British inventor Hiram Stevens Maxim, was the world's first recoil-operated automatic machine gun and the progenitor of virtually every self-loading firearm that followed. This entry documents the MG08 (Maschinengewehr 08), the German Imperial Army's standardized Maxim variant adopted in 1908 and manufactured primarily by Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken (DWM) in Berlin and the Spandau arsenal. Chambered for the 7.92x57mm Mauser cartridge, the MG08 weighed approximately 26.5 kg unloaded (over 60 kg combined with its iconic Schlitten 08 sledge mount and water-filled cooling jacket) and fed from 250-round canvas belts at a cyclic rate of around 500 rounds per minute. The gun used Maxim's signature toggle-lock short-recoil mechanism: on firing, the barrel and breech block recoiled together for a short distance before the toggle joint broke downward, extracting the spent case and chambering a fresh round. A water-cooled jacket holding roughly four litres kept the barrel from overheating during sustained fire, allowing theoretical rates of over 10,000 rounds per hour. The Maxim design dominated global arms markets from the 1890s through the 1940s, serving with the British Empire (as the Maxim and later the Vickers derivative), Imperial Germany (MG08 and the lightened MG08/15), the Russian Empire and Soviet Union (as the PM M1910), and Nationalist China (as the Type 24). It defined the character of First World War trench warfare, where interlocking Maxim fire made frontal assaults across no-man's-land catastrophically costly. Production of the MG08 alone reached an estimated 72,000 units during WWI at peak rates of 14,400 per month, and the weapon soldiered on with German forces, Soviet units, and Chinese armies well into the Second World War and beyond.
Specifications
| Weight (empty) | 26500 g (934.8 oz) |
| Overall Length | 1175 mm (46.26") |
| Barrel Length | 721 mm (28.39") |
| Action Type | Short Recoil |
| Firing Mechanism | Hammer Fired |
| Trigger Type | Single Stage |
| Magazine Capacity | 250 rounds |
| Magazine Type | Belt |
| Muzzle Velocity | 900 m/s (2953 fps) |
| Muzzle Energy | 3700 J (2729 ft·lbf) |
| Effective Range | 2000 m (2187 yd) |
| Maximum Range | 3500 m (3828 yd) |
| Rate of Fire | 500 rpm |
| Barrel Rifling | Right Hand |
| Number of Grooves | 4 |
| Frame Material | Steel |
| Barrel Material | Steel |
| Finish | Blued |
Calibers
- 7.92x57mm Mauser · primary — also known as 8mm Mauser, 8x57mm IS, 8x57mm JS, 7.92mm Mauser
Features
- Firing modes: Full Automatic
- Feed systems: Fabric Belt
- Safety mechanisms: Manual Safety
- Features: Water Cooled Barrel, Toggle Lock Mechanism, Belt Fed, Tripod Mounted, Sustained Fire Capable, Recoil Booster, Indirect Fire Capable
Variants
- Maxim 1884 (Prototype) — Original Prototype
- MG08 — German Heavy
- MG08/15 — German Light Variant
- MG08/18 — German Air Cooled
- Vickers Mk I — British Derivative
- PM M1910 — Russian Derivative
- Type 24 — Chinese Copy
- Maxim-Nordenfelt — British Early Production
- MG09 (Swiss) — Swiss Variant
Service history
Operators
- Imperial German Army · adopted 1908 · as Maschinengewehr 08
- German Reichswehr · adopted 1919 · as MG08
- Nazi Germany Wehrmacht · adopted 1935 · as MG08
- British Army · adopted 1889 · as Maxim Gun
- Imperial Russian Army · adopted 1910 · as PM M1910
- Soviet Red Army · adopted 1922 · as Pulemyot Maxima obraztsa 1910 goda
- Republic of China National Revolutionary Army · adopted 1935 · as Type 24
- Austro-Hungarian Army · adopted 1905 · as Schwarzlose-adjacent procurement
- Ottoman Army · adopted 1909 · as Maxim MG
- Bulgarian Army · adopted 1908 · as MG08
- Polish Army · adopted 1918 · as ckm wz.08
- Finnish Defence Forces · adopted 1918 · as Maxim M/09-21
- Royal Navy · adopted 1896 · as Maxim Gun
- United States Army · adopted 1904 · as Maxim Automatic Machine Gun, Caliber .30, Model of 1904
Conflicts
- First Matabele War (1893-1894)
- Mahdist War (Battle of Omdurman) (1898)
- Second Boer War (1899-1902)
- Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Russian Civil War (1917-1923)
- Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921)
- Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
- Winter War (1939-1940)
- World War II (1939-1945)
- Chinese Civil War (1927-1949)
- Korean War (1950-1953)
- Vietnam War (1955-1975)
Production
Estimated total produced: 72,000 · Production years: 1884-1945
Figure reflects MG08 production during World War I alone (approximately 72,000 units by DWM and Spandau arsenal, peaking at 14,400 per month in 1917). Total Maxim-pattern production across all variants - Vickers, PM M1910, Type 24, MG08/15, MG08/18 - easily exceeded 500,000 units worldwide. Hiram Maxim's original Maxim Gun Company was founded in 1884 and later merged with Nordenfelt (1888) and then acquired by Vickers (1897).
Origin
Country of origin: Germany
Designer: Hiram Stevens Maxim
Discontinued: 1945
Notes
The MG08 is mounted on the Schlitten 08 (sledge) tripod, a distinctive four-legged mount weighing around 32 kg that allowed the gun to be dragged like a sled across rough terrain. Combined with the water-filled jacket, the complete weapon system weighed approximately 62 kg, requiring a crew of four to six men to operate and move. The water jacket held about 4 litres of water which would begin to boil after roughly 600 rounds of continuous fire; a condenser hose routed the escaping steam into a canister to be recondensed and recycled, critical for desert and trench warfare where water was scarce. The lightened MG08/15 variant, introduced in 1915, added a bipod, pistol grip, and shoulder stock to create a squad-level light machine gun weighing about 18 kg; over 130,000 were produced. The Maxim's toggle-lock mechanism was later inverted and refined by Georg Luger for his self-loading pistol and by Vickers for their lighter, alloy-receivered Mk I derivative. Unlike the later MG34 and MG42 which fired from an open bolt, the Maxim fires from a closed bolt and uses an internal striker/hammer actuated by the toggle recoiling rearward. The distinctive sound of Maxim fire - roughly 8-9 rounds per second rather than the 20+ of the later MG42 - gave it a characteristic slow, chattering rhythm that veterans of the Western Front never forgot.
Background
Belloc's couplet - 'Whatever happens, we have got / The Maxim gun, and they have not' - captured the colonial arithmetic of the late 19th century. At the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, Kitchener's Anglo-Egyptian force cut down roughly 10,000 Mahdist warriors in a few hours while suffering fewer than 50 fatalities of their own, a slaughter Winston Churchill witnessed as a young cavalry officer and described as 'the most signal triumph ever gained by the arms of science over barbarians.' A single weapon and its inventor did more to end the era of mass infantry charges than any general ever would.