Features
MG 34
Caliber :7.92 mm.
Length :1,219 mm.
Barrel length :627 mm.
Weight :11,500 kg.
Initial velocity of the projectile :755 m/s.
Rate of fire :800-900 strokes/min.
Power supply :50 rounds tape or double drum magazine of
75 cartridges.
One of the clauses of the Treaty of Versailles prohibited the manufacture of continuous firearms in Germany. But Rheinmetall-Borsig succeeded in circumventing this clause by installing, in the early 1920s, a factory on the other side of the Swiss border, in Solothurn, a factory over which it exercised discreet but effective control. The research carried out by the design office of this firm focused mainly on air-cooled machine guns and resulted in an improved model, the Solothurn Model 30, which already had many of the characteristics that were to define modern weapons.
Although the Solothurn factory had recorded some orders, the Germans felt the need to further improve their weapon, so that the 1929 model knew only a limited production serving mainly as a basis for the development of a weapon equipping aviation , the Rheinmetall MG 15, which was long manufactured for the Luftwaffe.
Rheinmetall developed a model which is still considered one of the most successful machine guns, the Maschinengewehr 34, or MG 34 The technicians of the Obendorff factories were inspired by the Modell 1929 and the MG 34 to develop a new generation of machine guns, the general-purpose machine guns. This new weapon, which could be carried by an infantryman, made it possible to shoot by leaning it on a simple bipod and could be installed on a heavy tripod for long continuous shooting. This machine could therefore play the role of a heavy machine gun or that of a light machine gun. Its barrel change system was very fast; it could be fed in two different ways, either by belt or by means of a double drum of 75 rounds, a device already employed on the MG 15. In addition, the MG 34 had a very fast rate of fire and was therefore effective against planes flying low.
The MG 34 was an immediate success and was immediately produced for various corps of the German army, as well as for the police. Until 1945, this versatile machine gun was in great demand and there were never enough of them to meet the needs. Supply was complicated by the diversity of mounts and accessories available.
The technicians had also developed a sighting system, functioning as a periscope to allow firing from the trenches. The manufacture of all these accessories mobilized a large part of the production potential, to the detriment of the manufacture of the weapon itself. The MG 34 suffered above all from its excessive perfection, which did not correspond to real military needs.
The Germans also produced variants of this model, such as the MG 34m, equipped with a longer barrel. heavy to equip
armored vehicles, and shorter-barreled MG 34s and MG34/41s, capable only of automatic fire, for anti-aircraft defence. The barrel length of the two machine guns was 1,170 mm and 560 mm, respectively.