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MACHINE GUNS WEAPONS AND WARFARE SERIES Spencer C. Tucker, Series Editor Air Defense, Shannon A. Brown Aircraft Carriers, Hedley Wilmott Ancient Weapons, James T. Chambers Artillery, Jeff Kinard Ballistic Missiles, Kev Darling Battleships, Stanley Sandler Cruisers and Battle Cruisers, Eric W. Osborne Destroyers, Eric W. Osborne Helicopters, Stanley S. McGowen Medieval Weapons, James T. Chambers Military Aircraft in the Jet Age, Justin D. Murphy Military Aircraft, 1919–1945, Justin D. Murphy Military Aircraft, Origins to 1918, Justin D. Murphy Pistols, Jeff Kinard Rifles, David Westwood Submarines, Hedley Paul Wilmott Tanks, Spencer C. Tucker MACHINE GUNS AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THEIR IMPACT James H. Willbanks Santa Barbara, California Denver, Colorado Oxford, England Copyright 2004 by James H. Willbanks All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Willbanks, James H. Machine guns : an illustrated history of their impact /James H. Willbanks. p. cm. — (Weapons and warfare series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-85109-480-6 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 1-85109-485-7 (e-book : alk. paper) 1. Machine guns—History. 2. Submachine guns—History. I. Title. II. Series. UF620.A2W625 2004 623.4'424—dc22 2004 02 06 09 07 06 05 04 03 02 10 987654321 This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an e-book. Visit abc-clio.com for details. ABC-CLIO, Inc. 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116–1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Manufactured in the United States of America CONTENTS Introduction to Weapons and Warfare Series, Spencer C. Tucker vii Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii chapter one Introduction: The Search for Firepower 1 chapter two Organ Batteries and Mechanical Machine Guns 21 chapter three The Maxim Guns 45 chapter four Machine Guns During World War I 63 chapter five The Development of the Submachine Gun 77 chapter six Preparing for the Next Round 95 v vi CONTENTS chapter seven Machine Guns in World War II 113 chapter eight The Cold War and the Future 125 Individual Machine Gun Models 149 Glossary 249 Bibliography 255 Index 259 INTRODUCTION TO WEAPONS AND WARFARE SERIES Weapons both fascinate and repel. They are used to kill and maim individuals and to destroy states and societies, and occasionally whole civilizations, and with these the greatest of man’s cultural and artistic accomplishments. Throughout history tools of war have been the instruments of conquest, invasion, and enslavement, but they have also been used to check evil and to maintain peace. Weapons have evolved over time to become both more lethal and more complex. For the greater part of man’s existence, combat was fought at the length of an arm or at such short range as to represent no real difference; battle was fought within line of sight and seldom lasted more than the hours of daylight of a single day. Thus individual weapons that began with the rock and the club proceeded through the sling and boomerang, bow and arrow, sword and axe, to gunpowder weapons of the rifle and machine gun of the late nineteenth century. Study of the evolution of these weapons tells us much about human ingenuity, the technology of the time, and the societies that produced them. The greater part of technological development of weaponry has taken part in the last two centuries, es- pecially the twentieth century. In this process, plowshares have been beaten into swords; the tank, for example, evolved from the agricul- tural caterpillar tractor. Occasionally, the process is reversed and military technology has impacted society in a positive way. Thus modern civilian medicine has greatly benefited from advances to save soldiers’ lives, and weapons technology has impacted such ar- eas as civilian transportation and atomic power. vii viii SERIES INTRODUCTION Weapons can have a profound impact on society. Gunpowder weapons, for example, were an important factor in ending the era of the armed knight and the feudal age. They installed a kind of rough democracy on the battlefield, making “all men alike tall.” We can only wonder what effect weapons of mass destruction might have on our own time and civilization. This series will trace the evolution of a variety of key weapons systems, describe the major changes that occurred in each, and illus- trate and identify the key types. Each volume begins with a descrip- tion of the particular weapons system and traces its evolution while discussing its historical, social, and political contexts. This is fol- lowed by a heavily illustrated section that is arranged along chrono- logical lines that provides more precise information on at least 80 key variants of that particular weapons system. Each volume con- tains a glossary of terms, a bibliography of leading books on that particular subject, and an index. Individual volumes in the series are each written by a specialist in that particular area of expertise. We hope that this series will be of wide interest to specialists, re- searchers, and even general readers. Spencer C. Tucker Series Editor PREFACE This is a book that traces the history and development of the machine gun, a weapon that changed warfare starting with its introduction during the U.S. Civil War in the mid-1800s. Its fullest impact, however, would be experienced by forces of the Western Allies in Europe 75 years later, during World War I. That is where our story begins. THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME In July 1916, the British Expeditionary Force launched a massive counteroffensive against the Germans in the vicinity of the Somme River on the Western Front. Known as the Big Push, it was timed to coincide with major attacks by the Russians and the Italians on their fronts—a three-pronged attempt to break the stalemate of trench warfare and force Germany and Austria-Hungary into submission. On 25 June, the British began preparing the way for the impend- ing attack along the Somme with a massive five-day artillery bom- bardment meant to soften up the Germans, who waited across no- man’s land in strongly built defensive positions. The British generals were confident that the artillery would pulverize the defenders and expected their troops to march steadily over the German positions once the attack was launched. At 7:30 A.M. on 1 July, the British officers blew their whistles and 66,000 men went over the top. They moved steadily toward the Ger- man lines; one company of the 8th East Surreys symbolized the kick- off of the offensive by booting soccer balls toward the German trenches as they advanced. The German soldiers, however, had sur- vived the shelling and rushed from their dugouts to man machine ix x PREFACE gun posts all along the front. The result was disaster for the attack- ing British. German gunners, manning previously zeroed-in Maxim machine guns, mowed down battalions of British infantry in min- utes as German artillery pounded the attackers. A German gunner wrote after the first day of battle: We were amazed to see them walking, we had never seen that before.... The officers were at the front. I noticed one of them was strolling along, carrying a walking stick. When we started firing we just had to load and reload. They went down in the hundreds. We didn’t have to aim, we just fired into them.1 Some assault battalions did not even clear their own lines before they were cut down by the Maxims’ fatal stutter. By the end of the first hour, only 30 percent of the 84 assaulting battalions were any- where near their objectives. The rest were either pinned down by the German gunners or had already been wiped out by the Maxim guns. It was estimated that 50 percent of the force employed in the first wave had fallen. Nevertheless, the British high command con- tinued to throw in reinforcements until more than 100,000 soldiers had been committed. By the time the fighting ended, it marked the blackest day in British military history. More than 60,000 soldiers of the British Empire littered the field, dying men trapped in the beaten zone, burdens for the stretcher-bearers, or walking wounded.2 Of 129 British battalions committed to the battle, 32 lost more than 500 men each. Worst-hit of all: the 10th West Yorks, in which 710 men fell.3 The Battle of the Somme demonstrated the devastating effect of the modern machine gun and forever changed the face of battle. The first machine guns were developed in the nineteenth century, but the weapon came into its own during World War I, taking a mur- derous toll on both sides. Since that time, the machine gun has become one of the mainstays of armies all over the world. OUTLINE OF THE BOOK The purpose of this book is two fold: first, to explore the early development and evolution of the machine gun and submachine guns (SMGs) as weapons systems; and second, to provide a reference that will focus on the significant machine guns and submachine PREFACE xi guns of the world, including both the early types and those of con- temporary times. The eight chapters begin with a discussion of the history of the machine gun in Chapter 1, an examination of the evolution of small arms and ammunition from the earliest cannons through repeating weapons technology that set the stage for the development of machine guns.

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