Hitler's Zipper: The MG-42 Universal Machine Gun
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Published 2020-11-04
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The MG42 was developed to be a more reliable and easier to manufacture replacement for the MG34, although both would serve side by side until he end of World War Two. Designed by Grossfuss company engineer Werner Gruner with no previous military or small arms design experience, the MG42 used heavy stampings for its main assemblies, thus reducing German need for expensive and difficult to obtain alloyed steels.
As a practical matter, the MG42 had a much higher rate of fire than the 34, at 1500-1600 rounds per minute (more than 50% faster than the MG34). This was deemed desirable to improve the effectiveness of suppressing fire and the density of the cone of fire, but naturally resulted in much higher ammunition consumption than other machine gun models.
This example is a very early production Gustloff example, with the early horizontal charging handle, unreinforced wooden stock, and adjustable front sight. It was most likely captured in North Africa from Rommel’s forces, as they were a primarily user of the very early MG42s.
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All Comments (21)
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The Russians are red My fingers are blue We're all stuck in Stalingrad Hans, get the MG42
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Let's be honest No one forgot this weapon but it just had to make an appearance eventually
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It was also adopted and modified by the Galactic Empire 😎
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In 4th or 5th grade a classmate, a girl, insisted her dad had machineguns in their garage. Nobody believed her and we let her know that. One day she took us home and produced an MG-42 and MP-40. We played soldier with them for a couple years.
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When I was drafted in to the Danish army in the early 70'ies I became a machine gunner and this is the gun we used. You could reliably hit larger targets at 600M but it was a good idea to strap an old tin can just outside the feed port to smooth out the belt feed to prevent hang ups. It was a bit tricky to shoot if you were not lying down but they did teach us to use it in a walking stance for close combat. You had to grip the forward legs with your left hand and jam the butt very tight in towards your body. If you did not hold it tight enough the recoil would not reload the gun and it would stop. It came standard with two barrels, a cooling tray and an asbestos glove to change them with. They got real hot in a hurry. Pretty sure I could still field strip and assemble this one blindfolded. A bonus was that the cooling ports on the left side of the barrel shroud worked great as a beer bottle opener. Take the bottle in your left hand and stick the cap in while you flick the pistol grip with your right hand and Viola!... Yes that was in the days before screw top beer bottles :-)
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"Would cause the gun to basically explode... Not a particularly huge issue." Total war is a hell of a drug.
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My Uncle was big and strong enough to fire his Bonesaw or “Kauluzāģis” in Latvian, from the hip while fighting Russians in WW2. He survived both the war and his free trip to Siberia afterwards. Great video.
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as an engineer I appreciate the time, the efforts, and the ideas of German weapons arsenals and makers, stamped sheet metal was out of box solution as it's cheaper, yet that rollers pouncing idea to load the bullet firing between bolt and muzzle not to weak receiver structure was really brilliant... thank you Ian, appreciate that you explain professionally the whole mechanical thing
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A little note for the reassembly: I used the MG-74 in austrian army, it’s literally the same as the MG-42. When you reassemble the gun, you can easily make a very fatal error. When you throw the bolt assembly into the receiver without installing the charging handle before, the bolt locks into the barrel and the supply officer (he is in charge of the arsenal) has the fun of his life to get the bolt out there. You get a sharp rebuke and can help the supply officer with every shit for the next 3 days. We were specially taught not to forget the charge handle during assembly.
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I got to put 40 rounds through one of these a few years back. Best two seconds of my life.
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In all fairnes, I probably wouldn't see much practical difference between 7, 15 or 24 rounds per second when those rounds are flying towards me. I'd be suppressed well enough with either.
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I have served in spanish army from the late 80 till now. We had plenty of this wonderful machines, most of them still with the marks of wermacht or even SS. Most of them are still in service. I have tracked several of them till the very early production. Coming mostly from Spanish Blue Division. Chapter apart to mention…
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Not only could it provide suppressing fire, it provided oppressing fire. The sound alone was enough to wear away at morale.
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As a former german soldier (KFOR) the MG3 / MG42 is a pleasure to shoot, esp. from lafette/carriage. The MG42 was constructed by a german engineer (who would later be a college prof. for agriculture) near my hometown in saxony.
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One thing, is for sure: This weapon, is not forgotten...!
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If the enemy creates training films in order to make its solders less afraid of one of your weapons, you know you're on to a winner.
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It BLOWS MY MIND that those rollers can move fast enough with the barrel extension for that rate of fire and work properly.
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Using the MG42 cyclic rate this video is 34,800 rounds long.
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The key innovation about changing the barrel is that the assistant gunner could remove and replace the barrel while lying flat on the ground, thus limiting exposure to enemy fire. The American machine gunners had to exchange the barrel while kneeling.
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Having fired the MG42 at a few opportunities and its modern MG3 variant I feel that the high rate of fire also makes you through sheer amount of bullets per burst to hit difficult targets at range.
