In the introduction of the Steyr Manlisia M1895 rifle, I probably introduced the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in fact, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was on the verge of collapse during the First World War, but even so, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was still one of the old industrial countries in the world at that time, the so-called skinny camel was bigger than the horse, and at the outbreak of the First World War, the military industry of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the fourth in the world, the third in Europe, sitting on the best steel plant in Europe - the Skoda Steel Plant and the Skoda Arsenal, and it was more than enough to make a machine gun Today, I will talk about a heavy machine gun used by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which looks like the Maxim machine gun but is not a variant of the Maxim machine gun, but it is particularly detailed in detail.
The "pearl" of The Arsenal of Europe, the Skoda Arsenal
In 1884, the Maxim heavy machine gun designed by Maxim opened the door to human automatic weapons, and there were more pragmatic countries at that time that were directly used, and some chose to get it themselves; in 1902, the German firearms designer Andreas William Schwartzrozer applied for a patent for the machine gun structure he designed, and then sold the patent to the Steyr Arsenal in Austria, and in 1905 the Steyr Arsenal began mass production, during which there were minor repairs for 2 years. It was only in 1907 that it was selected by the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a standard heavy machine gun and named the Schwarzrozer M1907 heavy machine gun.
The Schwarzrozer M1907 heavy machine gun, which differs from the 1907/12, is the gap between the water tank and receiver
In 1912, the Schwarzrozer M1907 heavy machine gun made a simple improvement, including enhancing the quality of parts, reducing the machine gun bracket, etc., this model is the M1907/12 heavy machine gun.
Schwarzrozer M1907-12 heavy machine gun
Schwarzrozer M1907/12 heavy machine gun, caliber 8 mm, total length 1065 mm, body empty weight 20 kg, full weight (including tripod 20 kg and cooling water 3 kg) 43 kg, using a bullet chain feed, the theoretical rate of fire of 400 rounds per minute.
Schwarzrozer M1907-12 heavy machine gun at an anti-aircraft angle
The Schwarzrozer M1907/12 heavy machine gun adopts the principle of gas delayed recoil, closed chamber standby; no rigid latching relies entirely on bolt weight and re-entry spring; after the bullet is fired, the pressure of gunpowder gas acts on the bolt through the bottom of the shell; the bolt moves backwards to push the strut away, and most of the initial pressure is transmitted to the receiver through the reorientation of the brace and elbow joint; the large and powerful reset spring waits at the rear until the bolt recoil stroke is completed and will immediately force it forward, At this time, a starwheel mechanism similar to the ammunition nest of the revolver uses the interaction between the bolt and the surface of the cam on the starwheel, and each shot rotates forward to the starwheel to pull in a new bullet and send it into the chamber by the bolt for firing.
Schwarzrozer M1907/12 heavy machine gun fire
The Most striking aspect of the Schwarzrozer M1907/12 heavy machine gun is the exaggerated flare suppressor; the gun's mechanical sight is a rear-shot notch and blade crosshair; the height of the tripod is adjustable, and it has the function of lateral and anti-aircraft angles. The gun also has a special shield protection; in addition, many details of the gun indicate that the designer is a person who often deals with firearms, such as the dust cover at the shell port, the safety design of the trigger button, and even the lid of the water tank and the oil port are equipped with a leaky net; when shooting, the soldier needs to rotate the two side handles backwards to shoot, and this handle can be folded up for easy transportation when not in use.
Shield of the Schwarzrozer M1907-12 heavy machine gun
Schwarzrozer M1907-12 heavy machine gun exaggerated flare suppressor
Another feature of the Schwarzrozer M1907/12 heavy machine gun when firing was "oiling", but unlike the Japanese oil brush oil smearing, this gun has an injection port in the internal mechanism, which sprays some oil into the chamber before each bullet is fired to increase lubrication, and the entire body includes an oil reservoir and an oil pump controlled by the bolt when it is reciprocated.
Schwarzrozer M1907-12 heavy machine gun injection port
The advantages of the Schwarzroze M1907/12 heavy machine gun are that the structure is very simple, reliable, and cheap and easy to produce; the disadvantages are also obvious, because the gun uses the principle of gas delay recoil, the automatic weapon weapons under this principle require a shorter barrel or a bullet with large thrust, and the 8 mm bullet thrust of the Austro-Hungarian Empire occurs when the bullet flys out of the barrel and the breech pressure is still very high, and the automatic mechanism has begun to draw shells and cause the shell to explode Czechoslovakia later used the more thrust 7.9 mm Mauser cartridge to avoid this problem.
Czechoslovak soldiers operated the Schwarzrozer M 1907-12 heavy machine gun
The Schwarzrozer M1907/12 heavy machine gun was widely used in World War I, although its reputation was not as good as the German MG08 or the American Browning M1917, but the advantages of the low price, simple structure and ease of manufacture of the gun made it quite a few countries, including China in the 1920s who imported a batch in small quantities, the gun participated in World War I and World War II, and belonged to the second-line troops during World War II but was also widely equipped.