Found mashine gun in river

[Jean-Loup]

I found a mashine gun in a river near where I live. It is a water cooled WW1 stile gun, looking sort of like a Vickers. The thing is, as far as I know the only allied troops who ever went to the remote place I found the gun in are US paratroopers; and then the germans were there of course. Any idea of what model of gun it could be, so I can then google the name, and find pictures to identifie the gun.
JL

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Jean-Loup, I wonder if it might be a M1917 Browning? Try here as there are some good pics of various WW1 era guns, many of which were used in WW2 as well:

http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/mgun_browning.htm

Cheers, Ade.

[junior]

I don't know the name of the gun but pictures of it would be nice! I would love to see it! Is it in good shape, or rusted away?

Cheers,
Junior.

[kiwicollector]

I found a mashine gun in a river near where I live. It is a water cooled WW1 stile gun, looking sort of like a Vickers. The thing is, as far as I know the only allied troops who ever went to the remote place I found the gun in are US paratroopers; and then the germans were there of course. Any idea of what model of gun it could be, so I can then google the name, and find pictures to identifie the gun.
JL

Try Browning, Maxim, Vickers, Spandau and MG08

Those are all the common variants of Maxim's classic water cooled MG.

[Bill Grist]

River M.G.

Try Browning, Maxim, Vickers, Spandau and MG08

Those are all the common variants of Maxim's classic water cooled MG.

Jean L, Also try Bergman,Schwarzlose, Fiat-Revelli.. Some picts. would be great of your historical find. BILL

[Jean-Loup]

Thanks guys; I will try all those names.
Junior. The gun is rusty and missing several bits and pieces; but looks pretty cool; and since it was for free... About pics, unfortunatly, I cant post any myself...
JL

[Jean-Loup]

Well, it looks like a just became the proud owner of a river found Spandau gun. Knowing where I found it, it is defenetly WW2. I suspect these types of old and heavy weapons were generaly used by second line german units, occupation troops, for training, etc. Am I correct. Any additional interesting info about this type of gun in WW2 is welcome; and thanks for the help guys.
JL

[Bob Lembke]

MG Help and Opinion Desired

Guys;

I am an inhabitant of WW I "Imperial Militaria", but I peek into this forum often. As the topic of this thread is a WW I MG, even if in use in WW II, I thioght I might post a question.

My father was a Flammenwerfer-Traeger in the Garde=Reserve=Pionier=Regiment (Flammenwerfer), the principal WW I flame-thrower unit. I am writing about the WW I flame-thrower effort, and fortunately I have my father's oral history, which, where checkable, is proving amazingly accurate, especially as it depends not only on his great memory, buy my rather spotty memory over say 45 years.

He said that they generally were distrustful of many or most German infantry units (except the Sturm=Bataillon Nr. 5 (Rohr), who were great to work with), who in any case made their approach obvious, so that later in the war they carried their own MGs and even light grenade-throwers, and usually kept the run-of-the-mill infantry out of the initial attack. This jibes with sources written by officers of the unit. I think that at first each company was allocated three MG 08/15s. Pop said that they carried a certain "brand" of French MG, hung from two rifle straps clipped together and fired from the waist. If the men captured one or more of this particular MG a sum was deposited in the company welfare fund, sort of prize money. (Unfortunately the crummy company CO stole this money, and eventually the men killed him in a hysterical {humor-wise} fashion, but that is another tale.) Maybe they wanted more MGs than the three per co. as authorized.

What MG was this, possibly? The Chaucault springs to mind, but it supposedly was the worst MG ever made by man, although I heard that it worked a bit better with French ammo. I suspect the Hochkiss. It was a bit heavy, perhaps hence the rifle slings, but lighter than a 08/15, at any rate, and the ammo strips, not ideal in every situation, might have been good for firing on the move. A second guy could have tagged along with a pile of ammo strips, occasionally jamming one in. (Don't know for sure, have fired the WW I Browning belt-fed, and the BAR from the magazine, but never a "stick-fed" MG. Can you run over the landscape and fire one of these?)

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Bob Lembke

Well, it looks like a just became the proud owner of a river found Spandau gun. Knowing where I found it, it is defenetly WW2. I suspect these types of old and heavy weapons were generaly used by second line german units, occupation troops, for training, etc. Am I correct. Any additional interesting info about this type of gun in WW2 is welcome; and thanks for the help guys.
JL

[Jean-Loup]

Does anyone have a nice picture of a Spandau being used by the germans in WW2, so I can print it, and expose it with the MG?
Thanks
JL

[gew98]

b

JL ; There is no "spandau" MG per say. The german arsenal at Spandau so named made many such maxim guns and other small arms for imperial germany until november 1918. Since a good many such MG08 and 08/15's were captured with the spandau arsenal name it generally stuck as being called a "spandau" , when it in fact was not. Alot of WW2 german troops referred to the MG34 erroneously as "spandau" no less.

[Jean-Loup]

OK, it is an MG 08, then, that has all the details as far as I can see as one made by spandau.
JL

[sean weber]

mg 08

Does anyone have a nice picture of a Spandau being used by the germans in WW2, so I can print it, and expose it with the MG?
Thanks
JL

hi Heres an interesting photo of the Mg08 in use with police troops during ww2.

Sean

[sean weber]

mg08

hi Heres an interesting photo of the Mg08 in use with police troops during ww2.

Sean

photo

[Jean-Loup]

Thanks for that picture Sean; but do you think you could post it in better quality, so it will loke good when I print it?
JL