The Maschinengewehr 34, or MG 34, is a German recoil-operated air-cooled machine gun that was first tested in 1929 and was introduced in 1934, and first issued to units in 1936. It accepts the 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge. The versatile MG 34 was arguably the most advanced machine gun in the world at the time of its adoption and deployment with the German Army. It entered service in great numbers following Hitler's repudiation of the Versailles Treaty in 1936, and was first tested by German troops aiding Franco's Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. The MG 34 combined four substantial advantages over other machine guns: -mobility, being light enough to be carried by a single soldier; -the ability of the gun to sustain that fire; As such, it can generally be considered to be the world's first general-purpose machine gun.
The MG 34 was the mainstay of German Army support weapons from the time of its first issue in 1935 until 1942, when it was supplanted by the next generation Maschinengewehr 42 or MG 42. Although the 34 was very reliable and dominant on the battlefield, its dissemination throughout the German forces was hampered due to its precision engineering, which resulted in high production costs and a relatively slower rate of production. For its successor, the MG 42, the Germans instead used mass production techniques similar to those that created the MP 40 submachine gun. However, the Germans nevertheless continued widespread production of MG 34s until the end of the war. Since it was easier to be and had already been fitted in vehicles.
The MG 34 is the most common gun found on German ground vehicles, mounted coaxially with the main gun it has a magazine of 150 rounds that reloads in 8,5 seconds otherwise it has a capacity of 250 that reloads in ten seconds. It can also be found as an infantry weapon, both as an regular handweapon with a bipod or as a deployable weapon on a tripod. The deployable version is even used by the Soviets.
Armored Cars & Light Tanks |
Medium Tanks | Heavy Tanks | Tank Destroyers | Assault Guns | Self Propelled Artillery &Self Propelled AA |
Other Vehicles |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sd.Kfz. 222 | Pzkpfw III | VK4501(P) | Panzerjäger Tiger (P) "Elephant" | Stug III (Only Ausf.G Late Model) |
Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind | Sd.Kfz. 251 serie |
Pzkpfw II | Pzkpfw IV | Pzkpfw VI "Tiger" (Not the T-VI-100) |
Jagdpanzer 38(t) | Sturmhaubitze 42 (Only Late Model) |
Flakpanzer IV Ostwind | BMW R 75 |
VK 16.02 (MAN) | Pzkpfw V | Pzkpfw VI "Königstiger" (Not the Improved) |
Jagdpanzer V | Sturmpanzer IV | Flakpanzer IV Kugelblitz | VW Type 166 |
Pzkpfw VIII | Jagdpanzer VI | Sturmpanther | Munitionspanzer IV | |||
P.1000 | Sturmtiger | Bergetiger | ||||
Sturmboot |