MG 34

Even before World War I, the German military was already looking forward to replacing the heavy machine guns which proved to be such a success in that war. The MG13 was one of the first developments toward a goal of producing a weapon that could perform multiple roles, rather than just one. The MG13 was the result of reengineering the Dreyse Water-cooled machine gun to fit the new requirement.[9] The twin-barreled Gast gun was developed with the goal of providing a high cyclic rate of fire weapon for anti-aircraft use and was reported to have reached cyclic rates of fire as high as 1,600 rounds per minute.[9]

The Einheitsmaschinengewehr concept required the operator could radically transform the machine gun for several purposes by changing its mount, sights and feed mechanism. One of the Einheitsmaschinengewehr roles was to provide low-level anti-aircraft coverage. A high cyclic rate of fire is advantageous for use against targets that are exposed to a general-purpose machine gun for a limited time span, like aircraft or targets that minimize their exposure time by quickly moving from cover to cover. For targets that can be fired on by a general-purpose machine gun for longer periods than just a few seconds, the cyclic firing rate becomes less important.

After World War I the German military faced restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty restricted the German Reichswehr (Realm Defence) to maximally stockpiling 792 heavy (bulky hard-to-maneuver water-cooled) machine guns and 1,134 light machine guns and actual production of machine guns and development of sustained fire weapons were prohibited. From 1933 Nazi Germany was committed to repudiating the Treaty of Versailles and its restrictions. As part of a (clandestine) military revitalization program the German military sought avenues to get around restrictions imposed by the treaty by resorting to innovative weapon design and engineering, German arms designers working abroad and other foreign assistance.

The MG 34 was based on a 1930 Rheinmetall design, the MG 30. The Swiss and Austrian militaries had both licensed and produced the MG 30 from Rheinmetall shortly after patent and started to enter service in Switzerland. In the spring of 1931 the development of the Einheitsmaschinengewehr (Universal machine gun) started. The MG 30 design was adapted and modified by Heinrich Vollmer of Mauser Industries. Vollmer originally designed the feed mechanism to accept MG 15 inspired 75-round Patronentrommel 34 spring-loaded saddle-drum magazines. The Patronentrommel 34 was a rather complex magazine for which a filling device existed and requiring ordnance personnel and a special tool to optimize the spring tension for reliable feeding. Users were ordered not to adjust the drum spring tension.[10]

MG 34 with inserted Gurt 34 reusable non-disintegrating metal ammunition belt

In 1937 the feed was redesigned to use reusable non-disintegrating Gurt 33 and Gurt 34 metal belts and a 50-round Gurttrommel 34 (belt drum). The feeding system was based on the direct push-through of the cartridge out of the link into the gun’s chamber. Accordingly, the link had to be of the half-open type to enable the motion of the bolt through the link. The Gurttrommel was designed to be clipped to the left side of the gun and was not a true magazine but held a curled 50-round belt and corresponding starter-segment preventing it from snagging, twisting and getting stuck during mobile assaults.[11] Vollmer also increased the rate of fire.[8][12] The MG 34's double crescent trigger dictated either semiautomatic or fully automatic firing modes. The capability to use the previous 75-round Patronentrommel 34 saddle-drum magazines (with a simple change of the feed cover for a Trommelhalter magazine holder) was retained. All 75-round Patronentrommel 34 fed MG 34s had been withdrawn from infantry use by 1941, with some remaining in use on armoured personnel carriers.

As the MG 34 was technically based on and featured design elements of several other machine guns, the German arms industry negotiated and worked out complex royalties and patents matters regarding the MG 34 to every involved side's satisfaction.

In the field, the weapon could operate in offensive or defensive applications. The offensive model, with a mobile soldier, used either a 50-round Gurttrommel or a 75-round Patronentrommel 34. In a stationary defensive role, the gun was mounted on a bipod or tripod and fed by a non-disintegrating metal ammunition belt. Belts were carried in boxes of five. Each belt contained 50 rounds. Belt lengths could be linked for sustained fire. During sustained fire, barrels would have to be changed at intervals due to the heat generated by the rapid rate of fire. If the barrels were not changed properly, the weapon would misfire. Changing barrels was a rapid process for the trained operator and involved disengaging a latch and swinging the receiver to the right for the insertion of a new barrel into the barrel shroud. Accordingly, stationary defensive positions required more than one operator.[8]

The MG 34 was the mainstay of German Army support weapons[13] from the time of its first issue in 1935 until 1942, when it was supplanted by the next Einheitsmaschinengewehr generation Maschinengewehr 42 or MG 42. Although the MG 34 was reliable and dominant on the battlefield, its dissemination throughout the German forces was hampered due to its precision engineering and use of high-quality metal alloys, which resulted in high production costs and a relatively slow rate of production.[8] For its successor, the MG 42, the Germans instead used mass production techniques similar to those that created the MP 40 submachine gun.[13] The Germans nevertheless continued widespread production of MG 34s until the end of the war.[14]

MG 34 general-purpose machine gun mounted on a Lafette 34 tripod

In the German heavy machine gun (HMG) platoons, each platoon served four MG 34/MG 42 machine guns, used in the sustained fire mode mounted on tripods.[24] In 1944 this was altered to six machine guns in three sections with two seven-man heavy machine gun squads per section as follows:

• Squad leader (NCO) MP40
• Machine gunner (private) MG 34/MG 42 and pistol
• Assistant gunner (private) pistol
• Three riflemen (privates) rifles
• Horse leader for horse, cart and trailer (private) rifle

For the medium machine gun role a larger tripod, the MG 34 Lafette 34, included a number of features, such as recoil absorbing buffer springs, MG Z 34 or MG Z 40 periscope-type telescopic sight containing special sighting equipment for indirect fire or the late World War II MG Z 44, designed for direct fire only. An accessory to lengthen these sights' periscope was available, allowing the use of them behind cover. It could be set up in a prone, kneeling or a high position and weighed 20 kg (44.1 lb) on its own. The legs could be extended with a Lafetteaufsatzstück to allow it to be used in the low level anti-aircraft role, and when lowered, it could be placed to allow the gun to be fired "remotely" while it swept an arc in front of the mounting with fire. Mounted to the Lafette and aimed through the telescopic sight the effective range of the MG 34 could be extended out to 3,500 m (3,828 yd) when fired indirectly. The Lafette 34 tripod also had a bolt box to store a (spare) bolt.[31][32]

Another unique feature of German World War II machine guns was the Tiefenfeuerautomat feature on the Lafette 34 tripod. If selected, this feature mechanically controlled the rise and fall of the gun, elevating the gun for five rounds and then depressing it for four rounds. It lengthened the beaten zone by walking the fire in wave like motions up and down the range in a predefined area. The length of the beaten zone could be set on the Tiefenfeuerautomat. E.g., being unsure whether the real distance was 2,000 or 2,300 m (2,187 or 2,515 yd), the gunner could make the mount do an automatic sweep between the elevations for 1,900 to 2,400 m (2,078 to 2,625 yd) and back. This sweeping of a selected beaten zone continued as long as the gun fired. The Lafette 34 had a Richt- und Überschießtafel (Overhead firing table) riveted to the rear body of the searchfire mechanism from the very start of production until the very end of it. In the later stages of World War II ballistic correction directions were added for overshooting friendly forces with S.m.E. – Spitzgeschoß mit Eisenkern (spitzer with iron core) ammunition of which the external ballistic behaviour started to significantly deviate from 1,500 m (1,640 yd) upwards compared to the s.S. Patrone (s.S. ball cartridge).[33][34][35]

The MG 34/41 was requested as the first war experiences in the beginning of World War II proved that a higher fire rate generates more dispersion of the bullets. The MG 34/41 could cope with a cyclic fire rate of 1,200 rounds per minute but its components became highly stressed.[17] The weight of the MG 34/41 was 14 kg, slightly more than the original MG 34 version. 300 MG 34/41 were produced and were sent to the Russian front in 1942. The MG 34/41 was beaten in trials by the MG 39/41, later designated MG 42.[17]

Most German tanks used during World War II used the MG 34[36] Panzerlauf for secondary armament. The MG 42 was ill-suited for internal/coaxial mounting due to the method of barrel change. The MG 42's barrel had to be removed and replaced by sliding the barrel out at an angle such that, when mounted on a tank/armoured vehicle, armour and space would have to be compromised to fit the weapon. Although the MG 34 was older than the, arguably, improved MG 42, its barrel could be swapped in-line with the gun, meaning that the MG 34 was favoured because of the fact that it was simpler to design mountings for the gun. The MG 34 was also easier to feed, for instance using a drum magazine or being select-fire.[37]

The main difference of the MG 34 Panzerlauf and the regular MG 34 was the heavier, almost solid armored barrel shroud, almost completely lacking the ventilation holes of the basic MG 34.[38] When mounted inside a tank, the MG 34 also lacked a butt-stock. A kit for quick conversion to ground use was carried inside the tank containing a butt-stock and a combined bi-pod and front sight assembly.[38]

The MG 34 was also used as the basis of a new aircraft-mounted machine gun, the MG 81 machine gun. For this role, the breech was slightly modified to allow feeds from either side, and in one version, two guns were bolted together on a single trigger to form a weapon known as the MG 81Z (for Zwilling, German for "twin" as in twin-mounted). Production of the MG 34 was never enough to satisfy any of its users, and while the MG81 was a significant improvement over the earlier MG 30-based MG 15 and MG 17 guns, these guns were used until the end of the war. As the Luftwaffe lost the battle for air superiority and declined in priority in the German war effort, MG 15s and MG 81s, which were designed as flexibly mounted aircraft machine guns, were modified and adapted for ground use by infantry, with varying degrees of success.

Norway used and first converted the MG 34 in the 1950s to .30-06 Springfield designated as the MG34F1 and later to 7.62×51mm NATO designated as the MG34F2. These converted MG 34's were used by the Heimevernet (Norwegian Home Guard) until the mid 1990s.[39]

The TNW MG34 is a closed bolt, semi automatic only version of the MG34 made by TNW firearms, due to the high cost and rarity of the full auto versions. Although they stopped production in 2018, there are still a number of these still being sold on their website and others as well. They will also continue to make part kits for their semi auto MG34.