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Description
Infantryman, Machine Gunner
German Army, France, 1916
World War I

This soldier is seen carrying the bulky but effective MG08 Maschinengewehr (Machine gun). The round cylinder around the barrel is where water would be poured in order to keep the barrel cool under sustained fire. Most early machine guns had such a system.

Machine guns were used to devastating effect in World War I. Infantry charges became a near suicidal tactic and the mass cavalry charges of the 1800’s soon became a thing of the past. Firing around 600 rounds a minute, a few well-placed machine guns could kill hundreds of men in mere minutes. They were one of the game changing weapons first used on-mass in the First World War.

The German infantryman seen here wears the standard army service dress with a cloth cover over his field cap and adorns calf-height jackboots. Like most machine gun personnel he has a pistol as a sidearm. A typical German machine gun team consisted of 3 men. A gunner, an ammo bearer/loader, and a spotter. The man seen here is a gunner, which explains the lack of kit and ammo. The MG08 was already a heavy item to carry.

Description
Infantryman, Machine Gunner
German Army, France, 1916
World War I

This soldier is seen carrying the bulky but effective MG08 Maschinengewehr (Machine gun). The round cylinder around the barrel is where water would be poured in order to keep the barrel cool under sustained fire. Most early machine guns had such a system.

Machine guns were used to devastating effect in World War I. Infantry charges became a near suicidal tactic and the mass cavalry charges of the 1800’s soon became a thing of the past. Firing around 600 rounds a minute, a few well-placed machine guns could kill hundreds of men in mere minutes. They were one of the game changing weapons first used on-mass in the First World War.

The German infantryman seen here wears the standard army service dress with a cloth cover over his field cap and adorns calf-height jackboots. Like most machine gun personnel he has a pistol as a sidearm. A typical German machine gun team consisted of 3 men. A gunner, an ammo bearer/loader, and a spotter. The man seen here is a gunner, which explains the lack of kit and ammo. The MG08 was already a heavy item to carry.