Talk:MG 34

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Military history: Technology / Weaponry / European / German / World War II

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Lafette

Lafette was spelled incorrectly as Laffette. I also added a citation and an effective range for the MG mounted to the Lafette.Dudas 91 (talk) 21:57, 17 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Operation

I added that the MG34 used a rotating bolt. I'm looking for a place to add that the MG34 used a short recoil operation aided by a muzzle booster.Dudas 91 (talk) 20:12, 17 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I added a short paragraph under the Characteristics section explaining the operation of the MG34.Dudas 91 (talk) 20:48, 17 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Why so much steel

Why would a 12Kg weapon require 49Kg of steel to produce? Paul, in Saudi 18:32, 3 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

When you mill something, you cut away metal, so you have to start off with more to begin with. --Pelladon 05:49, 9 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Note: The article mentions the MG34 was used in tanks and vehicles because the MG42's barrel housing was square. While that's true, the main reason the MG34 remained in tanks was the barrel changing could be done from within. Not so with the MG42. The MG34 could also feed ammo from either left or right, the MG42 could only feed on the left side. --Pelladon 05:49, 9 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hitler's buzzsaw

An editor had added this nickname [1]. Since his other edits were vandalim (obscenities) and the edit here was clearly misplaced I reverted it. If the nickname was widely known (Google has around 400 hits) please add it into the article. Pavel Vozenilek 00:05, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hitlers buzzsaw refers to the MG42(69.251.127.235 22:11, 21 May 2007 (UTC))[reply]

Infobox

Replaced the current templatewith the recently standarised Infobox: Template:Infobox createde by the Wikipedia:WikiProject_Military_history/Weaponry task force. Deon Steyn 10:45, 5 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

MG 81 article

Somebody created the redundant article for the MG 81. I redirected that article here. It's just an aircraft mounted version. --Asams10 22:35, 22 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Medium machine gun

Is the MG34 a Medium machine gun? --Philip Laurence 01:27, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Its a General porpous(spelled wrong i know) machine gun and could be used in either the heavy light or medium to answer your question and so was the MG42 (ForeverDEAD 04:01, 14 August 2007 (UTC))[reply]

The Germans referred to it as a universal machinegun, and had a designation for it depending on if it was being used in a light or heavy role. lMG.34 for light and sMG.34 if tripod mounted. As far as I know in the mid 1930's there were no medium MGs or a medium MG role. Only light (i.e. lewis) and heavy (i.e. Vickers). Certainly the concept of a universal or general puropse machinegun was completely new at the time.

I suspect that it's more likely that with the advent of machineguns firing intermediate cartridges that the meaning of light, medium and heavy machineguns has changed. GunpicsBAS (talk) 00:52, 19 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The terms light, medium and heavy were originally meant in relation to standard rifle-calibre rounds in the mid-19th century, and these approached 1/2 inch calibre. During the Second war the British often referred to machineguns as "RC" or "rifle calibre", meaning in their case 0.303 inch. During the 20thC these terms changed somewhat to describe whether or not a particular gun was set up for sustained fire, and to what degree [eg. the robustness of the mount or the amount of ammunition available], although ammunition that was significantly larger than common 1/3 inch bullets [eg. .50 cal] were still regarded as heavy. Light machineguns were commonly [but not always] organic to the infantry squad or section, very often carrying a bipod mount, and in the case of German squads half of the squad carried ammunition for the MG-34 or its successor, due to its rate-of-fire. A "light" MG-34 or -42 firing at this rate, on a bipod, tended to be hard to stabilise, so an assistant gunner might grip the base of each leg of the bipod with his hands rather than feeding an ammo belt.Aforandy (talk) 18:48, 10 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Naming

I don't think there should be a space in the abbreviated name of of the MG, it ought to be MG34 in accordance with other German weapon naming conventions. Koalorka (talk) 20:45, 27 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

MG 34 in China

A link to the following URL was undone by a user http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=101&t=152819&sid=5f202ee0230a854d506433b378348592&start=15

There are many internet sources without citations which refer to the use of the MG 34 in China, and the same sources usually refer to the MG-34 being manufactured in China, again, with no recourse to reliable sources being cited.

Had MG-34 manufacture been commonplace, Chinese manufactured MG-34s would have been documented in the Korean and Vietnam wars. Instead, the ZB-26 was the most common light machine gun in use with the Chinese Nationalists.

The thread, to which a link was posted, shows photographic evidence of Chinese army personnel with MG-34s. Firstly, being inspected by the members of the 1943 Chinese Military Mission to North Africa, prior to being shipped to China. Secondly, a picture from a Chinese language book of Communist soldiers using a captured MG-34. I am not aware of other photographic evidence of Chinese soldiers with the MG-34.

Conversely, can anyone out there provide substantive evidence of manufacture of MG-34s in China, and back this up with production output figures? Keith H99 (talk) 21:38, 21 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"7.92" vs. 8 mm

For all information you ever wanted to know, plus more, about this subject - see Talk:8×57mm_IS#German_military_designation.3F.

"7.92x57mm Mauser" is just wrong.
In Europe, Russia and Chile, the CIP is authoritative for cartridge nomenclature. In North America, it is the SAAMI. Both talk about 8x57 IS. As a compromise, en.wikipedia included a "mm": 8x57mm IS.
To alter an accepted nomenclature by two(!) standardisation bodies (standardisation is one of CIP's tasks, and SAAMI is quasi industrial standard in the USA) is WP:OR.
To sum it up: In the Wehrmacht, Reichswehr and other German armed forces, it was either "Patrone 7.9mm" (w/o brass length) OR in civil use 8x57 I(nfantry)S(pitzer). "7.9x57 IS" is mixing different nomenclatures. "7.92x57" may come from the BESA machine gun by Great Britain, or it may just be an error, or both. In both cases, the BESA is a rather exotic weapon chambered for the cartridge, as opposed to millions of Karabiner 98k, military, hunting and sporting rifles.

Last time, there were endless edit wars against User:MFIreland. I hope now factual arguments will be heared and the reverts are not trolling. --Hornsignal (talk) 13:34, 6 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No mention of its range

What was the gun's range? Urgos (talk) 21:19, 21 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

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Image looks like reenactors

I think the soldiers in this image are modern day reenactors and if so that should pointed out in the caption. MG 34#Medium machine gun fire support role. Slight Smile 22:24, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Added the picture shows Wehrmacht reenactors. Wikicommons is quite clear regarding the 2012 reenactment status.--Francis Flinch (talk) 08:55, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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