Each canvas belt held two hundred and fifty 7.92mm Mauser rifle cartridges.
A jacket filled with water encased the barrel and helped keep it from overheating. After about 600 rounds of continuous fire, the heat generated would cause some of the water to evaporate and flow as steam through a hose to a water collector.
Drag left and right to rotate the model, click on the hotspots for more info.
As each cartridge fired, the force generated by the explosion was used both to send the bullet forward and to operate the weapon’s mechanism, advancing the next round into firing position. So long as the gunner held the trigger, the MGO8 kept shooting, with a rate of fire of around 500 rounds per minute. Tap the play button to see how the mechanism worked on a similar American Browning machine gun.
The full-power cartridges of the Maxim made it devastatingly effective even at long ranges (up to 2,000 meters). Tap the play button to see what a heavy machine gun does to a concrete-block wall
MG08
Using the sledge, soldiers could either drag the gun or carry it stretcher-style. Still, it was not easy to move it forward with an attacking force.
This MG08 was the German version of the Maxim water-cooled heavy machine guns also used by the British, French Russian, and other armies.