After World War I and in the beginning of World War II, the Germans were looking for a good replacement for the MG 34, a machine that was used in WWI. The MG 34 was powerful (a similar round per minute count as MG 42) but they were very complex to build and use. They were also more expensive and were sensitive to dirt in mud. The MG 42 was officially accepted in 1942, and would be produced 400,000 times throughout the war.
During the war, the MG 34 was much more powerful and more deadly than it's US counterpart, the m1919 machine gun. Further displaying the fact that the Germans tried to aim more at quality over quantity. Many American and other allied Soldiers very scared of the notorious roar that the gun made. Anyone who isn't in a hiding spot would have life put in danger of being cut in half by speeding bullets.
The MG 42, also known as the "Hitler's Buzzsaw" did its job in striking fear in men, and then killing them.
I think it's interesting that you elaborated on how it was mentioned during class that the German gun had 300 parts in the firing part while the American gun had about three. I can understand how with the tanks, quality can definitely beat quantity in some cases, but with guns, it seems like a much less difference in result just because the man holding the gun can still be killed. Upon further research, I also thought it was interesting the difference in material making a difference in the ease of production of the weapon. The MG 34 was made of high-quality metal alloys, whereas the MG 42 switched to steel as materials became more scarce as the war went on, which is another example of the war being won in production.
ReplyDeletehttps://fjm44.com/articles/mg-34-spare-barrel-carrier-laufschutzer-34-beq-1943/
I really liked how you explained the history of both the old (MG 34) and the new (MG 42) guns. As we talked about in class, the Americans tended to focus more on quantity and the Germans tended to focus on quality when it came to war supply production. I did some research and it turns out that the efficiency optimization of the MG 34 to the MG 42 was not the first of its kind. Earlier in the war, the SMG 38 (submachine gun) was also optimized for efficiency resulting in the more streamlined MP 40.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp?smallarms_id=64