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Maschinengewehr 08
One of the primary causes of the massive casualty rates on all fronts during the Great War was the fielding of heavy machine guns capable of sustained fire. The Maschinengewehr 08, developed by Germany from the Maxim design of the 1880s, was one of the best known of these weapons.
Hiram Stevens Maxim was an American inventor who in 1884 developed a reliable, recoil operated machine gun. The weapon, named after Maxim, was capable of being operated in the field under difficult service conditions, and could fire thousands of rounds between stopages. When chambered for rifle calibre ammunition it had an effective range of nearly two kilometers, and a practical rate of fire of around 500 rounds a minute (counting the time needed to reload the 250rd belts). The weapon was first used by the British for colonial service, but many British officers felt that the need for massive amounts of ammunition made it impossible to employ in European conflicts.
At the start of the Great War Germany had 12,000 of these weapons and was buying 200 more per month. When the machine gun proved itself in battle the rate of manufacture was raised until 1917 when 15,000 new weapons were being made per month. Eventually Germany made over 175,000 of these weapons.
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