I assume they were using captured Lewis guns. Did indigenous ammunition which could be fired through the captured guns? Or did they have to ref fabricate ammunition to be fired through the guns. Using captured enemy weapons seems to be a trade-off using available resources and logistical problems of sustaining them.
The Germans made changes to both Madsen guns and Lewis guns so that they would be able to use standard German rifle ammunition. Every once in a while, however, I run into a tale of German soldiers training with unmodified weapons and stocks of captured ammunition.
It would have been a complex and time consuming business to convert these captured Madsen guns from .303 British calibre to 7.92 German, the two rounds being entirely different. I suppose the conversion would have entailed replacing the barrel, the entire breechblock mechanism and the magazine too, with no assurance that such artisanal remakes would prove reliable in service.
Given the constraints on the German economy at the time, I’m surprised that they would have found it worthwhile to essentially remanufacture the entire gun, and think it more likely that they simply used captured ammunition which they had in vast quantities.
https://www.moore.army.mil/infantry/magazine/issues/2016/JAN-MAR/pdf/13)%20Nothstine_MachineGun_txt.pdf
The development of the machine gun
and it’s impact on the great war.
I assume they were using captured Lewis guns. Did indigenous ammunition which could be fired through the captured guns? Or did they have to ref fabricate ammunition to be fired through the guns. Using captured enemy weapons seems to be a trade-off using available resources and logistical problems of sustaining them.
The Germans made changes to both Madsen guns and Lewis guns so that they would be able to use standard German rifle ammunition. Every once in a while, however, I run into a tale of German soldiers training with unmodified weapons and stocks of captured ammunition.
It would have been a complex and time consuming business to convert these captured Madsen guns from .303 British calibre to 7.92 German, the two rounds being entirely different. I suppose the conversion would have entailed replacing the barrel, the entire breechblock mechanism and the magazine too, with no assurance that such artisanal remakes would prove reliable in service.
Given the constraints on the German economy at the time, I’m surprised that they would have found it worthwhile to essentially remanufacture the entire gun, and think it more likely that they simply used captured ammunition which they had in vast quantities.