MG08 modified for mountain use

R

Robert

New member
This seems to be an MG 08 mounted on the tripod of a captured St. Étienne machine gun?

On the rear "Geb. M.G." has been written which probably stands for Gebirgs M.G. - mountain machine gun. It would make sense to provide a lighter tripod capable of high-angle fire for the mountain environment.

This is a large picture with good detail, here is the full resolution for download: http://www.hinesley.de/geb_mg_2.jpg

geb_mg_1.jpg
 
Yes the gun itself is standard, the tripod is a captured french mount that has been modified.

I posted this picture in the Great War Forum which led to a series of personal attacks between the contributors :( but the base line is, the gun was cobbled together by a unit for mountain use but it's nothing that was officially issued.
 
the Great War Forum which led to a series of personal attacks between the contributors
Click to expand...

Now I'm going to go look for the thread! There are some pretty vile attacks there but I have also seen a lot of good content. My only thought on the picture is that maybe it was cobbled together for some sort of antiaircraft use. Who knows?
 
Great photo Robert! And I think Joe is right; here's a classic photo of a WW1 British Vickers Machine Gun set for anti-aircraft use--at least that's what it says on Wikipedia (as per the Library of Congress):
BritishVickersMachineGunAnti-AircraftSet-Up-WW1.jpg
 
Yes I know numerous pictures with machine guns mounted on whatever came handy for AA use.

This picture was one of a series, regretably I only got this one. The other pictures showed it on a horse carriage, from different sides, in different poses etc. and always had the writing call it a mountain m.g.

There are a lot of extremely knowledgeable people on the Great War Forum. Problems sometimes arise when two of them bump into each other with different opinions..
 
Robert said:
There are a lot of extremely knowledgeable people on the Great War Forum. Problems sometimes arise when two of them bump into each other with different opinions..
Click to expand...

But that is never an excuse to become disrespectful towards eachother [-X

Regards,

Edwin
 
:) Of course everyone is an expert!
From period photos and some superb private collections in French hands there are numerous types of bipods and mounts. Particularly bastardised existing main mounts. Dold Goldsmith's excellent book shows a few.
The MG is of interest though as this I believe to be a commercial MG08. The tangent sight is bridged like the L series Vickers in order to reduce weight. This was not the 'land' standard so it is indeed a great photo. Coincidentally the vickers photo shows the L lightened vickers tangent sight.
Mark
 
Masch17_zpsebc65006.jpg

Not wishing to hijack the mountain MG thread but the MG08 thread will show various AA configurations and mounts. This MG08 is the naval version as used on zeppelins, converted for ground use.
 
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