Teamwork

R

Robert

New member
Why should two men carry a 50kg machinegun if one can do it as well?

The German army incorporated a very modern form of team cooperation that freed up personnel to hang around at the canteen. Widely adopted in the business world today, the introduction of downsizing allows to exploit its advantages even more efficiently.

P.S. I wonder where the guy with all the ammo boxes is? He is evidently falling behind which will earn him a negative record in his personnel file.

mg_traeger.jpg
 
queue-jumping at the Gulaschkanone
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Another useless piece of trivia did you know that field artillery units do not have one of these? Apparently the biggest complaint about these was that they did not make bread therefore requiring some sort of connection to a bakery company.
 
I think so but I am not certain. We are only starting our research on the next book. It is about early war stuff and contains a lot of information about the individual soldier and unit organization and comparing that to the development of tactics and doctrine.

This food delivery system Gulaschkanone was really quite a novel weapon. It gave the Germans a substantial advantage. I will probably write an article about this but here are some tidbits. Gulaschkanone were organized one for infantry company. Sort of a company mess wagon. What made them so useful is that the cooking was continued on the march, so at a food halt all the company had to do was lineup and start eating. There was actually a fire in the wagon that continually heated a 200 L cooking kettle and a coffee maker. The cooking channel was an airtight double boiler filled with glycerin. Bread and other meals were carried in sacks on the wagon. In the morning there was a dispersal of 25 kg of coffee.

The French system was on the squad level. Each squad carried equipment and food and had to prepare their own meal. This was not only time-consuming but it meant that many meals were left on the fire as maneuver started.

The amount of food used was absolutely astonishing. According to my sources, a meal for a battalion of approximately 1000 men required 750 kg of bread, 125 kg of rice or 1500 kg of potatoes. The meat portion was two oxen, six pigs, or 19 calves.

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Hey Joe.
Another book? I can not wait, is it almost ready for print? You need to spend less time crusing and more time writing!
A comment on the boys carring the MG08s, it is easier to carry a heavy load by one's self when traveling over rough ground, by trading off, each man can have a bit of a break and they are not fighting each other in trying to hold the weight steady.
Best wishes
Gus
 
The MG08 and sled mount weighed 125 pounds. All that weight digging into the shoulders via the skinny front legs of the mount. I guarantee they did not carry them far.
Steve
 
True, it would be uncomfortable, but remember that there are several layers of heavy wool to pad the weight.
Best wishes
Gus
 
joerookery said:
I think so but I am not certain. We are only starting our research on the next book. It is about early war stuff and contains a lot of information about the individual soldier and unit organization and comparing that to the development of tactics and doctrine.

This food delivery system Gulaschkanone was really quite a novel weapon. It gave the Germans a substantial advantage. I will probably write an article about this but here are some tidbits. Gulaschkanone were organized one for infantry company. Sort of a company mess wagon. What made them so useful is that the cooking was continued on the march, so at a food halt all the company had to do was lineup and start eating. There was actually a fire in the wagon that continually heated a 200 L cooking kettle and a coffee maker. The cooking channel was an airtight double boiler filled with glycerin. Bread and other meals were carried in sacks on the wagon. In the morning there was a dispersal of 25 kg of coffee.

The French system was on the squad level. Each squad carried equipment and food and had to prepare their own meal. This was not only time-consuming but it meant that many meals were left on the fire as maneuver started.

The amount of food used was absolutely astonishing. According to my sources, a meal for a battalion of approximately 1000 men required 750 kg of bread, 125 kg of rice or 1500 kg of potatoes. The meat portion was two oxen, six pigs, or 19 calves.
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Careful Joe - if you keep handing out such comprehensive "tidbits" like this, we won't need to purchase your book :wink:

Cheers,

- Brett
 
we won't need to purchase your book
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We certainly do not do this to make money! Actually sales on forums are much slower than that in person appearances. The best we could ever hope for is to break even. Actually the writing for me is therapy. I have a small disability which sometimes manifests itself in not being able to explain anything. I understand it but cannot get it out. So writing helps that. Along the way I confuse the hell out of a lot of people but that's what you get for listening to an old man who no one ever said was right in the first place!

Here's another tidbit that goes more along with what Steve said.

According to the doctrine these machine guns were supposed to keep up with the attack. This was tough based on the weight. The standard way was to do a two-man carry. Usually however it was a four man carry. When using four people each one carried a box of ammunition. Now here is the rub. The crew did not carry their backpacks in an effort to even out the weight. The backpacks were kept on one of the wagons. Therefore, the separation of man from his backpack was a real problem. Especially in cold or wet weather where the poncho was on the backpack. The watercooled nature of the gun tended to give away the position through steam and barrel changes were required often each gun having six barrels.
 
Was such a field kitchen really typical German? It seems that every army on the world would utilize something similar. Well at least the term goulash cannon might be unique.. they could lower the chimney down to the rear when driving, looking a bit like a towed artillery piece.

BTW. the modern goulash cannon the the German army is designed to feed 250 men, which would resemble the same capacity as Joe described it for WWI.
 
Robert,

From what I have seen so far it is only German. and then only the maneuver arms. I don't know how it was done in the British Army but there was apparently some sort of distribution in Austria-Hungary and Russia. Seems like it would be a great technology to copy. I even know how much wood or coal you needed for meal. Pretty amazing little contraption.
 
Apparently the biggest complaint about these was that they did not make bread therefore requiring some sort of connection to a bakery company.
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I had to think of this thread when I saw this picture in a book, showing captured British field bakeries being used by the Germans. Obviously a field cooking device for baking bread would need to be of completely different construction than the gulash canon which focused on soup-like meals.

feldbaeckerei.jpg
 
Teamwork picture showing the use of those rounded rings.

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A German field bakery -- centrally located which makes sense. However, there was a distribution issue from the bakery to the company. I don't know how that worked.

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Was such a field kitchen really typical German?
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The French had also mobile kitchens, Robert. I will later perhaps show some examples, if you guys here are interested. I must add, to be precisely, from 1915 on, copying the German example.
 
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