The machine gun section of the K.u.k IR 97

Our reenacting group recently created its first (and only one, I think) machine gun section since one of our members bought a Schwarzlose MG M 7/12. It is completely deactivated and non shooting but to see it on the "battle fields" it's really cool!! By now our MG section has two men who are: Korporal Sandro Permutti and Infanterist Michele Pichl... I hope that soon we will be able to complete the section with the third missing man.

Each regiment had 2 MG sections which were autonomous, that is to say that they were not organized into any Battalion or Company. When the war began this kind of organization changed by adding to each Battalion an MG section which were put usually in the last of the 4 Companies that formed a Battalion. Each of these sections were formed by squads which were equipped with 4 or more machine guns.

 To each machine gun belonged three men. One of them was always either a Zugsfuehrer or a Korporal who had the function of marksman, the other two men were the machine gunner and the gunner who fed the machine gun with its fabric belts of 250 rounds. During the marches the machine gunner carried the gun and the gunner carried the ammunition.

The ammunition as the machine gun were easily transportable with their wooden backpacks. These backpacks were rather rudimentary and unconfortable to feel on ones back so the machine gun positionings were almost all fixed or semi fixed. On his backpack the machine gunner could also fix his poncho, his blanket (or coat) and his mess kit. 

Once he arrived in his position, the machine gun carrier lowered from his back the machine gun and removed it from the backpack while the machine gunner placed the shoot-backpack which was used as a mount for the gun so that he could be able to shoot with it. With this configuration the Schwarzlose was issued with a folding bipod and the central bolt was fitted into a cylindrical mount which was attached to the backpack's structure. In this way the machine gunner was able to operate the gun even alone. To make things easier for the machine gunner there was also a special shoulder stock issued with the gun.

The machine gun Schwarzlose has been designed in the early 1900's by Andreas Wilhelm Schwarzlose from Charlottenburg (Germany). It was one of the first modern concept machine gun with water cooling. Its mechanical principle consisted in delayed inertia. The gun has links between the bolt and receiver which require kinetic energy to rotate. Due to their arrangement, as the bolt first moves these links start to turn, absorbing rotational energy. As the bolt moves back further, the leverage changes and the energy in the links is transfered to the bolt. The Schwarzlose was fed by fabric belts which held each 250 rounds. Its ammunition was the same 8x50R as for the Steyr-Mannlicher M 95 carbines.

Some technical data of the gun:

Caliber: 8X50R Mannlicher

Lenght: 1170mm

Barrel lenght: 600mm

Rounds per minute: 400

Gun weight: 24Kg

Mount weight: 20 Kg

Ammo: fabric belts with 250 rounds

The machine gunner badges

as also for all other specific military services the machine gunners of the K.u.k Army wore on their collar tabs a special badge that distinguished them from the other infantry soldiers. In its iconography it was very nice and interesting as it was represented by three dragons spitting fire in all directions topped with the Imperial Crown. For the hungarian Hònved there was the S. Stephan's Crown instead.

As for all other austro-hungarian uniform attributes they were issued in  stamped plate for all ranks. Officers could have them made  in golden bullion embroidery. They were in golden plate for all officer's ranks and in silver plate for all other ranks.

The machine gunner badge was issued as a  specular couple of two to be sewn on the collar tabs (if any) behind eventual rank insignia ( six-pointed stars)  so that the dragons's heads are looking to the edge of the collar.

An other machine gunner badge which was issued to be worn together with the collar badges was the cap device. this badge was also produced in two different versions. For all ranks it was in silver stamped plate and only for officers it was issued in golden stamped plate. This badge was to be sewn on the right side of the field cap.

The machinegunner as official regulations say:

This is what a machinegunner looked like as shown on some tables in a regulation book for machinegunners. His personal equipment was made of a breadbag, showel, bayonett and a water canteen contained in the breadbag. He was armed with the Steyr M.12 pistol which is put away in its canvas holster of "Ersatz" production i.e. it was produced during the war. Last but not least on his back he carries his Schwarzlose machinegun with its wooden backpack.

 In the lower pictures you can see how the Schwarzlose was actually fixed on the backpack and what it looked like. Please note that this backpack is not an original but it's a repro made by us with the help of original drawings, documents and pictures. We tried to make it look as much as possible like the original one.