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Title:	GUN, MACHINE -  GERMAN MACHINE GUN MG42 7.92MM SN# 1136
Maker/Manufacturer:	STANGE, LOUIS
Date of Manufacture:	1942
Eminent Figure:
Catalog Number:	SPAR 816
Measurements:	OL:122.5CM 48 1/4" BL: 53.3CM 21" 25 1/4 lbs.

Object Description:

GERMAN MACHINE GUN MG42 7.92MM SN# 1136
Manufactured by Alkett, Berlin, Germany in 1942 - Standard German WWII machine gun. Short-recoil operated, roller locking lugs. Fed with 50-shot metallic belts. Inverted 'V' on folding post front; V-notch adjustable for elevation only rear sight. Full-automatic fire only. Muzzle velocity 2,475 fps. Effective range of 1000 yards and maximum range of 3827 yards. Cyclic rate of fire 1200 to 1350 rounds per minute with a sustain rate of 250 to 500 rpm. Weapon has an overall length of 48 1/4", a barrel length of 21" and weighs approximately 25 1/4 lbs.

Markings:
Receiver: 1942/MG42/1136/CRA, Waffenamt 11.
Bipod: DAC in oval, Waffenamt 195.
Butt: code HEQ, Waffenamt 34.
Barrel jacket: code BPR.
Matching serial number except bolt - 186, and bipod 733.

Weapon transferred to the Museum on 31 January 1956.

Notes: "In 1942 the Germans, after nearly 3 years of war, introduced into their services a machine gun known as the MG-42. It represented during World War II one of the finest machine guns manufactured for effort and money expended. The Germans, using the already highly successful MG-34 as a guide for such factors as length, weight, ballistics, and rate of fire, attempted to solve for the duration of the war their army's light machine gun problems. Only the soundest and most proved features known to them were put into its construction.
It was a weapon of devisement, contributed to by many, rather than the single invention of any individual. For instance, the barrel change was an improvement over the Italian Breda, and the locking was an adaption of the patented locking arrangement of Edward Stecke, a citizen of Warsaw, Poland. It is believed by many that, with the overrunning of Poland in 1939, one of the things seized by the Germans was a mock-up of a machine gun having Stecke's locking action. Realizing that it had many advantages, they added it to the list of fine features to be incorporated in a single ideal machine gun.
After the mechanism was finally decided upon, Dr. Grunow, a German industrialist, whose specialty was mass production by metal stampings, was ordered to devote his talents toward manufacture of a weapon without employing complicated methods or equipment. Dr. Grunow's accomplishment of this task by extensive use of pressing, riveting, and spot welding was a thing that will be studies and closely copied in machine gun construction for years to come. While its finished appearance was by no means as striking as that of other German machine guns, its battle life and performance was even greater than the normally high German standards for such arms.
The need for frequent barrel change because of the unusually fast rate of fire was met by the introduction of a most novel and efficient method for accomplishing it. A barrel throw-out lever was hinged on the right side of the receiver. It could be swung out bringing with it the hot barrel, which was supported by a metal loop attached to the inside of the actuating lever. The barrel could then be pivoted out of the rear of the barrel jacket and dropped without handling.
The Germans, being perfectly satisfied with its ballistics, adapted the MG-42 to take the 7.92mm infantry rifle cartridge. Although it did not weigh much more than an ordinary military rifle, no provision was made whereby it could be fired single shot, the only two settings on its selector switch being for Safe and for Automatic fire.
The system of operation was short recoil. Free travel of locked bolt and barrel was allowed for a short distance. The bolt was then unlocked and the high chamber pressure being held by the muzzle booster exerted itself on the barrel face and through the bore to the now empty cartridges, thus giving an abnormal rate of fire for such a light firing mechanism. Its cyclic rate, when using special ammunition, was asserted to be 1,350 rounds a minute and the normal number of rounds per minute with standard ammunition was 1,200 shots. While this may seem unnecessarily high for an infantry weapon, its importary but double so for its effectiveness in keeping the enemy pinned down when dug in.
Ammunition was fed to the weapon by flexible metal belts, each holding 50 rounds, that could easily be spliced to any length desired. A drum magazine, also holding one 50-round belt, could be attached to the left side and a few have been known to be modified to take a saddle drum feed that held 75 belted cartridges." - Chinn

"Despite the overall excellence of the MG 34 it was really too good for its task in terms of cost and production requirements, so despite the establishment of a full production facility and constant demand, by 1940 the Mauser designers were looking for something simpler. With the production example of the 9-mm MP40 sub-machine gun as an example in production simplicity and low cost, they decided to adopt new production methods using as few expensive machining processes as possible allied with new operating mechanisms. The new mechanisms come from a wide range of sources. Experience with the MG 34 had indicated how the feed could be revised, and designs captured when Poland was overrun appeared to promise a new and radical breech locking system. Other ideas came from Czechoslovakia, and the Mauser team also introduced its own ideas. From this wealth of innovation came a new design, the MG 39/41, and from a series of trials carried out with the design came Maschinegewehr 42 or MG 42, a design that must rank among the finest of its kind.
The MG 42 introduced mass-production techniques to the machine-gun on a large scale. Earlier designs had used some simple sheet metal stampings and production short-cuts (one gun being the little-known French Darne light machine-gun), but the harsh environment that the machine-gun has to endure meant that few had any success. On the MG 42 that success was immediate. Sheet metal stampings were extensively used for the receiver and for the barrel housing which incorporated an ingenious barrel-change system. The latter was very necessary for the MG 42 that success was immediate. Sheet metal stampings were extensively used for the receiver and for the barrel housing which incorporated an ingenious barrel-change system. The latter was very necessary for the MG 42 had a prodigious rate of fire that sounded like tearing linoleum. This was produced by the locking mechanism employed, a mechanism that was developed from several sources and was both simple and reliable. The system involved the use of two locking rollers running up and down an internal ramp: in the forward position they locked the breech very effectively by mechanical advantage and then allowed the ramp to release the locking. On the ammunition feed an arm on the bolt was used to pull the ammunition belts across into the receiver in a simple and very effective fashion. Only the 50-round belt was used with the MG 42.
These design details merged to form a very effective general-purpose machine-gun and as is related elsewhere the type was attached to a wide range of mounts and other accessories. The MG 42's operational debut came in 1942, when it appeared in both the USSR and North Africa. Thereafter it was used on every front and in general issue was made to front-line troops only, for thought the MG 42 was intended to supplant the MG 34 it in fact only supplemented the earlier type.
Not content with producing the one of the finest machine-gun designs ever produced, the Mauser design team tried to go one better and came up with the MG 45 with an even higher rate of fire. The end of the war put paid to that design for the time being, but the MG 42 lives on with many armies." - Bishop

"More reliable than the MG34 and better able to resist di
DISPOSITION OF OTHER MG34s THAT WERE IN THE SPRINGFIELD ARMORY COLLECTION:
Army #5939 - MG34 SN# 9527 - Transferred to Letterkenny.
Army #5940 - MG34 SN# 9990 - Transferred to Letterkenny.
Army #5941 - MG34 SN# 7954 - No record.
Army #5977 - MG34 SN# 8116 - Transferred to Letterkenny.
Army #5979 - MG34 SN# 7034 - Transferred to Letterkenny.
Army #6289 - MG34 SN# 1131 - Transferred to Letterkenny.

References:
Bishop, Chris Ed. ENCYCLOPEDIA WEAPONS OF WORLD WAR II. Barnes & Noble. N.Y., N.Y. 1998
Chinn, George M. THE MACHINE GUN. Vol. I. Department of the Navy. Washington, D.C. 1951.
Hogg, Ian & John Weeks. MILITARY SMALL ARMS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. Digest Books, Inc. Northfield, Il. 1973.