German LMG Distribution

[thestoats]

My curiosity about German LMG distribution was piqued by a discussion in a previous thread here: https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=147480.0

In researching this topic in more detail, even I was proven to have overestimated German LMG usage in 1917, particularly on the Eastern Front. The oft-repeated claim me and others were working with purports that some 130,000 MG08/15s were produced during the war, of which 80,000 were produced just during 1918. This naturally implies that 50,000 were made in 1917 and before. However, this narrative is sometimes presented alongside the incredibly erroneous claim that the MG08/15 was used during the Somme. This claim is made even further suspect by the realities on the Front according to more reliable sources.

Ernst von Wrisberg, head of the War Ministry, writes in his accounts that even by 15 June 1917, only 3,500 MG08/15s were deployed along the front compared to some 26,000 MG08s. Exactly four months later, the number of MG08/15s had only grown to 16,000. This increase was actually numerically lower than that of the MG08, whose numbers at the front had now reached 40,000.

Verlag's book on German Machine Guns from 1892 to 1918 also casts doubt over the figure of 50,000. According to Buchholz and Brüggen, when MG08/15s were finally distributed to regular infantry formations in June 1917, production had been so low that the War Ministry concluded that the intended paper strength of 36 MG08/15s for every infantry regiment could not be achieved immediately. As such, the OHL decided in June 1917 that "each Inf. Regt. on the Western Front will initially only receive 14 MG 08/15. Of these, 1 is for each company, the excess 2 are intended as an immediate replacement for those that need to be repaired." The quoted order makes no reference to the Eastern Front, indeed corroborating earlier suspicions that, as was the case with the stahlhelm, distribution of the MG08/15 to troops fighting Russia was far from a priority.

While the MG08/15 saw documented use elsewhere than the Western Front (by German reinforcements fighting the Italians), I have yet to see evidence proving that it was used in the East, particularly before the July Battles in Galicia. In fact, evidence I have seen suggests that it was not distributed to the Eastern Front before the War's end. The Osprey title on the Polish Legions from 1914-1919 includes a photo of a PSZ assault squad with the heavier MG08 rather than the MG08/15 despite the latter being more suited for their operations. Even in 1920 Władysław Broniewski makes no reference to MG08/15 when reflecting on combat during the Polish-Bolshevik War, and instead only mentions the Handmaschinengewehr M.17 in relation to heavier light machine guns.

Of course, if anyone does have evidence of more widespread usage of the MG08/15 in 1917 and in particular during the July Battles in Galicia I'd love to see!

[Baron von Wreckedoften]

It would also explain why the Germans were such avid users of captured Lewis Guns (didn't men capturing one receive a bounty, or did I imagine that.....?).