Forgotten Soldier Machine Gun Question

Guy Sajer frequently calls the machine guns that his unit uses 'Spandaus', as far as I know this is what the Maxim machine guns from World War I were called. Is this a mistake or was his unit really issued these old weapons, surely he meant the MG 42 or MG 34? As he begins service in 42 I would guess that the MG 42 would have been issued to infantry am I right?

I wonder if this could be a translators error? I remember reading an account by a WW2 British soldier in which all German machine guns were called 'Spandaus' so maybe someone British or familiar with British terms for German machine guns used the 'Spandau' label for whatever the colloquial German term would have been?

John Dupre'

The Germans ended up being desparately short of everything, to the point of converting the MG15 flexible aircraft gun to a ground gun. Yes, there were MG08s in service... along with just about anything else you could possibly imagine.

as {snip to conform to quoting reqs}

German machineguns were frequently referred to as 'Spandaus' in contemporary Allied (well, British anyway)accounts, although I am surprised to see it in a German account. The original term does indeed date from WW1, possibly in Sajers original manuscript there was a slang French/German term for 'machinegun' which has been translated as 'Spandau'?

Cheers

British troops called the mg34 and mg43 spandaus. I imagine the translator asked what to call the guns and someone british answered.

The mg42 started production in 42 but never completely superseded the mg34.... so they could be either.

They got one mg34 or mg42 per german infantry squad. From mid war, pz grenadiers and paras got 2 machine guns per squad. Pz grenadiers also having the mg34/42 on the front of the 251 if they were lucky enough to have a half track.

Every man in the squad was trained to fire the machine gun since the squad tactics completely revolved around the weapon. The gunner or loader get shot and one of the riflemen will always take over where possible.

Units in action would frequently suffer significantly higher casualties than could be replaced and hence squads of 6 or so would be fairly common. Particularly late war losses could be such that the remnants of a couple of squads would be merged just to get even a 6 man squad. In this case it was not unusual to find two mg34/mg42 in an infantry squad.

Vets facing german infantry stress the machine gun fire. The weight of fire from an mg34 is high, from an mg42 very high. One thing I've heard/read from several vets is that they started out with the expectation that all that fire must logically mean jerry would run out of ammo eventually and then they'd be OK... But somehow the Jerry they faced didn't ever seem to. Out the jerry squad, everyone could start an action lugging a couple of 150 rd belts. The loader with a couple of cans of ammo as well. Back down the road a ways will be a heap of belts. In action, several of the riflemen out the squad will be legging it back and forwards with more ammo. Hence, a 5 round capacity for a Kar98K and bolt action is less of a handicap for the squads effectiveness than one might imagine.

Andy O'Neill www.l-25.demon.co.uk/index.htm