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Invented by Andreas Schwartzlose of Charlottenberg
Germany in 1902, this gun was first produced by Steyr in Austria
three years later. The Austro-Hungarian Army used them in several
models, and it was their standard Machine Gun throughout the War,
used on all fronts. (An altered version of this gun was used by the
Austro-Hungarian air service, although it proved markedly inferior
to most other Machine Guns used in Aircraft. Indeed it wasn't until
1917 that the Schwarzlose was modified for use with aircraft.)
It was, as can be seen in the photo, a water-cooled weapon, with a
pretty short barrel. It's tripod could be adjusted so that the gun
could be fired at different heights. It could, as can be seen below,
also be equipped with a special 7mm Shield of Steel. The gun could
also be equipped with wheels. (In addition to being used in Austria
it was used in 6.5 mm calibre in Sweden as the Model 14 and in the
Netherlands as the Models 08, 08/13 and 08/15. Czechoslovakia used
it in 7.92 mm calibre and the Italians made great use of it, having
large stocks they had taken from the Austrians after World War 1.
Some Schwarzlose MG:s were also employed by both the Italians and
the Russians - using captured supplies of the Austro-Hungarian
weapon.) It was a sturdy weapon and reliable weapon. It had some
drawbacks. In order to prevent the cartridges from getting stuck,
the gun had a in-built oil pump, that dispensed oil on this part of
the machanism, but the problem with this was, that this generated
quite a lot of smoke, which could make the gun easy to spot.
It was comparitively light when compared to a Vickers, or Maxim.
Additionally, though the system was designed to utilize a tri-pod
(the configuration most often seen with the weapon) it was supplied
with a shoulder stock extention that could be bolted to the
receiver. The carrying back-pack for the gun was fitted centrally
with a steel sleeve to accept the gun's pinion, and in demands of
expediency, could be utilized as a extemperized block mount for
firing. After the success of the light MG08/15 was noted, a bipod
was developed to clamp over the foward portion of the water jacket;
which, when utilized with the shoulder stock, made the Schwarzlose a
reasonably successful assault weapon.
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