MG08 Schlitten Patterns

[Mark Finneran]

In my humble opinion, although evidence shows some WWI German sled armament factories/producers still producing the 1st pattern sled, I believe the 1st pattern to be the deck with oil/jelly box (in the middle/2 screw caps) and muzzle box bottom left. All sleds had the barrel breech box.

The 2nd pattern omits the oil/jelly box but retains bottom left mzzle box and the 3rd pattern loses both 'boxes'. These changes were purely for war economy purposes, particularly as the muzzle cap was made obsoluete with the efficient muzzle assembly. Another reason to dispense with the small left hand box in the later pattern. Grateful for any ideas or better suggestions. I am not aware of any other country making the sled and certainly none were produced by Germany after 1919, with Reichswehr examples all being WWI production and adaptions.

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