Density of German machine guns on the Somme

[seb phillips]

A question that often comes up in the classroom is 'how many machine guns did the Germans have?'

 

Students are of the impression that the whole front line was filled with them (probably helped by the sequence in War Horse where the cavalry charge a battery of the things). I was always under the impression that it was a much lower number, but they tried to position them to fire across the field rather than directly at the advancing troops. 

 

Does anyone have any information on this?

 

Thanks,

 

Seb

 

[John_Hartley]

I have it mind that Ralph Whitehead's "Other side of the wire" has been quoted on the forum with details of machine gun positions in some of the 1916 Somme sectors.

 

 

[brummell]

Seb,

 

I'm sure it'll be no surprise to you that the density varied along the front.  The villages incorporated into the pre-1 July 1916 front line were intended as fortresses and had a greater concentration of machine guns in them than other locations.  Stedman in his Thiepval has 21 machine guns in Thiepval village itself, for example.  How many might be found along a typical length of front between these heavily-defended localities is an interesting question.  The range of the Maxim was such that to a large extent these areas could be mutually-supporting.

 

After 1 July, as the front line (gradually) moved away from these set-piece defensive positions (in part of the battlefield, at least), then the Germans had to site their guns on a more ad hoc basis to make best use of the ground they were then occupying.  As the battle came to be fought in the October/November desolation, trenches scarcely existed and the Germans dispersed their machine guns as widely as possible to counter British artillery.

 

You are quite right on the best tactical employment of machine guns, which as you say is to fire them in enfilade; the rounds from a single machine gun fired at the same point will naturally and unavoidably fall in an oblong-shaped area with the long axis along the line of fire.  This is known nowadays as the 'beaten zone'; I'm not sure if the term was so used at the time.  Due to the shape of the beaten zone, it is more effective to fire a machine gun into the flank of a mass target, so that the depth of the zone is used most effectively.  Arrange multiple guns so that their beaten zones overlap in a cross-fire, and you have a killing area well-nigh impassable.

 

 

- brummell

[Jack Sheldon]

As the war became increasingly industrialised and the German army substituted fire power for manpower, the numbers of machine guns manufactured rocketed. Here are some monthly figures for July - August of 1916, 1917 and 1918:  1,608 (1916); 8676 (1917); 11,354 (1918) At the front, in addition to captured weapons, on 15 Jun 17 there were 26,000 MG 08 and 3,500 of the 'lightweight' MG 08/15.  Four months later, on 15 Oct 17, 40,000 MG 08 and 16,000 MG 08/15 were deployed. Here is a real example of what this meant during the final stages of the battle for Passchendaele in November 1917. Inf Regt 49 (4th Inf Div) arrived in the area on 2 November and was immediately issued with an additional 24 MG 08/15. These were issued two per company. 3rd Bn manned the front line with outposts forward. Its eight MG 08/15s were deployed to complement its MG Coy which had seven MG 08 forward. In support, mainly in overwatch positions, were a further forty one MG 08, being the balance of five from the 3rd Bn MG Coy, twenty four MG 08 belonging to the MG Coys of 2nd and 1st Bns and an additional twelve belonging to MG Sharp Shooter Detachment 70. The sixteen other MG 08/15 of 2nd and 1st Bns were distributed in depth. Given that the going was appalling and one or two resolutely manned MGs could halt entire battalions, you can see why the fighting for Passchendaele village cost the Canadians so many casualties.

 

Jack

[Ralph J. Whitehead]

I am going on memory tonight, I believe that the 26th Reserve Division, from the Heidenkopf to Ovillers, had a total of 72 heavy machine guns to cover that part of the line. The other divisions were probably about the same.

 

Ralph

[Gunner Bailey]

Too many.. too many......

[The Prussian]

Hello!

Jack made a brilliant list about the numbers of german MG. Great work!

Ralph. You mentioned the 26.Res.Div.

The Division had the following regiments:

1914: Res.99, Res.119, Res.120, Res.121 and 180

1915: see 1914

1916: see 1914, minus Res.120

1917: see 1916, minus Res.99

1918: see 1917

Well. The active 180 had three bataillons and one MG-comp. A 2nd and 3rd MG-comp was raised in 1916

Res.99 had four bataillons and a fourth MG-comp. was raised in 1916

Res.119  had three bataillons and until 1916 three MG-comp.

Res.120 see R.119

Res.121 see R.119

So, that division had 16 MG companies

BUT, in peace each MG-comp. had six MG and one spare MG. In war time, some regiments (!) only had six MG, others 25!

Then you may not forget the "MG-Scharfschützen-Abteilungen" (MG-marksman-sections), which stood under higher commands like divisions, corps or armies and could be transfered to different divisions if necessary.

THEN, we had different MG-detachements, companies, platoons and sections of brigades, divisions and corps.

Now it´s up to you to calculate...

[Jack Sheldon]

Glancing at The History of 26th Res Div (Part 1) by Gen der Inf Freiherr von Soden I read on p 97, 'The infantry regiments each had two machine gun companies which, with the addition of Russian machine guns, were reinforced to nine weapons each. To this must be added twelve Belgian machine guns and the six belonging to Fortress Machine Gun Detachment Fasbender. Altogether there were ninety heavy machine guns and 1st Coy Musketen Battalion 1 with thirty light machine guns.' Small wonder that the CO 1 ELanR counted eight machine guns firing on his 400 metres frontage (right forward battalion of 4th Div just north of the Sunken Road) on the morning of 1 Jul 16.

 

[P.B.]

The Prussian mentioned MG-Scharfschützen-Abteilungen...here's a photograph of a Landwehr soldier wearing their distinctive qualification badge awarded on completion of the advanced MG course that was run at places like Hammelberg, together with an original badge in my collection made by the firm of Falkenberg and Richter.

 

All the best

 

Paul.

[The Prussian]

Hello Paul!

A nice picture, but it´s not Landwehr. The collar-numbers indicate him as Landsturm.

We see a XII.2. That stands for the 2nd Landsturm-Infantrie-Bataillon Dresden (Saxony).

Set-up in august 1914

 

Jan. 1915 – Aug. 1915         Gen.Gouv. Belgien                             

                                [16.02.1916]          Gen.Gouv. Belgien                           

                                [10.08.1916]          H.G. Linsingen    

                                [10.08.1916]          verst. XXXXI. Res.Korps             

                                [27.08.1916]          Ost       

                                [01.09.1916]          Gruppe Gronau                                

                  

                                [06.10.1916]          A.Abt. Scheffer                

                                [Nov. 1916]           A.Abt. Scheffer                                 

                                [08.10.1917]          A.Abt. Woyrsch                                

                                [15.12.1917]          Abschnitt Slonim             

                                [30.12.1917]          10. Armee             

[P.B.]

OOPS! It is of course Landsturm...that'll teach me to post late at night!  Thanks for the additional unit information as well.

 

All the best

 

Paul.

[bob lembke]

In late 1916, at Verdun, my father's flame-thrower (FW) company was only formally allocated two MG 08/15s for the company, and the company wanted eight or more MGs accompanying the advancing FW, so they adopted the French Chauchault (sp?), which was badly designed and made, but not totally awful when chambered for the original French round. (The guns re-chambered for the American round were totally awful and mostly useless, and contributed to the gun's awful reputation in the English-language literature.)

 

Carefully selected, tested, and kept clean, these guns actually worked, and provided a truly "light machine gun", at about 20 lbs, I think. My father told me that the machine gunner could sling it over his shoulder with two rifle slings clipped end to end, allowing firing while advancing at the walk. The FW troops wanted to fight as much as possible without infantry support in the attack, as the infantry didn't understand their complex and sometimes counter-intuitive tactics that allowed them to get within FW range of the enemy. The infantry also sometimes ran away. So they brought their own MGs into the fight, and specially light 60 mm mortars, and many grenadiers, as well as the FW.

 

Men who captured and brought in a Chauchault (sp?) earned a certain bonus paid into the company's enlisted men's welfare fund.

 

I have often read of German MG units having say six German MG 08s, but also perhaps three Russian MGs in reserve. Additionally, there were a few German MG units armed with captured Lewis Guns. This all adds up to a lot of MGs.