A World War I relic sees action again in Ukraine

 

I was amazed to learn that Maxim machine guns - a technology invented in the late 19th century, decades before World War I - are still in use by Ukrainian forces, and apparently giving a good account of themselves.  Task & Purpose reports:

Although the Maxim machine gun was originally created way back in the 1880s, today’s war in Ukraine has surfaced a sometimes bizarre mix of weapons and tactics. There are modern drones and troops just as likely to carry tablets as rifles. Mid-century Cold War tanks and armored personnel carriers are taking the field alongside modern rocket systems. Satellite imagery is helping troops endure old-school trench warfare. And Ukrainian fighters have been busting out machine guns that are more than 100 years old.

Take for instance this recent video of a fighter using an old Maxim, fitted with decidedly modern add-ons such as optics and a suppressor.

And if one Maxim isn’t enough, why not rig up four into one large anti-drone system? That’s what Ukrainian fighters recently did, creating a four-gun turret specifically meant to shoot down Russian drones.

There's more at the link.

The Maxim model in question is the PM M1910, adopted prior to World War I for the Imperial Russian armed forces, and continuing in production in the Soviet Union until after World War II.  It's chambered for the 7.62x54mmR cartridge, older than but approximately equivalent to the US .30-06 Springfield.

Many Maxim-type machine guns all over the world soldiered on after the World Wars.  South Africa rechambered many of its Vickers machine guns (based on the Maxim design, and originally chambered in .303 British) to fire the modern 7.62x51mm NATO round.  I ran into a couple of them in the operational areas of South West Africa (today Namibia) and Angola during the 1980's.  South Africa's modernized Vickers were finally retired in the early 1990's, after combat use as late as 1988.  Other nations used similar weapons well into the 1960's.

Maxim recalled:

In 1882 I was in Vienna, where I met an American whom I had known in the States. He said: 'Hang your chemistry and electricity! If you want to make a pile of money, invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each others' throats with greater facility.'

More than a hundred and forty years later, Europeans are still using Maxim's machine gun to kill each other.  The weapon and its derivatives have probably slaughtered tens of millions by now.  That doesn't say much for humanity, does it?

Peter