Re: rochtofens ( sp) drI
Greg Springer (gspring@ix.netcom.com)
Wed, 4 Oct 1995 16:23:00 -0700
The forward firing guns used by the German Air Service after 1915 are
a development of the Maxim MG 08 correctly known as the LMG 08/15. As
many of them were produced at the Spandau arsenal outside Berlin and
bear that name on top of the receiver in large lettering they naturally
got that generic name from the Allies. The two MG 08's that I have
examined are finished with a dark grey paint over some sort of
phosphating treatment (a practice still used by the Heckler & Koch
firm). Incidentally, the empty shell casings are ejected forward from
the front of the receiver below the barrel and parallel to it. On the
pair of guns on display in the Imperial War Museum tubes have been
fitted which presumably guided the casings into a catch box. You
really wouldn't want them rattling around in the fuselage to possibly
jam your controls.
As for the prop laminations,I read somewhere that the Germans prefered
mahogany and ash, though where they were able to get mahogany with the
British blockade I can't imagine.
Greg Springer
'All the world is my friend for I am a brewer.'