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Video: What was the meaning of the machine-gun belt on the chest of the sailors?
2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55
The sailor, tied with machine-gun belts, is one of the most striking and recognizable symbols of the 1917 revolution. Hence, many people probably have a question, why did the Russian sailors do this in general. Is all this some kind of "show-off" of servicemen, part of the statutory form, perhaps it carries a certain symbolic meaning, or is girding with machine-gun belts an extremely practical solution?
It's all the fault of "Maxim"
The degree of transformation of military affairs caused by the appearance of the machine gun and the developed artillery can be compared in history only with the appearance of firearms or stirrups for a saddle. The First World War became that military conflict in the history of mankind, which for the first time was able to fully demonstrate all the monstrous power of machine guns. The most famous is, of course, the Maxim machine gun, large, heavy and clumsy. It is almost impossible to do it alone with this thing, especially since it took a lot of cartridges to create a deadly lead swarm. Most often "Maxims" were fed from cartridge boxes, in which a tape for 250 lead "wasps" was placed.
The machine gun itself (only its "body") weighed almost 20 kilograms. When a protective shield, a machine tool and water (which had to be constantly poured for cooling) were added to it, the mass of the machine gun increased to 67 kg, and this was still without cartridges. At the same time, the box for 250 rounds of 7.62x54 mm caliber also had considerable weight. Only the cartridges themselves, without tape and boxes, weigh 3.4 kg. The length of the tape is almost 6 meters. The equipment of such a tape can take from 30 to 90 minutes, depending on the conditions, the experience of the fighter and the presence of a special charging device.
At the same time, the rate of fire of the "Maxim" produced in 1910 was 600 rounds per minute! And this is 2.4 boxes of cartridges in 60 seconds. Even assuming that the machine gun did not fire constantly (if only because this is technically impossible), the ammunition consumption was simply monstrous.
How to equip machine-gun belts using a Ravkov machine (put into service in 1967):
Thus, the Maxim machine gun was very useful, but extremely inconvenient to use. For comparison, the German MG-34 machine gun during the Second World War weighed just over 10 kg when fully equipped.
Necessity for invention is cunning
The Maxim machine gun did not hit the field immediately. At first, they were put on ships, airships and even airplanes. However, it soon became clear that such a "meat grinder" would be extremely useful in trench warfare and urban clashes. And if most often it was simply impossible to do anything with the mass of the weapon itself, then with heavy boxes for ammunition it was definitely necessary to come up with something. Making the belt for the machine gun shorter was definitely not an option. At the same time, the problem was not only in the mass of the box with cartridges, but also in its ergonomics. It is bulky, makes unnecessary noise, and most importantly, it is inconvenient to wear, and moreover, it can slip out of your hand at the most inopportune moment.
That is why Russian soldiers and sailors quickly realized that the boxes were not needed at all. To one "Maxim" in the state relied on 12 boxes for 250. Instead of carrying this "belongings of death" in their hands, the ancestors began to take out machine-gun belts and simply tie up individual soldiers, primarily machine gunners. The evenly distributed load of the machine-gun belt throughout the body created much less discomfort than a hefty box in the hand. At the right time, the tape could be pulled down from the overcoat and handed it to a friend.
Army chic
It is worth noting that not only our compatriots thought of wearing machine-gun belts in this way. Moreover, they did this not only during the Revolution of 1917. Just look at the pictures from the Second World War. There, every now and then in the frame, sailors, underground fighters, partisans and even infantrymen, who wear ribbons, come across.
It is also important that not always the belted and tied with a cross ribbon on the chest was used for a machine gun. If we talk about the times of the First World War and the revolution in Russia, then the belt from under the Maxim machine gun miraculously fit under rifle cartridges. Therefore, some resourceful fighters began to use them as a bandolier, simply inserting rifle cartridges into the machine-gun belt. Simple and convenient. Fortunately, because of the similar calibers, they sat tightly.
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