Maxim gun

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The Maxim gun is a recoil-operated machine gun invented in 1884 by Hiram Stevens Maxim. It was the first fully automatic machine gun in the world.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica: "Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim"</ref>

The Maxim gun has been called "the weapon most associated with imperial conquest" by historian Martin Gilbert,Template:Sfn and was heavily used by colonial powers during the "Scramble for Africa". Afterwards, Maxim guns also saw extensive usage by different armies during the Russo-Japanese War, the First and Second World Wars, as well as in contemporary conflicts.

The Maxim gun was greatly influential in the development of machine guns, and it has multiple variants and derivatives, such as the Vickers, PM M1910 and MG 08. Some are still in service to the present day, such as in the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Design

Illustration of the Maxim Gun in Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1905

The Maxim gun featured one of the earliest recoil-operated firing systems in history. Energy from recoil acting on the breech block is used to eject each spent cartridge and insert the next one. Maxim's earliest designs used a 360-degree rotating cam to reverse the movement of the block, but this was later simplified to a toggle lock. This made it vastly more efficient and less labor-intensive than previous manually operated rapid-firing guns, such as the manually cranked Mitrailleuse of 1851, the Gatling gun of 1861, the Gardner gun of 1874, or the Nordenfelt gun of 1873.

The Maxim gun is water cooled, allowing it to sustain its rate of fire far longer than air-cooled guns. The extra weight and complexity this added, however, made it heavier and less flexible in use.

Trials demonstrated that the Maxim can fire 600 rounds per minute (equal to 60 riflemen at the time).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Compared to modern machine guns, the Maxim is heavy, bulky, and awkward. A lone soldier can fire the weapon, but it was usually operated by a team of men, usually 4 to 6 in number. Apart from the gunner, other crew are needed to speed reload, spot targets, and carry and ready ammunition and water. Several men are needed to move or mount the heavy weapon.

Production company

In 1884, Maxim began to develop his machine gun in Hatton Garden, London.Template:Sfn That November he founded the Maxim Gun Company with financing from Template:Interlanguage link, son of steel entrepreneur Edward Vickers.Template:Sfn A blue plaque on the factory where Maxim invented and produced the gun is located in Hatton Garden at the junction with Clerkenwell Road in London.

Albert Vickers became the company's chairman, and it later joined hands with a Swedish competitor, Nordenfelt, to become Maxim Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company. The Post Office Directory of trades in London of 1895 lists its office at 32 Victoria Street SW (London) on page 1579.

Finally, the company was absorbed into the mother Vickers company, leading first to the Vickers-Maxim gun and then, after Vickers' redesign, the Vickers machine gun.Template:Citation needed

History

Development (1883–1884)

Maxim's first British patents relating to the development of the Maxim gun were granted in June and July 1883.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite patent</ref> The first prototype was demonstrated to invited guests in October 1884.Template:Sfn

Use in colonial warfare (1886–1914)

A large-bore Maxim on the USS Vixen c. 1898

A prototype of the Maxim gun was given by Hiram Maxim to the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition in 1886–1890, under the leadership of Henry Morton Stanley. More a publicity stunt than a serious military contribution, in view of the main financier of the expedition, William Mackinnon, "merely exhibiting" the gun was likely to "prove a great peace-preserver".<ref>Iain R. Smith: The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, p. 86.</ref> The weapon was used on several occasions, especially during the expedition's retreat from central Africa, not because of its devastating effects, but as an effective means to scare off attackers. One of the first uses of the Maxim gun by British Forces was in the 1887 Yoni Expedition.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The same prototype used by Stanley was brought back to central Africa by Frederick Lugard, where it played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Uganda Protectorate.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

The first unit in the world to receive the Maxim was the expeditionary force led by Hermann Wissmann which was sent in 1888 by the German Imperial government to its colonies in East Africa to suppress the Abushiri revolt.<ref>G. Richelmann, Schaffung der Wissmanntruppe; in: Becker, Perbandt, Richelmann, Schmidt, Steuber: Hermann von Wissmann, Deutschlands grösster Afrikaner, Berlin 1907, p. 191, online at archive.org</ref> Wissmann was issued one of the first Maxim guns which had reached Germany and used it successfully in his capture of Pangani.<ref>Richelmann p. 236</ref>

The Singapore Volunteer Corps received a Maxim gun in 1889, but it was never used. This was a civilian volunteer defence unit on the British colony.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Maxim gun was first used extensively in an African conflict during the First Matabele War in Rhodesia. During the Battle of the Shangani on 25 October 1893, 700 soldiers fought off 5,000 Matabele warriors with just five Maxim guns. It played an important role in the "Scramble for Africa" in the late 19th century. The extreme lethality was employed to devastating effect against obsolete charging tactics, when African opponents could be lured into pitched battles in open terrain. As it was put by Hilaire Belloc, in the words of the figure "Blood" in his poem "The Modern Traveller":

Template:Poemquote

However, the destructive power of the Maxim gun in colonial warfare has often been embellished by popular myth. Modern historical accounts suggest that, while it was effective in pitched battles, as in the Matabele wars or the Battle of Omdurman, its significance owed much to its psychological impact.Template:Citation needed

A larger-calibre version of the Maxim, firing a one-pound shell, was built by Maxim-Nordenfeldt. This was known in the Second Boer War (in South Africa) as the Pom-Pom from its sound. The Boers' "one-pounder" Maxim-Nordenfeldt was a large-caliber, belt-fed, water-cooled "auto cannon" that fired explosive rounds (smokeless ammunition) at 450 rounds per minute.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn

The Maxim gun was also used in the Anglo-Aro War (in present-day Nigeria) of 1901–1902.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

National and military authorities were reluctant to adopt the weapon, and Maxim's company initially had some trouble convincing European governments of the weapon's efficiency. Soldiers generally held a great mistrust of machine guns due to their tendency to jam. In the 1906 version of his book Small Wars, Charles Callwell says of machine guns: "The older forms are not suitable as a rule... they jammed at Ulundi, they jammed at Dogali, they jammed at Abu Klea and Tofrek, in some cases with unfortunate results."Template:Sfn However, the Maxim was far more reliable than its contemporaries.<ref name="smallwars">Small Wars. 1906. Callwell, p. 559.</ref> A more immediate problem was that, initially, its position was easily given away by the clouds of smoke that the gun produced (although the same was true of artillery pieces and units of troops that the machine gun was intended to replace or supplement, so this wasn't viewed as a particular drawback by the early users). The advent of smokeless powder (developed by, among others, Hiram's brother Hudson Maxim), helped to change this.Template:Citation needed

The weapon was adopted by the British Army under the guidance of Sir Garnet Wolseley, who had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in 1888. In October that year, he placed an order of 120 rifle-calibre MaximsTemplate:Sfn using the same .577/450 ammunition as the Martini–Henry rifles. Wolseley had previously led military expeditions in Africa (the Ashanti war and the Gordon Relief Expedition in 1884–85) and had a reputation for being a strong subscriber to military innovation and reform, which he demonstrated in Africa. There he used machine guns, explored other unconventional ideas, and founded an Egyptian camel corps.Template:Citation needed

The gun's design was also purchased and used by several other European countries, such as Austria-Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, and Russia.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In January 1899, just before the outbreak of the Philippine-American War, the Philippines had forty-two Maxim guns. An English observer who had seen one of them described it as being "of the most improved type."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Russian service (1887–1917)

A Russian Maxim M1905 machine gun mounted on a Sokolov M1909 carriage.

Hiram Maxim did an introduction tour of the Maxim gun in Russia in 1887, despite the impressive spectacle, only 12 guns were ordered by the Imperial Russian Navy.Template:Sfn Many years later, in 1896, the Imperial Russian Navy was re-interested in the Maxim guns, leading to a large order of Maxim guns from Maxim Nordenfelt. Maxim Nordenfelt delivered 179 guns in 1897, and by 1904, the number had increased to almost 300.Template:Sfn The Imperial Russian Army purchased 58 Maxim machine guns (chambered in 7.62×54mmR) from DWM in 1899 and contracted with Vickers in 1902 to manufacture the design in Russia. Although some manufacturing started in 1905,Template:Sfn mass production did not start until 1910.Template:Sfn

During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, the Russian Army employed the Maxim in combatTemplate:Sfn and placed a rush order for another 450 units from overseas suppliers, which were mostly delivered to front-line troops before the end of the war.Template:Sfn

In 1905, Tula Arsenal started manufacturing the Maxim M1905, based on the commercial Vickers-Maxim Model 1901. In 1908, the Sokolov mount (named after its designer, Colonel Alexander A. Sokolov) was introduced, which was equipped with removable gun shield and allowed machine gun crews to pull the weapon and its mount. The Sokolov mount was lighter at around Template:Cvt, compared to the large-wheeled mount weighing around Template:Cvt.Template:Sfn

Maxim M1905 body cutaway drawing.

The Maxim M1905 was still in use with the Russian military in World War I, but mainly equipped with non-frontline troop. There were plans of upgrading the Maxim M1905 to Maxim M1910 standard, but was dropped when war broke out, so only a small amount of guns were converted.Template:Sfn Template:Clear left

Swiss service (1894–1910)

Between 1891 and 1894 Switzerland procured 72 heavy machine guns, designated MG 94,<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</ref> from Maxim and Nordenfelt in London.<ref name="auto1">Template:Cite web</ref> These weapons were issued to fortress troops<ref name="auto2">Template:Cite web</ref> and mountain troops and were operational until 1944 as spare arms with the Territorial Battalion. The MG 94 was mounted at the front end and at the rear on the knees of the gunner. Two leather padded rings on the left and on the right sides of the breech of the weapon rested on the knees of the machine gunner sitting behind it and permitted sweeping fire. The machine gun MG 94 was chambered for the 7.5x53.5 mm GP 90 cartridge and was later, along other minor technical modifications, adapted for firing the more powerful 7.5x55 mm GP 11 cartridge. Six MG 94s had their water-cooling mantles drilled and cut open, making these guns air-cooled and thus water-free and lighter for use as aircraft machine guns. These six MG 94 air-cooled guns were taken out of service in 1944. At least one MG 94 was converted to an air-cooled model for use on the Häfeli DH-1 reconnaissance aircraft.<ref name="auto2"/>

In 1899 Switzerland procured 69 heavy machine guns, designated MG 00, mainly from Vickers, Sons & Maxim in London, and later from Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken (DWM). These guns had tripod mounts designed for cavalry use with a gunner's seat attached to the rear support strut. The machine gun MG 00 was chambered for the 7.5x53.5 mm GP 90 cartridge and was later adapted for firing the more powerful 7.5x55 mm GP 11 cartridge.<ref name="auto"/><ref name="auto1"/><ref name="auto2"/>

American use

A reference photo of a M1904 Maxim
American troops with a M1904 machine gun on maneuvers in Texas, 1911

The United States Army had shown interest in the Maxim machine gun since 1887. Model 1889 and Model 1900 Maxims were used for testing, which lasted for years but not continuously. The gun was finally adopted in 1904 as the Maxim Machine Gun, Caliber .30, Model of 1904 as the first rifle-caliber heavy machine gun for standard service in the U.S. Army. The design was characteristic for its visually distinctive cage-like muzzle recoil booster<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> designed by Trevor Dawson and J. Ramsay of Vickers.<ref>Template:US patent</ref>

The first 50 guns and tripods were made by Vickers, Sons & Maxim in the U.K. chambered for .30-03. Colt was selected to produce it domestically, but challenges with schematics and specifications delayed its introduction. By the time Colt began production in 1908 (which was also the last year orders were placed for the guns), a total of 90 M1904s were made by Vickers. Colt made their machine guns for the new .30-06 caliber, and the ones made by Vickers were re-chambered for the new round. A total of 287 M1904 Maxims were manufactured. The U.S. procured other machine guns after M1904 production ended, including the M1909 Benét–Mercié, the Colt–Vickers M1915, and the Browning M1917.

M1904 Maxims were issued to infantry companies and cavalry. Each company had four guns with associated tripods, ammunition, and 20 mules to transport the heavy guns. The M1904 was deployed in operations in the Philippines, Hawaii, Mexico, and Central and South America, but never saw much combat use. During World War I, it remained in the U.S. for training.<ref>U.S. Maxim Model 1904 – SAdefensejournal.com, 15 August 2013.</ref>

World War I (1914–1918)

By World War I, many armies had moved on to improved machine guns. The British Vickers machine gun was an improved and redesigned Maxim, introduced into the British Army in 1912 and remaining in service until 1968. Production took place at Erith in Kent, and some models were fitted to early biplanes also fabricated there. The German Army's Maschinengewehr 08 and the Russian Pulemyot Maxim were both more or less direct copies of the Maxim.

It also saw use during the Russian Civil War, which followed the Revolution in 1917. A picture of the period depicts a Maxim gun mounted on a tachanka, a horse-drawn carriage, along with the gunner, firing backwards at a pursuing White Army regiment. Anarchists attribute this mobile setup to Nestor Makhno.

Russo-Ukrainian War

The Maxim, in the form of the PM M1910 chambered in 7.62×54mmR, has been used by both sides of the Russo-Ukrainian War of 2022. Many Maxim guns were retrofitted to suit the nature of modern warfare, including its installation on technicals and the mounting of red dot sights.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn At least one documented Maxim gun used by the Ukrainian Ground Forces in the Battle of Bakhmut still had its original iron wheels with no visible modifications. A Ukrainian soldier told BBC News in March 2023: "It only works when there is a massive attack going onTemplate:Nbsp... then it really works. So we use it every week".Template:Sfn

On September 7, 2025, over Kyiv, a Maxim shot down a Kh-69 missile, by a volunteer with the call sign "Hrek".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Extra Light Rifle Calibre Maxim

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Background

In 1890, another American inventor, John Browning, designed much lighter and more portable, air-cooled, gas operated machine gun and offered it to the Colt's Manufacturing Company. The gun itself weighted only 40 pounds (18 kg), but it also required a tripod of the similar weight to be fired. It entered the mass production as the Colt-Browning M1895 (Potato Digger), and was adopted by the US navy in 1895.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In 1895, in response to the interest shown in the Colt-Browning M1895 in the U.S. machine gun trials, Hiram Maxim introduced his own air-cooled Extra Light gun.Template:Efn It was the first air-cooled Maxim gun, and the first with the mainspring inside the receiver casing.Template:Sfn At the time, it was the lightest machine gun in the world and the only complete machine gun that could be carried by one man.

Maxim hoped that cavalry units would appreciate the Extra Light gun for “hit and run” raids, for its light weight. Indeed, the U.S. trials Board commented quite favorably on its portability. However, as the air-cooling mechanics was not very well understood at the time, the thick brass jacket that covered the barrel had only four cooling holes in its bottom,Template:Sfn and the gun overheated very quickly. Maxim himself estimated that no more than 400 rounds could be fired from it at one time, before a pause for cooling had to be made.<ref name=":1">Template:Harvard citation no brackets</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Reception

However, despite an extensive promotional campaign conducted by Hiram Maxim himself, the 1895 Extra Light gun was a commercial failure and only 135 were built, many of these being sold out singly or in pairs for tests in various countries.<ref name=":1" />

Variants / Derivatives

Water-cooled guns

  • Vickers machine gun: earlier Maxims had been chambered for earlier British service cartridges, but the Vickers was produced for export available in most of the different calibres and cartridges used by countries around the world, and including a large caliber (.50 inch) as used on Royal Navy warships. The machine gun was Template:Convert lighter and had been tested by the Army in 1909.Template:Sfn
  • Maschinengewehr 01, made by Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken (DWM)
  • MG 08 derived from MG 01
    • Its export version DWM 1909 commercial, featuring the naval tripod mount of the MG 08 instead of the sled
    • German indigenous derivatives (e.g., MG 08/15)
    • Type 24 heavy machine gun, Chinese variant of DWM 1909
Swiss Maschinengewehr System Maxim Ord 1894 chambered in the 7.5 mm GP11 round

Air-cooled guns

Other guns

Manufacturers

Main manufacturers
Maxim Nordenfelt (1888–1897)
Vickers, Sons & Maxim (1897–1911)
Vickers Limited (1911–1927)
Vickers-Armstrongs (1927–1940s)
Other manufacturers
Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken (1896–1918)
Tula Arsenal
Tikkakoski (1924–1944)
Valtion Kivääritehdas (1933–1944)
Waffenfabrik Bern (1911–1946)

Users

Red Guard fighters with Maxim machine gun during the Battle of Helsinki in the Finnish Civil War.

Conflicts

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19th century
Mahdist War (1881–1899)Template:Efn
Emin Pasha Relief Expedition (1887–1889)Template:Efn
Yoni Expedition (1887)
Samoan Civil War (1886–1894)<ref name="German Colonial">Template:Cite web</ref>
Abushiri Revolt
Jebu War<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
[[First Sino-Japanese War|1Template:Sup Sino-Japanese War]] (1894–1895)
Chitral Expedition<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1895)
[[Anglo-Ashanti wars#Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War (1895–1896)|4Template:Sup Anglo-Ashanti War]] (1895–1896)Template:Efn<ref>Raugh, Harold E., The Victorians at War, 1815–1914: An Encyclopedia of British Military History (2004)</ref>
Jameson RaidTemplate:Efn<ref name="Davis-21">Template:Cite book</ref>
Philippine Revolution
Benin Expedition (1897)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Spanish–American War (1898)
Ashanti Uprising (1900)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
19th-20th century
Bafut Wars (1889; 1891; 1901–1907)
Adamawa Wars (1899–1907)
Philippine–American War (1899–1902)
Dervish State (1899–1920)Template:Efn
[[Second Boer War|2Template:Sup Boer War]] (1899–1902)
Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901)
20th century
A naval Russian Maxim (on the top right) mounted on the Imperial Russian armoured cruiser Gromoboi after Battle off Ulsan, August 1904.
Anglo–Aro War (1901–1902)
British expedition to Tibet (1903–1904)<ref>Allen, Charles (2015), Duel in the Snows. John Murray Press.</ref>
Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905)
Persian Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911)
Mexican Revolution (1910–1920)
Xinhai Revolution (1911–1912)
Balkan Wars (1912–1913)
Contestado War
World War I (1914–1918)
Paraguayan Civil War (1922–1923)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Irish Civil War (1922–1923)
Brazilian Civil War (1932)<ref>Cotta, Francis Albert "as trincheiras da mantiqueira: os embates da Brigada Sul na Revolução Constitucionalista"</ref>
Chaco War (1932–1935)
Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)
[[Second Sino-Japanese War|2Template:Sup Sino-Japanese War]] (1937–1945)
Indonesian War of Independence (1945–1949)
Greek Civil War (1946–1949)
Costa Rican Civil War (1948)
Indo-Pakistani War (1947–1948)
Arab–Israeli War (1948–1949)
Malayan Emergency (1948–1960)
Korean War (1950–1953)
Algerian War (1954–1962)
Cypriot intercommunal violence (1955–1974)
Congo Crisis (1960–1965)
Aden Emergency (1963–1967)
South African Border War (1966–1990)
Bangladesh War of Independence (1971)
JVP Insurrection (1971)
21st century
Syrian Civil War

Template:Tree list/end

  • Vickers-Maxim Mk I (.303 inch calibre), used in Anglo–Boer War and World War I (c. 1901).
    Vickers-Maxim Mk I (.303 inch calibre), used in Anglo–Boer War and World War I (c. 1901).
  • Austro-Hungarian soldiers with a trophy Maxim machine gun in the High Alps, c. 1916
    Austro-Hungarian soldiers with a trophy Maxim machine gun in the High Alps, c. 1916
  • Red Army soldiers with a Maxim machine gun, c. 1930
    Red Army soldiers with a Maxim machine gun, c. 1930

See also

Weapons of comparable role, performance and era

Notes

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Citations

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