Firing a MG from a standing position.

[Spandau]

Hello,

Several times during my reading I have encountered instances where a landser has fired his machine gun without deploying it. Does anyone have a picture of a soldier firing a machine gun while standing?

-Spandau

[awaygood]

There are photographs of a machine gunner standing while firing an MG; in each case, the barrel is balanced just above the shoulder of another soldier who is supporting it by holding on to the bipod.

[Hell]

another way for a single soldier is (trained at the german armed forces with the mg3 which is almost identical with the mg42) to put the splitted sling round the neck.

left hand on the bendet stand (don't know the correct term for "zweibein" and also if bendet is the correct word. sorry), right hand at the handle.

i try to find a pic.

cheers
Hell

[SvenW]

...

[Hell]

bipod.

jup, das isses. danke.

[Piet Duits]

Hi,

I always have to laugh when I see movies of individual soldiers are firing a machinegun standing without moving backwards.
Either this soldier is extremely strong, or he's glued to the ground.
The pressure of firing makes you move backwards, even if you counterballance.

Piet

[Mobile Infantry]

It is possible to fire with an MG standing. The best way is to have the sling around the neck, one hand to the bipod and the other at the trigger. When you press the stock to the hip and fire only short burst you have a chance of hitting the target.
I tried this with the MG3 -the modern version of the MG42 -and it works.

The other - better way - is to kneel down and to put the barrel on the shoulder of another soldier who holds the bipod.

[SvenW]

...

[Mobile Infantry]

Sven is right:
I can fire from the position described because I weight 100 kg so I am heavy enough to stand against the recoil. But as Sven said this is just a method for emergency firing for example on patrol when an enemy suddenly appears. Normally you fire a burst while standing then "hit the deck" and shoot more accurate from a static position.

The other way - the John Wayne method - is just a waste of ammo.

During my time in the army I sometimes saw how smaller lightweight soldiers than me were pushed backwards by the recoil of the MG.

[AAA]

Firing standing from the shoulder is quite possible with the M-60 (although fairly pointless), but the MG-3 is very heavy, particularly forwards compared to the shorter M-60 - unless muscled like a gorilla, you not gonna hold it there for long, let alone hit anything (as mentioned in previous couple of posts).

Most photos of MG rested on the other guys shoulder are street fighting where its not otherwise possible to get the required (high) elevation, or where the lie of the ground would block firing from a prone position.

[SvenW]

...

[AAA]

The MG-3 is both longer and heavier (ie unbalanced) : my experience is that it is much harder to hump around the MG-3 than the pig. Maybe I'm just getting old , there was a decade between carrying one then the other.

[HohenstaufenGrenadier]

I've fired an M240(b) from the hip! It IS possible, but far from comfortable!

[Kameraden]

It certainly is possible.
Read the first post in the thread below about Hug.

http://www.feldgrau.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6404

[Grunt]

Firing the MG3 "from the hip" (correct term would be Pirschhaltung) is trained in exactly the way described above.

But don´t get it wrong: this is not for advancing combat, but only to fire some rounds to suppress the enemy if you are caught by surprise. It buys you the time you need to bring the MG3 in prone firing position.