MG08 or British Maxim?

[Roscoeturner]

Interesting WWI photo. I suspect British Maxim rather than MG08.

[anjongni]

Surely he best colour WW1 photo I've ever seen.
The sleepy troopers are really going to wake up when the potato-masher goes off!....Phil

[Roscoeturner]

You can find more colorized photos here - https://www.facebook.com/pages/WW1-Colo ... 2585061599

Surely he best colour WW1 photo I've ever seen.
The sleepy troopers are really going to wake up when the potato-masher goes off!....Phil

[fractal]

Really cool to see a bronze-jacket Maxim gun with its paint on! Definitely a Maxim/Vickers tripod but can't conclusively say if the Maxim is British or German. Recall that DWM made these for commercial sales as well as for the German Navy so the possibility exists that it is a DWM gun. The feedblock has the feed shuttle slot of the short upper arm so it could very well have an MG08 feedblock and the fusee cover also looks like a steel one. Neat photo!
Joe

[bmg17a1]

I would add the following observations. Receiver has the two stock mounting bosses on lower left side, which seem to show up on a variety of early Maxims, but were typically installed on the early Naval Maxims. Tapered waterjacket indicates early brass pattern as does the brass grip frame.Topcover and latch are all early Maxim style and as Joe notes, the feedblock appears to be an Mg08. Fusee cover appears to be steel, but the anomaly is the very long cutout slot for the spring tension indicator which is very unusual.
Something that looks like a steel link is in the ejection side of the feedblock, but it isn't very legible.
Is there a gouge hole or damaged part of the sideplate just forward of the feedblock? Looks like damage to the plate there.

Bob Naess