The MG 42 (shortened from German: Maschinengewehr 42, or "machine gun 42") is an 8mm Mauser general purpose machine gun designed in Nazi Germany and used extensively by the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS during the second half of World War II.
The MG 42 was seen in Fury used by many German troops. The Allies had nicknamed the MG 42 "Hitler's Buzz Saw" beacuse of its high rate of fire and power.
Description[]
Intended to replace the more expensive and time-consuming to manufacture frontline MG-34, they ended up produced in tandem until the end of the war.
The MG 42 has a proven record of reliability, durability, simplicity, and ease of operation, but is most notable for its ability to produce a high volume of suppressive fire. The MG 42 had one of the highest average cyclic rate of any single-barreled man-portable machine gun: between 1,200 and 1,500 rpm, which results in a distinctive muzzle report.
The MG 42's lineage continued past Nazi Germany's defeat, forming the basis for the nearly identical NATO round chambered MG1 (MG 42/59), which subsequently evolved into the MG1A3, then the Bundeswehr's MG 3. It also spawned the Swiss MG 51, Zastava M53, SIG MG 710-3, Austrian MG 74, and the Spanish 5.56mm Ameli light machine gun, and lent many design elements to the American M60 and Belgian MAG. The MG 42 was adopted by a number of armed organizations after the war, and was both copied and built under licence.