There have been several posts about favorite German weapons...here are a couple that didn't make the fav list...
The MG35/36. This was a Swedish design that was sold to the German firm of Knorr-Bremse. KB was a automotive supply company that specialized in car brakes. Looking to score a nice defense contract, KB offered the MG35/36 to the expanding Wehrmacht. Das Heer was not impressed by the design and turned the weapon down. KB however, sold a few thousand to the Waffen SS, who used it as a training weapon until enough MG34/MG42 were available to replace it, and then issued the MG35/36 to the various SS Foreign Legions which were, by then, fighting in Russia.
The Knorr-Bremse MG35/36 has two major problems; first was the safety catch. If it was carelessly applied it would hold the bolt 3/4 open (cocked without the sear being engaged). If the user then snapped a magazine into place and released the safety catch, the weapon would release the bolt, chamber a round and discharge....The second problem had to do with how the stock was attached to the receiver. The attachment point was too weak to withstand the vibration of firing and the butt had a tendency to come loose and fall off the gun, a bit upsetting to the user, to say the least.
The second machinegun is an oddity in the weapons race, it has been produced in virtually the same form for over 50 years and has served in every war from the Russo-Japanese to Vietnam, and yet has never been officially adopted in quantity by any major power. It is a Danish design and is named after the Danish Minister of War who was particulary enthusiatic about the weapon. The Madsen machine gun was the Norwegian Army's light machine gun in 1940 and saw service against the Germans during the invasion. It was also used by the militarys of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland, and many of them found there way into German service.
The Madsen action is based on the recoil of the barrel, which moves a pivoting breechblock. Since the block is working on a vertical arc, a separate rammer is needed to load the next round and a separate extractor is needed to remove the spent casing. It's a complex mechanism, prone to frequent jams. The major innovation that the Madsen is known for is the top-mounted curved magazine, widely copied after its introduction on this weapon.
Since the Germans were using captured Madsens, some bright engineer realized that the Heer used metal link belts, and to ease ammunition supply, designed an ingenious conversion kit that allowed the use of the standard box magazine as well as the standard German Army machine gun belt. Please remember that with the complxity of the Madsen's mechanism...this is the technical equivalent of operating two elevators in the same shaft.
