Author Topic: What do they call this machinegun setup? And question about tank scene..  (Read 2657 times)

Offline 9.Pz-Div. Günther

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Hi all,

I've seen this MG42/MG34 setup in many movies - it looks awesome! Is this the lafette? And how is it operated? It looks so damn convinient, you could operate it with one hand and in the other a cup of tea, just aim and fire! How they aim and fire as they don't seem to touch the actual machinegun at all.



And one more question.. on this movie, this German guy says something like 'reit ab' and repeats it. What does he mean by that? Flee? The enemy is driving away? Are they hit? I've seen that scene come by so many times and I'm wondering..

Starting at 0:46: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GJlgHjlnNk

Thanks!

Offline VonMudra

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LOL, yes, that is the lafette, and its ingame, and it is my wife.

Its fired by depressing a lever on the right side of the tripod, which operates some mechanical stuff that pulls down on the trigger of the gun to fire.  The MG recoils into recoil springs (much like an artillery piece), and there is a searching fire mechanism to walk the shots slowly upwards over the course of a 5 round burst, allowing one to only have to swing the gun from side to side while in cover as you fire.  Also it had a 1.5x zoom scope for long range fire, and was accurate (50% of rounds on target) to a range of 3000 yards, although at such extreme ranges they often used forward observers to walk their fire onto targets.

I've had the distinct honour of serving on a lafette multiple times in reenacting, and they're just so godlike.  Its really the only tripod in WW2, or even today really (a modernized version is still used), that actually was not just 3 big legs.  It was purpose built, well designed, rugged, and turned the tripod MG into a veritable sniper machine gun with its recoil springs and scope, unlike such tripods as the american and british designs.

Lafette Love <3

« Last Edit: 02-02-2010, 04:02:32 by VonMudra »

Offline 9.Pz-Div. Günther

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Thanks. Sniper machinegun does in deed seem to be the spot on description.

Any ideas on that youtube movie perhaps?

Offline Fuchs

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It's propaganda, tanks are going forward, logical though with it he says something like go/drive forward/get moving.
"Force answers force, war breeds war, and death only brings death.
To break this vicious circle one must do more than act without thought or doubt."

Offline Schneider

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I don't fully understand what he says at 0:46, because he mumbles the first part of the composita to much to be fully understood.
The second part is to my understanding "-bereitschaft", i.e. "readiness", and I would guess the first part would be "Feuer", hence "Feuerbereitschaft!" = "(be) ready to fire!"
But I have no idea of historical nor modern military commands, so that's just a guess upon that part of the video.

Offline Knitschi

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Im definatly not sure because the sound is of such bad quality, but it could say "Feuer bereit machen" which means "Prepare to fire". But its just a guess. At which point is it repeatet? (too lazy to watch the thing again)

Offline Zrix

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I don't fully understand what he says at 0:46, because he mumbles the first part of the composita to much to be fully understood.
The second part is to my understanding "-bereitschaft", i.e. "readiness", and I would guess the first part would be "Feuer", hence "Feuerbereitschaft!" = "(be) ready to fire!"
But I have no idea of historical nor modern military commands, so that's just a guess upon that part of the video.
That would make sense, since i's common(if not standard) that the gunner yells some command, like 'up', 'ready' etc when the gun is ready to fire.


Offline sn00x

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actually going to buy a post war lafette tripod when the AGM mg42 softgun arrives :) it even fits the HK21 (mg version of the G3)

Offline 9.Pz-Div. Günther

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Well, actually I'm convinced he repeated what he said, since the first half couldn't be heard due the gun shot. I'm kinda appalled by your translations, for example 'bereitschaft' is no where near what he is saying! I still think he's saying 'reit ab' which directly translates 'ride away' but I'm just curious about what he means with that. I do think that he means to push on forward or that the enemy is fleeing. I don't think it's propaganda; look at his face - he forgot that the camera was there as he gives that surprised look - obviously in the heat of battle you quickly forget about the things that aren't important and the filming came on 2nd place. Thanks for trying though..

Offline mopskind

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Thats definatly "Feuerbereitschaft" in that pretty harsh accent they had these days ;)

Offline siben

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Ok, giving my 2 cents here. You are saying that the person in the movie is saying "ready to shoot". But what i see is the gun shooting, a guy looking while the shell is on its way, and then yelling something to the crew. He could not have seen that the gun was loaded and ready to fire. Therefore i think the guy is yelling corrections to whoever is aiming.

Offline Schneider

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Well, actually I'm convinced he repeated what he said, since the first half couldn't be heard due the gun shot. I'm kinda appalled by your translations, for example 'bereitschaft' is no where near what he is saying! I still think he's saying 'reit ab' which directly translates 'ride away' but I'm just curious about what he means with that. I do think that he means to push on forward or that the enemy is fleeing. I don't think it's propaganda; look at his face - he forgot that the camera was there as he gives that surprised look - obviously in the heat of battle you quickly forget about the things that aren't important and the filming came on 2nd place. Thanks for trying though..

Are you german? It's '-bereitschaft', to 100%, I just listened to it again.
Neither would 'reit ab' make sense, nor can it be that because there is definitely a fricativ between the diphtong 'ei' and the last sillable with the 'a'.

Offline siben

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No, i am not German, just giving my opinion. Its just odd, that the commander yells "ready to fire" instead of the gunner.
Also i was not aware that the tiger could shoot 15 times a minute (there is 4 seconds between the shot, and the command) Seems Mighty fast.

I was just thinking it might be corrections becouse it seems to me that it are 3 words, with the middle one being weit, meaning the shell was to high.

Offline 9.Pz-Div. Günther

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Well, actually I'm convinced he repeated what he said, since the first half couldn't be heard due the gun shot. I'm kinda appalled by your translations, for example 'bereitschaft' is no where near what he is saying! I still think he's saying 'reit ab' which directly translates 'ride away' but I'm just curious about what he means with that. I do think that he means to push on forward or that the enemy is fleeing. I don't think it's propaganda; look at his face - he forgot that the camera was there as he gives that surprised look - obviously in the heat of battle you quickly forget about the things that aren't important and the filming came on 2nd place. Thanks for trying though..

Are you german? It's '-bereitschaft', to 100%, I just listened to it again.
Neither would 'reit ab' make sense, nor can it be that because there is definitely a fricativ between the diphtong 'ei' and the last sillable with the 'a'.

Assuming that you are.. but I am Dutch so I recognize the accents. I can hear he is specifically using the rolling R at the start of whatever he's screaming, and 'bereitschaft' seems too long and inappropriate in that situation, like Siben said, he screamed something at the crew after the gunshot how would that refer to readyness? If you can elaborate on that I might find it more convincing, still wondering why one would put such tone on that R while it's in the middle of a word instead of the start (as opposed to my suggestion).

Offline Schneider

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I have no idea why he says that, I can only repeat that the last sillable is pretty clearly "-schaft".
And he does not say "ready to fire", which would be "bereit zum Feuern".
"Feuerbereitschaft" could mean that to, but it also could be an order to make ready to fire.