Maxim a reminder of the horrors of war
If weapons could talk, who knows what horrors this World War I machine gun would describe? Mike Watson speaks to its owner.
When military collector Andrew Edgcombe holds his prized Maxim machine gun there is a feeling of excitement of owning a rare World War I weapon.
As the 100th anniversary of the end of The Great War is remembered on Armistice Day, Edgcombe is also gripped by a sense of dread.
Like many the Ha¯wera collector had a personal connection to the Great War.
His grandfather fought in the trenches on the Western Front – a killing field for thousands of New Zealand Division and Allied soldiers where the Maxim, used by the Germans, reigned supreme.
‘‘The Maxim MG08 machine gun was such a significant invention it changed for ever how trench warfare battles were fought,’’ he said.
‘‘They basically caused a stalemate, with neither side progressing... it was wholesale slaughter.’’
With a burst from its 7.92 calibre barrel the deadly weapon, which could fire 500-600 rounds a minute, would wipe out hundreds of troops emerging from the trenches.
At the beginning of the conflict the Allies had little equivalent weaponry to respond.
Until the Allies were able to build up their own machine gun artillery, from Vickers, and Brownings, the German forces, using the American invented Maxim, dominated, he said.
‘‘Because of the devastation the Maxim left on Allied troops it was dubbed the ‘devil’s paint brush’ because it was turned the landscape red with blood.’’
It was not how inventor, Hiram Maxim, envisaged the world’s first fully automatic and portable machine gun, Edgcombe said.
‘‘They were originally designed as a deterrent to warfare but soon became an absolute killing machine,’’ he said.
Edgcombe obtained the weapon, one of two he has in his extensive collection, from a fellow collector.
Its appearance bears the scars of battles fought more than 100 years ago. It is pock marked with shrapnel damage and permanently discoloured by the clay soils of western Europe.
Because of the indiscriminate killing the weapon inflicted, the Maxim was a highly prized trophy for Allied soldiers.
‘‘Knocking one of them out was a huge event for the Allies,’’ Edgcombe said.
‘‘Snipers were ordered to target the gun to render it incapable, rather than kill any of the 6-7 man crew which manned the fixed mounted weapon.
‘‘This one I have was captured by the Otago Infantry Regiment, possibly in the Somme, and brought back to New Zealand after the war ended.’’
His grandfather fought with the Otago regiment in the Somme, signalling that he may have had more than a feeling of a fleeting acquaintance with Edgcombe’s Maxim. ‘‘This gun could well have shot my grandfather dead,’’ he said.
The captured Maxims became official war trophies for the New Zealand Division and for years afterwards these guns were feted and proudly paraded throughout the country, he said.
‘‘Nearly every town in New Zealand was affected by World War I and thousands of New Zealand Division’s returned soldiers had vivid memories of the war, and the significance of the Maxim in their lives.’’
Of the estimated 1600 Maxims brought back to New Zealand, around 100 still remain, Edgcombe said.
‘‘Many were scrapped and the ones that remain represent some of the last remembrances of WWI.
‘‘They are worth retaining because there are no veterans left, there is only collections like these guns which remind us of the horror of war.
‘‘If these guns could talk there would be many more tales of devastation to be told.’’