MG 18 TuF

• Name — Maschinengewehr 18 • Origin — German Empire • Type — Anti-tank machine gun • Is Ranged — yes • Designer — Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg (MAN) • Design Date — 1917 • Manufacturer — MAN • Production Date — 1918 • Number — 50 • Weight — 133.7 kg total 37 kg gun 86 kg carriage • Length — 1590 mm • Part Length — 960.1 mm • Crew — 6 • Cartridge — 13×92mm TuF (TuF variant) • Action — Short recoil, toggle locked • Rate — 500 rpm cyclic 300 rpm practical • Velocity — 550 m/s • Range — 500 m horizontal • Max Range — 6400 m horizontal 3000 m vertical • Feed — 75-round belt (anti-tank) 50-round drum (anti-aircraft)

The genesis of the MG 18 was closely linked to the appearance of the first British and French tanks on the Western Front during 1916-1917. In October 1917, the Gewehr Prüfungs Kommission (GPK), on behalf of the Ministry of War, announced a six company competition for the construction of an automatic weapon capable of firing the new 13.25 × 92mm SR ammunition designed by the Polte cartridge factory in Magdeburg. The two finalists in this competition were Rheinmetall and Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg (MAN). The Rheinmetall design used a top mounted pan magazine similar to the Lewis gun, while the MAN design was a belt-fed gun. After a series of tests and modifications, the MAN design was officially adopted by the German army on August 13, 1918. It was planned that some 4,000 MG 18s would be built starting in January 1919. However, it is estimated that only 50 guns were actually built before the Armistice of 11 November 1918 and none were used in combat. Besides the end of the war, there were other factors which limited the number of MG 18s produced, such as lack of production capacity, cost, complexity, weight and poor mobility. The collapse of the German Empire and the prohibition of design and production of weapons imposed by the Versailles Treaty stopped any further development of the MG 18.