- Not to be confused with the "MG36", a light machine gun variant of the Heckler & Koch G36.
The MG35/36 was a German light machine gun produced by Knorr-Bremse.
History[]
The MG35/36 was based on a Swedish design, the SAV Kg m/40, which had been patented in the early 1930s. Despite this, the Kg M/40 did not enter production in Sweden until 1940, and consequently the MG35/36 came into production before the gun it was based on. It was manufactured under license by Knorr-Bremse AG of Lichtenberg, and was tested by the Wehrmacht in the mid-1930s but not adopted. Although it was not formally adopted by Germany, limited quantities were sent to Finland during the Winter War as part of Nazi Germany's aid in 1939. They were used by the Finnish Army in early 1940. The only use the weapon saw during World War II was by the SS, who fielded it in small numbers on the Eastern Front.
Design[]
The MG35/36 was a gas-operated light machine gun that fired from a tilting bolt. The only difference in design between it and the Swedish Kg M/40 on which it was based was the chambering, as the MG35/36 was built around the standard German cartridge, 7.92×57mm, rather than the Swedish 6.5×55mm round. It fed from a small 25-round box magazine that was fed into the left side of the receiver, and had no belt feed capability.