Drawing on in-depth research, including work within the Royal Armouries, this study looks at how the Soviet armed forces developed and deployed a range of machine guns that fitted with their offensive and defensive infantry tactics across six years of total war.
In 1939, three machine guns dominated the Red Army''s front-line infantry firepower -- the DShK 1938 heavy machine gun, the PM M1910 medium/heavy machine gun, and the Degtyaryov DP-27, a lighter, bipod-mounted support weapon. Confronted by cutting-edge German technology during the Great Patriotic War (1941-45), the Soviets responded with the development of new weaponry, including the RPD light machine gun, the 7.62-4mmR SG43 medium machine gun and the improved version of the DP-27, the DPM. Taken together, all these weapons gave the Red Army a more practical range of support weapons, better able to challenge the Germans for fire superiority on the battlefield.
Fully illustrated, this study explains
