African Entrepreneurship Record

"Da da da……"

Under the operation of the operator, the Maxim machine gun perfectly "smashed" the target. The powerful firepower and stable performance made Constantine feel bright.

The official name of the Maxim machine gun imitated in East Africa is the 1885-type heavy machine gun. It is basically a replica of the Maxim machine gun, and at the same time some details have been improved.

This is similar to the MG08 heavy machine gun made by Germany, which imitated the Maxim machine gun, or the Russian M1910 heavy machine gun, which are both extended versions of the Maxim machine gun.

"The rate of fire of our domestic 1885-type heavy machine gun is between 400 and 450 rounds per minute. It is basically the same performance as the British Maxim machine gun. It is slightly lacking, mainly due to the material and fine processing. This This is the disadvantage of East Africa as a late-developing country, but the Institute of Metal Research is currently vigorously developing emerging materials, and it is expected that these slight gaps can be bridged within two to three years."

Constantine said: "The 1885-type heavy machine gun was able to be completed almost at the same time as the British. This is your credit. It shows that our military industry can at least catch up with the European military industry. The gap is not big. Technically it is indeed ours." Disadvantage, but this disadvantage is not because we Germans are inferior to the British, but because we in East Africa have a short time and are the underachievers of the world's major powers, so learning from advanced countries is not a shameful thing. Only by admitting our shortcomings can we make up for it better. Shortcomings.”

"Your Majesty is right. Although there is an element of 'reference', the breakthrough of this technology in a short period of time still benefits from the kingdom's huge investment. This investment is not only an investment in funds and resources, but more importantly It’s an investment in talent,” said the director of the Mbeya Arsenal.

“Before the official advent of the Maxim machine gun, we in East Africa had been improving and researching machine guns for more than ten years. In 1861, the Gatling gun came out and was tested in the Paraguay War. Our factory only made improvements to the Gatling gun. There are as many as seven or eight improved models, and this is just one arsenal in Mbeya. Other units should be equally engaged in research on machine guns, such as the Dar es Salaam Firearms Research Institute."

The Gatling gun is the world's first practical machine gun. In fact, France invented the Montini machine gun as early as 1851. However, its use is very laborious and requires: opening, loading, loading, idle locking, firing and A series of operations such as retracting ammunition can tire soldiers to death, and they can only fire intermittently. The weight is no less than that of artillery, and the range and power are not as good as artillery.

Gatling's problem is also very serious, but before the appearance of the Maxim machine gun, he was the best-performing machine gun in the world. He participated in many wars and was tested by war. In the wars between East Africa and Portugal, East Africa It has been used before, and the actual performance is not outstanding, but it has caused huge psychological damage to the Portuguese black servants and can often become a breakthrough on the battlefield.

"In special areas, especially some narrow military passages, sometimes a 1885 heavy machine gun can completely suppress the enemy's firepower, achieving the military effect of one man holding the barrier and ten thousand men unable to attack, with hundreds of rounds of firepower per minute. , can be said to be a deterrent weapon second only to artillery." said the director of the Mbeya Arsenal.

“If it is in an open area, it can also be used as a good fire support point, and a few machine guns can form a dense firepower network to suppress the enemy. If hundreds of them are concentrated, they can even deal with large-scale group attacks. "

Constantine also followed his words and began to think that this kind of scene would really be possible on the European battlefield, especially the Franco-Prussian War and the Austro-Prussian War.

Of course, when East Africa was fighting against extremely backward African kingdoms like the Ndebele and Zulus, if there were a few Maxim machine guns, the opponent's army might be able to collapse in one round.

Constantine asked: "What are the outstanding advantages of the Maxim machine gun and the Gatling gun?"

"Your Majesty, it is obvious that when it comes to loading ammunition, the Maxim uses gunpowder gas to complete the automatic shooting. It can complete automatic shooting without applying external force during the whole process, while the Gatling type uses external force and must be manually loaded using a crank. And The shooting process is highly affected by subjectivity, such as emotion, strength, and other external factors, and Maxim is much better."

"This is the most intuitive. The specific advantages can be summarized as the Maxim machine gun has a fast and stable shooting speed, a more complete mechanical structure, and a lower failure rate. The barrel is water-cooled and theoretically will not overheat because the barrel moves fixedly on the axis. Instead of moving in lateral space, the shooting accuracy has been greatly improved. It uses a canvas belt, which is much more stable, portable and versatile than the gravity-fed Gatling."

Therefore, the Maxim is an epoch-making product compared to the Gatling. Of course, the shortcomings of the Gatling are not impossible to improve, but under the current conditions, the Maxim machine gun is more cost-effective.

For example, in previous lives, with the advancement of electric motors and advanced technology, Gatling was later reborn. However, it is certainly impossible to equip a Gatling machine gun with a separate motor to drive it in East Africa.

Later, Constantine visited a rifle shooting demonstration. The Mauser rifle is the main weapon of the East African army and has been improved over the years, but the overall change has not been much.

The promotion of Mauser rifles in East Africa coincided with the economic crisis. At that time, East Africa introduced a large number of advanced equipment, so the performance of the East African Mauser rifles can be guaranteed.

However, the Mauser rifle in front of him still changed dramatically, which caught Constantine's attention.

"Mauser rifles like yours don't have thick black smoke. Is this a new technology?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, in 1884, France invented smokeless gunpowder to replace black powder, but the power was increased three times. In front of you is our experimental rifle in East Africa. It is also said that the German M1888 rifle has been completed and will be mass-produced soon." Produce."

"What about our East African Army?"

"It is currently in the small-scale experimental stage. As for mass production, it is unlikely because the environment we face is different from that of Germany. Germany must follow up quickly in the face of the threat from the French, so the M1888 rifle is only a product temporarily developed by Germany. , we introduced its samples from Europe, but there were too many problems, which was mainly due to hasty research and development,"

"The rifling design of the M1888 rifle is very poor, causing the barrel to wear out quickly. The excessive chamber pressure generated by the new barrel causes the barrel to rupture, and the second bullet in the chamber may be loaded before the first bullet is fired. It caused the breech to explode, so we in East Africa are still in the research stage for this new rifle.”

Germany and France are like two lions, ready to bite each other to death at any time. Therefore, even if the hastily developed M1888 rifle has extremely unstable performance and high security risks, Germany can only bite the bullet. After all, France is also the world's top army power. .

East Africa, which is far away from Africa, obviously does not have this kind of pressure, so it can continue to polish the technology with peace of mind, and wait until the problem is completely solved before launching new rifles and equipping them in large quantities.

As for the current war that may break out in South Africa at any time, the equipment of the East African Army is completely sufficient, because even Britain, the strongest in the "Triple Alliance", is actually at the same level as East Africa in terms of army weapons, or even worse. Portugal's national power was already in decline and it was still a maritime power. Its army equipment was even more miserable. It was already on the road of making things worse than buying them. And the Transvaal people had no defense industry at all.