This is a very fine example of an original WWI German Maxim heavy machine gun manufactured in 1918 by the DWM factory. This weapon system was originally developed by Hiram Maxim in the 1883-1884 time frame with the design finalized 1885. It became one of the most influential weapons of the 20th century, specifically during WWI as it was the first true self-sustaining machine gun that could fire in a fully-automatic mode without external means. Germany officially adopted the weapon in 1899 and used it throughout WWI and well into the Weimar period. The British Army are credited with being the first country to recognize it importance and the first to officially adopted it and to use it in battle in the late 1880s.This example is a late "1918" production model with serial number "43402". It has some matching visible serial numbers to include the top cover, water jacket, back plate/butterfly trigger mechanism and spade grip assembly. It has a mismatched bolt assembly and feed mechanism, and it has a newly made flash hider. The top cover is marked: "43402/M.G.0.8./D.W.M./BERLIN/1918". The tangent style rear sight is graduated from calibrated from 400-2,000 meters with a simple inverted "V" front sight that is fitted to the front of the water jacket. The water jacket held seven (7) quarts of water that would allow the machine gunner to fire long bursts of intermittent, sustained fire. After approximately 500 rounds of fire, the water would started to boil and would completely boil off/evaporate after 2,000 rounds. During WWI this weapon would wreak havoc and devastation in the large open field battles in France and Germany where it was nicknamed the "Devils Paintbrush" because of the thousands of soldiers it killed. This single weapon changed the tactics of land warfare forever. It comes with an original WWI sled mount, two small metal German ammo cans with 2 cloth ammunition belts, a large wooden storage box that contains an ammunition belt loading machine, a spare barrel attached to the mount, an extra feed mechanism, and two optical training devices.

Very fine with 80% plus of the original blue finish overall with the water jacket painted a old olive green color on the outside. The large sled/mount is also in very good condition with 45% plus of he original green painted exterior finish that has generally flaked off overall with the balance a brown patina overall. NOTE: This item is restricted as a National Firearms Act (NFA), fully transferable Class 3, which is registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, (BATFE) that is classified as a "Curios or Relic" as defined in 27 CFR, 478.11. These weapons are still subject to the provisions of 18 U.S.C. Chapter 44 and 27 CFR part 478.