Bergmann MG 15nA machine gun

The Bergmann MG 15nA was a World War I light machine gun produced by Germany starting in 1915. It used 100- and 200-round belts and utilized a bipod, which allowed the weapon to be mounted on a flat surface for more accurate firing. It was briefly put back into service during the closing months of World War II in Europe by German Volkssturm units who lacked modern equipment and were little more than suicide squads meant to mount a hopeless last defense. Nazi Germany was using any weapon they had available during the last part of the war due to failing production and resupply. The Bergmann gun used a lock system patented by Theodor Bergmann in 1901 along with the short recoil principle of operation. The locking system, in which a cam moves a lock vertically in the weapon, was not dissimilar to the Browning machine gun designs. The original design, borrowing from the 1910 pattern, was a heavy ground-based weapon fitted with a water-cooling jacket. The weapon was then lightened for both infantry and aircraft use. For aircraft usage, the bolt was lightened and the mechanism sped up from 500 rounds per minute to 800. For ground use, this weapon was adopted as the Bergmann MG 15. The receiver to the weapon was machined down and lightened, featured a butt stock fitted to the end of the weapon. It was given a pistol grip and trigger grouping instead of spade grips, the heavy cooling jacket was replaced with a thin perforated barrel shroud and a bipod was fitted halfway down the barrel. The major development of the weapon came early in 1916 when the Bergmann MG 15 was converted into a second variation to mirror the development of the Maxim MG 08/15. The bolt was slowed back down as the original had stoppage issues when used in the ground role. The bipod was removed from the flimsy barrel shroud and relocated to just forward of the pistol grip using a swivel-mount that accepted the bipod shared between the Bergmann and Maxim guns. A carry handle and new sights were also added.