Gast-Maschinengewehr Modell 1917 (Gast Gun)

History of Gast Machine Gun Model 1917 (Guest Gun)

The Parabellum MG14 air-cooled machine gun in the 8x57mm IS was the standard machine gun used on trainable mounts on German aircraft of the First World War (1914-1918). It was essentially the classic water-cooled Maxim 1908, further developed by the air-cooled MG08 and felt throughout the conflict, while the MG08 was primarily used as a fixed battery on the nose of many aircraft. As useful as the gun was, the Germans were looking for a new gun with a higher rate of fire, as the MG14 could only fire 600-700 rounds per minute.

This requirement was addressed to some extent by developing one of the most unique weapons of the First World War - the "Guest Machine Gun Model 1917" - or "Guest Gun".

Carl Gast (as part of the Vorwerk company) began the design work in secret in 1915, and his creation was just one of several projects being considered by the Luftwaffe at the time. The Gast Gun solves the problem of high rate of fire by offering a dual side-by-side barrel arrangement. Recoil operation allows the movement of one of the barrels to sequentially power the feeding system of the other barrel, which allows the gun to fire bullets quickly.

To meet the rapid depletion of ammunition, each barrel was fed by its own magazine containing 180 to 192 rounds of ready-to-fire 7.92mm rounds (the same as those used by German riflemen). The drum was mounted vertically on the side of the gun.

To simplify handling, the shooter used a single trigger mechanism (closer to a traditional pistol grip), and the wooden shoulder rest was hollowed out to save weight.

This machine gun has a rate of fire of 1,600 rounds per minute - more than double that of the MG14. Muzzle velocity is rated at 3,100 feet per second, and effective range is up to 2,000 yards.

Patents covering the operation of Gast-Gun were issued in 1916 and 1917, as nothing like it had ever been observed.

The first usable prototype of the Gast Gun appeared in mid-1917, and development continued until official testing began in early 1918. The tests overwhelmed German authorities, who optimistically called for several thousand copies in the first batch. This continued until the end of the year, although the war ended in mid-November with Germany on the losing side. It was only in the postwar period that the Allies became aware of the weapon (which had been locked by Germany until 1921), and they quickly took samples and tested them extensively in their respective countries. Despite having many moving parts, the machine gun proved to be an excellent weapon in terms of reliability, durability and functionality.

However, the post-war losses ran counter to this rather novel and expensive design, which offered little improvement over the already widely used full-fledged machine gun.

So without the world powers pushing to adopt the system, it ended up being history. However, the Gast concept had an even longer lifespan when it affected the Soviet GSh-23L automatic cannon mounted on fighter jets.

Specification

Roles

Dimensions

Performance

Changes