Ckm wz.30
| Ciężki karabin maszynowy wz.30 | |
|---|---|
Ckm wz.30 on wz.34 tripods presented to Marshal Rydz-Śmigły
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| Type | Heavy machine gun |
| Place of origin | Second Polish Republic/ United States |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1931–1970 |
| Used by | See Users |
| Wars |
World War II Spanish Civil War |
| Production history | |
| Designed | 1930 |
| Manufacturer | Państwowa Fabryka Karabinów |
| Produced | 1931–1939 |
| Number built | 10,388+ |
| Variants | wz.1930a wz.1930/39T (cal. 7.65×53mm, prototype for Turkish army) wz.33, wz.36 (aircraft guns) |
| Specifications | |
| Weight |
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| Length | 1,200 mm (47 in) |
| Barrel length | 720 mm (28 in) |
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| Cartridge | 8×57mm IS |
| Caliber | 7.9mm |
| Action | recoil |
| Rate of fire | 600 round/min |
| Muzzle velocity | 845 m/s (2,770 ft/s) |
| Feed system | 330-round belt |
Ckm wz. 30 (short for ciężki karabin maszynowy wz. 30; "heavy machine gun 1930 Pattern") is a Polish-made clone of the American Browning M1917 heavy machine gun. Produced with various modifications such as greater caliber, longer barrel and adjustable sighting device, it was an improved although unlicensed copy of its predecessor, and was the standard machine gun of the Polish Army since 1931.
After Poland regained her independence in 1918, her armed forces were armed with a variety of different weapons, mostly a legacy of the armies of her former occupying powers. As with their rifles and carbines, the machine guns used by the Polish Army in the Polish-Soviet War included Russian 7.62 mm M1910 Maxim, Austrian 1907 8 mm Schwarzlose MG M.07/12, German 7.9 mm Maschinengewehr 08 and French 8 mm Hotchkiss Mle 1914. Such diversity was a logistical nightmare, and in the early 1920s the General Staff of the Polish Army decided to replace all older machine guns with a new design, specifically built to Polish designations.
Initially the Hotchkiss machine gun, proven during the Polish-Soviet War, and adapted to the standard Polish 7.92 mm round (as the Ckm wz.25 Hotchkiss), had the most supporters. In late 1924 and early 1925, 1,250 were ordered from France and the Polish Ministry of War started talks on buying the license for manufacturing copies in Poland. However, the first tests of the post-war Hotchkiss machine guns proved that the new production were well below both Polish needs and maker's specifications, and the talks came to a halt. By the end of 1927 the ministry organized a contest for a new standard all-purpose heavy machine gun.
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Wikipedia