One of the few images of the Hellriegel SMG, a rare water-cooled submachinegun from WW1, Austro-Hungarian, photo taken circa 1915
One of the few images of the Hellriegel SMG, a rare water-cooled submachinegun from WW1, Austro-Hungarian, photo taken circa 1915
Bf1 flashback :O
Yep one of the unlocks is 300 kills with this bad boy
With the average issue rifle in that conflict being a bolt action with a roughly 5 round internal magazine, this thing must've felt like a space age high-speed operator weapon by comparison. I guess the trench style of warfare didn't really support getting the most out of this particular weapon though, with emphasis on stationary MGs, artillery, gas, etc.
SMGs like this were actually highly valued in trench warfare - not for the long periods of sniping across no-man's land, but in trench raids and infiltration tactics by specialists. Some wild stuff - semiautomatic pistols modified to fire full auto, knives, maces, armor straight out of the medieval period...
This prototype SMG in particular didn't have much future to it, though. Water-cooling is... not very practical for a mobile weapon, lmao. The French Chauchat LMG saw much more utilization in the same period.
ever heard of the Pederson device?