Special "Senne find"
06.07.2023
A few days ago, British Range Control employees found an old 08/15 machine gun at the Senne military training area.
It's totally rusted and unusable. On its muzzle you can still see a blank cartridge device.
The MG 08/15 is a light machine gun used by the German Army during World War I. It was developed as a further development of the older MG 08 and was characterized by its high rate of fire and reliability. However, the machine gun was also known for its mass production and standardization, leading to the expression "08/15", which is now used in German usage to describe something as ordinary or average.
The fact that a blank cartridge device is still screwed onto the muzzle of the weapon shows that it was used at the time for the use of blank ammunition. The 08/15 was introduced in the imperial era, but was still used afterwards in the Reichswehr and even in the Wehrmacht. It is of course possible that this MG was lost at some point during exercises.
However, the fact that the weapon was found on the military training area and also with a blank cartridge screwed on leads to the assumption that this weapon is a former demonstration machine gun.