Chapter 413: Chapter 221: The Birth of the Maxim Machine Gun
It wasn’t long after signing the second arms trade deal with Russia when another piece of good news came from the Royal Military Factory.
The chief machine gun designer and weapons design engineer at the Royal Military Factory, Maxim, personally came to the Royal Palace to report this good news to Carlo: after six and a half years of research and development, the Maxim machine gun, which Carlo had long been eager for, finally showed some promising results.
Carlo invited the Maxim brothers to Spain to occupy important positions in January 1871. Over the past six and a half years, the Maxim brothers have continuously served as weapon design engineers at the Royal Military Factory, primarily responsible for the design of machine guns and the development of smokeless powder.
Initially, the machine gun R&D team consisted only of the Maxim brothers, but as the Royal Military Factory acquired more talent in the munitions field, the number of firearms engineers within the machine gun R&D team increased, currently reaching more than 30 people.
Besides the renowned Maxim, all firearms engineers who joined the machine gun R&D team were also renowned gunsmiths from Italy, Austria-Hungary, or Spain.
Moreover, only firearm engineers who completely immigrated to Spain would be invited by Carlo to join the machine gun R&D team. The machine gun, known as the king of all guns, plays a much more significant role in warfare than rifles.
In the era of manual rifles, a truly automatic machine gun would completely change the course of war.
Currently, on the Balkan Battlefield, both Russia and the Ottoman Empire are using human-wave attack tactics. Russia earned significant renown with this tactic, which is also why European countries have concerns about Russia.
However, during the First World War, once countries armed their armies fully with machine guns, conventional human-wave tactics lost their effectiveness.
To machine guns, group formations charging is almost like organized suicide, merely consuming more bullets and increasing the kill-death ratio.
As such, machine guns are of vital importance to Spain, and keeping them confidential whenever possible is crucial.
Upon learning of the machine gun’s successful development, Carlo promptly went to the weapons testing site of the Royal Military Factory on the outskirts of Madrid, to marvel at Spain’s first truly automatic firearm.
The Royal Military Factory set the weapons testing location in the mountainous area outside Madrid, with the Central Mountain Range further north, making it a sparsely populated area where weapon testing could proceed without worrying about alarming residents or drawing the attention of foreign spies.
In Benz’s latest improved "car," moving at nearly 30 kilometers per hour, Carlo and his entourage quickly arrived at the weapons testing site.
Accompanying Carlo to witness the machine gun test were the current Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Serrano, Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Defense Marca Anthony Fletcher, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Spanish Army Evan Bradley, and Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Royal Navy Grayson Ruiz.
Due to this seemingly minor machine gun test, it could be said that the bigwigs from the Spanish military had all come.
Minister of Defense Serrano holds the rank of Marshal, while Chief of Staff Fletcher, Army Commander Evan, and Navy Commander Grayson also hold marshal ranks.
This shows the military’s emphasis on this weapon. Carlo had long mentioned the role of machine guns, and the military had already deliberated on it.
If it is confirmed that the machine gun manufactured by Maxim aligns closely with the features Carlo described, the military would plan to order at least a thousand machine guns to significantly boost Spain’s firepower.
Of course, for maximum confidentiality, these machine guns would not be immediately equipped to the troops. Instead, a new unit would be formed for machine gun training.
When a future war involving Spain breaks out, these specially trained machine gun units will be divided into smaller groups and dispersed among Spain’s various infantry divisions.
When Carlo and his entourage arrived at the weapons testing site, Maxim and a group of experts in machine gun development were already respectfully waiting outside.
"Your Majesty." Upon seeing Carlo alight from the carriage, Maxim quickly stepped forward, respectfully saluting Carlo.
It was Carlo who gave him the opportunity to fulfill his role as a weapons design engineer, a role he loved. Carlo also provided him with ample funding, freeing him from financial worries, and allowing him to conduct his experiments with complete freedom.
After six and a half years of effort, this seemingly perfect machine gun represented Maxim’s gratitude for Carlo’s trust.
"Well done, Mr. Maxim." Carlo nodded, his attitude toward Maxim and the firearms experts behind him was notably cordial.
Carlo excelled in valuing talent. As long as these talents were willing to contribute to Spain, Carlo was happy to reward them handsomely, offering them rich rewards and salaries.
Under the guidance of Maxim and his group of experts, everyone quickly moved to the weapons testing site, where a Maxim machine gun and ten Vitali M1872 Rifles were already set up.
"Your Majesty, generals, please take a look. This is our research achievement, a truly significant machine gun.
Mr. Gatling’s rotary cannon provided us some inspiration, but what we have produced is entirely different from Mr. Gatling’s gun — a truly automatic machine gun.
This machine gun has a 11.43 mm barrel diameter, weighs 27.2 kilograms, and can fire in both single and automatic modes. A rate of fire adjuster allows modification of the firing speed.
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