Ukraine is using a140 year-old machine gun to repel Russian attacks

Throughout the ongoing conflict, both Ukraine and Russia have delved into their arsenals, deploying vintage weaponry and equipment to bridge gaps in their military inventories. Notably, Ukraine has effectively employed a century-old machine gun to thwart Russian advances, underscoring the enduring utility of historical armaments in modern warfare.

Ukrainian soldiers all across the frontlines have been using a 140-year-old machine gun design to repel Russian attacks, and this weapon from a bygone period of war has proven itself to be just as good at killing as some of Kyiv’s most modern bombs and artillery systems. 

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The Maxim M1910 is a heavy machine gun that first saw action with the Russian Empire all the way back in World War I. Weighing in at 150 pounds with an odd two-wheeled mount and gun shield, The Economist noted that the Maxim has a steampunk aesthetic. 

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Russian media mocked the appearance of the Maxim on the battlefield but the machine gun has turned out to have several advantages over more modern equipment because of the way it was designed. The Maxim can lay down sustained fire for a very long period of time. 

The original Maxim machine gun was designed in 1883 by the American-British inventor Hiram Maxim and his design included a water-cooled barrel. This is what allows the gun to fire for an extended period of time without overheating, which makes it very useful. 

The Economist commented that variants of “Maxim’s gun proved a lethally effective tool of slaughter and terror during the late-19th-century heyday of imperialism.” The machine gun allowed small European armies to dominate the world. But it would really change warfare during the First World War. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons: By Unknown Author, Public Domain

“The fighting in Ukraine has repeatedly garnered parallels to World War I, with both sides locked in a brutal war of attrition featuring trenches, relentless artillery barrages, and heavy casualties,” wrote Business Insider’s John Haltiwagner.

“In this environment, even some of the weapons of that era have come in handy as Ukrainian troops face human wave attacks on the front line,” Haltiwagner continued, which is why the Maxim M1910 has become such a useful weapon for Ukraine. 

Modern machine guns don’t have the same ability to continuously fire at an advancing enemy force. For example, the Russian PKM doesn’t have a water-cooled system, and its barrel would begin to deform if a soldier tried to fire it continuously for over a minute.

This ability to continuously fire at advancing soldiers is what has made the M1910 such a desirable weapon on the battlefields of Ukraine. In March, BBC News briefly covered one Maxim gun that was being used to defend the frontlines near Bakhmut from assault. 

"It only works when there is a massive attack going on…then it really works," explained one Ukranian soldier who spoke with the British news outlet. "So we use it every week.” BBC News added that the M1910 Maxim could still mow down men by the scores. 

Vice News wrote in a report on Ukraine's use of the Maxim M1910 that a well-serviced gun can theoretically fire indefinitely without having the weapon overheating as long as the soldiers manning it keep feeding the Maxin both new ammunition and water. 

“That kind of reliability makes it a boon when a soldier is holding an entrenched position and fending off a heavy assault from infantry,” wrote Vice News at the time. “That’s the position some of the Ukrainian defenders of Bakhmut currently find themselves in.”

Vice reported that Ukrainian soldiers had taken to modifying the older machine guns so that they could be more effective on the battlefield. The news outlet posted a video from one soldier who had modified his gun with modern optics, plus a stock and suppressor. 

The Maxim M1910 isn’t just being employed against infantry. Vice News published other videos showing the weapon modified in a way that turned it into an anti-drone machine gun designed to take down Iranian-made Shahed 136 kamikaze drones.   

Ukraine's Maxim guns are usually only deployed at fixed defensive positions according to The Economist, so it is unlikely the weapon isn’t being used in the counter-offensive still underway in the eastern and southern portions of the country.