For further context, the MG-34 was never used to “repel human waves”, not only because such attacks never existed, but also because the MG-34 was not designed for such a role and would have preformed horrifically. The MG-34 was designed as an LMG to give squads covering and suppressing fire while advancing, as the slow firing Kar98’s left German squads as sitting ducks. The problem comes is that if you fired the gun for more then 450 bullets continuously (or close enough to continuously) you were guaranteed to have the gun simply melt and at worst explode in your hands.
Further past 250 bullets the dispersion became so horrific as to become simply unusable, a massive problem as the MG-34 already had one of the worst dispersion rates known to man during ww2.
The MG34 was in conclusion hot garbage. There’s a reason the Germans rushed to replace as many as they could with the MG42. The gun itself is also only popular because they slapped them on tanks due to a design oversight where the MG42’s barrel holder opens to the side and not down, meaning that you couldn’t repair the gun while It was in the firing port.
Meanwhile, to repost a comrade's comment
Thank you for the repost comrade.
For further context, the MG-34 was never used to “repel human waves”, not only because such attacks never existed, but also because the MG-34 was not designed for such a role and would have preformed horrifically. The MG-34 was designed as an LMG to give squads covering and suppressing fire while advancing, as the slow firing Kar98’s left German squads as sitting ducks. The problem comes is that if you fired the gun for more then 450 bullets continuously (or close enough to continuously) you were guaranteed to have the gun simply melt and at worst explode in your hands.
Further past 250 bullets the dispersion became so horrific as to become simply unusable, a massive problem as the MG-34 already had one of the worst dispersion rates known to man during ww2.
The MG34 was in conclusion hot garbage. There’s a reason the Germans rushed to replace as many as they could with the MG42. The gun itself is also only popular because they slapped them on tanks due to a design oversight where the MG42’s barrel holder opens to the side and not down, meaning that you couldn’t repair the gun while It was in the firing port.