#8080 WWI Russian Heavy Weapons Set
Dated: March 26, updated Sept 1, 2004.
When the First World War began in 1914, the Imperial Russian Army was one of the largest armies in the world. Russian infantry fought across an enormous front stretching from the Baltic Sea through Poland and Galicia to the Carpathian Mountains and the Caucasus. Although the rifle remained the ordinary soldier's principal weapon, machine guns and mortars became increasingly important as the armies encountered trenches, barbed wire, fortified villages and other strongly defended positions.
Box front and back.
The principal machine gun represented in this set is the 7.62mm Maxim Model 1910, or Pulemyot Maxima. Based on Hiram Maxim's famous design, the Russian version was normally mounted on a low, two-wheeled Sokolov carriage protected by a small steel shield. Its water-cooled barrel allowed it to maintain prolonged fire, while its wheeled mounting made the heavy weapon easier to move across the battlefield. Maxim guns could defend trenches, cover infantry attacks and sweep exposed ground with sustained fire, making them some of the most powerful weapons available to a Russian infantry formation.
The set also includes two types of trench mortar. The French-designed 58mm mortar fired a large finned projectile in a high arc, allowing it to strike trenches and positions concealed behind cover. Russia imported and manufactured a variety of Allied weapons during the war, and French mortars helped supplement its limited supply of domestic artillery. The smaller 47mm Likhonin mortar was a simple Russian weapon designed to provide infantry with close-range explosive support. Such mortars were particularly valuable where conventional field artillery could not easily engage enemy trenches immediately ahead of the infantry.
Sample painted figures.
The crews include men operating and supplying the weapons, carrying ammunition, observing with binoculars and using a field telephone. These figures reflect the teamwork required to keep heavy weapons firing. Machine-gun crews had to transport the gun, carriage, ammunition belts and cooling water, while mortar crews prepared bombs, selected targets and adjusted their fire according to the observations of officers and spotters.
Test sprue.
This set can be combined with our other WWI Russian sets to create a much more complete Imperial Russian force. Set 8061 supplies the ordinary infantry, while set 8257 provides artillery crews for the 76mm Putilov field gun in set 8173. Sets 8314 and 8315 add regular cavalry and Cossacks for reconnaissance, mounted combat and operations across the vast Eastern Front. Together, these sets can represent Russian formations during the campaigns of 1914, the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive of 1915 and the Brusilov Offensive of 1916. Much of the same equipment was later used by Red, White and other forces during the Russian Civil War.
8257 WWI Russian Artillery Crew
8173 WWI 76mm Putilov M1902 Gun