After World War I, European countries ushered in the era of mechanization reform, all kinds of trucks, tracked vehicles into the army, to the outbreak of World War II, the German army's blitzkrieg let the world see the combat advantages brought by a high degree of mechanization, coupled with the effect of deliberate propaganda, for a while many people think that the German army divisions have been highly popular with various mobile vehicles.
In fact, Germany's industry was indeed developed at that time, but it was still a huge hole that was difficult to fill to arm an army of millions and replenish the losses caused by the war, and the limitations of road infrastructure construction at that time made horse-drawn carriages and trailers more economical and practical. At that time, Germany was also very rigorous in the aspect of manpower and animal-powered trailers or trolleys, and developed horse-drawn trailers with a variety of functions and transport capacities, which could meet the daily tasks of transporting troops and ammunition to the troops.
There are also horse-drawn carriages with special functions such as the Nachrichtenger Tkarren, a small human-pulled communication vehicle, Gefechtskarren (if.).9) is a manpower cart for mortar crews, hfThe 12 is a small animal-powered traction field kitchen. During World War II, artillery paid more and more attention to autonomous maneuvering, giving rise to a series of self-propelled guns and self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, such as the MG-Wagen 36, a horse-drawn "self-propelled" anti-aircraft defense **.
MG-WAGEN 36 is infantriefahrzeug if5 troop carriage developed, the front is still the driver's seat, the rear trailer is installed a Zwillingssockel 36 machine gun mount, it can be installed side by side 2 MG 34 machine guns, the gun is one of the main machine guns of the German army grassroots infantry units at that time, has a high rate of fire, and is often used in anti-aircraft operations in actual combat.
The MG-Wagen 36's machine gun can rotate horizontally, the pitch range is -10° +90°, the machine gun is fed using a chain of 150 rounds, the shooter holds the horizontal handles on both sides of the butt of the machine gun, and aims through a special ring anti-aircraft sight, carries spare ammunition with the vehicle, and there are tripods on the trailer that can be deployed for stabilization.
The MG-WAGEN 36 is relatively lightweight, it weighs only 570 kg and has a width of 1At 8 meters, it does not have the ability to shoot on the move, it needs to stop and fight, and usually has a machine gun trailer laid on a preset position. The trailer has pneumatic rubber tires, so it can be towed both by horses and at low speeds by cars.
As early as the Spanish Civil War, the Germans found it necessary to equip the grassroots infantry units with followable anti-aircraft firepower, MG-WAGEN 36 was mainly equipped into battalion-level units, which was indeed a good choice under the conditions at the time, Germany produced a total of about 1000 units during World War II, and there are articles that it was mainly distributed to mountain troops, it was used more on the Eastern Front battlefield, and was often used to attack ground targets, and only a small number of MG-Wagen 36 in the world were retained.