German machine gun crew. The Maschinengewehr 08, or MG 08, was the German Army's standard machine gun in WWI and is an adaption of Hiram S. Maxim's original 1884 Maxim gun. When the war began in August 1914, approximately 12,000 MG 08s were available to battlefield units. In 1914 some 200 MG 08s were produced each month By 1916, once the weapon had established itself as the pre-eminent defensive battlefield weapon, the number had increased to 3,000 and a year later to 14,400 per month. No date or location available.