The German MG08/15 or ‘light Maxim’ was the light version of the standard MG08 Maxim machine gun. It came from the decision simply to lighten the standard 08 design to make it more portable. It was first used in battle in small numbers at the battle of the Somme in June 1916 and proved far more light and mobile than the MG08, especially when used with its specially designed patronenkasten drum which held a 100 round belt and which was clipped on to the side of the gun. By early 1917 the light Maxim was replacing MG08s in most front-line trenches, these being held in the second line trenches to provide heavy long-range sustained fire.

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The main Italian Heavy Machinegun of WW1 was the 6.5mm Fiat-Revelli M1914. One of the main motives behind its adoption appears to have been the desire to give the army a weapon manufactured in Italy. The gun was a modification of the Maxim type. The gun was water-cooled like the Maxim, but the cartridges was fed by an unusual 50-round box-like magazine divided into 5-round compartments. (These 50 round magazines could be linked together, to permit continuous firing.) It was mounted on a 27kg tripod with both traverse- and elevation mechanisms. 

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The 8mm Hotchkiss Mle 1914 was the basic French heavy machine gun during the Great War, and it was also used by the American Forces in 1917-18. It functioned only on automatic, was gas operated and air-cooled. The construction was sturdy and simple. Albeit a bit cumbersome, it was a very reliable weapon, with the only drawback being the feed method: the metallic feed trays reduced the practical rate of fire somewhat. 

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Invented by Andreas Schwartzlose of Charlottenberg Germany in 1902, this gun was the standard Machine Gun of the Austro-Hungarian Army throughout World War One, and as such used on all fronts. It's tripod could be adjusted so that the gun could be fired at different heights. It could, as can be seen below, also be equipped with a special 7mm Shield of Steel. The gun could also be equipped with wheels. 

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The 9mm double-barrelled Villar Perosa was was the world's first true sub-machine gun. (The name comes from the factory that made it: Officini de Villar Perosa.) Originally it was designed for use in aeroplanes as a flexible observer's gun. That's the reason for the SMG's high rate of fire: each barrel was theoretically capable of 1.200-1.500rpm or more. The 9mm Glisenti pistol cartridge of the gun - fed from two top-mounted 25-round magazines - was simply not powerful enough for this purpose. Instead the Villar Perosa was given to the found troops. It was first used in the 12th Battle of the Isonzo. With its low weight (6.49kg), short length (53.34cm) and high rate of fire, it could be readily used in the trenches.

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The Danish Madsen was a light machine gun, weighing only some 2 kilos more than a rifle, had a very simple mechanism, and was cheap to produce. In 1918 an official statement was made in the British Parliament that "the present Madsen gun is considered by many the most wonderful machine-gun of its kind ever invented" and that it was admittedly superior in many respects to the Lewis and the Hotchkiss. It had problems, but was still used by many of the Armies of WW1, including Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary.

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The German 08 model of the popular Maxim system machine gun, was the basic German machine gun of the World War I, and also the most widespread model of Maxim MG in the world. The MG/08 was very complicated weapon, but with a well trained and careful crew it was very reliable, with an excellent accuracy and a high rate of fire. This MG is said to have killed more people than any other single military instrument, and has been called "the most murderous weapon of World War 1".

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The Vickers machine gun was the standard British Heavy Machine Gun during the Great War, and although a very complex design it was extremely reliable, and used in every theatre of war from Gallipoli to Russia, from France to Mesopotamia, and it functioned well in all of them.

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The St Etienne gun was the standard French Heavy Machine Gun at the outset of the Great War. The St. Etienne machine gun was the product of a French government design, produced at the St. Etienne arsenal (hence its name). Designed as an improvement upon an earlier failed design, the 1905 Puteaux, the mle 1907 St. Etienne turned out to be a complicated version of a simple design, and it soon proved unreliable.

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The weight aside, the gun was a very fine tactical weapon. At the front was fitted a folding bipod, from which the gun could be set up to fire. It fired comfortably from a handy sand-bag or grassy bank, but it was not too good firing from stone or brick­work. The allocation of Lewis guns to the Battalion grew slowly, until by 1918 each of the 16 Platoons in the then standard Infantry Battalion had two guns, with a further four being held as supporting weapons at Battalion HQ.

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There were two Hotchkiss models in Army use during World War One. One was the standard French Heavy Machine Gun, the Puteaux-Hotchkiss Mle 1914. The other one was a smaller, lighter, portable model, that was employed both as a mobile Light MG, and as a weapon in a number of British Tanks, among others the Mk IV and the Whippet. (It was also used in aircraft.)

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The hard-earned experience of the Russo-Japanese war, made the Russian Army very well aware of the devastating power of Machine Guns, and they entered WW1 with a very fine HMG, the Maxim M1910 - every Infantry Division had 32 of them. It was a sturdy and realiable weapon, equipped with a very tell-tale shield and wheel equipped lavette, and it would be used all through WW1 and well into WW2.

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