The SIG KE7 is a
light machine gun
A light machine gun (LMG) is a light-weight machine gun designed to be operated by a single infantryman, with or without an assistant, as an infantry support weapon. LMGs firing cartridges of the same caliber as the other riflemen of the sa ...
designed and manufactured in Switzerland in the decade before the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. Although exported, it was never used by the
Swiss Army.
Description
The SIG KE7 is a
recoil operated
Recoil operation is an operating mechanism used to implement locked breech, autoloading firearms. Recoil operated firearms use the energy of recoil to cycle the action, as opposed to gas operation or blowback operation using the pressure of the ...
, air cooled light machine gun with tilting bolt. It is fed from a curved
box magazine
A magazine is an ammunition storage and feeding device for a repeating firearm, either integral within the gun (internal/fixed magazine) or externally attached (detachable magazine). The magazine functions by holding several cartridges with ...
mounted on the underside of the weapon, which holds 25 rounds. A light folding
bipod
A bipod is a V-shaped portable attachment that helps support and steady a device, usually a weapon such as a long gun or a mortar. The term comes from the Latin prefix ''bi-'' and Greek root ''pod'', meaning "two" and "foot" respectively.
Bip ...
is attached to the perforated barrel jacket, and an additional rear
monopod
A monopod, also called a unipod, is a single staff or pole used to help support cameras, binoculars, rifles or other precision instruments in the field.
Camera and imaging use
The monopod allows a still camera to be held steadier, allowing t ...
can be fitted.
Notable feature of the gun is a very long travel of the bolt carrier (about 6 cm, 2.4 in) before it starts pulling the bolt back and extracting the fired case. It gives longer time for the pressure in barrel to drop for easier extraction.
History
The KE7 light machine gun was designed by
Pál Király
Pál Király (1880–1965) was a Hungarian engineer and weapons designer.
Work & designs
He is best known for development of lever-delayed blowback firearms, and being employed by the Danuvia company in the 1930s and 1940s to design and prod ...
and Gotthard End at the
SIG
Sig used as a name may refer to:
* Sig (given name)
*Sig, Algeria, a city on the banks of the Sig River
*Sig Alert, an alert for traffic congestion in California, named after Loyd Sigmon
*Sig River, a river of Algeria also known as Mekerra
sig (l ...
small arms factory in
Neuhausen am Rheinfall
Neuhausen am Rheinfall (sometimes abbrv. as Neuhausen a. Rhf., called Neuhausen until 1938) is a town and a municipality in the canton of Schaffhausen in Switzerland.
The town is close to the Rhine Falls, a tourist attraction and mainland Europe' ...
. Production commenced in 1929, with most weapons being exported to the
Republic of China chambered for
7.92×57mm Mauser ammunition. The Chinese government purchased 3,025 from Switzerland between 1928 and 1939, and the provincial government of
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
purchased 200 KE7s with 4,000 magazines in December 1928. In 1933,
Liu Xiang funded Huaxing Machine Works' acquisition of machinery for a workshop in
Chongqing. From 1933 to 1936, it would produce 6,000 KE7 copies. Three months after the war with Japan began, the workshop would be requisitioned by the Chinese government and produce
ZB-26 copies after 1939.
The KE7 would be used during the
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...
, the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
and the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
. Some KE-7 machine guns were also made in other calibres for export to
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
and
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
. In 1930, examples were provided for trials being run by the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
to find a replacement for the
Lewis gun, although a modified
ZB vz. 26
The ZB vz. 26 was a Czechoslovak light machine gun developed in the 1920s, which went on to enter service with several countries. It saw its major use during World War II, and spawned the related ZB vz. 27, vz. 30, and vz. 33. The ZB vz. 26 influe ...
was finally adopted as the
Bren gun.
[Grant, Neil (2013)]
''The Bren Gun''
Osprey Publishing, (pp. 9-11)
Users
*
Republic of China: Used at least 3,225 original and 6,000 domestically made examples.
*
*
References
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017
Machine guns of Switzerland
Light machine guns
SIG Sauer machine guns