The VMG 1927 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 s ...

Heinrich Vollmer Heinrich Vollmer (1885 in Altdorf, Esslingen–1961 in Tübingen) was a German small-arms designer. Vollmer began his manufacturing career by making parts for the German copies of the Maxim gun during the First World War. His first innovation wa ...

at 1927. In 1916 Heinrich Vollmer began working on a design of a light machine gun. At the end the weapon was known as a MG Vollmer, later also as VMG 1927.Heinrich Vollmer (1885-1961)
translation to English from ''Samopal M.P.38 a MP40'' by Martin Helebrant, published in Czech by Nakladatelstvi Elka Press, It consisted of only 78 parts while the standard MG of those days, the MG 08/15 consisted of 383 parts. It operated on the principle of

short recoil 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 ...

with a rotary locking mechanism for the bolt, carried by helical grooves. It was fed from a small

drum magazine A drum magazine is a type of high-capacity magazine for firearms. Cylindrical in shape (similar to a drum), drum magazines store rounds in a spiral around the center of the magazine, facing the direction of the barrel. Drum magazines are contrast ...

underneath the receiver. In 1927 Vollmer also obtained a patent covering the breech mechanism of the weapon. Later on, Vollmer co-developed the gun with

Mauser Mauser, originally Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik ("Royal Württemberg Rifle Factory"), was a German arms manufacturer. Their line of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic pistols has been produced since the 1870s for the German ar ...

Werke as the MV 31 (Mauser-Vollmer 1931). It was offered to the German ordnance board (Inspektion für Waffen und Gerät - IWG) but, after testing, it was not adopted for service. This gun had a quick-change barrel and used a drum magazine. Two examples are known to exist, one is at the Wehrtechnische Studiensammlung Koblenz and the other at the Vojenský historický ústav Praha.

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7.92×57mm Mauser machine guns Light machine guns Machine guns of Germany World War II infantry weapons of Germany World War II machine guns {{machinegun-stub