German forces than the MG 15aA. Service use Battlefield usage of the weapon was significant, but not to the extent of the Maxim weapons. The Bergmann MG 15nA was an important weapon in that it filled a gap in the German armory between the rifle and the heavy machine gun. The only other light machine guns the Imperial German Army fielded before the Bergmann was adopted were the various Madsen machine guns used by the Musketen battalions. In the 1916 Battle of the Somme, the German Army found that they desperately needed a weapon to counter the British Army's Lewis light machine gun. The limited quantities of the Madsen gun only added to the need for a light machine gun. Germany did not produce any Madsens in the First World War and relied almost entirely on captured weaponry. Madsen machine guns were used between a mix of examples captured from a shipment heading to Bulgaria and others supplied by the Austrians. The German Army, reeling from the Battle of the Somme, ordered some 6,000 MG 15nA examples in November 1916. These weapons were distributed to Musketen and other infantry battalions before enough troops could be trained upon the new MG 08/15 in the winter/spring of 1917. The majority of MG 15nA weapons were actually delivered to the Eastern and Palestine fronts where the German Asia Corps made the most significant use of the gun. The limitation of the weapon was that its air-cooled barrel would overheat after 250 rounds of sustained fire. They were therefore grouped into sections in which the tactical positioning allowed the gunners to open fire alternately or were attributed to mobile detachments that did not require long sustained fire. The German Leichtmaschinengewehr Truppen (LMGt) were formed specifically for the weapon. The MG 15nA was a generally reliable gun that served until the manufacture of automatic weaponry was ceased in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles, but the dominance of the Maxim 08 during the war meant it never acquired much enthusiasm from military officials. The weapon had faded into obscurity by the time the Second World War came about, though some were used by the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. Users : M1910 purchased during the warlord era : 52 in stock of the Latvian Army by April 1936 : used by Volkssturm Sources External links http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/mgun_mg15na.htm picture of MG15 nA Mitrailleuse Bergmann LMG 15