The MG08/18 was an attempt by the Imperial German army at creating a true light machine gun from the MG08 HMG, after their initial attempt the MG08/15 fell short. The MG08/18 can be easily distinguished from the other models by its complete lack of a water cooling jacket around the barrel, turning the weapon into an air-cooled gun.
Despite these efforts, weight savings were minimal over the MG08/15, as the Maxim gun operation put a hard limit on how much weight could be removed. A few hundred examples were produced and used in the last months of World War I, but altogether the attempt was judged to be unsuccessful, though the later MG34 did incorporate a similarly designed barrel assembly to the MG08/18.
The weapon is most famous for its inclusion in the video game Battlefield 1.
