MG34 Platoon

The MG34 platoon is a unit available in flames of war equipped with an MG34. It earned a ferocious reputation in WWII as the primary MG on tanks, as well as serving as the inspiration for the FG42 and his far more sexy cousin, the MG42. It is widely considered the first general purpose Machine Gun.

IRL

The MG34 started out as a derivative of the Solothurn M30 Machine Gun. The Germans tinkered with the design until they created the beast known as the MG34. After working out the kinks in it, they were sent into service in the Spanish Civil War, and were well liked for their performance as well as their general reliability.

MG34s typically shot 7.92mm(that's roughly 31 caliber for you Yanks), and could be equipped with a drum that held from 50-75 rounds, or could be equipped with the infamous belt magazines for sustained fire. The MG34 was also unique in that it had an option to be fired in single shots like a rifle, which nobody used because that was retarded. It had an effective range of about 2 kilometers and variants of the base design were used on everything from tanks to AA turrets to aircraft. Additionally, unlike earlier machine guns, the MG34 had no need for water to cool it, as it was air cooled, relatively revolutionary compared to the weapons of WWI.

At the time, and even until the end of the war, the MG34 retained it's status as one of the most advanced weapons on the battlefield. The American B.A.R. and Johnson was pretty much a joke, the M1918 and BESA were far too cumbersome for service as general purpose MGs, and Bren didn't have the ability to sustain fire as well against an MG34, nor was it as portable. Before you try to say that this was Wehraboo wank, kindly remind yourself that pretty much every LMG since WWII has used the base design of the MG34/42 as it's overall design.