MG 131 (13 mm)

Description

The MG 131 (German: Maschinengewehr 131, or Machine gun 131) is a 13 mm German machine gun. This machine gun was developed for the Luftwaffe in 1938 and was in full production by Rheinmetall-Borsig from 1940 to 1945. This machine gun was one of the smallest machine guns produced by any nation in this calibre and due to its lighter weight and fast rate of fire, it replaced many 7.92 mm machine guns already installed in German fighters. This 13 mm machine gun provided the punch against armoured Allied aircraft (bombers especially) which the 7.92 mm machine guns had virtually no effect against.

General info

Tell us about the tactical and technical characteristics of the cannon or machine gun.

Available ammunition

Describe the shells that are available for the weapon and their features and purpose. If it concerns autocannons or machine guns, write about different ammo belts and what is inside (which types of shells).

Comparison with analogues

Give a comparative description of cannons/machine guns that have firepower equal to this weapon.

Usage in battles

The MG 131 (13 mm) is always deployed alongside heavier guns such as MK 108 and MG 151. Here, the overall tactic is to treat this weapon as a supplement of your heavy cannon.

Three common tactics:

1. Use the tracer round to make your opponent overreact such as firing at fleeing enemy, force them to evade thus resulting in lost speed
2. Use it as an additional damage dealer or trajectory indicator, work best in combination with MG 151 but fails badly with when used with a 30 mm cannon
3. Use as a backup gun to finish off a wounded enemy vehicle, therefore conserving the cannon rounds for better use

Separate key blinding between weapons or use of the weapon selector mechanic is recommended

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Can set target vehicles on fires
• Can spook the enemy and cause them to make mistake while conserving cannon ammo for the real punch elsewhere
• Low muzzle velocity can be a good thing as it matches the bullet trajectory of MG 151 (both at around 750 m/s)

Cons:

• Low damage output compared to heavy machine gun of other nations
• Your best damage dealing option is the HEI-T belt which is a tracer belt with HE property, the resulting light show can be annoying
• Difficult to lead small targets due to the low muzzle velocity of this heavy machine gun

History

Examine the history of the creation and combat usage of the weapon in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the weapon and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Weapon-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />.

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;
• references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.

Aircraft machine guns
USA
7.62 mm	Browning · M134 Minigun
12.7 mm	GAU-19 · M2 Browning · M3 Browning
Germany
7.62 mm	MG3
7.92 mm	MG 15 · MG 17 · MG 81
12.7 mm	FN M3P
13 mm	MG 131
USSR
7.62 mm	DA · GShG-7.62 · PKT · PV-1 · ShKAS
12.7 mm	A-12.7 · Berezin UB · TKB-481 · YaK-B
Britain
7.62 mm	FN 60.30 · L8A1
7.7 mm	Browning · Lewis · Vickers E · Vickers K
Japan
7.7 mm	Te-1 · Type 89 · Type 89 'special' · Type 92 · Type 97 navy
7.92 mm	Type 1 · Type 98
12.7 mm	Ho-103 · Ho-104
13 mm	Type 2
13.2 mm	Type 3
China
12.7 mm	QJK99-12.7-1
Italy
7.7 mm	Breda-SAFAT · Lewis
7.92 mm	FN Browning
12.7 mm	Breda-SAFAT · FN M3M · Scotti
France
7.5 mm	Darne 1933 · Fabrique Nationale Mle 38 · FN Browning · MAC 1934 · MAC 1934T · Mle 33 · Mle 1923
7.62 mm	PKA
7.92 mm	FN-Browning M.36 No.3 · FN-Browning M.36 No.4
Sweden
7.7 mm	FN-Browning M.36 No.3
8 mm	Ksp m/22 · Ksp m/22 Fh · Ksp m/22 Fv · Ksp m/22-37 R
12.7 mm	Akan m/39A · Akan m/40 · Akan m/45 · LKk/42
13.2 mm	Akan m/39 · Akan m/39A