The wet section of a twin wire papermaking machine is provided with an open forming roll at the lower wire and with the combination of a suction box at the lower wire and a vacuum suction box at the upper wire. Furthermore, by selecting the elevational position or level of the individual wire sections there can be obtained particularly advantageous conditions for the operation of the papermaking machine throughout a wide field of application, especially heavy types of paper at relatively low operating velocities of the papermaking machine. Gap-former and hybrid-former constructions of the papermaking machine are possible.