Pleasure and Pain, mother daughter stripper duo with the Browning M1919, America's World War II machine gun

In mankind’s search for the ultimate woman, the quest might very well stop with Machine Gun Pleasure, or her mother since both women have it all in one package. But man’s search for the ultimate hose down weapon--that is, the perfect machine gun for spraying his enemies into dough boy oblivion, is much more challenging. We are not talking about submachine guns typically firing pistol cartridges, usually 9 mm or 45 auto, good only for short-range work and which lack penetration and accuracy. It’s the tripod or bipod mounted weapon of the “Machine gun nest” firing high power rifle ammunition which merits discussion here, and

the 1919 Browning 30 caliber machine gun, in particular, which World War II, Korean, and Vietnam War Soldiers relied upon to kill their enemies.

The heavy machine gun practically immobilized the battlefield in World War I while killing millions of soldiers, which made infantry attacks an invitation to suicide. During the waning months of the Great War, a firearms genius, named John Browning, came to the rescue with a new weapon both he and the top American military brass hoped would give attacking infantrymen a fighting chance. The Browning Automatic Rifle, or BAR, fired from a twenty round magazine in either semi auto or full automatic mode at up to 500 rounds a minute, vastly bolstering the firepower of attacking infantrymen most of whom were armed with bolt action repeating rifles. Originally weighing in at 16 pounds, the BAR could easily be carried and fired by one man from the shoulder. Each attacking squad composed of roughly 8 U.S. infantrymen would have one BAR man. The rest would have bolt-action rifles. As the squad rapidly advanced on enemy trenches, the BAR man would unleash torrents of heavy hitting 30-06 ammo at the enemy position forcing the enemy’s heads down while reducing his effectiveness to fire accurately at the attacking Americans.

The brilliantly conceived BAR performed its assigned task admirably. However, the war ended just a few months after the BARs made their first battlefield appearance. Twenty years later the role of the BAR was to change to a do everything light machinegun during World War II. “Improved versions” of the BAR sported an attached bipod and other weight increasing accouterments which increased its weight from its original 16 pounds to more than twenty.

World War I was the first war in which troops experienced both the onslaught of tanks and the grim reaper’s death dealing machine gun. While John Browning was still busy perfecting his BAR, a need was perceived for arming tanks with reasonably compact light weight machine guns. The machine guns of the day were heavy contraptions using water cooling jackets to keep their barrels from turning into melted junk. They were ideal in the static trench warfare of the time when major gains could be measured in a few feet at the cost of thousands of lives since the very effective cooling systems could keep machine guns firing continuously without having their barrels overheat. But they were too ungainly to be mounted in a tank.

Browning’s new machine gun arrived off the drawing boards a little too late to play a role in World War I, which ended in 1918. Designated as the model 1919 it would later play a considerable role in both War II and Korea.

The United States entered WWII in 1941 armed primarily with the Springfield 1903 as its primary infantryman’s rifle although the semi automatic M-1 would rapidly replace most of them. Unlike WWI, World War II would prove primarily to be a war of maneuver. Because American troops usually wound up on the attack, the 30 caliber heavy machine gun weighing in at 41 pounds with its 52 pound tripod was simply too heavy and difficult to set up quickly for troops always on the move.

American troops were probably the best-armed troops during the conflict. The M-1 firing full power 30-06 ammunition that could penetrate most trees and which was accurate up to a 1,000 yards while firing from its eight round clip as fast as a man could pull the trigger was by bar the best all around battle implement of the conflict since it could do just about everything well.

Adding a substantial increment in fire power was the Bar Man, but as good as the Browning automatic rifle was, it did have two major faults.

First....you could only get twenty rounds off before having to change magazines. Second, after changing enough magazines the fast firing BAR would overheat its barrel since the BAR did not have a fast replacement barrel feature. These two problems kept the Bar from being the weapon it could have become for keeping up a sustained rate of fire.

The 1919 was soon to fulfill the role of providing the sustained firepower the BAR could not deliver. The 1919 light machine gun employed a ventilated shroud around its barrel to facilitate air cooling. It weighed 31 pounds while its tripod added a scant 15 pounds, for a total weight of 46 pounds versus the water cooled machine gun’s 93. No......you could not fire the thing all day such as you could with the water cooled heavy machine gun. But by limiting yourself to bursts at an average sustained rare of sixty rounds a minute , you could keep your enemy under cover for half an hour or even more without overheating the weapon’s barrel. The weapon fired from 250 round belts which could be linked together when needed.

The 30 caliber 1919 Browning proved to be a versatile piece of equipment that was mounted in tanks, armored cars, jeeps, and other vehicles while still providing the infantryman a boost in firepower greatly exceeding the BAR.

But as good as it was, there was one infantryman’s weapon that was even better.

Unfortunately it belonged to the other side. The MG-42 machine gun weighed less than 25 pounds, bipod included, which made it almost as light as the BAR.

Made out of pressed and stamped parts and plastics, it could be easily and cheaply produced. The thing would work reliably in any climate, was accurate, and best of all, it fired normally at 1200 rounds a minute, oftentimes hitting rates up to 1500 rounds a minute.

Imagine lying behind your machine gun. The enemy patrol approaches. Ten men who have deliberately scattered themselves to avoid being simultaneously hit in tight formation approach. You rip off a burst but your machine gun fires 600 rounds per minute or 10 rounds a second. You hit several of the enemy, having gotten off fifteen rounds in the first 1.5 seconds. By this time the rest of the enemy have hit the deck and are firing back at you. That’s if you are firing the 1919 Browning.

Try it again, this time with the MG-42. Firing at 1200 rpm you hear a sound like ripping canvas, getting thirty rounds off in the first second and a half. Which means you are going to kill twice as many of the enemy before they’ve hit the ground. If you are good that is.

But just imagine keeping enough ammunition on hand for that MG-42. Moreover, at that terrific rate of fire, you are going to overheat your barrel with just 250 rounds. If you don’t have access to a good supply of ammo you could get into trouble fast. You might wish you had that 1919 Browning which conserves ammo a lot better while still being able to deliver a good rate of fire at reasonable sustainable levels. It all depends on what you are doing with that machine gun. If you are just providing covering fire, the Browning is probably a lot better.

Unless you are German. Face it, the German bolt action 98 Mauser supplying most German infantrymen isn’t in the same league with the American M-1 rifle. Sure, there are a few submachine guns carried by your fellow soldiers, but except for close in combat they are nowhere close to the M-1. The fly in the ointment is German tactical doctrine differed dramatically from American tactics which stressed a balanced unit employing M-1 rifles, BAR’s, 1919 Browning machine guns, Thompson’s and M-1 carbines with each weapon being able to deliver significant firepower.

The Germans based their tactical doctrine on the machine gun. And later in the war there was one dominant machine gun, the MG-42, which handled the roles of light, medium and heavy machine gun, with minor accessories added to the weapon depending on what role it was playing at the time...optical sights, bipod or tripod, etc. Per every 1,000 men the Germans had a lot more MG-42's than we had Browning 1919's. The Germans employed their best and steadiest soldier to be the MG-42's gunner. He was extremely well trained in its use, being much more of a specialist than our troops who had to be reasonably skilled with a variety of weapons. German tactics stressed a unit getting its MG-42 firing as fast as possible with the other soldiers keeping it in ammunition while protecting it with their small arms. Meanwhile the gunner was taught how to carefully ration his ammunition by controlling his bursts.

You could easily switch barrels on an MG-42. German infantry often had as many as four to five barrels for each machine gun and a skilled gunner could swap a cold barrel for the red hot barrel he had been using within six seconds. The skill of the German gunners and the quick-change barrel feature made sustained fire with the MG-42 possible.

After the Korean War, the U.S. settled on a new machine gun, the M-60.

Although it borrowed heavily from the MG-42–like the MG-42 it had a rapid interchangeable barrel feature and weighed less than twenty-five pounds-- there are some notable differences. A major departure is its relatively slow rate of fire, 600 rounds a minute, similar to that of the 1919 Browning. Meanwhile the Germans are still using the MG-42, practically unaltered, except it’s now chambered in 7.62 Nato. Although we are still using the Browning 50 caliber machine gun originally designed at the end of WWI, the U.S., like the Germans in WWII have for the most part settled on one machine gun for its infantry, the M-60, to handle a variety of combat assignments.

Although it lacked the MG-42's light weight and terrific rate of fire, the 1919 Browning machine gun was a reliable and formidable agent of death in its own right. But had I been transported back into time to World War II or the Korean War, I would have wanted Heather to be serving with me on its crew. Sure, the MG-42 might have been a little better, but I don’t think there would have been that much difference the two machinegun's ability to perform their assigned combat roles to make a decisive difference.

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