Machine guns changed the face of warfare. They industrialized the way wars were fought. They were among the most used weapons during World War I and World War II. With dozens of designs and variations that the US had made, safe to say that the United States was a fan. Here are some of the most awesome ones:
Browning M1917
Patented by John Moses Browning in the 1900s, his heavy(at that time) machine gun was used by the United States during World War I, World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War. It was heavy enough that four people needed to man it. It could fire up between 400 to 600 rounds per minute. You could also rely on it as it was once tested, and it fired 20,000 rounds without a miss. Its ammunition box was first made of wood until it was replaced with an expendable metal box during WWII. More often, it was mounted on vehicles like a jeep. The early version had a water jacket around the barrel to keep it cool and maintain a high rate of fire. In WWII the infantry tended to favor a shrouded barrel because it was less of a beast to lug around but at a reduced rate of fire.
Browning Automatic Rifle
A popular one, Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), was designed to be carried by the soldiers with a sling over the shoulder. This light machine gun fired .30-06 rounds at nearly 2,700 ft. per second. That capability is enough to pierce a light tank during WWI. According to Britannica, “It can fire up to 650 rounds per minute but can also fire single shots or bursts of two or three to increase accuracy.” By the end of the war, there were approximately 52,000 BARs delivered. In 2015, a 94-year-old BAR was found by a US Army, and guess what? It’s still functioned perfectly. In infantry squads, there was always a BAR man whose job was fire suppression and the BAR was actually ideal for the role. The impact of the rounds was devastating to most cover and it was far more mobile than the German MG32 light machine gun.
M1 Thompson Submachine Gun
Also called Tommy Gun and Trench Broom, this gun was designed for combat in the trench during World War I. Tommy Gun was the first machine gun designed around a pistol caliber. Because of its high rate of fire at 1,200 rounds per minute, it was issued more frequently to scouts, commissioned and non-commissioned officers, and other soldiers tasked to raid. It was perfect for close street fighting but was ineffective in heavy jungle cover. It was also a beast to lug around. It weighed more than the M1 Garrand did.
M134 Minigun
This six-barrel rotary machine gun could fire up to 2,000 to 6,000 rounds per minute, depending on the selection, and was used by several branches of the US Military. The weapon itself is not small like what the “mini” suggests, but its NATO ammunition measures only 7.62×51mm. M134 was usually mounted on gunships or attack helicopters like the Bell AH-1 Cobra. What was unique about this gun was that it needed an electrical power source.
The Browning .50 cal Heavy Machine Gun.
Last, but by no means least is the venerable Ma-Duce, the M2A. Developed by John Browning at the end of WWI, it was the Machine Gun to end all Machine guns. And it truly was a marvel at the time.
Basically, it was a scaled-up version of Browning’s .30 cal machine gun with around based on a captured German anti-tank rifle that gave the round a muzzle velocity of 2,700 feet per second. Browning’s original design was pretty limited in how it could be used so it was tested in an experimental role into the 1930s. After Browning died in 1926, a designer over at Colt firearms looked at some of the problems limiting the weapon and reworked things a bit. What came out of that was a unitary receiver design that could feed on either the left or right side. This was very important in terms of mounting it in aircraft, bombers, or armored vehicles. This universal receiver also allowed up to eight different varients in barrels and shrouds for different military applications. The Navy version of the gun had a light barrel for mounting in aircraft. The Army got a water-cooled, light barrel for fixed defensive positions and a heavy barrel version for mounting on trucks, tanks, and jeeps.
There have been more than 3 million M2 produced since.
We tend to think of our military in terms of its modern weaponry and that makes the Ma-Duce positively ancient, It’s been in continuous service for nearly 100 years now. The M2A1 now has a quick change barrel that does not require headspace or timing adjustments. It’s the first significant change to this gun since the redesign in the 1930s. Recently an M2 receiver with a serial number of 389 was returned to the Aniston Army Depot for conversion into the M2A1 type. It still appeared to be in nearly new condition even though it dated back to the 1930s. It still functioned within specifications. The Army might be inclined to keep that one as a museum piece given its age rather than return it to service. Personally, I’d put it back into service as a way of letting the troops know how well the Ma-Duce was built.
For certain, there are other machine guns not included in this article, among the machine guns used in the US Army, what’s your favorite?
