Bing
Posts: 1366
Joined: 5/20/2000 From: Gaylord, MI, USA Status: offline
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I served with a number of WW2 veterans, many of them had been in the ETO. They said that the only US infantry (small arms) weapon the Germans truly respected was the Browning .50 cal. The knock on the fifty was changing barrels in combat. The German MG's had a clip arrangement and they could change barrels in a few seconds.
The Browning has a threaded barrel mounting which required more time to remove and replace. Then you had to set headspacing for the new barrel. If you didn't take the time to do this, the MG could blow up in your face. The standard issue fifty included a headspace gauge and asbestos gloves, the use of the latter is pretty obvious. The barrels got to glowing red hot after prolonged firing - OK during the day, possibly fatal in a night action.
In operation, well, we had nothing else like it, making it possible to totally destroy small wooden buildings out to 500 yards or so. Effective field of fire could extend to as much as a thousand yards depending upon terrain. Imagine what four of them could do.
We had a quad fifty in the AA outfit in which I served. Trouble was, when we went on the firing range (Bethany Beach, Maryland) nobody in their right mind volunteered to fire it - you sat in a sling chair between the MG's and the noise and vibration was horrendous. Devastating weapon, yes, almost as much so to the man firing it as to the target.
All the above comments refer to the air cooled fifty, the water cooled version is another story. Great weapon the air cooled fifty - I can verify the quality of manufacture, having been in charge of the TLC of a number of them. Beautifully produced piece of machinery.
Bing
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"For Those That Fought For It, Freedom Has a Taste And A Meaning The Protected Will Never Know. " - From the 101st Airborne Division Association Website
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