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Irinami -> (10/30/2002 10:44:03 AM)
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bing
[B]
The one that got me, though, was the assertion that there was nothing - absolutely nothing - our enemies possessed in WW2 with the firepower of the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR). Really. Those who faced German automatic weapons will be interested to learn that.
[/B][/QUOTE]
This reminds me of the part of Mail Call on the flack jacket and bullet-proof vests. They asserted what sounded at first note to be that the Romans were the first people to make armour, and that the height of armour was the brigandine.
However, upon a more discerning viewing, what they were saying was:
"The first people to seriously make uniform issue armour for footsoldiers were the Romans with the lorica segmentica. ... The height of personal issue armour for the soldier was brigandine." Id est, other people made armour, and there was better armour than brigandine, but not standard-issue.
Likewise, it sounds like with the BAR you have to read between the lines. There was nothing our enemies possessed with the firepower of the BAR on a personal weapon level. The MG34 and 42 were generally crew-served weapons, so you could effectively divide their firepower amongst the crew. At the very least the entire squad humped ammo for the MG42, so that's still not quite as independent as the BAR. The Stg43(? not positive--the Wermacht precursor to the AK series) was similar, and issued on a relatively wider scale I believe, but the round was nowhere near as powerful. The BAR, IIRC, was deployed to an individual soldier who carried his entire weapon's ammo load (as in, other squaddies weren't expected by the REMF's to be carrying ammo for the BAR, as opposed to the MG34 or 42).
Which is the sad part about this. The History Channel "sells" their topic, instead of presenting it. Capice? So when you watch HC, read between the lines.
Oh yeah... I'm no expert. Most of this is based on my fuzzy memories.
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