Amsdorf

My apologies if I'm posting this in the wrong place, but I thought you guys would appreciate this old Army movie.

I'm still trying to put my feelings about it into words, but it is apparent it was intended to bolster confidence in American machine guns in light of the overwhelming superiority of the German machine guns.

Here is the movie, see what you think.

Buffalo11

WWI and WWII the nazis had the edge on MG's.. Still being used in a lot of countries.. theirs were most air cooled and our best was water cooled..Until the BAR and such came about..Not as fast but pretty efficient IMO.. On the other hand what does it matter what guns killed our guys and theirs.. War is still and always will be HELL!

wPm

cluznar

The Americans did you dummy.....they won the war.

bwinters

The german mg 42 general purpose machine gun was far in advance of our browning 1919. The mg 42 could be a heavy machine gun or a light machine gun and is the basis of our m-60 and the belgian mg 58 amchine gun.

Redleg

Thank you very much for sharing this. I don't know if that movie is really true or not, as the German machine gun units were feared and respected. The point about ammunition consumption and accuracy rings true though. Supply is one of the things that won the war for America and the allies.

Great stuff.

Amsdorf

Definitely has some propaganda elements.

Tacky

Don't for get the M-240 currently in service, its barrels seem to swap out the same way as the MG42.

I own a 1919A4, and its great in it's own way, rock solid and more accurate than most believe or know. At 30 lbs dry I feel it would be alot heavier than the 42, and its fire rate 600 rds less a minute than the 42. The quick change of a barrel is impossible on the 1919 compared to the 42, but if I had a choice If I was going to have to carry it as the soldiers of WWII, Korea, and some in Vietnam, I would have to go with the 42 because of its portability. As much as I love my Browning, it hurts me dearly to admit that.

Dsteele

I understand it though. They had to keep thier guys confident they had the best equipment.

bearcatter

I'm not totally buying the target results. There's no reason the German MGs would have any real difference in accuracy, with a soldier who was used to his particular gun.

I think the Thompson was hard to beat as a personal MG, but with the bipod and tripod guns the Germans had the edge.

The Mauser was certainly a good infantry rifle, but clunkier and heavier than any of ours. The P-38 was the only good sidearm, and few were available compared to the Luger, which jammed a lot.

They had the best armor vehicles, and the best aircraft up until the later Spitfires and our D model P-51s. Their big mistake was no long-range bombers.

What they didn't have was our training, our factories, and our resolve. Our guys were fighting for something that meant a lot to them. The average German soldier was just fighting to save his butt from our fire, or his superior's fire if he didn't fight.

rblackmore

I'd rather have a Thompson or a BAR anyday. There is just something comforting about an automatic .30-06!! Belt fed MG's have many more parts to fail in the field, imo.

Amsdorf

Great comments, thanks guys.

Tracer

My father used to say: The Geman soldier hated to hear that Tommy Gun spit lead at them!

I don't think the Germans had any better machine guns during world way two and they certainly did not have the best combat rifle on the battle field.......The Americans did by far.

NWShooter

I had the opportunity to shoot an MG3 at the local annual machine gun shoot. It is basically an updated MG42 in 7.62 NATO. It was really impressive. It would lay down a pretty tight pattern at 200 yards and it sounded more like an engine than a gun because it shot so fast. I was amazed though how fast it burned through 50 rounds, about 2.5 seconds of fire. I also shot a Thompson and it really kicked butt. Laying down .45 that fast is a real blast. Let us also not forget that we had and still have the Browning M2
It the end it really came down to supply more than the quality of the weapons. A soldier would not be under gunned with any of the weapons in the video.

Amishman44

German engineering was ahead of the US at the onset of WWII...they were prepared in 1937 where as we were not. However, the US & Great Britian did a nice job of catching up during the war.

I always sort of favored the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)...chambered in .30-06...it was an excellent automatic rifle for squads! And the ammo matched the M1 Garand Rifle...the best combat rifle available for in that day! Probably one of the reasons we were able to overcome and defeat the German's once we were on mainland Europe's soil! That, and air-to-air combat and bombing raids...combined to win the war!

My wife's paternal grandfather survived Normandy Beach on D-day...suffers from it to this day! Hero!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1918_B...utomatic_Rifle

M'BOGO

Let's take an objective look at this.

Of the weapons used in this, which are still in front line use?

The survey says, the MG-42, as the MG-3 and its variants.