The .50-cal. Browning Machine Gun—The Gun That Won The War

Big Chief

Good article. Great MGs and still in use today. I've fired them off tripods and M113 APCs and humped them from the basement arms rooms up to a jeep and trailer (if we were lucky) or carried either the barrel or the receiver to the motor-pool before. Had the unfortunate experience of losing a fight with one and putting a big knot and drawing some blood on my noggin once by standing straight up in an APC in the Cdrs hatch when it wasn't swung outta the way........I went right back down inside :yikes: :yikes: had taken my Steel Pot off and not yet put on my CVC helmet ..........yep good steel there.........almost knocked some sense into me :tooth:

https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2017/2/23/the-50-cal-browning-machine-gun-the-gun-that-won-the-war/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=insider&utm_campaign=0217

Farm Boy Deuce

I never did envy the GMs having to tote the M2 through the Pways and up six or seven decks from the armory to the mounts. There was a mount one deck up and just outboard from my shop that was always used during live fire exercises against the killer tomato. Hearing the thudthudthud always gave me warm and fuzzy feelings.

Big Al1

I would have love to fired a Ma Duece! The only opportunity I ever had would have required flying in a Marine helicopter and shooing at the gunnery range. When I saw all the hydraulic fluid leaking INSIDE the aircraft, I decided I'd rather stay on the ground!

early

When my boy was 7 or 8 yro, we visited a museum. He found an old corroded 50 cal round with partial link on the floor. What's this daddy? That's the rain of death son. Almost no where to hide from that.
Used to work with a guy that had to tote the ammo. He recalled the memory as extraordinary unpleasantness.

Antonio

Great article...thanks!

Teach

Dad used to tell the story of being on an aerial gunnery practice mission over the Gulf of Mexico in his B-17 when the news of the German surrender came over the south Florida commercial radio station he was listening to. He turned on the intercom and let the crew listen in. One by one, all his gunners opened up and burned out the barrels of every gun on the plane- - - -18 of 'em, IIRC. They had already received orders to fly to England as a replacement crew.
Jerry

Big Chief

I remember screwing the bbls in and backing off two clicks and then using a GO-NO-GO gauge, two pieces on a chain you inserted to see.

Also, a big NO NO is taking the butt-plate off with it cocked........I never did, but that spring under compression can hurl that rod out with force you don't wanna be hit with :yikes:

HAWKEN

They were certainly fun to shoot, and you could use either hand.......robin

snake284

My dad said when you pulled the trigger on all six of em at once in a P-51 Mustang, it felt like the airplane stopped in mid air.

I remember reading about some B-25s in the Pacific outfitted with as many as 12 of them in the nose that could sink a **** destroyer with their gunfire, almost cutting them in two. **** destroyers were made of half inch plate.

Jayhawker

They also made a mod to the B25s in the Pacific that mounted a 75mm Artillery piece in the nose along with a half dozen M2s..... I read a story about one of these ship-killers that was overflown by a Zero that settled out in front...right about the distance were all the forward firing guns were regulated....and the pilot hit the trigger....the Zero was vaporized...

Jack Burton

The most fun 9 rounds I ever fired. 3 burst of 3, and the saddest word followed, "NEXT!"

Gene L

Chuck Yeager said in a Mustang you only had 15 seconds of fire. Five three second bursts.

How many rounds that was from six guns is something to figure out.

Bigslug

One weapon system that's as much, if not more SeAL than actual Navy SeALs, that is adaptable as a wing gun in a fighter or a totally legitimate scoped sniper rifle. Apparently, according to this article, we haven't been able to wear the first ones out, and we have no plans to retire it. . .

Could someone please tell me why the HELL John Browning's birthday is not a national holiday?

Big Chief

Gene L wrote: »

Chuck Yeager said in a Mustang you only had 15 seconds of fire. Five three second bursts.

How many rounds that was from six guns is something to figure out.

The Whole 9 Yards.............they used to say.............9 yards of .50 Cal linked ammo on a P-51! Also used for the P-47 Thunderbolt, but it actually may have fallen a tad over an inch short of 9 yards if all linked together.


The phrase predates WWII and was used to describe many things like cloth, concrete and others..............but that takes the fun outta using it.

Big Chief

They rounded up or down a lot back then...........

https://www.quora.com/How-long-was-a-belt-of-50-cal-ammo-for-a-WW2-US-fighter-plane-was-it-actually-nine-yards

Big Chief

P-51 D 1880 rds? Debatable, but enough to ruin a **** or Japs day fer sure!

https://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/173561-p-51d-should-have-1880-rounds-not-2080/&/topic/173561-p-51d-should-have-1880-rounds-not-2080/?p=3273375

Bigslug

Big Chief wrote: »

P-51 D 1880 rds? Debatable, but enough to ruin a **** or Japs day fer sure!

https://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/173561-p-51d-should-have-1880-rounds-not-2080/&/topic/173561-p-51d-should-have-1880-rounds-not-2080/?p=3273375

I only saw it once in some WWII documentary, and it REALLY got my attention: cached in with a bunch of other gun camera footage was a strafing run, that I would guess from a P-47 with 8 guns by the volume of fire. What was impressive about it was that, either by accident or intent, it looked like EVERY. . .SINGLE. . .ROUND in all the belts was armor piercing incendiary. That poor ground target was surrounded by more "flash bulbs" than a photo of Michael Jordan going for a slam dunk. :yikes:

Gene L

Big Chief wrote: »

The Whole 9 Yards.............they used to say.............9 yards of .50 Cal linked ammo on a P-51! Also used for the P-47 Thunderbolt, but it actually may have fallen a tad over an inch short of 9 yards if all linked together.


The phrase predates WWII and was used to describe many things like cloth, concrete and others..............but that takes the fun outta using it.

I believe that interpretation is an oft-repeated urban myth. The term came into popular use in about 1968 according to Wikipedia. It also mentions the term in the below link, so you can make up your mind about the veracity of the source. Nine yards of material to make a suit, etc. First use was in 1907 reference to a baseball game.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_whole_nine_yards

john9001

In Europe they say "the whole nine meters". :jester:

Gene L

Or, "the whole 8.2296 meters."

Big Chief

I remember some old **** telling me in Fulda Germany he saw a P-51 Mustang strafe the downtown area and the Bahnhof (Train Station) shootin up some boxcars and whatever, but couldn't understand why because according to him there were no good military targets there............well not exactly.. a Kaserne was near by and a Stuka Airfield (We called Sickles AAF) are nearby, plus all kinds of military/training areas/ranges not far away........I wuz thunking good fer the P-51 Pilot. He said he saw the impact of bullets hitting the Marketplatz cobblestone road.

Well, at least he didn't shoot up the St. Boniface Cathedral :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :guns: :guns: :usa: :usa:

Big Chief

Schweinfurt/Wurzburg aren't that far by air either.................so maybe after escorting some bombers they had ammo left fer targets of opportunity.

Bigslug

Big Chief wrote: »

Schweinfurt/Wurzburg aren't that far by air either.................so maybe after escorting some bombers they had ammo left fer targets of opportunity.

That was pretty much standard Mustang doctrine; the operating range was so much greater than the other Allied players, it was frequently a matter of "OK, the Heavies have left. Anybody not shot up that still has gas and bullets, go down and find something German."

Gene L

Most, but not all, ground attacks were after the Allies had gained air superiority. Nothing like going low to attack ground targets and getting bounced by enemy fighters. High value targets like trains, different, I think.

Fifteen seconds of fire had to be spent wisely.

snake284

Jayhawker wrote: »

They also made a mod to the B25s in the Pacific that mounted a 75mm Artillery piece in the nose along with a half dozen M2s..... I read a story about one of these ship-killers that was overflown by a Zero that settled out in front...right about the distance were all the forward firing guns were regulated....and the pilot hit the trigger....the Zero was vaporized...

There were several versions used in the B-25. There was one that had 12 50s in the nose. I don't have a clue how they mounted all of em, but they say it could cut a **** Destroyer in half.

snake284

Big Chief wrote: »

Schweinfurt/Wurzburg aren't that far by air either.................so maybe after escorting some bombers they had ammo left fer targets of opportunity.

Chief, before they cleaned out Belgium of enemy combatants and put bases closer, Schweinfurt was a pretty good stretch. My dad did it and said it was an 8 hour round trip. An.d he did it from Belgium which was somewhat closer. The two famous raids on Schweinfurt in 1943, before the Mustang was perfected for long range escort, the distance to Schweinfurt prevented fighter escort from going all the way to target and back which caused prohibitive bomber losses. In the first raid in August they lost 90 planes, the second in 60 planes were lost. These were prohibitive because they were both 1/3 of the total force. My dad didn't tell me much but his trip to Schweinfurt later in the war was one piece of his experience I can remember him sharing with me, other than some funny stuff.

Later in the war a lot of missions were milk runs for fighters and Bombers because they had already removed most of the Luftwaffe from the skies of Europe as a fighting force. Hitler screwed around and squandered the advantages of the ME-262. He envisioned it as a revenge weapon and never allowed the Luftwaffe to take advantage of it as a fighter until too late in the war. Of course if the krauts had used it earlier and in mass, it would have only caused us to press our F-80 Shooting Star into service earlier. It was almost ready for service and I'm sure more emphasis would have been put on its development had we needed it sooner. And from what I've read, the F-80 or was it a P-80, was a bit superior to the ME-262. And the British had a functioning jet fighter at the end of the war. But the P-51 thank goodness was superior to its German more conventional counter part. It was mainly faster and more manuverable than the German prop planes. The Germans did have it somewhat outgunned with 20mm cannons on the Focke wulf and ME-109 but the Mustang would out fight them due to maneuverability and speed.

One thing to remember about strafing runs, though the Mustang was formidable, it having a liquid cooled engine it wasn't exactly ideal for strafing ground targets. The P-47 Thunderbolt was more suited for that due to its air cooled radial engine. It only took small arms fire or a small piece of flack to put a nick in the engine coolant lines or radiator of a plane with a liquid cooled engine and cause leakage that could end the mission prematurely, in other words a plane would have to land or the pilot bail out over enemy territory. Then the pilot got to spend the rest of the war in a prison camp. The same can be said for the ME-109 should it be hit by gun fire or flack, except one major difference, they were generally fighting over their own territory and didn't have to fly 500 miles to land on friendly ground.

Gene L

That pretty well sums it up. I'm not sure about the Allies' jet; the British had one that they didn't use.

Yeager shot down a ME 262 as it was landing! What a guy.

snake284

Bigslug wrote: »

One weapon system that's as much, if not more SeAL than actual Navy SeALs, that is adaptable as a wing gun in a fighter or a totally legitimate scoped sniper rifle. Apparently, according to this article, we haven't been able to wear the first ones out, and we have no plans to retire it. . .

Could someone p'dase tell me why the HELL John Browning's birthday is not a national holiday?

Because gun grabbers rule such things as holidays, else we'd only work two days a week because we'd be on holiday most of the week,

:rotflmao::rotflmao::rotflmao::rotflmao::rotflmao:

Big Chief

This shows some good ground attacks and dogfights camera footage by Mustangs, P-38s and Thunderbolts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCiHa0h-6Rs