Название: Notes on Development Type Material. Gun Machine Light Cal. .30 T-52-E3
Издательство: Ordnance Department
Страниц: 45
Формат: PDF
Размер: 25 Мб
Качество: Хорошее
Год: 1952
Язык: английский
There is no doubt that German machine guns of World War II were superior to American machine guns of the period. The BAR, with its 20-round magazine and fixed barrel was much under-equipped for use as a light machine gun. The Browning 1919, while good as a mounted gun, was rather awkward in its 1919A6 light machine gun adaptation. The German MG42, on the other hand, was a superb design that was reliable, easily manufactured, and equally capable of being maneuvered and advanced by a two-man team or laying down a barrage of fire from a fixed position.
The US Army took note of the MG42, and decided to built its advantages into the next main US machine gun. They managed to lose all the good attributes along the way, but that’s not really to focus of this article. The first US attempt at co-opting the MG42 design was with the T24 experimental machine gun. The T24 was basically a captured MG42 rechambered for .30-06 with a new American bipod, tripod, and rear sight. You can see photos and the original testing report on the T24 machine gun page in the Vault – but it failed largely because the rechambering failed to consider the greater length of .30-06 compared to 8×57 Mauser cartridges (you’d think that would be an obvious thing to plan for, but no).
