World War I In 1917, the United States officially participated in World War I, as a long-term isolationist United States suddenly broke into the battlefield at hand of the guy thing is not enough, first of all, the rifle because the Springfield M1903 is insufficient to have to buy the Enfield 1917 rifle, the machine gun is even less, but the "kind" French sold the United States a large number of Shosha light machine guns, the performance of the gun is so poor that American soldiers would rather use the M1903 than use the Shosha light machine gun, but if they do not use it, the Americans find their dense firepower too poor. At this time, the United States as an industrial power thought that this matter was intolerable, at this time the American firearms designer John Moses Browning came with his automatic rifle program (the heavy machine gun program is the M1917 water-cooled heavy machine gun), the US military slapped the thigh, you!
On April 6, 1917, after the United States declared war on Germany and sent an expeditionary force to fight, they found that in the face of this trench warfare based on machine gun fire, they only had 670 M1909 Hatchkes machine guns, 282 M1904 Maxim heavy machine guns and 158 Colt M1895 machine guns, and after repeated arguments, they believed that they must be rearmament as soon as possible, and the focus was that they needed a weapon that could provide suppressive firepower with one soldier. The demands were rushed, but Browning offered the U.S. military two firearms options in early 1917, one of which was the M1917 water-cooled heavy machine gun and the other was an automatic rifle that could be used by infantrymen to shoot against the shoulder and used a caliber of 7.62 mm (.30 caliber). At this time, the term light machine gun was not extensive, and the light-weight continuous-fire weapon with a magazine in English was called an automatic rifle (in fact, the gun was originally a light machine gun).
Before reading the comments said that the science of science on the .30 caliber bullet, here is a brief mention of the United States .30 caliber bullet.
For a long time, the Caliber of the American Gun followed the British caliber (the earliest use of 7.62 mm was Russia, but who called the United Kingdom was the most cattle country at that time, so a large number of Commonwealth countries including the United States were using the British caliber) that is, .30 caliber (7.62 mm), although the caliber was the same, but it should be noted that the length of the warhead and the power of the charge of different bullets will change dramatically; the main thing in the United States during World War II was the .30-06 rifle cartridge, which was the Rifle Bullet of the American Springfield Rifle, which was the rifle bullet of M1903, and 06 meant 1806, with a warhead of 7.62x63 mm (the latter was the length of the warhead). The change was to change the round warhead to a pointed shell length reduction of 18 mm (range 4100 m), replacing the round-headed 0.30-03 Springfield rifle cartridge.
The one on the left is .30-03, and the four on the right are all .30-06 rifle bullets (the shape of the bullet varies depending on the use)
In 1926, the United States further improved, the shell length was restored to .30-03, the tail angle was 9 degrees, the warhead mass increased to 11.4 grams, due to the increase in charge and the improved warhead aerodynamic design, the gun bullet was very powerful, the recoil was also very large, the soldier was difficult to control when shooting, the range was increased to 5000 meters, this model was N1, of course, if you follow the previous regulations, you can also call .30-26.
N1 type .30 caliber bullet
In 1940, the United States introduced the M1 Garand rifle, which used semi-automatic shooting to require soldiers to be able to hold when shooting, so the bullet was changed again, first of all, the tail was changed to level, The warhead weighs 9.72 grams, shortens the shell length and reduces the amount of charge, although the bullet range is reduced (up to 800 meters) but the soldier can control it relatively easily, this type is called N2, can also be called .30-40, N2 type and armor-piercing bullets are mainly used by machine guns against light armored targets, this type of bullet is the last version of the American .30 caliber, with the trend of small caliber bullets.30 caliber is mainly used for machine guns or sniper rifles, carbines changed to a smaller 5.56 mm, that is, .223 caliber.
N2 type .30 caliber bullet
Then again, in February 1917, the United States tested Browning's automatic rifle in the open space in front of Capitol Hill, which was quickly recognized by the U.S. military, including senior military officials, members of Congress, senators, foreign dignitaries, and media reporters, and John Moses Browning's use of automatic rifle shooting in the open space was quickly recognized by the U.S. military. On July 16, 1917, the Colt Company, the main American arms manufacturer, was awarded a contract for the production of 12,000 Browning automatic rifles (the US military could not wait), the contract indicated that Colt could obtain a browning patent and exclusively produce the Browning automatic rifle, but unfortunately Colt was fully satisfied the British Army's Vickers machine gun production contract, and had no choice but to ask for the postponement of the production of the Browning automatic rifle, because the US military urgently needed new weapons (it was tragically damaged by the French Sauxaus light machine gun). The U.S. Army designated Winchester Arms as the main contractor for the new Browning automatic rifle.
John Moses Browning and his Browning automatic rifle
The first Browning M1918 automatic rifle was only manufactured in February 1918, and when Winchester's first batch of 1,800 Browning automatic rifles were delivered, it was found that many of the gun parts could not be interchanged (battlefield repairs required for the use of weapons parts that could be used with each other) production was immediately required to be temporarily stopped, until Winchester improved the production process so that the parts could be interchanged, and Winchester was awarded a contract for 25,000 Browning automatic rifles. By September of the same year, a total of 11,000 Browning automatic rifles had been delivered, and companies including Colt later joined in to build them.
Early version of the Browning M1918 automatic rifle
The Browning M1918 automatic rifle has a caliber of 7.62 mm, fires 0.30-06 rifle cartridges, weighs 7.92 kg empty, 9.2 kg after loading, has a rate of fire of 500-600 rounds per minute (fully automatic)/300-450 rounds per minute (semi-automatic), a total length of 610 mm, using a 20-round magazine. Semi-automatic and fully automatic firing modes are available. The Browning M1918 automatic rifle ammunition has two types, one is the main shooter's satchel form, one on the left and one on the right shoulder, and 3 magazine bags on each side. The other is the belt form used by the "sub-shooter", which has 4 magazine bags, each of which can hold 2 magazines, and 4 ammunition bags that can carry 8 Springfield rifle bridge clips (using the same bullet).
Cartridge bag of the U.S. M1918 main shooter
Semi-automatic firing: after the bullet is fired, a part of the gunpowder gas enters the piston barrel through the gas hole to push the piston, the piston linkage and the bolt frame retreat, the entire body retreats to achieve the bolt unlocking; after unlocking the bolt frame drives the bolt to retreat and compress the re-entry spring, the shell hook will withdraw the empty shell shell from the chamber, and the bottom of the shell will collide with the shell plate and throw the shell out, until the bolt frame collides with the buffer, and the retreat completely stops.
Fully automatic shooting: pull the trigger and hold on, the re-entry spring drives the bolt frame and the bolt forward, the bolt's push bullet bump pushes a bullet from the magazine into the chamber, the bolt re-enters place, the bolt frame continues to advance, and the rear of the bolt is lifted into the latching slot in the receiver to complete the latching. When locked, the bolt frame continues to advance while hitting (hitting the needle) to fire.
The advantage of the Browning M1918 automatic rifle is that the structure is simple and easy to maintain and the bullet power is highly lethal, but there are also disadvantages, at first the gun was used as an automatic rifle used by infantry, but the bullet power led to strong recoil and difficult to control, the gun body was too heavy to move; but the performance of the gun was stable, strong and durable by the front-line soldiers; by the way, France also ordered 15,000 Browning M1918 from the United States to replace the Sausa light machine gun.
The Shosha light machine gun is one of the few weapons in the history of firearms that anyone used and disliked
Browning M1918 derivatives are not many, more famous is the M1918A2 light machine gun is the main Class I support firepower in the United States in World War II, the gun was finalized in 1940, the semi-automatic firing was cancelled instead of selecting two different fully automatic rates of fire by fast and slow machines, the stock was installed with a buffer device to reduce the rate of fire, the bottom of the leg frame with a skid plate, but the U.S. military often removed the bracket as an automatic rifle instead of a light machine gun In addition, a metal guide was added in front of the trigger guard to facilitate the rapid replacement of the magazine, a small monopod was added under the stock, and by the way, the gun had a bayonet interface (although no one in the U.S. Army seemed to have equipped the gun with a bayonet); in 1942, the stock was changed from wood to fiberglass, and a handle was added to facilitate movement in the middle of the same year.
M1918A2 light machine gun
The FN-M1930 light machine gun (Belgian version of the Browning automatic rifle), which was licensed by Browning to the Belgian FN company, ranked second in the number of imported machine guns during the Chinese War of Resistance, 5,000 before the War of Resistance, and 8,000 were ordered at the beginning of the War of Resistance (actually 7714, some lost on the Burma Road).
FN-M1930 light machine gun
The Browning M1918 automatic rifle was used by soldiers in different countries in World War I, the last time it participated in the battle was the Chinese self-defense counterattack against Vietnam in 1970 (Vietnam used American leftover arms), and the M14 automatic rifle and the M60 general-purpose machine gun that fired 7.62 ×51 mm NATO standard bullets in 1959 were installed in the U.S. army, and the Browning automatic rifle was retired from service, but the gun also had a modern modification of the Russian "HCAR" (Heavy). Combat Assault Rifle, meaning heavy assault rifle), is said to have used a new cushioning device, the recoil of the gun is very soft, this may also be a veteran's undead but withered weapon.
A heavy assault rifle introduced by Russia in 2013