A brief history of the Browning automatic rifle
During World War I and World War II, the Browning automatic rifle was one of the most important infantry weapons in the U.S. military, named after Ron Moses Browning, one of the most influential small arms designers in history, who received 128 patents in his lifetime, involving more than 80 unique models, and in addition to dedicating his time and expertise to weapon design, he also put patriotism above commerce.
In May 1917, Browning's automatic rifle became the standard automatic rifle in the United States, and due to the urgent need for the U.S. government to hand over the Browning automatic rifle to the U.S. army, there were unnecessary delays around the browning automatic rifle patent and negotiations with several manufacturers. Browning agreed to reach an agreement during the war that would not only waive paid payments, but also temporarily abandon the patent itself. Some estimate that his patent tax loss in 1918 was $12.7 million.
When U.S. Secretary of War Newton Baker gave full support to the production of the new automatic rifle in May 1917, it was still months away from actual production. In July 1917, Colt was awarded the first Contract for the Ordnance Department to produce 12,000 automatic rifles, but it was not until February 1918 that it rolled off the production line. To meet the needs of the growing number of U.S. infantry divisions, the U.S. government ordered a total of 288174. But with the signing of the armistice, the U.S. government canceled 186,000 orders.
During this period, a total of 102,174 were built, and the cost of m1918 averaged between $112.00 and $123.20. Leather and webbing equipment was added by $16.22, and the first to be issued to the U.S. Infantry Division during World War II was, of course, a "modern" model left over from World War I. In 1939, the United States had more than 87,000 automatic rifles in stockpiles. Although the U.S. military has a variety of different automatic rifles in their hands. But only Browning's M1918a2 became the standard automatic rifle of the US army,
Since the United States shipped 25.000 automatic rifles to Britain in 1940, the existing automatic rifles simply could not meet the needs of the wartime American infantry divisions. M1918a2 began full production in the spring of 1943. A total of 168,363 units were produced before the production was discontinued. Colt also worked with John Browning's old partner in Belgium to sell drawings to FN, based on which FN produced their own Browning automatic rifle, and eventually produced the FN modele 30 light machine gun, which was sold to the Belgian government and fn's foreign customers. China began to give FN 5,000 FN modele 30 light machine guns from FN in 1933, then ordered another 8,000 in 1937, and received a large number of US-aided weapons in 1943, including a large number of M1918A2 automatic rifles, which were later captured by the PLA, while Colt sold the products directly to Russia and Britain, Central and South America, Cuba and Turkey
The automatic rifles of the First World War used tactics
In the early days of World War I, traditional infantry were heavily wounded before they could approach the enemy's machine guns. Machine guns at the time were very lethal, but they were also heavy, water, tripods, and ammunition boxes added more weight and were difficult to move quickly on the battlefield, automatic rifles combined the automatic fire of machine guns with the portability of rifles, were a relatively light shoulder-fired weapon, using standard infantry rifle bullets, automatic rifle tactics were to enable infantry to advance under the protection of automatic rifle fire until the team was able to approach eliminating enemy machine guns.
World War I was a machine-gun war, and the american army was very slow to accept modern machine guns, and for American troops who had just arrived in Europe, the use of automatic rifles seemed to be a new attempt, just like the light machine gunners in the British infantry today. Upon arrival in France, American soldiers who had received Training in American weapons at home had to undergo further training to become proficient in new weapons and tactics.
In 1917, the U.S. Infantry Battalion consisted of three rifle companies and a machine gun company. The infantry company had 200 soldiers plus 4 officers, and was further divided into 4 platoons in addition to the commander group, the feeding and feeding groups. Each platoon had three automatic rifles. Later it was replaced by four infantry companies and one machine gun company, and the infantry company itself was increased to 250 people and 6 officers. Each company added four more automatic rifles and at least six snipers.
The main combat unit is the platoon. The four squads of platoons spread outward and advance in irregular formations during the attack, and if there were artillery, the moving barrage would cover the first attack. With or without artillery support, the scouts— at a distance of between 10 and 50 paces— formed the first wave of attack. Scouts can advance 500 meters in front of the platoon at irregular intervals and take cover. Their main task is to find the enemy machine gunner, and next, one or more automatic rifles will support the scouts. In the third wave of attack, the machine gunners, rifle grenadiers, and any remaining automatic rifle teams will begin to advance around the flanks of the main line of fire in order to annihilate enemy machine gun sets. Rifle grenadiers slammed into enemy positions from a distance.
However, the American army did not use the Browning automatic rifle, Pershing believed that the Browning automatic rifle was superior to the automatic weapons used at the time, and feared that if captured in battle, the Germans might begin to imitate under The direct orders of Pershing, the Browning automatic rifle was taken back from the American army and returned to the arsenal, the United States was subsequently rationed to France or Britain as an automatic weapon, to a large extent, the American army is more like the British and French troops, whenever the American army is sent to a new area, their equipment is often stripped. The Americans came to France with american Vickers machine guns, and when they were sent to a British area, they were given British Vickers and British Lewis rifles, as well as Enfield rifles, and after being transferred to The French area, their American rifles were reissued. It was not until September 1918 that the first battle was fought, and the Experience of World War I, which had only been fired a few shots of the Browning automatic rifle, passed.
Popular Browning automatic rifle
During World War II, the U.S. Army Infantry Infantry Company consisted of about 200 soldiers and 6 officers and was divided into 3 infantry platoons, which consisted of three 12-man infantry squads equipped with one bar rifle and 11 M1 rifles. The composition of the U.S. Navy Rifle Corps gradually developed over the course of the war. In 1941, the Marine Rifle Squad consisted of nine men, and more than a month after Pearl Harbor, the number of this squad increased to 13, but each squad still had only one automatic rifle. With the experience gained in operations in the Pacific, the Marines felt they needed more firepower. In April 1943, it was changed to a 12-man squad equipped with two automatic rifles. As the battle continued, the Marines found that even if each squad had only two automatic rifles, it wasn't enough. In May 1944, the Marine Rifle Squad was standardized to a 13-man unit and divided into three 4-man squads. A sergeant served as squad leader, and each squad consisted of a corporal, an automatic rifleman, an assistant, and an infantryman. With the exception of the automatic rifleman, the other members carried the M1 rifle.
Heavily armed, each platoon consisted of one naval medic and 42 Marines, armed with 9 automatic rifles. The automatic rifle will be in a group of two, with one of them acting as a gunner and the other assistant carrying extra ammunition. In the Marine Corps, assistants are considered the lowest-ranking people, usually by newcomers. Once in combat, a pair of two is dangerous, and automatic riflemen are already the primary target of the enemy, and for good reason, since automatic rifles are the biggest direct threat from The American Infantry Squad. Just like in World War I, the automatic rifle played a mutually supportive role, and it proved to be effective against enemy machine guns. As an anti-sniper weapon, it applies not only to the jungles of the Pacific, but also to the towns and forests of Europe. The U.S. army also relied on them to deal with enemy positions, because enemy positions were too close to use mortars and too far away to use grenades.
In Europe, the German army was equipped with much more automatic weapons than the Americans, although the German infantry squad was smaller than the American infantry squad, with only 10 men, each German infantry squad had one or two light machine guns, and was also equipped with a 9 mm submachine gun, although the Browning automatic rifle usually attracted enemy fire, but many American soldiers still hoped that each class would have more than one Browning automatic rifle. In the Pacific Theater, 3 of the 4 13-man squads of Japanese rifle platoons were equipped with a light machine gun, and the 4th was a grenadier squad. Their light machine guns were the Type 6.5 mm 96 and type 7.7 mm Type 99, and the U.S. Marine Corps fire team came to the front with an automatic rifle, which shows how important the automatic rifle is to the Marine Corps, especially in various island battles. The automatic rifle is a great weapon against snipers on the top of the tree, the automatic rifle can cut the tree into pieces, and a few automatic machine gun strafing can quickly eliminate the enemy hidden in the leaves.
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The unpopular Browning automatic rifle
The People's Liberation Army has also captured a lot of fn modele 30 light machine guns and M1918a2 automatic rifles, but rarely equipped with the main force, infantry squads generally do not use m1918A2 automatic rifle main division infantry squad If there is a Czech light machine gun selection, will never choose m1918a2 automatic rifle, this is because the Browning automatic rifle is positioned as an automatic rifle in the US army, but it is used as a light machine gun, which has both characteristics and disadvantages. When the weight of the rifle reached 7.25 kg, the Asian infantry belt will be more difficult, when the light machine gun is used because the barrel can not be quickly replaced, the barrel quickly heats up and turns red when continuous shooting, the suppression ability is not as effective as some Czech light machine guns, and the magazine is easy to be too small, only a few shots have been empty, the magazine is more difficult than the Czech light machine gun, which is not a problem in the US military equipped with automatic weapons, but it is not so perfect in the Chinese army that urgently needs team support firepower.
Even in the Korean battlefield, many of them were captured, but because many of the M1918a2 automatic rifles used by the US military at that time were refurbished from The Second World War, the incidence of failure was very high, especially in cold weather, many M1918a2 automatic rifles were frozen, wearing mittens or even thick gloves could not trigger the trigger, and usually, it was necessary to fire at regular intervals to prevent the weapon from being frozen. Once frozen, the classic solution is to urinate on the weapon, so these captured m1918a2 automatic rifles are basically handed over to the second-line troops, basically included in the ranks of rotten guns.
Afterword
The Browning automatic rifle served in the U.S. army for a long time, its solid reliability, firepower and low failure rate, in the minds of ordinary soldiers irreplaceable position, is the most effective weapon of the American infantry company in World War II, Marshall even suggested that the number of infantry Ban Browning automatic rifles doubled, so the U.S. army decided to provide the infantry squad with M14 automatic rifles, so that all infantry become automatic riflemen, but the early test results of the M14 automatic rifle were not ideal, and the M14 of conventional infantry was limited to semi-automatic. The U.S. military had to try to develop a version of the automatic rifle, the M14A1, and did not meet expectations. The United States switched to the M16 automatic rifle, although the American infantry was equipped with the M16 light automatic rifle, The disadvantage of the M16 automatic rifle is that it uses a small 5.56 mm standard rifle cartridge, enemy troops usually fire larger Russian 7.62x39 mm bullets, the U.S. army found it difficult to have the same range and penetration, the role played by the Browning automatic rifle was empty, the U.S. army had to use a heavier M60 machine gun to supplement, until the advent of the M249 machine gun, the U.S. infantry squad had a blank automatic rifleman for more than 20 years.