World war 2 machineguns

[Bentot]

During world war 2, the US military in both pacific & european theaters use the M2 .50 cal machineguns in a variety of configuration. Did the enemy had any equivalent in firepower for infantry?

[lazyworm]

MG42?

[Colt]

Yeah - MG42 was pretty well regarded as nasty.

[xibunkrlilkidsx]

i think he means HEAVY machine guns. vehicle mounted beasts like the M2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MK_108_cannon

dont know if it was used by infantry/armored vehicles. but they were mounted on fighters.

[caldude]

AFAIK, the Germans did not have a heavy machine gun. The MG34 and MG42 were both general purpose machine guns firing an 8mm round. The US and Soviets both had machine guns firing much larger rounds.

[Spiggy]

When you get to .50cal, you're looking at rounds not really meant for punching holes in enemy soldiers, but rather punching holes in vehicles and buildings full of enemy soldiers.

I think you can clump them in the "autocannon" group

The Japanese had the Type 1, Type 2, Type 11, Type 96, 97, and 99 machine guns, all between the 6.5x50 and 20mm calibers they've employed

[Army]

US M2 .50 cal was originally conceived as an anti-tank gun for WWI, but final design was not achieived before Nov. 11 1918. The US did adopt it in 1923, with all branches adopting by 1936. The first major design change came.......last year. A manual safety that blocks manipulation of the butterflies, has been added to the backplate.

Germany and Japan both went to 20mm and 40mm cannon in lieu of a heavy machine gun.

Soviets had/still have 12.7mm and 14.5mm heavies. Both rounds look suspiciously like .30-'06 on steroids. 14.5mm is a very scary and woodie producing weapon to fire. Incredible blast and fireball from each round. I was never so happy to shoot one

Despite wild and everlasting rumors and tall tales, the .50BMG round is fully and internationally legal to shoot at bad guys...and girls

[Sailormilan2]

Nobody had a heavy machine gun equivalent to the M2 .50 cal. The Mk108 mentioned above was a 30 mm aircraft mounted cannon which fired explosive shells.
The Germans also had the aircraft mounted MK 103, also in 30 mm, which was larger and heavier. While designed for aircraft there was a project in progress to mount two in an armoured turret on a Mk IV tank as a mobile AA unit.
The MG42 was in cal 7.92 mm x 57(8mm Mauser) so it was roughly equivalent to our Browning 30-06. The MG34 was similar, however it required much machining, rather than being made from stamped sheet metal as was the MG42.
The Germans had their MG131 which was a 13mm, which is roughly a .52 caliber, however, it was less powerfull than our .50 cal Browning. The case was smaller, and the barrel on the weapon was much shorter.
The Italians had a .50 cal class weapon, however, it was less powerfull than ours, and not as effective as the German MG131.
The Japanese used a Hotchkiss style aircooled gun in 7.7mm, but it had a clumsy feed design that fed from strips.
The Russians and the British used variations of the Vickers design. While it was good, was water cooled and thus heavy. Very similar to our Browning 1917.
For some reason American pilots preferred the 50 call to the 20mm that were sometimes mounted.

[Günter]

The Germans and Japanese have employed 13mm machineguns primarily on their fighter aircrafts, which are probably comparable to our M2 .50cal BMG. They primarily relied on their 20mm and 30mm cannons to get much of their job done in the air.

You must also realize that the US had little need for a larger autocannons as what the Axis used in the air. Our aircrafts dwarved the size of theirs, better protected, and not to mention we used heavy bombers while they practically had none. Thus why Axis aircrafts packed autocannons while the .50 got the job done for us.

As far as any weapon that rivaled the M2 in widespread use, it probably would be the WWII Russian Dshk and its postwar successors.

[Milsurp Collector]

During world war 2, the US military in both pacific & european theaters use the M2 .50 cal machineguns in a variety of configuration. Did the enemy had any equivalent in firepower for infantry?

The Germans just used ours.

[Greg-Dawg]

Didn't anyone watch saving private Ryan? That 20mm chopped those GIs apart:

[karatebum]

The Germans just used ours.

They did, Dunkirk(sp) left them a bunch, and I read they friggin loved it. I remember trying to search for this very subject years ago before google organized everything, and what little I found from back then pointed to what I just claimed as a side story. I'm always amazed on what stuff the Germans captured, and redeployed. Hungarian POS tanks, Belgian arms, pretty nuts. I'd have assumed if I never read history, that captured equipment would be put asside and not used because of its unstandard nature and not as hell built as German stuff. But that wasn't the case

[Omega13device]

You must also realize that the US had little need for a larger autocannons as what the Axis used in the air. Our aircrafts dwarved the size of theirs, better protected, and not to mention we used heavy bombers while they practically had none. Thus why Axis aircrafts packed autocannons while the .50 got the job done for us.

We used the 20mm cannon in the P-38 Lightning but yeah, the .50 M2 with incendiary ammo was the workhorse.

[saigarocks]

the germans used 30 cal. machine guns combined with 20mm cannon on me109 - i believe the reason us pilots preferred the 50 to the 20mm was reliability - also the p-39 used a 37mm cannon firing thru the prop hub (later switched to a 20mm).

[smle-man]

The M3 aircraft MG in .50 had a much higher volume of fire than any of the auto cannons which helps in dogfights. Most Axis aircraft were less stout than Allied aircraft and the .50 was more than enough to deal with them. The Brits had a .50 Vickers ground gun used for AAA work and in armored vehicles. The main issue for everyone but the U.S. was the shortage of motor transport to move something as big and heavy as the M2. No one is carrying the M2, tripod, spare barrel(s) and ammo any distance on foot. The German army was still horse drawn and on foot. 3 guys can carry and service an MG42 but even 6 guys aren't going too far with an M2 without slowing down the whole unit. The Germans and Japanese based their doctrine on fire, manuever, and rapid advance.