Quote:
Originally Posted by lorddeathrage
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnieB
The BAR has to be on the list. Low magazine capacity, difficult to keep clean, no interchangable barrel.
It left the American infantry team without a real LMG, it was neither one thing nor the other, trying to be both.
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The BAR is an Automatic Rifle, designed in 1917 it was supposed to be a U.S SSW to see out the Great War. It was used in WW2, but was not the leading SSW for American infantry forces, the Browning M1919A4 was.
I like to think about it this way:
The BAR was to the U.S what the MG42 was to the Germans.
The Browning M1919A4 was to the U.S what the MG34 was to the Germans.
ldr |
But the Browning M1919 was
not issued to the squad; it was held by specialist heavy weapons detachments and deployed on an "as-required" basis to the FEBA.
The BAR attempted to fill the role of the SSW which the Heer used the MG34/42 LMG. The Heer filled the role of the M1919 MMG with the MG34/42 mit layette MMG,
some held by specialist heavy weapons units.
That is what I meant by the BAR being neither one thing nor another, stuck in a grey area between a super shotgun and a decent squad level automatic SSW.