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83-648: The M1917 Browning machine gun is a heavy machine gun used by the United States armed forces in World War I , World War II , the Korean War , and the Vietnam War ; it has also been used by other nations. It was a crew-served, belt-fed, water-cooled machine gun that served alongside the much lighter air-cooled Browning M1919 . It was used at the battalion level, and often mounted on vehicles (such as

166-560: A bipod in the light machine gun role or on a tripod or other weapon mount as medium machine guns. An example was the Hotchkiss M1909 machine gun weighing 27.6 lb (12.2 kg) fitted with a mini-tripod and using linkable 30-round ammunition strips, but there was also a belt-fed version. This type of multipurpose machine gun would be further developed, and later given names such as "universal machine gun", and later "general-purpose machine gun", and would eventually supplant

249-579: A jeep ). There were two main iterations: the M1917, which was used in World War I and the M1917A1, which was used thereafter. The M1917, which was used on some aircraft as well as in a ground role, had a cyclic rate of 450 rounds per minute. The M1917A1 had a cyclic rate of 450 to 600 rounds per minute. In 1900, John Moses Browning filed a patent for a recoil-powered automatic gun. Browning did not work on

332-491: A 24-inch barrel. A famous photo of Maxim showed him picking it up by its 15-pound tripod (6.8 kg) with one arm. It was similar to present-day medium machine guns, but it could not be fired for extended periods due to overheating. As a result, Maxim created a water jacket cooling system to enable it to fire for extended periods. However, this added significant weight, as did the change to more powerful rifle cartridges. There were thus two main types of heavy, rapid-fire weapons:

415-421: A battle sight as well as a raised leaf-type sight suitable for employment against either ground or air targets. The M1917 saw limited service in the later days of World War I. Because of production delays, only about 1,200 Model 1917s saw combat in the conflict, and then only in the last 2½ months of the war. Some arrived too late for combat service. For example, the 6th Machine Gun Battalion , fighting as part of

498-472: A leather strap handle on top. The later M1917A1 model had a square corner and a cloth strap handle on top. The wooden ammunition belt chest was replaced during WWII by the expendable metal box ammunition M1 adopted 6 May 1942. On 20 June 1945, a modified version known as the M1A1 was adopted. The M1A1 had a spring-loaded catch to fasten it to the M1917A1 tripod more securely and provide a better watertight seal. In

581-572: A minimum of six weeks due to the inexperience of the servicemen. The first offensive action by AEF units serving under non-American command was 1,000 men (four companies from the 33d Division ), with the Australian Corps during the Battle of Hamel on 4 July 1918. ( Corporal Thomas A. Pope was awarded the Medal of Honor for this battle.) This battle took place under the overall command of

664-518: A regular army formation; the 26th Division , a National Guard division; the 2nd Division , a combination of regular troops and U.S. Marines ; and the 42nd "Rainbow" Division , a National Guard division made up of soldiers from nearly every state in the United States. The fifth division, the 41st Division , was converted into a depot division near Tours . Logistic operations were under the direction of Chicago banker Charles G. Dawes , with

747-502: A simple sliding safety that blocked the trigger when moved to the far right position. These were removed as part of post-war refurbishment. In the 1930s, the Ordnance Department developed a new bottom plate, which had side flanges that came up on both sides of the receiver and were attached by rivets. This fixed the problem of the original bottom plates, and became standard for all M1917- and M1919-series machine guns. While

830-514: A very effective tactic in vehicle-centered warfare, and the significantly lighter air-cooled designs could nearly match the capabilities of the water-cooled versions. Gatling -type machine guns such as the Minigun and GShG-7.62 reappeared after World War II. These are typically mounted on ships and helicopters because of their weight and large ammunition requirements due to their extremely high rate of fire. The need for sustained automatic fire on

913-411: A well-trained crew could fire nonstop for hours, given sufficient ammunition, replacement barrels and cooling water. Carefully positioned HMGs could stop an attacking force before they reached their objectives. However, during the same period a number of lighter and more portable air-cooled designs were developed weighing less than 30 lbs (15 kg). In World War I they were to be as important as

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996-622: A wide variety of other activities. The Services of Supply initiated support techniques that would last well into the Cold War including forward maintenance, field cooking, graves registration (mortuary affairs), host nation support, motor transport, and morale services. The work of the logisticians enabled the success of the AEF and contributed to the emergence of the American Army as a modern fighting force. African Americans were drafted on

1079-479: Is a water-cooled heavy machine gun, though some experimental versions were made that did not use a water jacket; the air-cooled M1919 was later developed as a medium machine gun. Unlike many other early machine guns, the M1917 had nothing to do with Maxim 's toggle lock design. At 47 pounds (21 kg), it was much lighter than contemporary Maxim type guns such as the first 137-pound (62 kg) German Maschinengewehr 08 (08/15 model: 43 lb (20 kg)) and

1162-474: The 2nd Division at Belleau Wood beginning 6 June, both while assigned under French Corps command, Pershing worked towards the deployment of an independent US field Army. The rest followed at an accelerating pace during the spring and summer of 1918. By June Americans were arriving in-theater at the rate of 10,000 a day; most of which entered training by British, Canadian and Australian battle-experienced officers and senior non-commissioned ranks. The training took

1245-773: The AEF, while another 360,000 became gravely ill. After the Armistice of November 11, 1918 thousands of Americans were sent home and demobilized. On July 27, 1919, the number of soldiers discharged amounted to 3,028,487 members of the military, and only 745,845 left in the American Expeditionary Forces. The AEF established the American Expeditionary Forces University at Beaune , complete with its own chapter of Phi Beta Kappa . Faculty included Walter M. Chandler ,

1328-524: The American Expeditionary Force North Russia . The AEF sustained about 320,000 casualties: 53,402 battle deaths, 63,114 noncombat deaths and 204,000 wounded. Relatively few men suffered actual injury from poison gas, although much larger numbers mistakenly thought that they had been exposed. The 1918 influenza pandemic in late 1918 raged in the U.S. and France, where it took the lives of more than 25,000 men with

1411-497: The Battle of Château-Thierry (1918) and the Battle of Belleau Wood ). The first major and distinctly American offensive was the reduction of the Saint Mihiel salient during September 1918. During the Battle of Saint-Mihiel , Pershing commanded the U.S. First Army , composed of seven divisions and more than 500,000 men, in the largest offensive operation ever undertaken by United States armed forces. This successful offensive

1494-462: The German Empire 's 13.2×92mmSR caliber MG 18 TuF ( Maschinengewehr 18 Tank und Flieger , 'Machinegun 18 Tank and Aircraft') during World War I , these weapons are designed to provide increased range, penetration and destructive power against vehicles, buildings, aircraft and light fortifications beyond the standard rifle calibers used in medium or general-purpose machine gun, or

1577-735: The Hoboken Port of Embarkation with facilities in New York City and New Jersey , and the Newport News Port of Embarkation in Virginia . The mobilization effort taxed the American military to the limit and required new organizational strategies and command structures to transport great numbers of troops and supplies quickly and efficiently. The French harbors of Bordeaux , La Pallice , Saint Nazaire , and Brest became

1660-817: The Imperial German Army . A small number of AEF troops also fought alongside Italian Army units in 1918 against the Austro-Hungarian Army . The AEF helped the French Army on the Western Front during the Aisne Offensive (at the Battle of Château-Thierry and Battle of Belleau Wood ) in the summer of 1918, and fought its major actions in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in

1743-515: The M1906 .30-06 cartridge with a 150-grain, flat-base bullet. Production was complex as the several manufacturers producing the guns needed to establish assembly lines and create tooling. By 30 June 1918, Westinghouse had made only 2,500 and Remington had made only 1,600. By the time of the Armistice, Westinghouse had made 30,150, Remington 12,000, and Colt 600. Until the start of World War I,

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1826-656: The MG 08 and the Vickers, as well as the American M1917 Browning machine gun , were all substantial weapons. The .303 Vickers, for example, weighed 33 lb (15 kg) and was mounted on a tripod that brought the total weight to 50 lb (23 kg). The heavier designs could, and in some cases did, fire for days on end, mainly in fixed defensive positions to repel infantry attacks. These machine guns were typically mounted on tripods and were water-cooled, and

1909-543: The MG 08 , Britain with the Vickers , and Russia with the PM M1910 ). The modern definition refers to a class of machine guns chambered in "heavy caliber" ammunition, generally with a minimum bullet diameter of 12mm, a minimum cartridge case length of 80mm and a minimum bullet weight of 500 grain , but below a bullet diameter of 20mm which are considered "medium caliber" ammunition for autocannons . Pioneered by

1992-399: The Medal of Honor . At the beginning, during the spring of 1918, the four battle-ready U.S. divisions were deployed under French and British command to gain combat experience by defending relatively quiet sectors of their lines. After the first offensive action and American-led AEF victory on 28 May 1918 at the Battle of Cantigny , by the U.S. 1st Division , and a similar local action by

2075-457: The Nordenfelt gun and Gardner gun were often made in a variety of calibers, such as 0.5-inch and 1-inch. Due to their multiple barrels, overheating was not so much of an issue, but they were also quite heavy. When Maxim developed his recoil-powered Maxim gun using a single barrel, his first main design weighed a modest 26 pounds (11.8 kg) and fired a .45-inch rifle-caliber bullet from

2158-769: The Second Division did not exchange their Hotchkiss M1914 machine guns for Browning M1917 machine guns until 14 November, three days after the armistice. The U.S. equipped about a third of the divisions sent to France; the others were equipped equally with Hotchkiss machine guns bought from the French or the British Vickers machine guns built by Colt in the US. Where the Model 1917 did see action, its rate of fire and reliability were highly effective. The M1917 weapon system

2241-601: The ZB vz. 30 , the Bren , the MG34 and the MG42 . The heavier designs continued to be used throughout World War II and into the 1960s, but were gradually phased out in favor of air-cooled designs. The mediums were now used both as medium machine guns while mounted on tripods and as light machine guns while mounted on bipods. This was possible in part because a heavy, static MG position was not

2324-524: The canon de 155 C modèle 1917 Schneider , and the canon de 155mm GPF . American aviation units received the SPAD XIII and Nieuport 28 fighters, and the U.S. Army tank corps used French Renault FT light tanks. Pershing established facilities in France to train new arrivals with their new weapons. By the end of 1917, four divisions were deployed in a large training area near Verdun : the 1st Division,

2407-494: The 1st, 2nd, 26th, 32nd, 41st and 42nd Divisions. (4th Brigade, US Marine Corps, was included as part of 2nd Division.) II Corps was activated on 24 February, by which time troop numbers justified it. Initially II Corps consisted of the 27th, 30th, 33rd, 78th and 80th Divisions. In June 1918, many component infantry units from II Corps – commanded by Maj.-Gen. George W. Read – were attached to veteran British Army or Australian Army units. This served two purposes: familiarizing

2490-427: The 4th of July. Their involvement was voluntary and occurred despite last-minute orders from AEF headquarters, that its troops should not take part in offensive operations led by non-US generals. Thus Hamel was historically significant as the first major offensive operation during the war to involve US infantry. The AEF used French and British equipment. Particularly appreciated were the French canon de 75 modèle 1897 ,

2573-491: The AEF did not participate at the front until October 23, 1917, when the 1st Division fired the first American shell of the war toward German lines, although they participated only on a small scale. A group of regular soldiers and the first American division to arrive in France, entered the trenches near Nancy, France , in Lorraine . I Corps was officially activated in France, under the AEF, from 15 January 1918. It include

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2656-436: The AEF had only a minor participation at the front up to late October 1917, but by May 1918 over one million American troops were stationed in France, with half of them fighting on the front lines. Since the transport ships needed to bring American troops to Europe were scarce at the beginning, the U.S. Army pressed into service passenger liners, seized German ships, and borrowed Allied ships to transport American soldiers from

2739-590: The American Expeditionary Forces had evolved into a modern, combat-tested army. Late in the war, American units ultimately fought in two other theaters at the request of the European powers. Pershing sent troops of the 332d Infantry Regiment to Italy, and President Wilson agreed to send some troops, the 27th and 339th Infantry Regiments , to Russia. These latter two were known as the American Expeditionary Force Siberia , and

2822-630: The American force would not be used merely to fill gaps in the French and British armies, and he resisted European efforts to have U.S. troops deployed as individual replacements in depleted Allied units. This approach was not always well received by the western Allied leaders who distrusted the potential of an army lacking experience in large-scale warfare. In addition, the British government tried to use its spare shipping as leverage to bring US soldiers under British operational control. By June 1917, only 14,000 American soldiers had arrived in France, and

2905-541: The Americans with actual battlefield conditions in France, and temporarily reinforcing the British Empire units that were often severely-depleted in numbers, after more than three years of fighting. In fact, the first major operation in World War I to involve US troops concerned individual infantry platoons of the 33rd Division, which were attached to battalions of the Australian Corps for the Battle of Hamel on

2988-560: The Armistice; nearly all its senior white officers scorned the men under their command and repeatedly asked to be transferred. The black enlisted men were frequently diverted from their already attenuated training opportunities in France in the summer of 1918 and put to work as stevedores and common laborers." The 369th , 370th , 371st , and 372nd Infantry Regiments (nominally the 93d Division , but never consolidated as such) served with distinction under French command with French colonial units in front-line combat. The French did not harbor

3071-788: The Army had used a variety of older machine guns, including the Browning-designed M1895 "Potato Digger", the Maxim Gun , the Benet–Mercie M1909 , and the Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun . Although the Model 1917 was intended to be the principal US Army heavy machine gun in the war, the Army was forced to purchase many foreign weapons—the French-produced Hotchkiss 8 mm machine gun was actually

3154-599: The Atlantic Ocean was a massive logistical enterprise. In order to be successful, the Americans needed to create a coherent support structure with very little institutional knowledge. The AEF developed support network appropriate for the huge size of the American force. It rested upon the Services of Supply in the rear areas, with ports, railroads, depots, schools, maintenance facilities, bakeries, clothing repair shops (termed salvage), replacement depots, ice plants, and

3237-691: The Australian Corps commander, Lt. Gen. Sir John Monash . The Allied force in this battle combined artillery, armor, infantry, and air support ( combined arms ), which served as a blueprint for all subsequent Allied attacks, using " tanks ". U.S. Army and Marine Corps troops played a key role in helping stop the German thrust towards Paris, during the Second Battle of the Marne in June 1918 (at

3320-618: The British Vickers machine gun , while still being highly reliable. The only similarities with the Maxim or Vickers are the principles of recoil operation , T-slot breechblock, "pull-out" belt feed, water cooling, and forward ejection. Its sliding-block locking mechanism saved weight and complexity, and was used in many previous Browning designs. The belt fed left-to-right, and the cartridges were stacked closer together than Maxim/Vickers (patterns copied by most guns later). The Army Ordnance Department showed little interest in machine guns until war

3403-510: The Browning mechanism could be made for the same price as 30 Schwarzlose, which was discovered during the manufacture of Kulspruta m/22 . The 6.5mm bullet was found to be too light for long-range fire support and anti-aircraft use, so in 1932 the heavier 8×63mm patron m/32 cartridge was developed. As this resulted in a heavier recoil, a spring-loaded cradle replaced the backplate with a heavily spring-loaded buffer that acted as an extension of

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3486-613: The Colt MG 38 (mentioned in the following section) in 7,92 × 61 mm  [ no ] , used as the standard heavy machine gun and anti-aircraft weapon for the Norwegian Army from 1929 to 1940. The M/29 replaced the Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun in Norwegian service. In all, 1,800 M/29s were in Norwegian service by the time of 9 April 1940 German invasion. The M/29 saw service in the 1940 Norwegian Campaign , often deployed as

3569-506: The Colt Model of 1924 chambered in 7.92×57mm Mauser . The modifications included new iron sights (V-notch rather than loophole), lengthened butt handle, lengthened barrel, simplified rifle lock for easier exchange of used-up barrels and better handling, mounting adapted for both anti-personnel and AA fire and sights and grips adapted to suit both purposes. Roughly 8,000 were built by Państwowa Fabryka Karabinów . Norwegian designation for

3652-594: The Korean War urinated on the gun when water-cooling had failed in the frigid temperatures of the Korean winter. The Model 1917 was slowly phased out of military service in the late-1960s in favor of the much lighter M60 machine gun chambered in the new 7.62 mm NATO cartridge. Many of the 1917s were given to South Vietnam . The last ones in regular US service were on the machine gun infiltration course at Fort Benning , Georgia, where their sustained-fire capability

3735-458: The M1918M1, was developed as a flexible version of the fixed M1918. The M1917 pattern has been used in countries the world over in a variety of forms. In certain cases a new designation was applied by the user nation. From 1930, Belgian Fabrique Nationale produced air-cooled and water-cooled versions of the M1917, chambered in various calibers for domestic and export use. Kulspruta m/14-29

3818-579: The UK for use by the Home Guard since all production of the .303 Vickers were needed to resupply the equipment abandoned during the Fall of France . The M1917's weight and bulk meant that it was generally employed as a fixed defense or as a battalion or regimental support weapon. In this latter role, the disassembled weapon was carried by machine gun squads advancing on foot, which could rapidly deploy it to support

3901-468: The US Arsenal at Rock Island was the leader in converting the existing stocks of M1917-series guns over to 1917A1 configuration, other arsenals took part. In addition, the rear sights were updated for the new ammunition and were changed to yards from meters, and also did away with the World War I multiple-aperture disk on the rear sight. The top covers also had a stronger feed pawl pivot arm installed, so

3984-592: The chance of it dropping closed on one's hands while working on the gun—this became the standard on all M1919-series guns. Air-cooled aircraft version of the M1917. Developed during the First World War, the M1918 arrived too late, but became the dominant weapon of its type in US service until the development of the M1919. It features a heavier barrel, but lighter barrel jacket as compared to the M1917. A sub-variant,

4067-573: The colored drafted men cannot be used for combatant troops", said a General Staff report in 1918, and it recommended that "these colored drafted men be organized in reserve labor battalions." They handled unskilled labor tasks as stevedores in the Atlantic ports and common laborers at the camps and in the Services of the Rear in France. The French, whose front-line troops were resisting combat duties to

4150-565: The cost of being too cumbersome to move and required a crew of several soldiers to operate them. Thus, in this sense, the "heavy" aspect of the weapon referred to the weapon's bulk and ability to sustain fire, not the cartridge caliber. This class of weapons was best exemplified by the Maxim gun , invented by the American inventor Hiram Maxim . The Maxim was the most ubiquitous machine gun of World War I, variants of which were fielded in large simultaneously by three separate warring nations—Germany with

4233-488: The entry points into the French railway system that brought the American troops and their supplies to the Western Front. American engineers in France also built 82 new ship berths, nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of additional standard-gauge tracks, and over 100,000 miles (160,000 km) of telephone and telegraph lines. The first American troops, who were often called " Doughboys ," landed in Europe in June 1917. However

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4316-418: The generation of machine guns which came to prominence in the lead up to and during World War I . These fired standard full-power rifle cartridges such as the 7.92×57mm Mauser , 7.7×56mmR (.303 British) or 7.62×54mmR , but featured heavy construction, elaborate mountings and water-cooling mechanisms that enabled long-range sustained automatic fire with excellent accuracy. However, these advantages came at

4399-769: The ground, however, is now nearly entirely filled by air-cooled medium machine guns. American Expeditionary Force The American Expeditionary Forces ( AEF ) was a formation of the United States Armed Forces on the Western Front during World War I , composed mostly of units from the U.S. Army . The AEF was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of then-Major General John J. Pershing . It fought alongside French Army , British Army , Canadian Army , British Indian Army , New Zealand Army and Australian Army units against

4482-400: The gun again until 1910, when he built a water-cooled prototype of the 1900 design. Although the gun worked well, Browning improved the design slightly. Browning replaced side ejection with bottom ejection, added a buffer for smoother operation, replaced the hammer with a two piece firing pin, and some other minor improvements. The basic design of the gun was still the 1900 design. The Browning

4565-417: The gun could handle the stress of pulling an ammunition belt from the ground. Rock Island Arsenal also developed an all-steel water jacket that went into production around 1943; this was stronger than the earlier brass-capped jackets. These steel components were interchangeable with the earlier brass ones to allow for repair of worn or damaged water jacket components. Other changes were implemented, some during

4648-636: The heavier designs, and were used to support infantry on the attack, on aircraft, and on many types of vehicles. The lightest of the new designs were not capable of sustained automatic fire, as they did not have water jackets and were fed from comparatively small magazines . Essentially machine rifles with a bipod , weapons like the Lewis Gun , Chauchat and the Madsen were portable by one soldier, but were made for single and burst fire. The medium designs offered greater flexibility, either being fitted with

4731-406: The infantry in offensive operations. At the battle of Momote Airstrip in the Admiralties, the US Army's 5th Cavalry machine gunners killed several hundred Japanese in one night using their M1917 Brownings; one gun was left in position after the battle as a memorial to the desperate struggle. The Model 1917 was called to service again in the Korean War . On at least one occasion, U.S. soldiers in

4814-400: The intermediate cartridges used in light machine guns. In this sense, the "heavy" aspect of the weapon refers to its superior power and range over light and medium caliber weapons, in addition to its weight. This class of machine gun came into widespread use during World War II , when the M2 was used widely in fortifications, on vehicles and in aircraft by American forces. A similar HMG capacity

4897-435: The late-1940s the M19 box replaced the earlier metal M1 and M1A1 boxes, and a modified version known as the M19A1 appeared in the early-1950s and continues in use today. The original gun suffered from a weakness related to the design of the receiver. Under field conditions, the bottom plates, which were dovetailed into the gun's two side plates, tore out. An early fix was to attach a roughly horseshoe-shaped steel bracket around

4980-454: The latter part of 1918. President Woodrow Wilson initially planned to give command of the AEF to Gen. Frederick Funston , but after Funston's sudden death, Wilson appointed Major General John J. Pershing in May 1917, and Pershing remained in command for the rest of the war. Pershing insisted that American soldiers be well-trained before going to Europe. As a result, few troops arrived before January 1918. In addition, Pershing insisted that

5063-550: The manually powered, multiple-barrel machine guns and the single-barrel Maxim guns. By the end of the 19th century, many new designs such as the M1895 Colt–Browning and Hotchkiss M1897 were developed, powered by gas operation or recoil operation . Also, rather than the heavy water jacket, new designs introduced other types of barrel cooling, such as barrel replacement, metal fins, heat sinks or some combination of these. Machine guns diverged into heavier and lighter designs. The later model water-cooled Maxim guns and its derivatives

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5146-495: The most accurate long-range rifle-caliber machine gun ever made". For anti-aircraft purposes, a double cradle was made to hold a matching pair of m/36s. The right gun, lacking sights altogether, was fed from the right, while the left gun, with iron sights complemented with an AA sight ring, was fed from left. The cocking handles were located between the guns, while safeties and triggers were individual for left and right. The special AA tripod had elongated legs and chains to either secure

5229-415: The most common heavy machine gun used by the American Expeditionary Force . In 1926, the Browning's rear sight was revised to incorporate scales for both the new M1 Ball (172-grain boat-tail bullet) and the M1906 (150-grain flat-base bullet) ammunition. With M1 ball, the M1917 had a maximum range of about 5,500 yd (5,000 m); with M2 ammunition, about 3,500 yd (3,200 m). The rear sight had

5312-403: The most distinguished units was the 369th Infantry Regiment, known as the Harlem Hellfighters . The 369th was on the front lines for six months, longer than any other African-American regiment in the war. One hundred seventy-one members of the 369th were awarded the Legion of Merit . One member of the 369th, Sergeant Henry Johnson , was awarded the French Croix de guerre , and posthumously

5395-421: The only heavy weapon of Norwegian front line units. Colt commercially produced the M1917 under several names: A simplified, air-cooled version of the weapon, the Model 1919 , was adopted after World War I and saw action in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Congo crisis. Heavy machine gun There are two classes of weapons generally defined as HMGs: The term originally referred to

5478-567: The point of mutiny, requested and received control of several regiments of black combat troops. Kennedy reports "Units of the black 92nd Division particularly suffered from poor preparation and the breakdown in command control. As the only black combat division, the 92nd Division entered the line with unique liabilities. It had been deliberately dispersed throughout several camps during its stateside training; some of its artillery units were summoned to France before they had completed their courses of instruction, and were never fully equipped until after

5561-405: The rank first of colonel and then brigadier general. Dawes reported directly to Gen. Pershing. Dawes recommended in May 1918 that the allies set up a joint logistics planning board, which was approved by the Allies in the form of the Military Board of Allied Supply (MBAS), which coordinated logistics and transportation on the Western and Italian fronts. Supporting the two million soldiers across

5644-412: The rearmost part of the receiver. A later fix was to rivet "stirrups" (right-angled steel pieces) to the bottom and side plates. The stirrup fix became the standard reinforcement until a more permanent fix for the problem was developed. Another reported problem was bulging in the side plates, which was probably caused by stresses put into the side plates when hammering the dovetails closed. The 1917 also had

5727-450: The same basis as whites and made up 13 percent of the draftees. By the end of the war, over 350,000 African-Americans had served in AEF units on the Western Front. However, they were assigned to segregated units commanded by white officers. One fifth of the black soldiers sent to France saw combat, compared to two-thirds of the whites. They were three percent of AEF combat forces, and under two percent of battlefield fatalities. "The mass of

5810-457: The same levels of disdain based on skin color and for many Americans of African descent it was a liberating and refreshing experience. These African-American soldiers wore American uniforms, some dating from the time of the Union Army, with French helmets and were armed with French Model 1907/15 Berthier rifle manufactured by Remington Arms , rather than the M1903 Springfield or M1917 Enfield rifles issued to most American soldiers. One of

5893-423: The standard Browning recoil buffer. This also replaced the regular spade-grips with the ones integrated in the cradle. The cradle, now part of the weapon, would then be hooked onto a tripod m/36. This tripod featured, beside a 5×25 power optical sight, advanced elevation and traverse controls. The unprecedented recoil control and steadiness of the tripod made Dolf Goldsmith remark that this arrangement "was undoubtedly

5976-478: The tripod or hang weights on it for extra stability. These double cradles were also used as standard defense, mounted on a ring on the cab roof, on terrain vehicles and armored troop carriers like Terrängbil m/42 KP . The latter was used with good effect in the Congo Crisis in the early-1960s. Until 1966, the m/14-29 and m/36 machine guns could use both the 6.5mm and the 8 mm ammunition. Converting between

6059-423: The two was a matter of changing barrels, cartridge stops, and bolts. In 1966, most were converted to 7.62×51mm NATO . Some old models were retained in training use to use up the stores of obsolete ammunition. After the stocks were expended in the 1970s, all guns were re-barreled to 7.62mm NATO. The weapons were finally taken out of service in the 1995. The Ckm wz.30 was an unlicensed Polish-built modification of

6142-472: The war, but not all M1917s received these updates. Beginning in 1938, the pivot in the top cover was replaced with a new one that would become standard on all M1919-series guns. While the World War I–pattern top cover hinge pin appears to have been retained on most converted M1917s, the later-production M1917A1s had a positive locking top cover hinge pin that allowed the top cover to remain open, lessening

6225-471: The water-cooled designs. These later designs used quick-change barrel replacement to reduce overheating, which further reduced the weapon's weight, but at the cost of increasing the soldier's load due to the extra barrels. Some earlier designs like the Vickers had this feature, but it was mainly for barrel wear, as they normally used water cooling. It was in the 1920s and 1930s that quick barrel replacement for cooling purposes became more popular in weapons such as

6308-438: The weapon with one broken part: a broken sear at about 39,500. The Ordnance Board was impressed, but was unconvinced that the same level of performance could be achieved in a production model. Consequently, Browning used a second gun that not only duplicated the original trial, but it also fired continuously for 48 minutes and 12 seconds (over 21,000 rounds). The Army adopted the weapon as its principal heavy machine gun, utilizing

6391-410: The widespread adoption and modernization of the class, and most nations' armed forces are equipped with some type of HMG. Currently, machine guns with calibers smaller than 10mm are generally considered medium or light machine guns, while those larger than 15mm are generally classified as autocannons instead of HMGs. In the late 19th century, Gatling guns and other externally powered types such as

6474-449: Was an advantage in long nights of shooting over the heads of low-crawling trainees. The gun did continue to see service in some Third World armies well into the latter half of the 20th century. Some are still in use today by irregular military forces because the water cooled barrel allows for long periods of sustained fire. The machine gun used a wooden ammunition chest that carried 250 rounds. The early M1917 model had an angled corner and

6557-623: Was declared in April 1917. At that time, the U.S. arsenal included only 1,100 machine guns, and most of those were outmoded. The government asked several designers to submit weapons. Browning arranged a test at the Springfield Armory in May 1917. In the first test, the weapon fired 20,000 rounds with only a few malfunctions mostly related to poorly loaded cloth belts. The reliability was exceptional, so Browning fired another 20,000 rounds through

6640-469: Was followed by the Meuse-Argonne offensive , lasting from September 26 to November 11, 1918, during which Pershing commanded more than one million American and French combatants. In these two military operations, Allied forces recovered more than 200 sq mi (488 km ) of French territory from the German army. By the time the World War I Armistice had suspended all combat on November 11, 1918,

6723-537: Was inferior to the Vickers and Hotchkiss guns in indirect fire applications because the British and French cartridges had about 50 percent longer range than the .30-06 service cartridge used in World War I. The Model 1917A1 was again used in the Second World War, and was primarily used with the M2 ball , tracer, and armor-piercing ammunition introduced just prior to the outbreak of hostilities. Some were supplied to

6806-652: Was later fielded by the Soviets in the form of Vasily Degtyaryov's DShK in 12.7×108mm . The ubiquitous German MG42 general-purpose machine gun, though well-suited against infantry, lacked the M2's anti-fortification and anti-vehicle capability, a fact that was noted and lamented by the Germans. The continued need for a longer-range machine gun with anti-materiel capability to bridge the gap between exclusively anti-infantry weapons and exclusively anti-materiel weapons has led to

6889-580: Was the Swedish designation for the licensed M1917A1, produced by Carl Gustafs Gevärsfaktori in Eskilstuna, for infantry support. The main differences was that it was chambered in the standard caliber 6.5×55mm , had spade-grips and used the cooling jacket and tripod of the m/14 (Schwarzlose) tripod, the machine gun the Ksp m/14-29 replaced. The reason for adoption of the Browning was cost: 50 machine guns using

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