Osprey - Weapon 04 - Browning .50-caliber Machine Guns.pdf

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BROWNING .50-CALIBER
MACHINE GUNS
GORDON L. ROTTMAN
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
weapon
BROWNING .50-CALIBER
MACHINE GUNS
GORDON L. ROTTMAN
Series Editor Martin Pegler
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
First published
in
Great Britain
in
2010
by
Osprey Publishing,
Midland House, West Way, Botley, Oxford, OX2 0PH, UK
44-02 23rd Street, Suite 219, Long Island City,
NY 11101,
USA
E-mail:
info@ospreypublishing.com
© 2010 Osprey Publishing Ltd.
All rights reserved. Apart from any fair
dealing
for the purpose of
private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988,
no part of this
publication may
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reproduced, stored
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any form or
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any means, electronic, electrical,
chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise,
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the prior
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permission of the copyright
owner. Inquiries should
be
addressed to the Publishers.
A CIP catalog record for this
book is
available from the British
Library
Print ISBN: 978
1
84908 330 0
PDF e-book ISBN: 978
1
84908 331 7
Acknowledgements
The author
is indebted
to Scott
Nye
for
his invaluable
assistance
in
regards to .50-caliber ammunition. He
is
grateful too to the
Texas Military Forces Museum, Austin and the Virginia War
Museum,
Norfolk
for allowing
him
to photograph
weapons in
their excellent collections.
Glossary
AP
API
API-T
BALL
BOLT
Armor-piercing
Armor-piercing
incendiary
Armor-piercing
incendiary-tracer
Standard jacketed,
inert
ammunition
The part of a firearm that closes the
breech
of the
gun for firing, and
which
usually
holds
the firing
pin;
it
also often assists feed and extraction
CANNELURE
A
knuckled
groove
in
a
bullet in which
the case
mouth
is
crimped
CHAMBER
COOK-OFF
The section at the rear of the
barrel in which
the
cartridge
is
seated prior to firing
Caused
when
a round remains chambered and the
overheated
barrel
and chamber
heats
the cartridge
to the point
where
the propellant
ignites
The spiral
incisions
cut
into
the
bore
of a gun to
give the
bullet
a stabilizing spin. The combination
of grooves and
lands
(q.v.)
is
called rifling
A cartridge that fails to
ignite
properly on firing,
only
doing
so after a
delay
The
distance between
the face of the
bolt
and the
base
of the cartridge case
when
seated
in
the
chamber
Page
layout by
Ben Salvesen
Index
by
Alison Worthington
Typeset
in
Sabon and Univers
Originated
by
PDQ Digital Media Solutions
Printed
in
China through World Print Ltd
GROOVES
HANGFIRE
HEADSPACE
10 11 12 13 14
10
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
1
Osprey Publishing
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HEADSTAMP
The
letters,
numbers, and symbols marked on the
head
(base) of a cartridge
LANDS
OPEN BOLT
RECEIVER
TIMING
The sections of the
bore between
the grooves (q.v.)
A
bolt
that
is held back in
the open position (i.e.
not closed up to the
breech) before
firing
The main
body
of a gun, containing the major
working
parts
The adjustment of the gun so that firing takes place
when
the recoiling parts are
in
the correct position
Editor’s Note
The following
will help in
converting measurements referred to
in
the text
between imperial
and metric:
1
mile =
1.6km
1
yard = 0.9m
1ft
= 0.3m
1in
= 2.54cm/25.4mm
Cover photograph courtesy US
Navy/Kathryn
Whittenberger.
Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewman assigned to Special
Boat Team 22 (SBT-22) reloads an M2HB .50-caliber machine
gun
while
conducting
live-fire immediate
action
drills
at the
riverine training range at Ft Knox. (Top) M2HB photograph
© Cody Images.
Title page
image
© Joseph Costa/NY Daily
News
Archive
via
Getty Images
www.ospreypublishing.com
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
DEVELOPMENT
The making of a legend
4
8
USE
The .50-cal in combat, from the trenches to
the skies
43
IMPACT
The world’s most enduring machine gun
72
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
77
79
80
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
INTRODUCTION
The author’s introduction to the “fifty-cal” was the opportunity to fire a
few rounds for familiarization during infantry training in 1967. That was
after we had been shown the basics of its operation: how to load, cock,
fire, and clear it. Such was the extent of our exposure to the legendary “Ma
Duce,” officially known as “Machine Gun, Caliber .50, Heavy Barrel,
M2.” The instructor explained that the M2 had been in use since 1933.
Some of the trainees, including myself, gazed curiously at the guns placed
before us, thinking that they didn’t look that old. In fact, the ones we were
training with had been manufactured during the Korean
War (1950–53).
Our introduction to the “fifty” was minimal, as infantrymen did not
generally operate the weapon – M2s were typically found in headquarters
and support units, mounted on trucks for self-defense, while in mechanized
and tank units they were set atop armored fighting vehicles
(AFVs).
In addition, each self-propelled artillery piece possessed a “fifty.”
I discovered more about the .50-cal during subsequent Special Forces
training, learning to disassemble the monster and gaining a little more
experience in firing it. Yet it was in
Vietnam,
with some hands-on
experience, that I truly learned to appreciate the “Number 50” as the
Vietnamese
called it.
(They
also called it the “M50,” along the lines of the
7.62mm
M60 machine gun.) Observing a US mechanized rifle company
“trim the tree line” with a dozen “fifties” made me appreciate that the
receiving end of such fire was a place no-one would want to be. Many
Special Forces camps had no .50-cals, but others had up to four or more.
Ours had two. One was mounted atop a 12ft “Medal of Honor tower,” so
called because to climb up there during an attack virtually guaranteed you
one. The other M2 was atop an inner perimeter bunker. Both were high
enough to fire over the barracks on the outer perimeter and into the wire.
The tower gun provided 360-degree coverage and the gun on the bunker
protected the northern perimeter, the most likely sector to be attacked.
4
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