![]() ![]() The BAR was also issued to British Home Guard elements during World War 2. It led a healthily long service life for the Americans as it was not officially retired from frontline service until the 1950s. Marine units were also issued the type but favored the original's single-shot functionality and, therefore, reverted their actions back to the single / full modes of fire. The BAR became the standard-issue Light Machine Gun (LMG) of American infantry outfits by the time of World War 2 (1939-1945). It ended as something of a "tweener" weapon: it could not be considered a true light machine gun due to its limited 20-round magazine (requiring frequent reloading) and inadequate control when fired on full-automatic and it was not regarded as a true battle rifle for it was inherently heavy as a service rifle and lacked the accuracy because of vibrations.© The BAR never lived up to the expectations of Browning but it was an effective weapon at its core. In time, this feature was dropped in favor of a rate-of-fire selector which the operator could set between 350 or 550 rounds-per-minute. Initial models were fielded with a firing selector which allowed the operator to choose form single (semi-automatic) or full-automatic fire to be achieved. The weapon was designed, developed and trialed in short order. However, this also led to a weapon that was utterly reliable in the worse of battlefield conditions and virtually indestructible as military firearms go. The M1918 showcased some deficiencies in its design - it relied on a complex internal mechanism for operation and its machining process meant that it was expensive to built and time consuming as well. ![]() A forward and rear iron sight allowed for some accurized fire at range. ![]() Magazines were straight in their general design and angled along their bottoms. Wooden furniture made of this component as well as the handguard under the forward mass of the weapon. ![]() The magazine feed was found just ahead of the trigger unit and the shoulder support of the weapon constituted a traditional rifle-style butt. The extraction port was set to the right side of the receiver in the usual way. A "hump" along the top of the receiver was forced by the upwards cammed bolt lock. The assembly was fitted under the barrel and the open-bolt action contained in a rectangular, nearly featureless receiver. As trench warfare permeated the battlefields across Europe at this time, weapons of voluminous fire was required to clear obstacles like stubborn, dug-in enemies.īrowning went to work to develop such a weapon and settled on a gas-operated system which relied in a piston moving within a cylinder assembly. "Walking Fire" was the term given to the concept of a standard infantryman wielding a weapon firing volumes of ammunition at the enemy. The French Army of World War 1 had grown to appreciate the concept of automatic weapons at the infantry level and, when the Americans committed to the war in 1917, the French passed on this appreciation to its newly arriving ally. The classic and utterly reliable design saw service in both World Wars and during some of the Cold War (1947-1991) period. In an effort to provide the American infantryman with more portable firepower, John Browning devised his "Browning Automatic Rifle" ("BAR") which was adopted by the U.S. Self-loading rifles appeared as did full-automatic machine guns and semi-automatic pistol types. During World War 1 (1914-1918), the infantry-level automatic weapon was just beginning to scratch the surface of its potential. ![]()
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