The encyclopedia of weapons

AK-47 Underwater

2013-06-30T03:06:00.002-07:00

FPSRussia - THE MINIGUN

2012-08-10T23:07:00.000-07:00

Yearbook 2012 CZ-USA

2011-11-20T09:25:00.001-08:00

.pdf to download (7,15MB)

Catalogue CZ-USA 2012

2011-11-20T09:24:00.000-08:00

.pdf to download (22,6MB)

Modern Warfare 3: The Vet & The Noob

2011-11-07T01:03:00.000-08:00

Idiot

2011-10-24T03:38:00.001-07:00

The Milipol '11 expo

2011-10-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

BIZON- Russian Submachine gun

2011-10-13T23:22:00.000-07:00

XM25 "The Punisher" 25mm Counter Defilade Target Engagement (CDTE) System

2011-10-08T13:20:00.001-07:00

The B.E.A.R (Brown Enhanced Automatic Rifle)

2011-08-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

Glock 17 Explosive Ammo!

2011-07-30T23:01:00.000-07:00

Back to the Gatling

2011-07-04T05:51:00.001-07:00

By the early 1950s, the newly formed US Air Force realized that the speed of new jet fighters had made conventional gas or recoil-operated machine guns or cannon obsolete. The General Electric Company was approached to produce a new fast-firing gun under the project name "Vulcan". Multi-barrelled weapons seemed a promising research path, since between shots the barrels would have time to cool. In trials, 19th-century Gatlings were fitted with electrical drive instead of the manually operated crank. No longer reliant on muscle power, the gun had a staggering rate of fire of about 4,000 rounds per minute.

US soldiers on exercise in West Germany in the 1980s with a M161 Vulcan air defence system. The high rate of fire would be lethal against helicopters and low-flying ground attack aircraft.

Further development resulted in some experimental, electrically driven, six barrelled .60-calibre machine guns, and in 1956, the six-barrelled 20mm T171 gun was officially adopted as the M61 aircraft gun capable of 4,000-6,000 rpm. M61 became the main aircraft gun for USAF fighters, and is also used by the US Army on the M161 and M163 Vulcan ground anti-aircraft gun mounts. The US Navy

also returned to the Gatling with the Vulcan-Phalanx CIWS (Close-in Weapon System) designed to shred fast sea-skimming anti-ship missiles.

New developments

2011-07-04T05:48:00.000-07:00

While the Soviet PK machine gun and even the Belgian FN Minimi are significant improvements on the concept of a General-Purpose Machine Gun; the Ml34 and M61 look back to the Gatling concept.

M134 minigun
In Vietnam in the 1960s the US Army realized it was essential to arm its helicopters. It was necessary to deliver a heavy weight of fire over a short period of time, so designers at General Electric scaled down the proven M61 gun to enable it to fire 7.62 x 51mm NATO ammunition. The weapon designated the Ml34 Minigun had a phenomenal rate of fire of 4,000 rpm. It was normally mounted in chin turrets or wing pods on AH-1G Cobra attack helicopters. Usually, the AH- 1G Cobra carried one or two miniguns in its chin turret, with 2,000-4,000 rounds of ammunition. The guns were also installed on door, pylon and pod mounts on UH-1 Huey helicopters, and on fixed-wing gunships such as the A/C-47 Dakota, nicknamed "Puff the Magic Dragon" after a children's television show.

The first American female aerial gunner, photographed in 2002, appears in the door of an HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter, equipped with a 7.62 M134 minigun.

PK machine gun
The development of a new 7.62mm General-Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) for the Soviet Army began around 1953, and the lead was taken by the Nikitin-Sokolov (NS) machine gun. The Kalashnikov design bureau submitted a design in 1958, at the request of the Soviet Ministry of Defence, to provide a competitor for the NS gun. After extensive trials the Kalashnikov design was adopted as a new general-purpose machine gun, replacing the DPM light, RP-46 medium/company and SGM heavy machine guns in service. The PK fires from 100-, 200- or 250-round belts at a cyclic rate of 650 rpm.

PK machine guns captured by US forces in Grenada in 1983. The gun has been exported throughout the world and copied by manufacturers in Europe and China. It is in widespread use in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A tank version that replaced the older SGMT was later developed by Kalashnikov with the designation PKT. Following user reports from the Soviet Army, a modified version of the PKM was adopted in 1969. It had an improved barrel and shorter flash hider, a stamped belt feed and was overall a lighter weapon. The sustained-fire PKMS had a new simple, lighter tripod. The PKM and its variants are still in production in Russia and it is in service in the Russian Army, former Warsaw Pact forces and many other forces worldwide. Copies - both licensed and pirated -have been made in Bulgaria, China, Poland, Romania and the former Yugoslavia.

Kalashnikov later developed a tank version, designated as PKT, which replaced in service older SGMT machine guns. Based on the initial experience, in 1969 the Soviet Army adopted the modified PKM machine gun, which had an updated barrel with shorter flash hider, stamped belt feed and a generally lightened construction. The PKMS (tripod-mounted) version also had a new, lighter tripod of simpler design. The PKM series of machine guns are still manufactured in Russia and are used by the Russian Army and armies of several other ex-USSR republics. In addition, PK/PKM copies are made in Bulgaria, China, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia.

The FN Minimi
The Minimi light machine gun, designed by the Belgian Fabrique Nationale (FN), can fire, feeding from the left, either belted disintegrating link SS 109 NATO or US Ml93 5.5mm ammunition or it can fire from 30-round box magazines that are compatible with the American M16 and most NATO rifles. A 200-round box of belted ammunition can be clipped directly to the Minimi, making it a formidable close-quarter battle (CQB) weapon. Gas operated, the Minimi is normally fired from its bipod, though a sustained fire tripod is available. The gun has a gas regulator with two settings: normal and adverse. The latter ensures a sufficient flow of gas against the piston to clear a malfunction. The adjustment can be made even with a hot barrel. It does not have the recoil forces of a full-size 7.62mm round and so consequently it can be fired with greater accuracy.

The Minimi has been adopted by the Australians as the F89, the US as the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW), and also by the Belgian, Canadian, Indonesian and Italian Armed forces.

The FN Minimi is a light weapon that is comfortable to fire and has proved popular with soldiers because its belt feed allows it to deliver a high volume of fire.

The M60 - "The Pig"

2011-07-04T05:42:00.001-07:00

The M60 machine gun was a weapon that seemed fine in theory but for soldiers in Vietnam terrible design defects were obvious. The bipod and the gas cylinder were permanently attached to the barrel, so quick barrel changes after firing bursts of 200 rounds proved extremely difficult during a contact. To handle the barrel, the Number 2 on the gun required a heat-protecting mitten, which was often lost on patrol or in a contact. Finally, key components in the operating group, such as the firing pin, were prone to fracturing. Unsurprisingly, the gun came to be known by frustrated soldiers in Vietnam as "the Pig'.' A lighter version of the gun, designated the M60E3, was subsequently produced but it was actually no great improvement. It did have a non-removable gas cylinder supporting the bipod, and the new barrel had a carrying handle so barrel changes were quicker and easier. However, the new lightened gun was actually less reliable; the light barrel would burn out if 200 to 300 rounds were fired on fully automatic, so it had to be changed after 100 rounds in rapid fire.

Old concepts, new designs

2011-07-04T05:40:00.000-07:00

Originating from the MG42, the German MG3 machine gun can truly be called an old soldier in the world of small arms design. The Russian RPK-74 is in concept a 7.62mm RPK scaled down to 5.45mm ammunition. The American M60, however, was a machine gun that caused considerable problems and was therefore very unpopular with its users.

The Maschinengewehr MG3
The MG3 is a modified version of the German MG42 belt-fed, air-cooled machine gun adapted to fire 7.62mm NATO Ml3 or DM 6 disintegrating link or German DM 1 continuous link. (When continuous link has been fired, the empty belt hangs off the gun for reloading later; disintegrating link unclips itself as it is fired.) It is in service in many countries including Chile, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Austria and Portugal. The Sarac, an MG3 copy, is built in the former Yugoslavia, and the MG3 is made under licence in Greece, Iran, Italy, Pakistan, Spain and Turkey. The MG3 began life as the MG42/59 in 1959, and after 1968 went into mass production as the MG3.

Bundeswehr soldiers with the MG3. The gunner is using the trigger extension grip for the gun's sustained fire mount. The litter of empty cases shows that this post-war clone of the MG42 has a high rate of fire. Its quick-change barrel is replaced after 150 rounds.

The MG3 fires from an open bolt and has a short recoil barrel with the bolt locking into the barrel extension via two rollers. Like the MG42, the MG3 has a quick change barrel. The normal drill is to replace it after a 150-round burst. However, in contact this rate can be increased to 200 to 250. As a GPMG the MG3 has a very high rate of fire - between 700 and 1,300 rpm.

The RPK-74
The Soviet Ruchnoi Pulemet Kalashnikova-74, or RPK-74, was developed along with the AK-74 assault rifle as a ten-man squad-level light-support weapon firing the new, small-calibre 5.45mm ammunition. The RPK-74 was adopted by the Soviet Army in the late 1970s and is still in use with the Russian Army today. The RPK-74 has a cyclic rate of 600-650 and a practical rate of 150 rpm. The maximum effective range is 460m/503yd.

The RPK-74 is similar concept to the British light support weapon: an infantry rifle with a longer barrel and bipod to give a squad an automatic weapon for engaging targets at longer range

Internally the RPK-74 is almost the same as the AK-74 rifle - a select-fire, gas-operated, rotating bolt-locked weapon - but it has a heavier and longer fixed barrel with a bipod, and redesigned buttstock. The RPK-74 can be fed from 45-round box magazines or standard AK-74 30-round magazines. Drum magazines holding 75 rounds similar in design to those of the RPK were also developed. They are much in demand with Russian troops in Chechnya.
Versions of the RPK-74 with a side-mount for the 1LH51 night-vision scopes are called RPK-74N. The first RPK-74s were manufactured with wooden pistol grips and fixed buttstocks, but current guns have polymer grips and side-folding polymer buttstocks.

M60 GPMG
Entering service in the late 1950s, the American M60 GPMG was designed towards the end of the 1940s. Its design drew on a number of German wartime developments including the MG42 machine gun and FG 42 automatic rifle. It had no gas regulator, which sometimes resulted in the gun jamming if fouled or, less usually, in a "runaway gun". This occurred when the working parts went back far enough to feed, chamber and fire a round but not far enough to be engaged by the sear, so that even if the pressure is taken off the trigger the gun keeps on firing. In these conditions the only option is to hold on to the belt to prevent it from feeding.

The M60 can be mounted as a sustained fire gun or on vehicles and has a quick-change barrel and integral bipod. Both the M60 and M60E3 have a cyclic rate of 550 rpm.

A grizzled US soldier in Vietnam has belts of 7.62mm ammunition ready for use for his M60, draped over a tree trunk to ensure that they do not foul in the mud on the jungle floor.

GPMG hero

2011-07-04T05:32:00.000-07:00

At 04.45 on 27 April 1965, in Plaman Mapu, Sarawak,a position held by 34 men from the British B Company HQ 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment and a platoon of young soldiers fresh from the depot came under three attacks by a Javanese Para-Commando Regiment. Company Sergeant Major (CSM) Williams and other officers were with them, along with cooks, mortar crews and radio operators.

The Javanese gained a lodgement in the position. With the situation deteriorating, Williams grabbed a GPMG and clipped on two more belts to the one already on the gun. He recalls thinking,
"this is it, this is the end of the story anyway, so I'll give them a bit of rapid fire" He stood firing from the hip as a corporal led a counterattack. Several Indonesian commandos charged straight at Williams, the nearest being killed only 2m/2.2yd from him.

When the second assault came in, Williams brought another GPMG up and mortar bombs fired by the Paras fell only 30m/33yd away. This broke up the second assault.

The third attack, just before dawn at about 05.45, was not pressed home with great vigour. When Williams took out a clearing patrol he found one Indonesian, whom he killed.

General-Purpose Machine Guns

2011-07-04T05:30:00.000-07:00

The GPMG (general-purpose machine gun), which was exemplified by the MG42, would be regarded as an essential weapon by all armies after the war, and widely copied. The French had their AAT-52 and the Belgians their highly successful MAG, while the Russian belt-fed RPD LMG was a step towards the GPMG concept.

The AAT 52 GPMG
Designed by the French MAS company in the early 1950s, the Arme Automatique Transformable modele 52 machine gun, better known simply as the "cinquante-deux", was adopted by the French Army in 7.5mm and later, after conversion to fire the 7.62mm NATO round, as the AAT F-1. It uses stampings wherever possible for ease and speed of production.

The AAT-52 uses 50- or 200-round belts and has a delayed blowback action and a rate of fire of 900 rpm. The quick-change barrel has a fluted chamber to assist extraction. In the light role the gun has a 50cm/20in, 2.9kg/6.4lb barrel, while in the sustained fire role it has a heavier 4.3kg/9.5lb barrel that is 60cm/2ft long.

The gun gave good service in Algeria in the 1960s and in numerous operations around the world. It is still in service with the French Army.

The French AAT-52 in medium machine-gun role mounted on a US M2 tripod fitted with a heavy barrel. It has a practical range of 1,200m/1,320yd.

The RPD
The RPD 7.62mm light machine gun was designed by Vasily Degtyarev in the USSR in 1943 and introduced into service in the Soviet Army shortly after the end of World War II. It was adopted by Warsaw Pact forces and copied by China as the Type 56 and North Korea as the Type 62. The RPD weighs 7. lkg/15.61b empty and fires a 7.62 x 39mm round from a 100-round disintegrating link belt housed in a drum clipped below the weapon. It fires only on automatic and has a cyclic rate of 700 rpm and an effective range of 800m/875yd. It works well in adverse conditions and is very easy to strip and assemble.

An Egyptian soldier taking part in a joint exercise with US Forces takes aim with an RPD LMG fitted with the 100-round magazine. The rugged weapon has performed well in the jungles of Asia as well as in the desert.

The FN MAG GPMG
The Belgian 7.62mm FN Mitrailleuse a Gaz, or MAG, is one of the most successful GPMGs to be manufactured since World War II. An FN design, it uses the feed mechanism developed by the Germans for the MG42 during the war. This gives it a rate of fire of 650-1,000 rpm, which can be adjusted by opening or closing the gas regulator controlling the flow of gas from the barrel back on to the cupped piston head. Gunners learn to "balance" their weapon so that this gas flow gives an optimum performance.

The MAG can be used in the light role with a bipod or on a sustained fire (SF) spring-buffered tripod.

In the SF role a butt plate is fitted, and the rear sight flips up and shows ranges of 800-1,800m/ 875-1,970yd. An optical sight, similar to that on a mortar, can also be fitted; this allows the gun to be fired on pre-registered targets that may be obscured by darkness or smoke. In the light role the sights lie flat and are graduated between 200-800m/220-875 yards in 100m/l 10-yd intervals. The GPMG/MAG weighs 11.7kg/25.7lb empty and has an overall length of 126cm/50in. The rate of fire is 650-1,000 rpm and the muzzle velocity is 840m/s/2,755ft/s. The MAG is probably the most successful general-purpose machine gun in the world. It is manufactured under licence in Argentina, Egypt, India, Singapore, the United States, and the UK.

An Israeli soldier in Lebanon in 1984 lounges by an M151 fitted with two MAGs. The one in the rear has had the butt removed and replaced with the butt plate for ease of operation in the confined space.

The MG42 in war

2011-07-04T05:09:00.000-07:00

US soldiers who encountered the MG42 in the wooded cover of the bocage of Normandy in June and July 1944 said that the ripping sound of the fast-firing MG42 resembled the sound of a sheet of calico being torn apart.

Sydney Jary, a young British infantry platoon commander in Normandy, recalled "I remember my first reaction to actual infantry warfare in July 1944 was one of amazement at the crushing fire-power of these rapid-firing guns . . . firing long sustained bursts, the object of which seemed to me to keep us pinned to the ground regardless of the ammunition expenditure. Typically German -protracted and discordant."

Enduring designs

2011-07-04T05:07:00.000-07:00

The German MG42 and Soviet DShk and SG43 are three machine guns that have enjoyed a remarkable operational life. The MG42 has been the basis for numerous automatic weapons and remains the touchstone for all general purpose machine guns.

The Degtyarev DShk 1938
The large Krupnokaliberny Pulemet Degtyareva-Shpagina, DShK or "Degtyarev-Shpagin, large calibre" 12.7mm/.50 entered service with the Red Army in 1939 and remained in production until 1980. Soviet soldiers nicknamed it the "Dushka". Although it has been compared to the .50 Browning HMG, it was not a recoil-operated gun but used a gas system developed by Georgiy Shpagin that has a three-positions gas regulator. The Dushka was used throughout World War II as an anti-aircraft weapon on tanks like the heavy IS-3, in twin and quad AA mounts and even on river craft. As a formidable heavy infantry support gun it was mounted on a modified version of the Maxim Sokolov mount.

The Soviet DshK 1938 127mm/.50 in service as an anti-aircraft gun aboard a Soviet naval craft. The gun had an effective range of 1,500m/1,641yd.

After the war, the modernized version DShK Modernized (DShK-M), also known as DShKM-38/46, was mounted on Soviet tanks such as the T-55 and T-62, and armoured reconnaissance vehicles and personnel carriers. The DShKM was also manufactured in China, Iran, Yugoslavia and Pakistan. It was widely used in numerous post-1945 conflicts including Vietnam, the Arab-Israeli wars, and more recently, the Soviet and NATO campaigns in Afghanistan. The DShKM was one of the most successful designs of its time.

The muzzle velocity is 850m/s/2,788ft/s, and the gun fires at 600 rpm from a 50-round belt. The AP rounds can pierce 15mm/0.6in of armour at 500m/547yd.

The MG42
The MG42 replaced the MG34 during World War II. Designed by Dr Grunow of Grossfuss-Werke, it used stamping and spot-welding to speed the manufacturing process. When the Allies captured their first MG42s in Tunisia, they thought that stamping and spot welding indicated a cheap and shoddy weapon. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The MG42 entered service in 1942 and by 1945 some 750,000 had been produced. The gun introduced the quick barrel change that was essential for fast firing air-cooled weapons.

The German Maschinengewehr MG42 machine gun had a practical rate of fire of 250 rounds per minute in the light role and 500 in medium.

The gun was 122cm/48in long with a 53.3cm/21in barrel and weighed 11.8kg/26lb in the light role and 29.7kg/65.3lb on the sustained fire mount. With a muzzle velocity of 755m/s/2,746ft/s, it fired 50- and 250-round metal-belted ammunition and had a maximum range of 2,000m/2,188yd and a cyclic rate of 1,550. A US Army Intelligence Bulletin identified the drawback of this high rate of fire: "the gun has a tendency to 'throw off, so that its fire stays on target for a much briefer time than does that of the slower firing MG34". German gunners were therefore instructed to fire bursts of between five to seven rounds when firing in the light role. The gunners also aimed low and the Intelligence Bulletin noted a comment from a GI who remarked, "German machine gun fire is usually so low - often about a foot and a half above the ground - that we call it 'grass cutting'. "

A Waffen SS soldier cleans his MG34. It has been said that many automatic weapons have been worn out not by constant firing but by constant cleaning; it is essential to keep weapons clean. Gas-operated weapons can foul up with hard carbon that builds up around narrow apertures such as the gas regulator, which can cause stoppages and jams.

The SG43 and SGM MMG
In the early 1940s the Red Army realized that the old PM1910 machine gun was being outclassed by the German MG34 and later MG42 machine guns. The need for a new weapon was addressed by the talented Goryunov brothers, who produced the Stankovii Pulemet Goryunova Obrazets 1943G, or simply the SG43. This gun combined in its mechanism features from Degtyarev, Browning and other weapons. It was a robust and reliable weapon that fired at 500-640 rpm to a maximum effective range of 1,000m/1,094yd from a 50-round metal-link belt. The gun was 40.7kg/89.5lb on its two-wheel mount, which compared favourably to the complete weight of a PM1910: a staggering 74kg/ 1631b.

Among the variants of the SG43 were the SGMT coaxial tank gun and the SGMB vehicle-mounted gun. As late as the mid-1990s the SG43 was still in service in Egypt, China, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

The Soviet SGM machine gun developed during World War II could be fired from a wheeled ground mount by infantry or was mounted in armoured fighting vehicles both as a co-axial and an AA gun.

Corporal Tom Hunter VC

2011-07-04T02:47:00.001-07:00

In the last weeks of World War II on 2 April 1945, Corporal Tom Hunter's troop from 43 Royal Marine Commando came under heavy and constant fire from three German MG42s dug in close to a group of houses near to Lake Comacchio in northern Italy.

Picking up his Bren gun, Hunter charged the houses single-handedly across 183m/200yd of open ground. He came under intense fire but so determined was his charge that six German gunners surrendered and the rest fled. Changing magazines as he ran, he cleared the house of the enemy. He drew heavy incoming fire but continued until the rest of his troop found safety. Shortly after, Cpl Hunter was killed still firing his Bren gun.

He is buried in the Argenta Gap Cemetery in Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

A hero's gun

2011-07-04T02:46:00.000-07:00

The Japanese Type 96 light machine gun (LMG) drew on some of the design features of the earlier Czech ZB 26. The Bren gun, also based on the Czech ZB 26, became the British and Commonwealth section LMG in World War II. Even as late as 21 November 1965 it was the weapon with which brave junior NCOs such as L. Naik Rambahadur Limbu of the 2/10th Gurkha Rifles won the highest award for gallantry: the Victoria Cross. Another Czech weapon, the ZB vz/53, was fielded by both the Germans and the British in World War II.

The Type 96 LMG
The Japanese 6.5mm Type 96 LMG was introduced in 1936. A number of ideas were taken from the Czechoslovakian ZB 26 (an LMG design manufactured at the small arms factory in Brno, Czechoslovakia) and the Hotchkiss machine gun. The Type 96 LMG had a curved 30-round box magazine and a cyclic rate of 550 rpm. The reduced-power Meiji 30 cartridge produced a muzzle velocity of 730m/s/2,394ft/s; this cartridge should not have caused a feed problem but in fact the gun still needed an oil dispenser to ensure a smooth feed. The Type 96 had a quick-change barrel and drum or telescopic sights. It could be fitted with a Model 30 sword bayonet, although launching a bayonet charge carrying a 9kg/20lb LMG would have been rather challenging to slightly built Japanese soldiers.

A Japanese paratrooper armed with the 6.5mm Type 96 LMG. The gun drew on a number of Western design concepts. A typical Japanese feature was that it could be fitted with a bayonet for close combat.

The Bren gun
The British Bren gun was initially built in 1937 at the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield and was based on the Czechoslvakian-designed ZB vz/26 light machine gun. It was tested by British Army officials in the 1930s. A licence to manufacture was obtained and the Czech design modified to British requirements. The two factory names (Brno and Enfield) were combined to produce the name Bren, and the gun continued in use from World War II to the Gulf War of 1991.

The later Bren featured a curved box magazine, conical flash eliminator and barrel that could be quickly changed. In the 1950s the Bren was rebarrelled to accept the 7.62 x 51 mm NATO cartridge. It could be fitted on a bipod, or mounted on a vehicle.

The Bren was an air-cooled gas-operated weapon that fired a .303 round from a 30-round box magazine. It had a slow rate of fire - 500 rpm - but was extremely accurate, with sights set out to l,830m/2,000yd. It was also light, weighing only 10kg/22.1 lb, and measured l,155mm/45.5in in length.

It was easy to strip, and experienced gunners could change magazines or barrels in less than five seconds. Bren guns were also made in Australia, Canada and India during World War II. When, after the war, the British Army standardized its rifle ammunition with NATO and adopted 7.62mm, the versatile Bren was re-engineered to take the cartridge and with it a magazine with a flatter curve that was interchangeable with the L1A1 SLR magazine. This meant that, in a contact, riflemen in a section could resupply ammunition to the LMG crew. The Bren could be mounted on a bipod, tripod or vehicle mounted.

The .303 Bren, with its characteristic curved magazine, remained in service with the British Army after the war. When 7.62mm ammunition was standardized by NATO, the gun was rebarrelled and fitted with a new magazine.

The ZB vz/53 medium machine gun
The Czech ZB vz/53, designed by Vaclav Holek, was first produced in Brno in 1937 and entered service with the Czechoslovakian Army as the Kulomet vz/37. Captured guns were designated by the Germans as the 7.92mm MG 37 (t) and issued widely, often to Waffen-SS units. The British had obtained a production licence before the war and produced it as the Gun, Machine, Besa, building 59,322 of them, which were fitted to tanks. Among the British tanks that fielded the Besa were the Churchill, Valentine, Matilda and Cromwell.

The ZB vz/53 was unusual, with a quick-change barrel (normally fitted to LMGs) and two rates of fire: 500 or 700 rpm, firing from a 100- or 200-round metal link belt. The Besa was a very reliable gun which had a tripod mount that could be adjusted as an AA mount as well as a fortress mount for embrasures in fortifications.

SAS jeep attack

2011-07-04T02:41:00.001-07:00

In July 1942, Major David Stirling of the British Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) decided to attack Landing Ground 21, the airfield at Sidi Haneish, Egypt, using a V-shaped formation of two columns of seven jeeps commanded by Earl George Jellicoe and Paddy Mayne, with Stirling leading. They were to drive down the runway, engaging the lines of aircraft with their Vickers K guns, a total firepower of 68. To ensure surprise, the attack would be on a night with a full moon.

On the night of 26 July they set off. They hit the airfield at speed, the machine guns opened fire and Stirling fired a green Very light, the signal for the V formation. Recalling it afterwards, the men told Virginia Cowles, the author of Phantom Major. "The planes took longer to catch fire than the men had imagined. It was perhaps thirty seconds before the interior of the aircraft suddenly glowed red, followed by the dull thud of exploding petrol, which turned the whole body into a sheet of flame. Some planes did not burn but seemed literally to crumble and disintegrate as the bullets ploughed into them from less than fifty yards."

SAS guns

2011-07-04T02:40:00.000-07:00

The light .303 drum-fed Vickers-Berthier machine gun would prove an ideal weapon for the Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) jeeps in World War II - armed with these machine guns they caused chaos behind German lines in North Africa and Europe. Sometimes the jeeps came under fire from German MG34s, their weapons firing almost twice as fast as the VB guns. In contrast, the Japanese Type 92 had a slow rate of fire.

The Type 92 machine gun
It is unusual for weapons to be given nicknames by the men who are their targets, but the Type 92 Shiki Kikanju Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) had such a low rate of fire at 450-500 rpm and curious stuttering effect that it was known as the "Woodpecker" by Allied soldiers. Allied troops under fire from the Type 92 always recognized it.

US Marines on Iwo Jima with a captured Japanese Type 92 machine gun. The 30-round stripper clip feed can be clearly seen.

In the 1930s, the Japanese had realized that the small 6.5mm round fired by their soldiers was not powerful enough, and a new 7.7mm round was produced. It was introduced into new weapons, including the Type 92, a variation on the Hotchkiss design. Unlike the Hotchkiss, however, the Type 92 was heavy (over 54.5kg/1201b with the tripod; the tripod legs had holes drilled through the "feet" to take poles so that two men could carry it more easily.) The new gun bore was similar to the Type 3, including the oil dispenser required to ensure a smooth feed for the ammunition that was fed from 30 round metal clips.

The Vickers-Berthier
The Vickers "K" or VGO or CO gun was a gas-operated machine gun based on a French Berthier design that Vickers had bought in 1925. It had a cyclic rate of fire of 950-1,000 rpm and a 100-round magazine, although it was normally loaded with 96 rounds to prevent over-compression on the spring. It had a muzzle velocity of 745m/s/2,444ft/s and weighed 1 l.lkg/24.4lb. The guns were mounted in RAF Hawker Hart aircraft, and when these aircraft became obsolete this was the source of armament for SAS jeeps in North Africa and Europe. K guns were mounted in pairs on the front and rear of SAS jeeps. Such a vehicle therefore had the potential firepower of nearly 4,000 rounds of tracer and ball ammunition per minute.

The Vickers-Berthier K gun had been designed for inter-war RAF fighters. The SAS took surplus weapons and mounted them on jeeps to produce fast, compact vehicles with an awesome firepower.

The MG34
To many Allied soldiers the German infantry appeared less as riflemen and more as ammunition carriers for the formidable 7.92mm MG34 machine gun, known by the Allies as the Spandau after its place of manufacture. This gun was l,220mm/48in long with a 625mm/24.6in barrel, weighed 11.9kg/26.2lb in the light role and 31.1 kg/68.5lb on the sustained fire mount. With a muzzle velocity of 755m/s/2,477ft/s, it had a maximum range of 2,000m/2,190yd and a cyclic rate of 800-900 rpm. It fired from a 75-round saddle-drum magazine or 50-round non-disintegrating belts. It was a remarkable design that drew on experience in World War I, during which heavy water-cooled weapons were difficult to handle.

A German grenadier with an MG34 scans the surroundings from a lookout post. The barrel of the gun was air cooled through the holes in the protective metal sleeve, but it could also be changed quickly.

One of the other spurs for the development of the revolutionary air-cooled weapon was accidental. According to the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, Germany was forbidden to construct water-cooled machine guns like the cumbersome MG08.

The MG34 was the world's first General-Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) that could be used in a light role in the attack and in defence as a medium machine gun. When used in defence, it was mounted on the MG-Lafatte 34, a lightweight folding tripod that could be set at two positions - high and low. The tripod could also be converted into an anti-aircraft mount.

Anti-aircraft ammunition

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Machine guns firing rifle-calibre ammunition were only effective against low-flying aircraft if they were used en masse. Weapons such as the heavy Browning .50 and DshK1938 were capable of taking down aircraft. Yet one of the most effective features of these weapons was the deterrent value of the tracer ammunition. For the gunner, the burning tracers allowed him to correct his aim against moving targets. For the pilot of a bomb-laden aircraft diving towards a target on the ground, the sky filled with flashing tracer, which could put him off his aim. Tracers proved effective against aircraft as late as the Falklands War in 1982.

Defective designs

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The Italian Mitriaglice Fiat 1914/35 has the appearence of a good medium machine gun, just as the Breda Modello 30 has the look of a good light machine gun. However, appearances can be deceptive. Both guns had some troublesome design defects that only came to light when the unfortunate soldiers were in action in the front line. The German Flugzeugmaschinen-gewehr MG 15 and 17 were tested in action in Luftwaffe bombers, before they were modified for a ground role.

The Mitriaglice Fiat 1914/35
From 1935 onwards the Italians modernized the old Fiat 1914. The new machine gun, the Mitriaglice Modello 1914/35, had a 300-round belt feed. The water jacket had been removed and replaced with a heavy air-cooled, quick-change barrel. The gun was rebarreled for the larger calibre of 8mm, and engineers at Fiat hoped that this would mean that they could dispense with the oiler. However, the old violent blow-back mechanism (the way that the recoil from the exploding cartridge pushes back the bolt and a new round is fed in) had been retained from the Revelli-designed Fiat 1914. To reduce wear and tear from this violent action, the oiler had to be reintroduced. Despite all these modifications, the gun was not a success; in fact, many old soldiers said it was worse than the Fiat 1914. Among the undesirable features was the tendency for the barrel to overheat and, as always in the desert, the oiler attracted dust and dirt that clogged the mechanism. The Germans, who were always keen to use any available weapons, gave the Fiat 1914/35 the designation 8mm sMG255(i). Although it was widely available from captured stocks in 1943, they do not appear to have used it. They were probably aware of its deficiencies. The complete gun with its tripod weighed in at 36.6kg/81.25lb. It fired 500 rounds per minute and could be used both in a ground role and as a light anti-aircraft gun.

Here the Mitriaglice Fiat 1914/35 appears on a high-angle anti¬aircraft mount during the Italian campaign in the Balkans of 1939-41. While one man keeps the mount stable, the other holds the belted ammunition so that it will feed smoothly when the gunner fires.

The Fucile Mitragliatore Breda modello 30
This was the standard light machine gun of the Italian Army during World War II. It was widely regarded as a poor weapon: it had fired the underpowered 6.5 x 52mm cartridge in 20-round clips that were inserted into a fragile hinged magazine, and the gun was prone to jamming. It had a cyclic rate of fire of 450-500 rounds per minute.

The Italian Fucile Mitragliatori Breda modello 30 was one of the first air-cooled machine guns with a quick-change barrel. It had evolved from the Breda modello 1924 via the modello 1928.

The weapon fired from a closed bolt and had a small lubricating device that sprayed oil on each cartridge as it entered the chamber. However, this caused the chamber and barrel to heat rapidly, which in turn caused rounds to fire prematurely, or "cook off", before they were fully in the chamber. The oil from the lubrication also quickly picked up dust and debris, making the weapon highly prone to jamming during fighting in North Africa.

Some Bredas were modified to fire the new 7.35mm cartridge that was being introduced into service and designated modello 38. However, production problems with the new ammunition meant that this was a short¬lived programme.

The Flugzeugmaschinengewehr MG15 and 17
Based on the system of the Rheinmetall MG30, the Flugzeugmaschinengewehr MG15 and MG17 were the standard aircraft machine guns fitted to most German combat aircraft in 1939. The MG15 was developed by Rheinmetall in Borsig as a flexible-mounted defence machine gun for bombers, and the MG17 was the fixed forward-firing armament for fighters such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109E. Both weapons were air cooled and recoil operated. The MG15 firing at 850 rpm was magazine fed from Doppeltrommel (double-drum) magazines containing 75 rounds, while the MG17 was belt fed. Both used Mauser 7.92mm ammunition.

When, later in World War II, the Luftwaffe concentrated on 13 and 15mm machine guns, the MG15 was distributed to ground troops - mainly the field units of the Luftwaffe. Since production of the MG34 and MG42 could never meet the demand from ground forces, reworking the aircraft machine guns for a ground role began in 1942. The modifications involved new sights, a shoulder stock, a tripod or bipod mount, a spent cartridge deflector and a carrying sling. It was widely used in garrison and guard units and issued to formations of the German Volksturm, the home guard, at the end of the war. Four MG17s could be mounted together in an anti¬aircraft role, and with a combined rate of fire of 4,400 rpm they were a potent low-level anti-aircraft weapon deployed as a stop-gap in the last two years of the war.