Interesting facts on the weapons of WWII

Yeah I figured

 

The "beauty" of MG-42

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wipVRs7r5Wk&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu7HI1Jj7DA&mode=related&search=

 

"My little friend." Worth turning the volume up.

 

The MG42. Yes, it rocks! Good for a crew served anti aircraft weapon but, just a waste of ammunition when used in the infantry role. Why have six or seven bullets follow the same trajectory when aimed at a person? Just doesn't make sense. 600-700 rpm is very sufficient.

 

MGs are not sniper rifles (although some - like the Bren - were more accurate than others). With the MG 42, the bullets didn't all follow the same trajectory but spread, increasing the hit probability (a kind of shotgun effect). Also, the instant that troops came under fire they would dive for cover, so the more rounds you could get downrange in the first couple of seconds, the better the chance you had of hitting somebody.

 

That's right - the MG42 relied on a saturation effect and a side effect of this was the very disconcerting sound which had considerable psychological effect at the 'receiving end'.

 

Yes, the bullets spread; however, at such a fast rate of fire several of the bullets would have followed one right behind the other which was essentially an overkill when used in the infantry roll (there are diagrams of this out there somewhere). Personally, I'd say that, besides the terror factor, the MG42 was less successful than other crew served MG's during the war due to the increased amount of ammunition that the gunner and his a.g. had to carry, not to mention the faster barrel overheating problem. If a faster cyclic rate for the crew served MG was the answer why then are most MG's today set for 600+/- rpm? Because they know that anything over this is simply a waste of ammunition.

 

In that first YouTube video, what is going on with those last shots? The MG sounds different.

 

I was also wondering about the bullets going the same way, but a couple of years back I saw "the lafette" for the MG34 by a friend who showed me how the back of it swings giving the rounds a little bit different direction all the time. I´m sure not just the Germans used this. Then again with the MG42 firing power not sure if the mechanism is anymore that capable to change the direction that much (?).

 

I presume you're talking about the T and E Mechanism? You say that it "swings?" I've seen one of these at the D-Day Museum in New Orleons before but, I can't remember the details of "that" particular piece of hardware. Nonetheless, that sounds about right for a weapon with such a high cyclic rate. I know from my own experience with the M60 machine gun that the T&E was used mainly for pre-targeted/fixed target areas and for checking interlocking fields of fire. But, I remember most of all that we used it to keep the barrel of the thing from resting in the mud! I think, from what little I remember, there was a wheel on the mechanism that the gunner could turn to traverse the muzzle back and forth when firing.

 

There doesn't seem to be any agreement over this. Just flipping through Jane's Infantry Weapons to pick out the faster ones reveals that Germany still uses the MG3 (the updated 7.62mm MG 42) at 1,000-1,300 rpm, as does Pakistan, Turkey and Greece. The widely-used FN MAG (M240) RoF ranges between 650-1,000 rpm, the FN Minimi (M249) between 700-1,000, French N AAT F1 hits 900 rpm, Negev 700-1,000, Ameli 900 rpm.

Germany obviously felt that the high RoF was worth it in WW2, because as a result of war experience they went from the fast-firing MG 34 to the very-fast-firing MG 42, and (with a change in calibre) have stayed with that ever since. I think this is an issue where the pros and cons seem fairly well balanced - there's no obvious right answer (not the only small arms issue to which this applies .

 

I think that the most impressive thing about the MG42 was the relative lack of stoppages due to the design of the roller-locking system ?

 

Here we are talking about cyclic rates and I just wonder how each of these MG's acts when it comes to sustained fire. I mean, you know, cyclic rates are basically theoretical. You couldn't just pull the trigger back for a full minute until 1300 rounds had been fired. I wonder how many rounds you could get off in the sustained fire mode until a barrel change was neccessary? For instance: The M60 has a cyclic rate of around 600 rpm, however, on some versions (M60E4?) the acceptable amount of fire is kept to around 200 rounds before dangerous barrel overheating starts to occur, warranting a barrel change.

 

I believe the Vickers must hold the sustained fire record?
Not clear enough on First War history to be sure but the oft-quoted incident is 12 hours, 100 barrels and a million rounds by one WW1 company with no failures?

 

No air-cooled MG is capable of sustained continuous fire in the way that a water-cooled one is. For example, the sustained RoF of the .50 M2HB (cyclic rate 450 rpm) is just 40 rpm - any more, and the barrel temperatures will gradually build up past the permitted limits. That rarely matters much since MGs are generally fired in short bursts these days, with pauses to evaluate the effect and let the barrel cool.

Also, most air-cooled MGs have quick-change barrels, so as long as you have a supply of extra ones you can resume firing after a few seconds. The MG 42 has a good barrel-change system which is very quick.

However, as I've already pointed out, the importance of the high cyclic rate as far as the Germans were concerned was not how many rounds the gun could fire in one minute, but how many it could fire in the first couple of seconds, before the targets all take cover. In one second, the MG 42 will put 20 bullets downrange, a 600 rpm MG only 10. That's its key advantage in terms of hit probability.

 

I have a book from Cresent/Phoebus publishers, edited by Ian V. Hogg (Royal Artillery) & John Batchelor (RAF) which says under perfect experimental conditions the "Vickers" once fired non-stop for seven days.

 

Vickers VILDEBEEST

http://www.rcaf.com/aircraft/bombers/vildebeast/index.php?name=Vildebeest

The Vickers Vildebeest was an ungainly looking three-seat general purpose biplane that first flew in April 1928. It saw service as a torpedo bomber, as an army cooperation and as a light bomber. Later variants were intended to replace the Westland Wapiti and Fairey IIIF biplanes.

Obsolete by the outbreak of the Second World War, approximately 100 Vildebeests of various marks were still in service. Necessity meant the Vildebeest and an improved variant, the Vickers Vincent, continued in service. The last front-line operations were flown as late as 1942 by Nos 36 and 100 (RAF) Squadrons shortly before the fall of Singapore. Canadian crews saw service in Vildebeest aircraft while attached to RAF squadrons.

Max Speed: 142 mph (229 km/h) Service Ceiling: 17,000 ft (5,182 m) Range: 1,250 mi ( 2,012 km)

One forward-firing .303 in (7.7 mm) machine gun and one flexible Lewis gun in the aft cockpit plus provisions for up to 1,000 lb (454 kg) in bombs or torpedoes

 

Sherman vs Tiger I

YouTube - SHERMAN TANK VERSUS GERMAN TIGER

 

nice find By the way, That progamme is my favorate and its a shame they dont show it anymore.