M1921 Browning machine gun
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The M1921 Browning machine gun was a
water-cooled Cooling tower and water discharge of a nuclear power plant Water cooling is a method of heat removal from components and industrial equipment. Evaporative cooling using water is often more efficient than air cooling. Water is inexpensive and non ...
.50-caliber (12.7 mm)
machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...
, designed by
John Moses Browning John Moses Browning (January 23, 1855 – November 26, 1926) was an American firearm designer who developed many varieties of military and civilian firearms, cartridges, and gun mechanisms many of which are still in use around the world. He m ...
, which entered production in 1929. From 1917 to 1918, he developed the prototype Browning Winchester Cal.50 caliber heavy machine gun. It was developed from a water-cooled .30 caliber M1917 Browning machine gun.


History

Machine guns were heavily used in World War I, and weapons of larger than rifle caliber began appearing on both sides of the conflict. The larger rounds were needed to defeat the armor that was being introduced to the battlefield, both on the ground and in the air. During World War I, the Germans introduced a heavily armored airplane, the
Junkers J.I The Junkers J.I (manufacturer's name J 4) was a German "J-class" armored sesquiplane of World War I, developed for low-level ground attack, observation and army cooperation. It is especially noteworthy as being the first all-metal aircraft to e ...
. The armor made aircraft machine guns using conventional rifle ammunition (such as the .30-06) ineffective., stating "The Germans put a heavily armored plane into service during the closing days of World War I. This act made obsolete for all time the rifle-caliber machine gun for aerial use. Some countries were slower to accept the fact than others but nevertheless, it cannot be disputed. The United States was among the first to come to this realization." Consequently, the
American Expeditionary Force The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought alon ...
's commander General
John J. Pershing General of the Armies John Joseph Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948), nicknamed "Black Jack", was a senior United States Army officer. He served most famously as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on the Wes ...
asked for a larger caliber machine gun. Pershing asked the Army Ordnance Department to develop a machine gun with a caliber of at least and a muzzle velocity of at least . U.S. Col. John Henry Parker, commanding a machine gun school in France, observed the effectiveness of a French Gras incendiary round, the so-called
balloon buster Balloon busters were military pilots known for destroying enemy observation balloons. These pilots were noted for their fearlessness, as balloons were stationary targets able to receive heavy defenses, from the ground and the air. Seventy-seven fl ...
. The Army Ordnance Department ordered eight experimental Colt machine guns rechambered for the French 11 mm cartridge. The French 11 mm round was found to be unsuitable because its velocity was too low. Pershing wanted a bullet of at least and a muzzle velocity of . Development with the French round was dropped. Around July 1917, John M. Browning started redesigning his .30-06 M1917 machine gun for a larger and more powerful round. Winchester worked on the cartridge, which was a scaled-up version of the .30-06. Winchester initially added a rim to the cartridge because the company wanted to use the cartridge in an anti-tank rifle, but Pershing insisted the cartridge be rimless. In order to adapt his machine gun to .50 cal Browning had to introduce a proper hydraulic
recoil buffer A recoil buffer is a factory-installed or aftermarket component of firearms A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions ...
instead of a cheaper stack of fiber disks on .30-cal M1917 and M1919 which he also tried on the M1921, as well as breech block cushioning. The first .50 caliber machine gun underwent trials on 15 October 1918. It fired at less than 500 rounds per minute, and the muzzle velocity was only . Cartridge improvements were promised. The gun was heavy, difficult to control, fired too slowly for the anti-personnel role, and was not powerful enough against armor. While the .50 caliber was being developed, some German T Gewehr 1918 anti-tank rifles and ammunition were seized. The German rounds had a muzzle velocity of , an bullet, and could penetrate armor thick at a range of . Winchester improved the .50 caliber round to have similar performance. Ultimately, the muzzle velocity was . Both the
US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
and the
US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
adopted the M1921 after World War I, using it mostly as a static anti-aircraft weapon due to its weight. A slightly improved version, the M1921A1, was introduced in 1930 with all of the M1921s being upgraded. The gun weighed without water, was long, and had a long barrel. The gun was mounted on a pedestal mount with three horizontal legs. It had a 500-650 rounds per minute rate of fire. Development continued and the M1921A1 was replaced by the water-cooled .50-caliber
M2 Browning The M2 machine gun or Browning .50 caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed towards the end of World War I by John Browning. Its design is similar to Browning's earlier M1919 Browning machine gun, w ...
in 1933. Ground and aircraft air-cooled versions of the M2 were also adopted in 1934.


See also

*
List of crew-served weapons of the U.S. Armed Forces This list contains weapons that are classified as crew-served, as the term is used in the United States military. While the general understanding is that crew-served weapons require more than one person to operate them, there are important except ...
*
List of individual weapons of the U.S. Armed Forces This is a list of weapons served individually by the United States armed forces. While the general understanding is that crew-served weapons require more than one person to operate them, there are important exceptions in the case of both squad a ...
*
List of U.S. Army weapons by supply catalog designation This is a historic (index) list of United States Army weapons and materiel, by their Standard Nomenclature List (SNL) group and individual designations — an alpha-numeric nomenclature system used in the United States Army Ordnance Corps Supply ...
*
M2 Browning The M2 machine gun or Browning .50 caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed towards the end of World War I by John Browning. Its design is similar to Browning's earlier M1919 Browning machine gun, w ...
* .50 BMG *
MG 18 TuF The ''Maschinengewehr 18 Tank und Flieger'' or MG 18 TuF, is a German dual-purpose heavy machine gun that was designed to fill both anti-tank and anti-aircraft roles. Developed at the end of the First World War, it fired the same 13.25 × 92mm S ...


References


General bibliography

* {{Citation , author-link=George M. Chinn , last=Chinn , first=George M. , title=The Machine Gun: History, Evolution and Development of Manually Operated, Full Automatic, and Power Driven Aircraft Machine Guns , year=1951 , volume=1, publisher=Department of the Navy, Bureau of Ordnance .50 BMG machine guns Machine guns of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1920s Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1921