Carbine Photo of the Day

New2brass wrote: Rear sight looks odd.

It does look odd, maybe the angle of the photo, the receiver looks shiny and unfinished but the dovetail ramp is dark as is the sight.

The guy with the flamethrower actually infiltrated the Yakuza?

Day 25

Marines on Iwo Jima 1945.

Water cooled 1917 Browning?

Correction; M1917 water cooled was classified as a heavy mg.

m1a1, in Day 24, I think the Russian closest to camera is carrying a Mosin Nagant M44 as I believe I can see the bayonet mount integrated into the front sight block.

Edited by New2brass - Sep 22 2019 at 12:09pm

New2brass wrote: m1a1fan wrote: Still going! Day 23 - What's the answer? Day 24 - What weapons are the Russian carrying? Wonder what the value comparison is if original .vs a carbine? Day 25 - A carbine and a heavy MG (no idea what it is) with the carbine functioning as a sniper type weapon as it looks like the flip is set to long range. Day 23 not really an answer but an observation, the soldier with the carbine has a sidearm as mentioned by 1st M1 88. Though the carbine was originally meant to replace the M1911 it did not. Day 24: I believe that is a M38 Mosin Nagant. the M44 has a folding bayonet attached which I cannot see. It could also be one of the earlier M1891/30. The 91/30 was a rifle and the M38 and M44 were carbines as they were shorter All three used the 7.62 x 54R  which would be counter part to our 30-06 I would say these would be more like our M1903 Springfield being a bolt action. Day 25: its a M1917a1. It has the later sights for the M2 Ball and playing with contrast I can see it has the bottom plate like the M1919 variants had. Like many things the definitions have changed over time. Currently I believe that the definition of a type of MG being heavy, light etc is the caliber. The Browning M1918 (BAR) and the M1917, 1917a1, 1919 all used the same cartridge during WW2. I am foggy on the specifics, but from early books I seem to remember the following The BAR was considered a Machine Gun, It was carried and used by 1 soldier (though there was an assistant gunner)  The 1917 and variants were crew served and were able to sustain much longer fire rates. These were considered Heavy machine guns. They were usually set um in a position and not readily mobile like the BAR So the definition may have been originally the fact that it was crew served due to the weigh involved Just my .02  P.S. to add: The M1917a1 is often missed on lists of WWII weapons used but the U.S.  It actually made its way all the way to Korea. Water freezing was an issue.

I'm not sure there's an exact, correct terminology rubric differentiating machine guns as light or heavy, or even medium, but I can offer some insight. In WWI, there were really only two types of machine guns, which were light and heavy. Just about all of them were heavy, water cooled machine guns of significant weight, such as the Vickers, Maxim, M1917, and several other models. Light machine guns were the Chauchat, and the M1918 BAR.

I think the time period being referenced plays a big part in whether the MG was considered light or heavy. Keep in mind that the .50 BMG came on the scene after WWI, so it was not part of the consideration of how to classify an MG as light, medium, or heavy, because it didn't exist during WWI.

Fast forward to WWII, and we have many more machine guns in the fray. I would consider the M1919A4 or M1919A6 as light machine guns, because they are air cooled. However, some might call the M1919A4 a heavy machine gun, because it uses a tripod. The British would probably call both types Medium Machine Guns. I might refer to an M1917 or M1917A1 as a heavy machine gun, but they are probably more correctly referred to as medium machine guns, because they are water-cooled, rifle caliber machine guns. The M2 is definitely a heavy machine gun, because it fires .50 BMG, and is usually vehicle or aircraft mounted, unless it's employed on a tripod. It's a different animal, in that it fires a round that is not normally used by an infantryman, and requires significant support.

So, during WWI, an M1917 was properly referred to as a heavy MG, but time provided a different context to what to call it during WWII. Like I said to begin with, I'm not sure there's an exact, correct answer.

David Albert
dalbert@sturmgewehr.com

1989LX wrote: GI with what I would guess is an M2 sitting next to a captured DP during the Korean War.

Not sure that would be an M2 with a grenade launcher attached.