Posted on 10/17/2014 7:08:11 AM PDT by C19fan
Last year, the German armed forces announced they would purchase Heckler and Koch’s MG-5 machine gun to finally replace a World War II-era weapon. The new machine gun should put the Bundeswehr’s existing weapons to shame—and make up for past failures.
“Its main feature is that it is much more accurate than its predecessor,” German army colonel Christian Brandes told U.S. Army reporters at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona during testing of the new gun on Oct. 14.
The predecessor Brandes was referring to is the MG-3. That aging weapon is essentially just an upgrade of a machine gun Adolf Hitler’s Wehrmacht started using in 1942. The MG-5 will replace the MG-3 as well as some of the German army’s less aged, but somewhat inadequate, MG-4s.
(Excerpt) Read more at medium.com ...
“Superior weapons don’t win wars. Superior fighters or numbers of fighters do.”
Hiroshima?
Only the Japanese failed to improve their armaments which cost them dearly. The Zero was their only main weapon which was superior to our stuff at the start of the war. But we outclassed the Zero as the war wore on. Japan did develop a jet plane by the end of the war, but I don't know if they used it.
Stragetic? Yeah, I would agree with that. He certainly made some mistakes based on arrogance and politics, rather than working with the people who were fighting.
Tactical? Perhaps he wasn’t up to speed on modern infantry and armor tactics. But you have to give the guy props for being in the trenches in WWI.
He was a sick bastard. But he did understand infantry tactics of “his” time.
I didn't say that they aren't useful. That said, if France would have had the exact same nuclear capability in May of 1940 that we had in August of 1945, they would have still lost. They could have dropped two bombs and then waited a month for production to catch up, meanwhile being overrun.
Gets back to quantity being an important element.
No. It reflect on the quality of our politicians.
Do you carry a spare gas cylinder plug and a roll of safety wire? d;^)
I guess you know these guns better than I. Which one needs those things? I shot the M-60 in the Corps probably five times. SWEET!! What’s the safety wire do?
That’s what the Japanese Army thought. Their Navy equipment was world class, but their Army weaponry wasn’t. The Japanese had “élan” out the wazoo, and if their equipment had been as good as ours, they would have won some battles that they in fact lost. Guadalcanal would have fallen if Japanese army equipment had matched that of the US Army and Marine Corps. It held on by the barest of threads as it was.”It’s not who gets there fastest, and it’s not who gets there with the mostest. It’s who gets there fustest with the mostest."
Not sure I care for that, coming from the Germans.
On the M60, the gas cylinder plug could unscrew under sustained firing and take off into the weeds, disabling the weapon. We used the safety wire to keep the plug from coming loose. I always carried a spare plug and wire. I fired the MG42 only once and only for a few rounds but I don't think it had that problem.
How’d you have the opportunity to shoot the 42?
In the air, the Japs had superior aircraft at that time.
At Sea, their surface ships were also equal if not superior to American ships of same class.
Their machine guns were crappy and their pistols a joke. Tanks were irrelavent. Although their artillery wasn't first rate, it was OK, and their cruisers and battleships made up for it.
The Egyptians had superior weaponry to the Israelis in every war they fought. Swapping weapons would have only helped the Israelis.
A swinish response on your part - I guess we can safely assume that you weren't there, were you?
Now, the M-60 was a crappy machine gun and the M-16 was trash - but we were far and away more effective than the enemy at all times. We did far better than they did with what we had.
Not true: the Tiger and late model Panthers were better in one on one battles with our Shermans but as far as their ability to run reliably over distances it was no contest: our tanks could keep going much further without the maintenance the German stuff did. We swamped them with mass and our tankers learned to hit them from the sides and rear to destroy them despite their thicker armor.
Rifles and machine guns were in our favor too: the M-1 Garand was far and away the best infantry rifle of the war and our M1919 was reliable and effective. The Germans wasted money and time on the G-41s and G-43s and the Stg-44/MP-44 assault rifle was excellent but still no match for the M-1 and BAR combination in direct combat.
The MG42 is a bullet hose. Its 1100 rounds per minute rate of fire was awe-inspiring but it was only useful in direct fires against an exposed enemy - it didn't have the ability to be used for extensive defensive fires because the barrels would melt and the crew couldn't carry enough ammunition for long term combat.
You Germanophiles need to quit looking at a weapon's appearance and concentrate on how they are supposed to be applied.
P.S.; the Germans never came up with the equivalent of our M2 .50 caliber machine gun. They tried to fill that niche but their 20mm FLAK was too heavy and too inaccurate to match Browning's masterpiece. The .50 ate their light armor/hidden snipers/low-flying planes like there was no tomorrow.
Success in battle is running your flag up their flagpole. Nifty-looking machineguns that eat too much ammo and melt barrels (or just sit in somebody’s armory for decades) don’t win wars.
Not really: the Pig is more like an updated Lewis Gun in its design. The MG42 is roller-locked and recoil-operated and has a really clever barrel changing setup. The M-60 is a rotating bolt locking weapon and gas operated.
The M-60 and the MG42 do share the stamped parts design and the double-coil operating spring in their designs but the M-60 used a cheap aluminum and plastic feedcover and lots of plastic elsewhere. I used one a lot and it was always breaking firing pins/chipping bolt lugs when we least needed it to.
Damn "least-bidder" weapon like the M-16.
That's the same thing.
Agree with you 100%.
And you didn’t even get into aircraft, surface ships, artillery, on and on.
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