Rate of fire(triple). Less heavy. Rapid barrel change without tools. Ergonomics that allowed it to be fired on a tripod or a bipod.
It wouldn’t have helped the Germans one iota to have more Tigers or Panthers: the damn things were maintenance nightmares - and we had air superiority. Between the P-47s and Typhoons (and IL-2s), the Nazi stuff just evaporated as soon as they showed up.
Too bad you weren't around to tell the Sherman crews that they were blowing up for no reason. The Panthers and Tigers accounted for large numbers of Shermans and held a significant advantage in kill ratio. 5 to 1 was considered the U.S. Armies requirement to overcome them. As for air superiority, how did that work out for the British trying to push through German armor during operation Market Garden, when the weather was perfectly clear for air support?
Don’t believe the video games - believe the actual after-action reports from The campaigns in France and Italy and Eastern Europe.
Indeed, read them.
Nah. High rate of fire was a disadvantage not an advantage. Most machine gun specialist agree that rates of fire between 450-700 rounds per minute are controllable (physics - Newton's Third Law), accurate, and less likely to melt barrels/run you too quickly out of ammo. Machine Guns that run out of ammo become wall displays on the other guy's VFW hall. The MG42 was about 2 pounds lighter than the M1919 but that advantage was probably lost with all the fiddly accessories to Germans added to the Table of Equipment for the "Hitler Saw". Big whoop - our guys were bigger. Ergonomics? really? C'mon - let's talk about war-winning qualities.
The primary war-winning quality of the M1919 was that it always worked, always. A steady stream of M2 Ball, linked w/ one in five tracer annihilated Nazis and Japanese and North Koreans and Chinese in fight after fight. We hated to lose that jewel, particularly to have it replaced by that crummy and indifferent M-60.
The only point I'd agree with you is the barrel change system and we should copy the heck out of that part of the design.