30-06 in full auto. Imagine being on the receiving end.
Sadly, BAR operators had a life-expectancy measured in minutes in the field of combat.
On this Memorial Day, this is a reminder of what fighting for America’s Freedom is all about.
Prayers go out to the servicemen and women and their families who sacrificed blood, sweat and tears. They are the real Americans who understand God, Honor and Country.
My father was the BAR man in his squad before battlefield seniority made him a platoon sergeant.
He said it was tops for showing careless Germans who thought they were out of accurate small arms range that they were wrong.
He also said it wasn’t up to snuff against the MG42, but he once took out a MG42 team via textbook blind fire at night. He presighted the BAR on a likely spot, and set up limiting stakes. When it got dark he heard the MG team setting up where he’d guessed, and put three magazines downrange and took off, and he could hear screaming from the target. In the morning they found a shot-up MG42, a perforated helmet, a lot of blood, bandages but no bodies, the Germans had taken the injured and dead with them.
He seemed to be a little proud of that, and indicated most BAR duels with German MG teams didn’t end well for the BAR gunner unless he’d gotten “the drop” on the Germans.
Tough business. Great old weapon. I got to fire one once, it was amazing.