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>Although artillery, mines and other explosive devices have probably accounted for more combat deaths, machine guns

have had a profound effect on the modern battlefield since their introduction in the mid-19th century. From the timeGatling guns made their first limited appearance during the American Civil War, firearms capable of sustaining acontinuous spray of bullets for as long as one holds down the trigger have proven an essential element for providing

a force with extra firepower wherever and whenever needed.

 While the parallel development of submachine guns and assault rifles put formidable firepower in the hands ofthe individual soldier, the squad-level machine gun provided him with a backup of withering sustained gunfire

from weapons that became progressively lighter and handier. At Cuba’s San Juan Heights on July 1, 1898, U.S. Army1st Lt. John Henry Parker and his men raked the Spanish positions with Gatling guns set on swivel mountings atop

heavy artillery-style gun carriages. With the introduction of recoil- and gas-operated machine guns came water-cooledMaxim and Vickers guns mounted on light wheeled carriages or tripods followed by Lewis light machine guns fired

on bipods. The German MG 42 made a significant stride in firepower by delivering a murderous spray of rounds froma gun one man could carry, setting the stage for ever-lighter versions whose weight difference from standard infantry

weapons is primarily reflected in the extra rounds needed to fulfill their deadly purpose. MH

From its cumbersome, hand-cranked Victorian-era origins the machine gunhas evolved into a fearsome force multiplier By Jon Guttman

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Gatling Gun

Maxim Gun

Vickers Gun

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Gatling GunDevised by prolificAmerican inventorRichard Gatling andpatented on Nov. 4,1862, the Gatling gunrequired the use of ahand crank to looseits gravity-fed rounds.

It saw limited use inthe Civil War but wideservice over the follow-ing half-century, with“Gats” on gun carriagesproviding invaluabletroop support in Cuba in1898. Superseded by theMaxim and other lighterdesigns, the Gatlingmade a dramatic come-back in hydraulically orpneumatically operatedand electrically fired

form, most notably asthe M61 Vulcan minigun.

Maxim GunAmerican expat Sir HiramMaxim’s .303 British–caliber machine gun,patented in 1883, usedits own recoil to ejectcartridges and feedfresh rounds, making itthe first true machine

 gun. The British adoptedit in 1889, and it swiftlybecame their weaponof choice against colo-nial uprisings. In 1890Austria-Hungry, Ger-many, Italy and Russiaalso began licensedproduction of Maxims.By the end of WorldWar I the design haddominated the battle-field, with variants alsoseeing use on ships,

boats and aircraft.It remained a viablesupport weapon duringthe Korean War.

 Vickers GunThe .303-inch Vickerswas essentially aMaxim with an invertedtoggle-locking action,a gas-boosted recoilmechanism for sustain-ing fire and some lighteraluminum components

in place of steel. Theresult was a reliablewater-cooled heavymachine gun—soon to beredesignated “medium”—that served the Britisharmy, navy and air armsadmirably from 1912 to1968, as well as otherarmed forces worldwide.The gun weighed 33 to50 pounds, but its needfor ammunition in 250-round fabric belts, a

water condensing can,condensing hose, optionalcollimating sight andmount made it a crew-served weapon system.

Lewis GunIn 1913 Brig. Gen. WilliamCrozier, head of the U.S.Ordnance Department,rejected Army ColonelIsaac Newton Lewis’lightweight air-cooledmachine gun—perhapsout of personal dislike

for Lewis—but the gunsoon found acceptancein Britain, where Bir-mingham Small Armsproduced some 145,000.303-inch units. SavageArms made thousandsmore for Canadian forces,as well as almost 50,000.30-06-caliber versionsfor the U.S. Army after1916. Darne made 4,400for the French air ser-vice, and the Dutch

State Arsenal producedanother 10,000. Dozensof armies and air armsused the versatile Lewis

 gun during and afterWorld War II.

Bren GunAdopted from a 1935

 gas-operated designby Czechoslovakian fire-arms designer VáclavHolek for productionby the Royal Small ArmsFactory in Enfield, the.303-inch Bren accom-

modated a 20-round box,a curved 30-round maga-zine or a 100-round drumatop the bolt mechanism—with the sights offsetto the left—and a quicklyreplaceable spare barrelto avoid overheating.Reliable and accurate,the Bren served through-out World War II and wassubsequently redesignedto accept the 7.62 mmcartridge standardized

by the North AtlanticTreaty Organization.While the Bren was sup-planted in the 1980s bylighter NATO weapons,India still producesand uses the weapon.

Lewis Gun

Bren Gun

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MG 42

DShK

M2 Browning

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MG 42As the 1919 VersaillesTreaty prohibited Ger-many from producingheavy machine guns,Mauser developed theMG 34, a simple 27-pound,7.92 mm machine gunthat could fire up to

900 rounds per minute.To facilitate mass pro-duction at the outsetof World War II thismachined weapon wasredesigned to incor-porate stamped steelcomponents. Its simpli-fied recoil mechanism

 gave the lighter MG 42a cyclical rate of upto 1,500 rounds perminute, making it thekey to a German squad’s

effectiveness, thoughrequiring all members tocarry some belts to feedits voracious appetite.

DShKDesigned by VasilyDegtyaryov with animproved “squirrel cage”ammo feed from GeorgyShpagin, the Degtyaryova-Shpagina Krupnokaliberny  (“heavy-caliber”), or DShK,entered Soviet service in

1938. Fired from a tripodor a vehicle, the DShKused a big 12.7x108 mmround that earned theweapon the nicknameDushka  (“Dear”) fromimpressed gunners.In North Vietnamesehands the “.51-caliber”

 gun acquired particularnotoriety among Americanhelicopter pilots, andvariants still turn up inpresent-day conflicts.

M2 BrowningEssentially an up-sized variant of JohnBrowning’s M1919.30-06-caliber machine

 gun, the .50-caliberM2 first entered trialsin October 1918 andthus missed use in

World War I. FromWorld War II onward,however, it proveda superbly reliableand accurate weapon,whether set on a sturdytripod, a vehicle mountor—thanks to its closedbolt, operated on theshort-recoil principle—on airplanes. Still manu-factured as the M2HB(for heavy barrel), the“Ma Deuce” remains a

mainstay in NATO armiesand is the longest-servingfirearm in the U.S. arsenal.

M60The revolutionaryGerman MG 42 influ-enced the design of the

 general-purpose machine gun after World War II,serving the Bundeswehr  in modified form as theMG 1 and lending its

belt-fed system, quick-change barrel and tac-tical doctrine to theAmerican M60, a 7.62 mm

 gas-operated squad-levelmachine gun introducedin 1957. Though dubbedthe “Pig,” due to itsbulk and weight—reducedin later models to justover 23 pounds—theM60 was a mainstayof grunt patrols through-out the Vietnam War era

and remains in use bymany NATO forces as ahandy defense for vehi-cles and helicopters.

FN MinimiIn 1974 Belgium’sFabrique Nationaleintroduced a light-weight 5.56x45 mmsquad automatic weapon(SAW) it called the minimitrailleuse , or Minimi.Using a long-stroke

piston locked by a rotarybolt with a manuallyadjustable gas valve tovary the rate of fire from700 to 1,150 rounds perminute, the Minimi is inuse by the armed forcesof more than 45 nations,including the UnitedStates, which designatesit the M249. Also pro-duced in 7.62 mm vari-ants, the air-cooled,

 gas-operated Minimi can

fire ammunition from beltsor magazines and comesin standard infantry,paratroop and vehicle-mountable versions.

M60

FN Minimi