Browning .50" M-3: did saw action as early as 1945?

[BlueBookGuy]

Hello all, (do not know this is the correct place?)

 

please does anyone have more infos than I do about use of the AN/M2 Browning machine gun in its enhanced form the M-3 as early as the summer 1945?

Apparently the USAAF 318th Fighter Group (or at least, many of its planes) flying the P-47N model of the "Thunderbolt" from Ie Shima island (Okinawa) in June - August 1945, got the chance of being armed with 8 M-3s guns instead of the standard AN/M2.

I seem to recall having read somewhere they were so fitted when already based at Ie Shima, with a shipment of guns arriving there by sea.

 

Being armed this way meant a total firing rate of about 320 rounds in two seconds, don't know whether because of this the ammo bays were full at their actual capacity (this is, 500 rounds for each gun) or simply, cartridge belts lasted less time.

Does any member have more knowledge about the M-2 variants? I'm unable in finding out more stuff. Always believed the F-86 Sabres in Korea were the first ones to fire their M-3s in true combats, starting in June 1950.

 

Thanks anyway very much!! Greetings from Italy.

Franco.