Jump to content

ID This Watercooled MG?


Charlie Flick
 Share

Recommended Posts

Charlie Flick

What is the proper identification of this watercooled machinegun? The water jacket and barrel look shorter in length to me than the watercooled .50 BMGs I have seen, but the ammunition box appears wide enough to hold .50 ammunition.

 

And what is the purpose of the painted stripes on the ammo box?

 

AA watercooled MG ed.jpg

 

Charlie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Salvage Sailor

Difficult to tell, but it looks like a .50 receiver and butterfly trigger

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Salvage Sailor

It is the M2 AAA tripod

 

An M2 Browning water-cooled .50-caliber machine gun is depicted in an antiaircraft-artillery (AAA) configuration on a three-legged-tripod—upported gooseneck pedestal mount. Note the spade grip configuration usually seen on this weapon. This gun is in action (the water hook-ups are attached). A spare drum magazine can be seen behind the gunner at the far right. This photograph was taken during the Operation Husky invasion of Sicily from early July to mid-August 1943.

m2tripod.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Salvage Sailor, I must question the Operation Husky photo. It looks like a pre-war training photo due to

gas masks being worn but not steel helmets. Also, the seams and stitching make the uniforms appear to

be the blue denim fatigues. Just my thoughts...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The gun in question is a Browning M1921 heavy machine gun in .50 BMG on the M1924 anti-aircraft tripod. The M1921 was the first .50 caliber Browning machine gun to be adopted by the US military. It had a 36" barrel, and the muzzle was exposed like on the M1917. This was found to be a poor design choice in service because that left a critical portion of the barrel not being cooled by the water, leading to that section overheating and burning out before the rest of the barrel. When the M2 was designed in the early 1930's, initially also with a 36" barrel, later upgraded with the 45" barrel to get more velocity, it was decided to extend the jacket so that the muzzle is recessed inside it. Also, it was decided to center the barrel in the jacket to distribute the cooling water evenly around it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Charlie Flick

Aha! A M1921. Thanks for the insights, everyone. To my eye that waterjacket looked short and the non-centered barrel a little funny. Big Al's explanation sorted it out for me.

 

Regards,

Charlie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
johnsonlmg41

More accurately it looks to be a MG52A, a bit later model on an earlier tripod. I don't know that any of those specific tripods exist today. I have the gun, original manual from Colts and an ammo box (no stripes). I can't speculate what the stripes are for other than it would differentiate that ammo box from an essentially same spare parts box. My box has no stripes, but I have seen other boxes with stripes depending on how the package was set up. Claims of barrel heating are likely exaggerated and more likely is that M2HB upgrades included the ability to just change out the jacket to water cooled relatively easily. The Colts water jacket is effectively permanently attached to the trunion vs. 3+ easily "screw on" configurable setups with the later model M2 design. MG52's were scaled up 1917's, 52a's (alternate feed) had the slot on both sides to switch feed and handle location in twin mounts. HTH

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Charlie Flick

Johnson:

 

Thanks for that additional info.

 

Would you happen to have any pics handy of your example? We'd love to see some. Nobody around here ever tires of seeing interesting full auto weapons.

 

Charlie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

johnsonlmg41

I don't have any photos of that gun specifically and don't generally post photos, especially here, with the resizing steps required it's kind of a task.... for me anyhow. Mine, like all the others in the US is also not on what I would call the absolute "period correct" mount either, since none of those seem to have been re-imported back here? If circumstances change in the future I might post some.

Thanks for your patience!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...