The 1918 Browning Automatic Rifle was the light machine gun standardized by the U.S. M1918 BAR Polish partisan with an M1918 BAR The Bren and its Czech equivalent have been used by armies all over the world, even to this day. 303 round used in the standard issue Lee-Enfield bolt-action rifle, the Bren was fed by a 30-round magazine (100-round pan magazine for anti-aircraft use) and could fire at a rate of 500-520 rounds per minute. It was said a soldier could fix any problem with the Bren by just hitting it or adjusting the regulator for the gas piston. 26, the Bren was adopted by the British Army as their main light machine gun and they placed three in each platoon, one per rifle section. The licensed British model of the Czechoslovakian ZB vz. The Bren Light Machine Gun was a powerful, easy to use weapon that could always be relied upon and was the linchpin to British infantry platoons. Bren Infantry LMG “Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl” in Toronto, Canada, with a finished Bren Gun, 1941. forces at the time – and provided excellent stopping power.
45 caliber bullets – very common for the U.S. Usually equipped with a 30-round magazine, the Thompson fired. Army, beginning in 1942, was the M1A1, which was simpler and cheaper. prohibition-era use by both criminals and police, this recognizable weapon was especially treasured by paratroopers for its effectiveness in close-quarters combat. The United States produced over 1.5 million Thompson Submachine Guns during World War II. Marines with Thompson submachine guns on Okinawa in World War II It was so simple to build that many countries and partisan forces started producing their own, including Polish Resistance which made at least 2,000. Though the finished project was often rough and was plagued by frequent reports of misfiring, it was the punch Britain needed. Its simple design was mass-produced and sub-contracted to factories all over England. To that end, the Sten Gun fulfilled its purpose. After losing huge amounts of equipment during the evacuation of Dunkirk and now with the looming threat of German invasion, the United Kingdom needed some strong infantry fire power, quickly and cheaply. The British Sten Gun was a sub-machine gun, created out of sheer necessity. The Sten Gun British paratrooper with a Sten Gun And with whole companies being equipped with this beast that could fire up to 1000 rounds per minute from drum magazines that held 71 standard Russian pistol rounds, Russian infantry firepower was on the rise. Made mostly of stamped sheet metal and wood, Russian factories were at times producing up to 3,000 of these weapons each – every single day.Ĭheaper and faster to make than the Soviet Union’s previous sub-machine gun, the PPD-40, the PPSh-41 was also more accurate. The PPSh-41, or Shpagin Machine Pistol, was the Soviet Union’s sub-machine gun of choice for World War II and over the many years that followed it. It was a reliable and powerful sidearm for U.S. The .45 caliber rounds of the Colt offered just that. The Colt 1911 was developed by Browning during the Philippine-American War because troops needed more stopping power from their weapons. Armed Forces from 1911 until 1986, the Colt 1911 has even been modified and for use in various service branches to this day.
One of the most popular handguns ever made, the Colt 1911 set the standard for the 20th-century pistol.
It could hold up to ten rounds loaded with 5-round charger clips. With a ladder aperture sight calibrated for 200-1,300 yd, British infantry in World War II had amazing range and precision, firing. issued M1 Garand had in its rate of fire, the Lee-Enfield made up for in accuracy. Across all models, over 17 million Lee-Enfield rifles have been made. In fact some forces, like the Bangladesh Police, still use a version of the Lee-Enfield, making it the longest serving bolt-action rifle in history. 4 MK I became the standard issue infantry rifle of Britain and the Commonwealth states in 1941, extending a long line of updates to a bolt-action design that began in 1895. Harald Marshall carrying a Lee-Enfield No.