12-12-2017, 07:33 PM
BluntForceTrauma Wrote:Article may be flawed, but DID get me thinking. What is the proper premise for a squad level belt-fed?
Going back to WWII, isn't it true the MG34/42 was acknowledged as the primary killing machine, and the bolt-action rifles were basically support?
How does that change in the era of assault rifles/automatic rifles with full-auto fire? Does one need a burst longer than 30 rounds? Mag changes are quick. Even if one has a belt, machine gunners are taught to use short bursts, right?
Do you have access to a copy of Sturmgever: From Firepower to Striking Power by Hans-Dieter Handrich (Collector Grade Publications)? FWIW, it says (in Chapters 9 and 11) the Germans actually considered equipping all members of the squad with assault rifles and eliminating the squad LMG. After some experimentation, it looks like they concluded that platoons consisting of two 7-man assault squads equipped with assault rifles and one 7-man MG squad equipped with two MGs (along with an HQ platoon consisting of the platoon leader, two messengers, a liter bearer and three rifle grenadiers) worked best (page 274, under the heading "Configuring the Optimum MP-Platoon). That was in 1944.
I can't find the exact passage I was looking for. It may be in another Collector Grade book, Full Circle, about the Stg 45, CETME, G3 and other roller-locked and roller-delayed designs.