M1917 Browning machine gun

The M1917 Browning machine gun is a heavy machine gun used by the United States armed forces in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War; it has also been used by other nations. It was a crew-served, belt-fed, water-cooled machine gun that served alongside the much lighter air-cooled Browning M1919. It was used at the battalion level, and often mounted on vehicles (such as a jeep). There were two main iterations: the M1917, which was used in World War I and the M1917A1, which was used thereafter. The M1917, which was used on some aircraft as well as in a ground role, had a cyclic rate of 450 rounds per minute. The M1917A1 had a cyclic rate of 450 to 600 rounds per minute.

Browning model 1917
Browning model 1917A1 water-cooled machine gun
TypeHeavy machine gun
Place of originUnited States
Service history
In service1917-1970s[1]: 5 
Used bySee Users
WarsWorld War I
Mexican Revolution
Banana Wars
Chaco War
World War II
Chinese Civil War
Korean War
First Indochina War
Congo Crisis
Vietnam War
Production history
DesignerJohn M. Browning
Designed1917
Produced1917–45
No. built128,369[2]
VariantsM1917, M1917A1, Colt models
Specifications
Mass103 lb (47 kg) (gun, tripod, water, and ammunition)
Length980 mm
Barrel length24 in (609 mm)
Cartridge.30-06 Springfield
Other cartridges
ActionRecoil-operated automatic
Rate of fire450 round/min, 600 round/min for M1917A1
Muzzle velocity2,800 ft/s (853.6 m/s)
Feed system250 round fabric belt

Design and development
US Army 2nd Lt. Valmore A. Browning test firing a Browning machine gun. This gun was used in the Argonne Sector.

In 1900, John Moses Browning filed a patent for a recoil-powered automatic gun.[3] Browning did not work on the gun again until 1910, when he built a water-cooled prototype of the 1900 design.[4] Although the gun worked well, Browning improved the design slightly. Browning replaced side ejection with bottom ejection, added a buffer for smoother operation, replaced the hammer with a two piece firing pin, and some other minor improvements.[4]: 173  The basic design of the gun was still the 1900 design.

Val Browning, the inventor's son, demonstrates the M1917.

The Browning is a water-cooled heavy machine gun, though some experimental versions were made that did not use a water jacket; the air-cooled M1919 was later developed as a medium machine gun. Unlike many other early machine guns, the M1917 had nothing to do with Maxim's toggle lock design. At 47 pounds (21 kg), it was much lighter than contemporary Maxim type guns such as the first 137-pound (62 kg) German Maschinengewehr 08 (08/15 model: 43 lb (20 kg)) and the British Vickers machine gun, while still being highly reliable. The only similarities with the Maxim or Vickers are the principles of recoil operation, T-slot breechblock, "pull-out" belt feed, water cooling, and forward ejection. Its sliding-block locking mechanism saved weight and complexity, and was used in many previous Browning designs. The belt fed left-to-right, and the cartridges were stacked closer together than Maxim/Vickers (patterns copied by most guns later).

The Army Ordnance Department showed little interest in machine guns until war was declared in April 1917. At that time, the U.S. arsenal included only 1,100 machine guns, and most of those were outmoded.[4]: 173–174  The government asked several designers to submit weapons. Browning arranged a test at the Springfield Armory in May 1917.[4]: 176  In the first test, the weapon fired 20,000 rounds with only a few malfunctions mostly related to poorly loaded cloth belts. The reliability was exceptional, so Browning fired another 20,000 rounds through the weapon with one broken part: a broken sear at about 39,500. The Ordnance Board was impressed, but was unconvinced that the same level of performance could be achieved in a production model. Consequently, Browning used a second gun that not only duplicated the original trial, but it also fired continuously for 48 minutes and 12 seconds (over 21,000 rounds).[4]: 176–177 

M1917 mounted on tripod

The Army adopted the weapon as its principal heavy machine gun, utilizing the M1906 .30-06 cartridge with a 150-grain, flat-base bullet. Unfortunately, production was a problem. Several manufacturers started producing the gun, but they had to set up the assembly lines and tooling. By 30 June 1918, Westinghouse had made only 2,500 and Remington had made only 1,600. By the time of the Armistice, Westinghouse had made 30,150, Remington 12,000, and Colt 600.[4]: 179 

Until the start of World War I, the Army had used a variety of older machine guns, like the M1895 Colt–Browning machine gun "Potato Digger" (which Browning had also designed) and weapons like the Maxim Gun, the Benet–Mercie M1909, and the Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun.[1]: 6–7  Although the Model 1917 was intended to be the principal US Army heavy machine gun in the war, the Army was, in fact, forced to purchase many foreign weapons—the French-produced Hotchkiss 8 mm machine gun was actually the most common heavy machine gun used by the American Expeditionary Force.

In 1926, the Browning's rear sight was revised to incorporate scales for both the new M1 Ball (172-grain boat-tail bullet) and the M1906 (150-grain flat-base bullet) ammunition.[5] With M1 ball, the M1917 had a maximum range of about 5,500 yd (5,000 m); with M2 ammunition, about 3,500 yd (3,200 m).[5] The rear sight had a battle sight as well as a raised leaf-type sight suitable for employment against either ground or air targets.[5]

Service
Marines push back a Japanese counterattack during the Battle of Cape Gloucester in 1944.

The M1917 saw limited service in the later days of World War I. Because of production delays, only about 1,200 Model 1917s saw combat in the conflict, and then only in the last 2½ months of the war. Some arrived too late for combat service. For example, the 6th Machine Gun Battalion, fighting as part of the Second Division did not exchange their Hotchkiss M1914 machine guns for Browning M1917 machine guns until 14 November, three days after the armistice.[6] The U.S. equipped about a third of the divisions sent to France; the others were equipped equally with Hotchkiss machine guns bought from the French or the British Vickers machine guns built by Colt in the US. Where the Model 1917 did see action, its rate of fire and reliability were highly effective.[1]: 68  The M1917 weapon system was inferior to the Vickers and Hotchkiss guns in indirect fire applications because the British and French cartridges had about 50 percent longer range than the .30-06 service cartridge used in World War I.[7]

A U.S. Marine firing Browning M1917A1 machine gun during the Battle of Iwo Jima

The Model 1917A1 was again used in the Second World War, and was primarily used with the M2 ball, tracer, and armor-piercing ammunition introduced just prior to the outbreak of hostilities. Some were supplied to the UK for use by the Home Guard since all production of the .303 Vickers were needed to resupply the equipment abandoned during the Fall of France. The M1917's weight and bulk meant that it was generally employed as a fixed defense or as a battalion or regimental support weapon. In this latter role, the disassembled weapon was carried by machine gun squads advancing on foot, which could rapidly deploy it to support the infantry in offensive operations.[8] At the battle of Momote Airstrip in the Admiralties, the US Army's 5th Cavalry machine gunners killed several hundred Japanese in one night using their M1917 Brownings; one gun was left in position after the battle as a memorial to the desperate struggle.[9]

A Browning M1917 in action during the Korean War.

The Model 1917 was called to service again in the Korean War. On at least one occasion, U.S. soldiers in the Korean War urinated on the gun when water-cooling had failed in the frigid temperatures of the Korean winter.[10] The Model 1917 was slowly phased out of military service in the late-1960s in favor of the much lighter M60 machine gun chambered in the new 7.62 mm NATO cartridge.

Many of the 1917s were given to South Vietnam. The last ones in regular US service were on the machine gun infiltration course at Fort Benning, Georgia, where their sustained-fire capability was an advantage in long nights of shooting over the heads of low-crawling trainees. The gun did continue to see service in some Third World armies well into the latter half of the 20th century. Some are still in use today by irregular military forces because the water cooled barrel allows for long periods of sustained fire.

M1917 and M1917A1 ammunition chests

The machine gun used a wooden ammunition chest that carried 250 rounds. The early M1917 model had an angled corner and a leather strap handle on top. The later M1917A1 model had a square corner and a cloth strap handle on top.

The wooden ammunition belt chest was replaced during WWII by the expendable metal box ammunition M1 adopted 6 May 1942. On 20 June 1945, a modified version known as the M1A1 was adopted. The M1A1 had a spring-loaded catch to fasten it to the M1917A1 tripod more securely and provide a better watertight seal. In the late-1940s the M19 box replaced the earlier metal M1 and M1A1 boxes, and a modified version known as the M19A1 appeared in the early-1950s and continues in use today.[11]

Variants

M1917

The original gun suffered from a weakness related to the design of the receiver. Under field conditions, the bottom plates, which were dovetailed into the gun's two side plates, tore out. An early fix was to attach a roughly horseshoe-shaped steel bracket around the rearmost part of the receiver. A later fix was to rivet "stirrups" (right-angled steel pieces) to the bottom and side plates. The stirrup fix became the standard reinforcement until a more permanent fix for the problem was developed. Another reported problem was bulging in the side plates, which was probably caused by stresses put into the side plates when hammering the dovetails closed. The 1917 also had a simple sliding safety that blocked the trigger when moved to the far right position. These were removed as part of post-war refurbishment.

M1917A1
M1917A1 with spare barrel and other issued accessories
An M1917A1 on tripod mount

In the 1930s, the Ordnance Department developed a new bottom plate, which had side flanges that came up on both sides of the receiver and were attached by rivets. This fixed the problem of the original bottom plates, and became standard for all M1917- and M1919-series machine guns. While the US Arsenal at Rock Island was the leader in converting the existing stocks of M1917-series guns over to 1917A1 configuration, other arsenals took part. In addition, the rear sights were updated for the new ammunition and were changed to yards from meters, and also did away with the World War I multiple-aperture disk on the rear sight. The top covers also had a stronger feed pawl pivot arm installed, so the gun could handle the stress of pulling an ammunition belt from the ground. Rock Island Arsenal also developed an all-steel water jacket that went into production around 1943; this was stronger than the earlier brass-capped jackets. These steel components were interchangeable with the earlier brass ones to allow for repair of worn or damaged water jacket components.

Other changes were implemented, some during the war, but not all M1917s received these updates. Beginning in 1938, the pivot in the top cover was replaced with a new one that would become standard on all M1919-series guns. While the World War I–pattern top cover hinge pin appears to have been retained on most converted M1917s, the later-production M1917A1s had a positive locking top cover hinge pin that allowed the top cover to remain open, lessening the chance of it dropping closed on one's hands while working on the gun—this became the standard on all M1919-series guns.

M1918

Air-cooled aircraft version of the M1917. Developed during the First World War, the M1918 arrived too late, but became the dominant weapon of its type in US service until the development of the M1919. It features a heavier barrel, but lighter barrel jacket as compared to the M1917. A sub-variant, the M1918M1, was developed as a flexible version of the fixed M1918.[1]: 28–29 

International variants & designations

The M1917 pattern has been used in countries the world over in a variety of forms. In certain cases a new designation was applied by the user nation.

FN30

From 1930, Belgian Fabrique Nationale produced air-cooled and water-cooled versions of the M1917, chambered in various calibers for domestic and export use.[1]: 65–66 

Ksp m/14-29 and ksp m/36

Kulspruta m/14-29 was the Swedish designation for the licensed M1917A1, produced by Carl Gustafs Gevärsfaktori in Eskilstuna, for infantry support. The main differences was that it was chambered in the standard caliber 6.5×55mm, had spade-grips and used the cooling jacket and tripod of the m/14 (Schwarzlose) tripod, the machine gun the Ksp m/14-29 replaced. The reason for adoption of the Browning was cost: 50 machine guns using the Browning mechanism could be made for the same price as 30 Schwarzlose, which was discovered during the manufacture of Kulspruta m/22.[12]

The 6.5mm bullet was found to be too light for long-range fire support and anti-aircraft use, so in 1932 the heavier 8×63mm patron m/32 cartridge was developed. As this resulted in a heavier recoil, a spring-loaded cradle replaced the backplate with a heavily spring-loaded buffer that acted as an extension of the standard Browning recoil buffer. This also replaced the regular spade-grips with the ones integrated in the cradle. The cradle, now part of the weapon, would then be hooked onto a tripod m/36. This tripod featured, beside a 5×25 power optical sight, advanced elevation and traverse controls. The unprecedented recoil control and steadiness of the tripod made Dolf Goldsmith remark that this arrangement “was undoubtedly the most accurate long-range rifle-caliber machine gun ever made”.[12][13] For anti-aircraft purposes, a double cradle was made to hold a matching pair of m/36s. The right gun, lacking sights altogether, was fed from the right, while the left gun, with iron sights complemented with an AA sight ring, was fed from left. The cocking handles were located between the guns, while safeties and triggers were individual for left and right. The special AA tripod had elongated legs and chains to either secure the tripod or hang weights on it for extra stability.[12] These double cradles were also used as standard defense, mounted on a ring on the cab roof, on terrain vehicles and armored troop carriers like Terrängbil m/42 KP. The latter was used with good effect in the Congo Crisis in the early-1960s. Until 1966, the m/14-29 and m/36 machine guns could use both the 6.5mm and the 8 mm ammunition. Converting between the two was a matter of changing barrels, cartridge stops, and bolts.[12]

In 1966, most were converted to 7.62×51mm NATO.[13] Some old models were retained in training use to use up the stores of obsolete ammunition.[13] After the stocks were expended in the 1970s, all guns were re-barreled to 7.62mm NATO.[12][14] The weapons were finally taken out of service in the 1995.[12]

Ckm wz.30
Main article: ckm wz.30

The Ckm wz.30 was an unlicensed Polish-built modification of the Colt Model of 1924 chambered in 7.92×57mm Mauser.[15] The modifications included new iron sights (V-notch rather than loophole), lengthened butt handle, lengthened barrel, simplified rifle lock for easier exchange of used-up barrels and better handling, mounting adapted for both anti-personnel and AA fire and sights and grips adapted to suit both purposes. Roughly 8,000 were built by Państwowa Fabryka Karabinów.

M/29
Norwegian M/29 in anti-aircraft configuration on the Narvik front, 1940

Norwegian designation for the Colt MG 38 (mentioned in the following section) in 7,92 × 61 mm[1]: 65 , used as the standard heavy machine gun and anti-aircraft weapon for the Norwegian Army from 1929 to 1940.[16][17] The M/29 replaced the Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun in Norwegian service.[17] In all, 1,800 M/29s were in Norwegian service by the time of the 9 April 1940 German invasion.[18] The M/29 saw service in the 1940 Norwegian Campaign, often deployed as the only heavy weapon of Norwegian front line units.

Commercial variants

Colt commercially produced the M1917 under several names:

  • Colt Model of 1919 (not to be confused with the air-cooled M1919 Browning machine gun)[1]: 65 
  • Colt Model of 1924.[1]: 65 
  • Colt Model of 1928. The Model 1928 featured a thumb safety, Type A flash hider, and a mount for a panoramic sight unit.[1]: 65 
  • Colt MG38 series, derivatives of the Colt M1928 for general commercial sale, designed in 1931.[1]: 65 
The 38 and 38B were water-cooled with a barrel jacket threaded inside the trunnion, unlike the M1917 and Colt Model 1928.
The 38BT was a short heavy barreled air-cooled weapon resembling the Browning M1919A2, designed for use in tanks.
The MG40 was an aircraft machine gun, with double handgrips.[1]: 65 
The 38 series also features spade grips, not found on the rest of the M1917 and the majority of the M1919 families.

Derivatives

A simplified, air-cooled version of the weapon, the Model 1919, was adopted after World War I and saw action in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Congo crisis.

Users
    Dutch soldiers of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army train on the M1917A1.

    See also

    Weapons of comparable role, performance and era

    References
    1. Rottman, Gordon L. (20 February 2014). Browning .30-caliber Machine Guns. Weapon 32 (Paper ed.). Osprey Publishing. ISBN 9781780969213.
    2. "The Browning Model 1917 Water-Cooled Machine Gun". Small Arms Defense Journal.
    3. US 678937, Browning, John M., "Automatic Gun", published 1901-07-23
    4. Chinn (1951). "Part III, Full Automatic Machine Gun Development, Chapter 3, Browning Automatic Machine Guns". The Machine Gun. Vol. I. Bureau of Ordnance, Department of the Navy. pp. 172–181.
    5. Dunlap, Roy, Ordnance Went Up Front, Samworth Press (1948), p. 309
    6. Curtis, Thomas J., History of the Sixth Machine Gun Battalion, Fourth Brigade, U.S. Marines, Second Division, and its Participation in the Great War, Neuwied on the Rhine, Germany, 1919, p. 59.
    7. Hatcher, Julian S. (1962), Hatcher's Notebook (third ed.), Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, ISBN 978-0-8117-0614-8, LCCN 62-12654, p. 23
    8. Andrews, Ernest A.; Hurt, David B. (2022). A Machine Gunner's War: From Normandy to Victory with the 1st Infantry Division in World War II. Philadelphia & Oxford: Casemate. ISBN 978-1636241043.
    9. Dunlap, Roy F., Ordnance Went Up Front, Samworth Press (1948), p. 310
    10. Lowenherz, David H. The 50 Greatest Letters from America's Wars. New York: Crown, 2002 p. 35.
    11. Ordnance committee minutes number 18105, April 22, 1942
    12. Segel, Robert G (2012-09-11). "Swedish Medium Machine Guns: Kulspruta M/36 LV DBL". Small Arms Defense Journal. 4 (3). Retrieved 2018-12-28.
    13. Swedish Kulspruta m/36, forgottenweapons.com
    14. O. Janson The Swedish machineguns before 1950
    15. Morgan, Martin (6 June 2014). "The Forgotten Guns of D-Day". American Rifleman. The Wehrmacht also made good use of a captured water-cooled heavy machine gun in Normandy: the Ckm wz.30. Manufactured in Poland by Ciezki Karabin Maszynowy and chambered for the 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge, the wz.30 was capable of laying down sustained fire in a way that air-cooled machine guns simply could not .... The bitter irony is that Franz Gockel killed an unknown number of Americans on D-Day using an obscure Polish machine gun that was based on John M. Browning's M1917 design.
    16. Bull, Stephen (2013). World War II Winter and Mountain Warfare Tactics. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-84908-712-4.
    17. Mårtensson, Robert. "Norwegian weapons – Infantry weapons". Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
    18. Holm, Terje H. (1987). 1940 – igjen?. Oslo: Norwegian Armed Forces Museum. p. 26. ISBN 978-82-991167-2-5.
    19. Huon, Jean (September 2013). "The Chaco War". Small Arms Review. Vol. 17, no. 3. Archived from the original on 2019-08-19. Retrieved 2018-11-17.
    20. Shih, Bin (2018). China's Small Arms of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).
    21. Jowett, Philip (28 Jun 2018). Latin American Wars 1900–1941: "Banana Wars," Border Wars & Revolutions. Men-at-Arms 519. Osprey Publishing. p. 38. ISBN 9781472826282.
    22. Jenzen-Jones, N.R. (30 September 2018). "Ethiopian .30-06, 7.62 × 51 mm & 7.92 × 57 mm cartridges". armamentresearch.com.
    23. Rossi, Michel (November 1992). "Le bataillon de Corée (1950/1953)". La Gazette des Armes (in French). No. 227. pp. 10–15.
    24. Dunstan, Simon (21 February 2019). French Armour in Vietnam 1945–54. New Vanguard 267. Osprey Publishing. p. 26. ISBN 9781472831828.
    25. Bak, Dongchan (March 2021). Korean War : Weapons of the United Nations (PDF) (in Korean). Republic of Korea: Ministry of Defense Institute for Military History. pp. 51–53. ISBN 979-11-5598-079-8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-09-20. Retrieved 2022-06-27.
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