Machine Guns

Machine Guns are repeating firearms that when triggered will load and fire automatically until their ammunition is exhausted. In 1861, the U.S. Army was offered its first machine gun: Wilson Ager's single‐barrel, hand‐cranked weapon, often called the “coffee mill” gun due to its resemblance to a coffee grinder. At the order of President Lincoln, a few Ager guns were purchased; however, mechanical problems and the opposition of chief of ordnance, Brig. Gen. James W. Ripley, blocked adoption of the gun.

Patented in November 1862 by Dr. Richard J. Gatling, early versions of the Gatling gun were rejected by the conservative Union Ordnance Department. Purchased in 1866, improved .50‐caliber and 1‐inch versions of Gatling's hand‐cranked, multibarred machine gun were intended for use in the close‐in defenses of coastal fortifications, frontier forts, and aboard ship. The .50‐caliber version of the gun weighed 224 pounds and the 1‐inch version 1,008 pounds; later rifle‐caliber Gatlings weighed from 135 to 200 pounds.

Because he feared the weapons might hamper his column's movement through the rugged valley of the Little Bighorn River, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer declined an offer of Gatling guns. Complex, heavy, and difficult to transport and supply, early machine guns saw little use during the Civil War and in the Indian wars. For almost four decades the Ordnance Department procured a small number of Gatlings. Interest in the weapon lagged, however, and doctrine for its use and a unit to use it were neglected.

The perfection of smokeless powder in 1886 and the final development of small‐caliber, high‐velocity rifle ammunition made the development of fully automatic machine guns practical. In 1898, American expeditionary forces in Cuba included an improvised machine‐gun unit with Gatling guns manned by infantrymen. Commanded by Lt. John Henry Parker, the Gatlings provided decisive support for the attack during the Battle of San Juan Hill. In 1900, the army tested replacements for the Gatling gun. Among the competitors were two American designs: a recoil‐operated gun patented by Hiram Maxim in 1885, and the gas‐operated Colt machine gun patented by John M. Browning in 1895. Adopted in 1904, the heavy and complex Maxim gun (gun, tripod, and full water jacket weighed 153.5 pounds) was replaced in 1909 by the French‐designed Benét‐Mercié, an air‐cooled weapon weighing 27 pounds. However, the fragile Benét‐Mercié also failed to meet army needs, and in 1916 it was replaced by a new weapon, the water‐cooled, British Vickers machine gun (gun, tripod, and full water jacket weighed 75.5 pounds).

Despite domination of World War I battlefields by machine guns and artillery, each U.S. infantry regiment in 1917 had only six machine guns, and the army possessed a total of fewer than 1,500. The first twelve American divisions sent to France were equipped with French Hotchkiss machine guns. By July 1918, embarking American units were issued the new water‐cooled, .30‐caliber Browning machine gun (gun, tripod, and full water jacket weighed 74 pounds) and the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR; 19.4 pounds), developed to provide an air‐cooled, light machine gun carried and operated by a single infantryman. From 50 machine guns in early 1917, U.S. infantry divisions ended the war with 260 machine guns and 768 BARs per division.

In the 1930s, the army adopted the air‐cooled .30‐caliber Browning M‐1919A4 (gun and tripod weighed 45.5 pounds) and the more powerful, air‐cooled, .50‐caliber Browning M‐2, heavy machine gun (gun and tripod weighed 128 pounds). During World War II, the number of machine guns multiplied in the increasingly mechanized American forces. In 1943, each American infantry division was issued 157.30‐caliber and 236.50‐caliber Browning machine guns. In addition, Browning .50‐caliber guns were standard on most American aircraft; they also saw widespread use as antiaircraft weapons.

In 1957, the .30‐caliber Browning was replaced by the 7.62‐millimeter, air‐cooled M‐60 machine gun, weighing 23 pounds; the BAR was replaced by a version of the M‐14 service rifle. The .50‐caliber M‐2, however, remained the standard American heavy machine gun. During the 1990s, American forces were equipped with a variety of air‐cooled machine guns—the 5.56‐millimeter, M‐249 squad automatic weapon, which performed a function similar to the BAR (gun and 200 rounds of ammunition weigh 22 pounds); the M‐60, and the 7.62‐millimeter, air‐cooled, M‐240C coaxial machine gun mounted in tanks and armored fighting vehicles; as well as the .50‐caliber Browning M‐2.

Adoption and use of machine guns has been affected primarily by mechanical problems such as overheating, by their size and weight, and by problems of transport and ammunition supply. Development of metallic cartridges and smokeless powder and design improvement—recoil and gas‐operated guns and reliable, air‐cooled weapons—gradually produced lightweight machine guns suitable for widespread combat use. Mechanization of American forces overcame logistical constraints and by mid‐twentieth century the machine gun was fully integrated into the armory of the American military.
[See also Caribbean and Latin America, U.S. Military Involvement in the; Cuba, U.S. Military Involvement in; Weaponry, Army; Weaponry, Marine Corps.]

Bibliography

Graham Seton Hutchinson , Machine Guns: Their History and Tactical Employment, 1938.
George M. Chinn , The Machine Gun, Vol. 1, 1951.
Konrad F. Schreier, Jr. , Guide to United States Machine Guns, 1971.
David A. Armstrong , Bullets and Bureaucrats, The Machine Gun and the United States Army, 1861–1961, 1982.

David A. Armstrong