Saturday, December 1, 2018

Infantry Weapons of WW2

WW2 was a major conflict which saw the advancements and mass production of weapons for infantry.
One of the most mass-produced weapons was the M1 carbine which was the smaller version of the
M1 Garand. WW2 was also the scene of technological advances in weapons as they developed
machine guns which were portable and had magazines, some of the common lmg’s were the mg42
and the Bar. The mg42 was nicknamed “Hitler's buzzsaw” as it would fire 1,500 rpm which was twice
the fire rate of an allied browning or Vickers. The mg42 was a weapon which allies feared since they
were told not to push up on Nazi machine gun nests until they reloaded. Also advancements from
WW1 bolt action rifles to the modernized semi-automatic rifle. Another weapon which started to head its way into the war was the Tommy Gun which was used by the Mob in America which then made
its way into the Western Front. The Tommy gun was a new change as it used pistol 45 acp rounds
which were ideal for close range combat. As such during the war, Germany developed the stg 44
which was an in between a rifle and an SMG. This later inspired the AK-47 after the war. The pistol
was also used as a trustee secondary for many infantrymen since if they’re primary ran out of ammo
or it jammed they could switch to their secondary. But the pistol was only reliable in close ranges.
Another influential and dreaded weapon was the flamethrower which marines used in the
Pacific theater to clear out hostile foxholes/pillboxes. While infantry had to worry about other men
they also had to worry about heavy armor which they had to use rockets to take out. The US
used bazookas while the Germans used the panzerschreck to take out heavily armored targets.
During WW2 the Americans industrialized a lot of weapons so they could out produce the germans
weapons. An example of this is how the Germans had the best machine gun of the war the mg42
but due to the Americans outproducing them, Germany lost it’s firepower even though it had
revolutionary weapons, such as the stg 44 which was failed to be mass produced. WW2 weapons
later on inspired future weapon manufacturers.
Image result for us marines ww2

1 comment:

  1. I like how you chose to contrast the weapons that were used by different countries.

    ReplyDelete