World War II Database

Country of Origin	United States
Type	Machine Gun
Caliber	7.620 mm
Capacity	250 rounds
Barrel Length	609.000 mm
Weight	15.000 kg
Rate of Fire	500 rounds/min

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseBrowning M1917 water-cooled heavy machine guns were first seen in Apr 1917, though the concept for such a machine gun was already patented by John Browning in 1901. It was not until WW1 that the United States Army felt the need to arrange a test for this weapon design. They were quickly made the standard heavy machine guns of the US Army, although production delays meant the Browning M1917 heavy machine guns represented only a minority of all heavy machine guns of the American Expeditionary Force. Troops who used the 1,200 Browning M1917 heavy machine guns reported their satisfaction with their reliability even during sustained firing situations. The M1918 anti-aircraft variant was designed also during WW1, but they did not enter service in time for the war. Browning M1917 heavy machine guns remained in use during the interwar and WW2 periods. During WW2, in addition to being used by the US Army, many units were also given to the forces of the United Kingdom and other Allies; the British, in particular, had an acute need for Browning M1917 heavy machine guns at the onset of the European War as a large quantity of heavy machine guns were lost when the British Expeditionary Force fled from France. After the war, many Browning M1917 heavy machine guns remained in American service. The last major conflict they participated was the Korean War. During the Vietnam War, they were employed by both Americans and the South Vietnamese, but in very limited numbers as they were consider too heavy and unwieldy by that time.

Variants of the Browning M1917 heavy machine guns were also built in Sweden, Poland, and Norway.

Source: Wikipedia. ww2dbase

Last Major Revision: Dec 2007

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