U.S. Army .50 Cal MG as AT Weapon?

[AbsntMndedProf]

I read somewhere that the U.S. army did not develop an AT rifle when the rest of the major military powers developed theirs, as it planned to use the .50 cal MG as its AT weapon. If that is true, how effective was it in this role and does
SP:WaW reflect this?

Eric Maietta

[FlashfyreSP]

It was very effective, as has been shown by today's Army and Marines still using it.

SPWAW does give the .50cal M2-HB some AP pen ability, so it will be effective against lightly-armoured targets.

[KG Erwin]

The "Ma Deuce" was one of the best weapons the US ever produced.   Multi-purpose, powerful and rugged.

[azraelck]

When was it introduced? 1918? And still in active duty today. That alone speaks volumes about how good a weapon the .50 BMG is. Also, the fact that some very high-powered, highly accurate sniper rifles are chambered for .50 BMG attests to the capabilities of the cartridge used. 

[264rifle]

The .50 cal was pretty much a non-starter when it came to anti-tank use in WWII. Yes it was planned to use it when everybody else was building AT rifles but that was in the 1930's. See how effective the AT rifles were. Since the U.S. didn't get into combat until 2 years after most of the other countries they were able to take a look at what worked and what didn't. Since even 37mm AT guns were pretty much useless by the summer of 1941 (6 months before Pearl Harbor) the "IDEA" of relying on the .50 cal as a company or battalion AT gun was put back on the shelf.
I have seen a U.S. battalion weapons break down that lists the .50 as an AT weapon but it is in a book published in 1940?

As an anti-armour weapon with WWII ammo it would work as long as the enemy ONLY attacked with half-tracks or those little MG armed Jap tanks.

[Gunter_Viezenz]

ORIGINAL: azraelck

When was it introduced? 1918? And still in active duty today. That alone speaks volumes about how good a weapon the .50 BMG is. Also, the fact that some very high-powered, highly accurate sniper rifles are chambered for .50 BMG attests to the capabilities of the cartridge used. 

Desgined by a Belgian.[:)]

[azraelck]

What does that have to do with it? Belgian-made small arms typically have been high-quality weapons in the past decade or so. Just because it was designed by someone from a different country means nothing; to be truthful, almost everything "made in America" is actually made by someone from a different country; sole exceptions being the Native Americans. Everyone else is an immigrant.

*proudly waves both Cherokee and Scottish ancestry*

[264rifle]

And here I thought that the .50 cal MG was invented by John Moses Browning. I guess I learn something new every day. Or not.[;)]

[azraelck]

Browning is a Belgian-owned and operated company... or it was until the company that owns it was bougt out by a US frim relatively recently... [8|]

[Gunter_Viezenz]

John Browning pretty much created most of the weapons thats teh American army used for decades after their invention. The series of Browning machine guns, Colt 1911, BAR.

[Ivan Zaitzev]

Colt?

[264rifle]

John Browning was a gun designer from Ogden, Utah. His first design was a single shot falling block rifle. The patent rights were promptly bought by Winchester and known as the model 1885 hi-wall. He later designed the Winchester 1886, 1892 and 1894 lever action rifles. He also designed other firearms for Winchester. Since Wincester did not manufacture pistols he wound up selling his auto pistol designs (and the Colt 1895 "Potato digger" machine gun) to Colt in the U.S. and to F.N. in Belgium for the European market. In a royalty dispute with Winchester he took his first auto-loading shot gun to Remington and while waiting in the outer office the President of Remington had a heart attack and died. John Browning then took the design to F.N. where it became the famous Browning Auto-loader. During WWI John Browning licensed the design of the 1917 machine gun to the U.S. goverment for ONE DOLLAR. His firearms legacy includes over 20 different firearms that entered mass production. NOT including prototypes and minor variations. Some writers claim that in the early part of the last century "Browning" was a synonym for auto-pistol in parts of Europe. John Browning died in 1926. The Browning "HI-POWER" pistol is mostly the work of another designer (Belgian?) whose name escapes me at the moment.

[Gunter_Viezenz]

 
It was designed in 1925 and patented in the US in 1927 by John browning. Than leter FN Herstal aquired the it. It was improved by Dieudonne Saive. The design was not used till 1935. In 1935 it was brough to trails in 1935 and adopted in many countries. I know it is still used in Canada.
 
Therefore you are only partly wrong as the Browning HP. It was mostly the work of John Browning himself.