The Browning Automatic RifleBloomsbury Publishing, 20. apr 2012 - 80 pages For nearly fifty years the hard-hitting, mobile Browning Automatic Rifle, or BAR, served in US infantry units as a light squad automatic “base of fire” weapon, providing quick bursts of concentrated fire. Designed in World War One, it didn't reach the front until September 1918. In the interwar years US forces used the BAR across the world, from China to Nicaragua. It also became a favorite of notorious gangsters like Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, who prized its ability to punch through police armored cars. At the outset of World War II the US armed forces decided to adapt the BAR for a light machine gun role. The BAR was not without its flaws; it was heavy and difficult to dismantle and reassemble, and it didn't cope well with sustained fire. Nevertheless, the BAR saw action in every major theater of World War II and went on to be used in Korea and in the opening stages of the Vietnam War. Featuring arresting first-hand accounts, specially drawn full-color artwork and close-up photographs, many in color, this lively study offers a vivid portrait of this powerful, long-lived and innovative weapon that saw service with US and other forces across the world for much of the 20th century. |
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American troops armed Armor Plate Press Army assistant gunner automatic weapons automatic-fast automatic-slow BAR ammunition belt BAR magazines BAR’s Barrow Gang Battalion bipod Bonnie Browning Automatic Rifle bullet butt stock cartridge cavalry Chauchat Chongchon River Clyde Barrow combat Division enemy equipped fighting fire team firepower flash hider forearm France French front gas piston gas-cylinder tube hand grenades hinged butt plate infantry rifle issued Japanese soldiers John Browning’s killed Korea Korean War later light machine gun Luster M1 Carbine M1 Garand M1903 Springfield rifle machine gunners Magazine box magazine guides magazine release Marines military BARs modernized modified muzzle NARA new-production M1918A2 officers Okinawa Ordnance Department Pershing pistol position pouches production rate of fire rear sight recoil spring retrofitted rifle platoon riflemen rounds saw action semi-automatic sergeant shooting sling snipers tank target Thompson submachine guns United W.D. Jones Wachel water-cooled Winchester World World War II