In Their Words

Browning Automatic Rifle

As American forces entered into combat on the Western Front in the summer of 1918, they encountered German forces equipped with Maxim machine guns that dominated the battlefield with interlocking fields of fire. American troops assaulting German positions across No Man’s Land faced a daunting task. For an infantry assault to succeed, it needed to provide an overwhelming amount of suppressive firepower both during the initial attack and again once it reached the enemy’s trenches. This firepower was needed to keep the enemy down in their trenches. American troops, armed with their single shot bolt-action Springfield and Enfield rifles, found themselves lacking a portable weapon with which to provide suppressive fire during infantry assaults. As a quick fix, many American units were issued the French Chauchat automatic rifle. The Chauchat suffered from numerous design flaws and was poorly made, making it unreliable when used in combat. The weapon became despised among U.S. troops, who requested an American made weapon to provide portable and heavy firepower. By the fall of 1918, a weapon had been introduced to fill that need.

The Browning Automatic Rifle or B.A.R. was a selective-fire weapon designed to be carried and operated by a single infantryman. The weapon’s selective fire capability allowed the soldier to provide fully automatic fire when needed, and the ability to use it as a semi-automatic rifle. The weapon was chambered for the standard .30-06 cartridge and used a detachable 20 round box magazine. The B.A.R. was heavy for an infantry weapon, weighing just under twenty pounds empty and nearly forty pounds with a full load of spare ammunition magazines. Despite its weight and late introduction into combat, the B.A.R. was a welcome addition among A.E.F troops. The B.A.R. proved reliable and provided U.S. troops with the mobile firepower they needed to succeed during an assault.

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