RE: FMA-WW2 Weapons

German ammunition came in 200 round boxes with 4, 50 round linked belts.
 In fixed positions they would link several belts together and feed out
of the can.  On the move they normally would only put one belt in,
reloading as necessary.  It's not unusual to see MG's with 2 or 3 cans -
400-600 rounds.

In fixed positions they could have several thousand rounds per MG.  Most
vehicle MG's were equipped with 750-1200 rounds per MG.

American tactics were similar to German tactics, but with lesser
equipment.  The BAR and assistant gunner was the firebase while 6
riflemen were the movement base and then had 2 scouts, a squad leader
and assistant squad leader. The problem is that the BAR only has a 20
round magazine and most BAR gunners only had 9-18 magazines or 360
rounds that took several minutes to fire.  Browning MG's were Company
level assets so you rarely found them associated with single squads.

The Germans on the other hand pretty much had an MG per squad.	

--Binhan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Damond Walker [mailto:dwalker@syncreticsoft.com]
> Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 6:37 AM
> To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
> Subject: Re: FMA-WW2 Weapons
> 
> 
> On 3/6/03 1:43, "Geoffery Rogers" <geofferyr@hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Your getting into murky waters there if you think all mg's 
> are the same.
> > German tactics evolved arround using the squad MG 34 or 
> later MG 42 as the
> > main killer, the riflemen where just there to protect it. 
> Both being the
> > first general purpose machine guns (GPMG) and having high 
> rates of fire. The
> > MG 42 1200rpm (rounds per minute) or 20 a second, about 
> double the .30cal
> > browning.
> > 
> 
>     I'm aware of the major differences between some of the German and
> American equipment during the war (by no means all of it though).
> 
>     While the German MGs could certainly pour lead in vast 
> quantities they
> were still limited to the amount of ammunition they could 
> carry.  Have any
> idea what the standard load was for a German gunner/assistant gunner?
> 
>     With that in mind I might increase the impact die for 
> german MGs to D10
> to represent the lead-wall it can create.  I guess I'll have 
> to try it.
> 
> Damond
> 
>