Effectiveness of the hull ball-mounted MG and the co-axial MG

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Smitty on May 31, 2009 at 8:19am

The coax is very effective. The .50 cal on the M1 is very lethal not only in terms of killing effect but in terms of sheer suppression and terror.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chuang Shyue Chou on May 31, 2009 at 10:44pm

The co-axial does kill then and not merely suppress?

I don't dispute the effectiveness of the pintle-mounted MG. What of the hull-MGs? It seems to be a common feature in tanks in the Second World War but it has practically disappeared today.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tony on June 1, 2009 at 8:39pm

IIRC, one of the reasons for the Bow MG is because that area of the tank contained the radio and a crewman to operate the radio. That same crewman fired the Bow-MG.
You can probably imagine how difficult it would be to aim, if the crewman is closed hatch, looking through a small dirty periscope.
It probably is used more for surpressing than it is for accurate fire. (although some guys were probably good at it)
Maybe you can search online for tank crewman first person accounts.

I would actually like to know how accurate a WW2 coax was, compared to an Abrams coax.
The Abrams coax, if it is sighted in correctly, is dead on, almost laser beam like. (I love it)
Wonder if the same can be said for any WW2 coax?

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Smitty on June 1, 2009 at 8:46pm

Boresighting - I don't know how they boresighted in WW II for mg's - Tony?

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tony on June 1, 2009 at 9:09pm

hmm...the old-school way maybe?
Mount the weapon, pull the guts/bolt out of the weapon, look through the back end of the weapon downrange to the target, direct the gunner to lay the gun on target, adjust the gunner's sight to the target.

Never had to do that for an M1A1 coax but did it every time for my TC's .50 cal, never fails.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Andy Brown on June 12, 2009 at 11:21am

Stumbled on this... But wasn't one of the key weaknesses of the Ferdinand the lack of a bow gun (keep the "flys" way).

The Merkava has several hull MG's cause in an urban environment they are very effective - maybe the lack of a bow gun in the M1 is a Cold War remnant and is a now a design "flaw" for the asymetric warfare environment (gotta like big words) .

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tony on August 24, 2009 at 12:12am

Did you ever get the answer you were looking for?

▶ Reply to This