new Osprey book on the "Ma Deuce"... (1 Viewer)

[binder001]

Osprey Publishing has added a new series to their line of military books - they have started covering small arms and such weapons. The first book covered the Tommy Gun, but the one I'm most impressed with is the new volume of the Browning .50 caliber machineguns. Here is a gun whose design is pushing 90 years old and it is still in first line service with a number of military forces. Periodically somebody comes up with a "new fifty" but the Browning design survives them and still soldiers on. This gun will certainly see its century mark, if not with the US then with some military forces around the world. Gordon Rottman's new book presents the most complete and accurate picture of the history and development of this famous gun. From Pershing's first requests for a heavy machine gun through the influence of the German 13.2mm AT rifle to the major redesign of the 1930s that gave us the M2 gun series. Rottman is a former serviceman who has fired the .50 in anger, so he is able to present the aspects of firing and setting up the big gun froma personal standpoint. He even presents some fascinating trivia - I had never heard that the Germans would salvage .50 caliber aircraft guns (from the bombers shot down over Germany) and mount them on homemade mountings for local airfield defense.

Highly recommended.

Gary B.

 

[Currahee Chris]

Bar none, my most favorite weapon I ever fired.

EVER

Fired it so many times when I first got introduced to it that I got a headache.

i haven't heard anything about it dropping off the grid, which is a good thing as that d--n M16 has no stopping power whatsoever. We lose the decuce, we might as well start throwing stones. The munitions and optics have changed drastically but the basics are still there and accounted for.

 

[bromhead]

hanging on,pressing those butterflies ,that tripod jumping,,and watching tracers go thru the smoke downrange at Ft Knox,recon AIT,,A photo in mine of a field modified on an M151,,it lifted the front wheels a bit and tore itself out of the floor,,loved to adjust that headspace for those slow blasts,,good old ma,,my father crewed one in his B17.