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Machine Guns
Making their deadly debut in the First World War, the machine gun had the power to single-handedly change any one engagement in favor of the operator.
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| Machine Guns: |
The machine gun evolved into a formidable battlefield element by the arrival of the First World War. Mounted on with aircraft in the skies or stationary systems on the ground, the machine gun had officially arrived. With it would come the very real threat of increased fatalities from a system that could chew through ranks upon ranks of advancing infantry with presses of the trigger. The machine gun would go on to grow into more of portable weapon system by the Second World War. Weapons such as the Browning Automatic Rifle were embodiments of the true machine gun system, which were represented in great numbers by the Browning .30 and .50 caliber varieties and the British Bren and German MG34 and MG42 machine guns. The MG42 would be introduced by Germany to replace the equally effective MG34 systems, but offer up a production-friendly alternative that would come in a portable bipod or fixed tripod form.
Either way, the machine gun in this form would become a highly feared and respected system from the Allies point of view. In the post-war world, the MG42 would go on to influence the new generation M60 General Purpose Machine Gun for America (used in great numbers throughout the Vietnam War) and the newer German MG3, which in essence was the World War Two-era MG42 firing the 7.62mm NATO standard round.
By the turn of the century, the squad support weapon was in full vogue. Systems such as the Minimi Para and SAW would find their way into combat frontlines in Afghanistan and Iraq. Soviet-era systems like the PKM would still be found in battlefronts across Africa and the Middle East while the "heavy barrel" .50 caliber M2HB Brownings would still be fielded on vehicle mounts and other incarnations. All this stemming from early successes as those found with the German Maxim 08 a century earlier. |
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| Totals: |
| 41 |
There are a total of 41 Machine Guns in the Military Factory. |
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