By John D. Gresham

When one thinks back to the weapons of mass destruction that emerged in the 20th century, usually the atomic bomb or poison gas come to mind. But when you tally up the deaths from the world’s wars over the past hundred years, the simple fact is that atomic and chemical weapons created only a handful of casualties compared to more conventional means, such as disease or artillery. Discount these, however, when you take a hard look at mass-casualty generation in the 20th century. The weapon of greatest lethalness is one we often take for granted: the machine gun.

The emergence of rapid-fire weapons in the early 1900s, along with barbed wire and barrage artillery, became one of the dominant reasons for the stalemate in World War I. Mass infantry charges across open ground became a virtual impossibility when faced by dug-in machine guns with supporting troops. Such defensive arrangements almost eliminated battlefield mobility between 1914 and 1918. In fact, it was this kind of defensive arrangement that led to the development of protected vehicles (tanks and armored personnel carriers), air mobility (airborne and helicopter assaults), and even such mundane items as personal body armor. All were designed to counter the military stagnation brought on by machine guns.

Respected and Feared for Over 100 Years

Today the machine guns of the early 20th century still have a role, though very few look like they did a hundred years ago. Improved materials, lighter designs, better ammunition, and other factors mean that most machine guns look like something from the distant future, not the era of the Model T. Note the word “most.” There is, in fact, one machine gun that has been in continuous production and service for almost a hundred years, and is still as respected and feared as it was when first introduced. It arose from the fertile mind of an American designer who became the most respected gunsmith of his age: John M. Browning. His weapon was the M2 .50-caliber, heavy-barreled machine gun.

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