Does anyone even give a damn about your opinion? nah just kidding. In think the M1 garand and the mg42 were the best guns of wwii.
Yes, the 88 certainly struck fear into even the best armoured formations that came up against it, which isn't bad considering it was designed as an anti-aircraft gun. It would be very high on my list as well. If the question was confined to infantry weapons the MG 42 would have to be considered. It had to be good if basically the same weapon is still being used by the Bundeswehr today. Surprisingly one of it's only drawbacks was it's high rate of fire and the logistical problems that could cause, although I'm sure that there were also times when that very rate of fire was godsend.
Certainly did/does, but if it was fired at you there would be a lot of 'thumps' as the rounds hit the ground around you or 'cracks' as the rounds flew past you (if you were lucky) before you'd hear the rip. Not the ideal, but that's physics for you.
Ask any WW2 Veteran that has seen action? and its my guess that there will be two claimants to the best gun. The German 88mm, and the British 25 pounder. In Holland (Just North of Venraij) they lined up a long line of 25 pounders and instead of firing them in rotation, they let go the lot all together. a solid wall of 25 pounder shells landing somewhere all at once.YUK Sapper
So how often would the barrel have to be changed? That all depends on the rate of fire, but when firing in sustained fire, the barrel would have to be changed every 250-300 rounds. Although this would seem to have the effect of slowing the rate of fire down excessivly, that is not the case as the MG42 had a very rapid barrel change mechanisum. The barrel could be changed in 10 seconds (but a good gunner could do it in as little as 6 secs!) and each gun had 2 or 3 spare barrels. This kept the rate of fire high if needed.
The german 88 was a fearsome weapon. For many years in British legion clubs, if the Bingo Called shouted Eighty Eight, members of the audience would shout back "Driver! Reverse"!
The Germans were using MG42s as later as the 1980s but they were called the mg3 Yes, I had already mentioned that. To be more accurate the MG3 is a modified version of the MG42 that fires the 7.62mm NATO round instead of the 7.92mm Mauser round in the same way that an L4 LMG fires 7.62mm rather than the .303 inch of the Bren.
The 88 was scary by all accounts. But how about the 30mm cannon as well, I think the Me262 carried it as well the Stuka for tankbusting.
Stuka carried modified 37mm Flak guns for anti-tank work and the ME-262 had 4 MK-108 30mm Cannon. Both fearsome weapons in there own right which did a lot of damage against armour (mostly Soviet) and bombers respectively.
Could someone please explain to me what the british 25pounder was? Ive never heard of it and it sounds really cool. Any good links to a site about it will be fine too. thanks.
It was an artillery piece (87.6 mm) links below: http://www.junobeach.org/e/4/can-tac-art-tfp-e.htm http://riv.co.nz/rnza/hist/25pr.htm http://www.wohnungs-suche.com/Raa/info/Equip/25.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QF_25_pounder
Yes, I had already mentioned that. To be more accurate the MG3 is a modified version of the MG42 that fires the 7.62mm NATO round instead of the 7.92mm Mauser round in the same way that an L4 LMG fires 7.62mm rather than the .303 inch of the Bren. I understand that it was modified to fire 7.62x51 ammo. I was going to say that I have copy of the Small Arms training, Vol1, Pamphlet No4 1942 The Light Machine Gun which was the training manual for the Bren
