Why Not Just Make a Copy?

MG-42 machine gun
Batey ha-Osef museum, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Source

It's a topic which might only interest me although no doubt others (perhaps even some of you readers out there) have thought of this as well. That topic is, as the photo might suggest, the MG 42 machine gun used by the German military in WWII. It was so effective, and freaked out our guys a lot, so why didn't we copy it?

As I found a good video of the whys and wherefores of why the United States didn't simply copy the MG 42, and as I have been extraordinarily lazy as of late, I decided to post the following video as to why we didn't copy it.

Before getting into all that, I have to say that the MG 42 was a very effective weapon. It formed the basis of the German infantry squad, three men operated and supported the weapon, a noncommissioned officer decided what to do with it, and the other six men in the squad protected it. (More complex than that but you get my drift, the gun was the heart of the German squad.)

Allied soldiers related how a German squad, even after taking a number of casualties, remained highly effective because of the MG 42. Lose the gun, and the squad loses most of its firepower.

The video covers most of the above and much more, including why we didn't just copy it. My sense of the matter is two-fold: the "not invented here" syndrome and bean counters. Why bean counters you might ask?

The beast could fire around 1200 rounds per minute, so it could go through a lot of ammo really quickly. And bullets, dontcha know, cost money.

The Spencer rifle in the Civil War met much the same opposition from the government. As it could fire around 14 to 20 rounds a minute, the Ordnance Department was worried that the soldiers would waste a lot of ammunition. (Source)

Anyhoo, I have had one experience with the MG 42 back during my reenacting days. I was detailed to hump ammunition for our squad's MG 42. As it was blank ammo, it wasn't quite as heavy as the real thing. But two cans of belted blanks and my rifle made for a rather unwieldy load. But I managed.

We got into position, loaded up, then waited in ambush for our victims.

When they emerged into the forest clearing, my gunner squeezed the trigger.

"Bang!"

A single round fired, the belt would not feed.

Huh?

Okay, when firing blank ammunition out of a semi-automatic¹ or automatic² weapon, you need what's called a blank adapter. As no bullet issues from the barrel there is less force to drive back the bolt of the weapon. Extracting the just fired round and loading the next. So the blank adapter "seals" the barrel of the weapon, causing enough pressure to blow the bolt back. (There is a mechanism to allow some of the gas to escape. This article has a fairly good explanation, and pictures, of what I'm on about.)

My gunner had forgotten to attach his blank adapter. So to fire the weapon he'd have to cock the bolt and pull the trigger each time. We were overrun rather quickly before we got off a second round.

Anyhoo, let's watch the video, shall we?

We made a copy during the war, which sucked, but eventually did kinda sorta copy the MG 42 after the war. The M60 of Vietnam fame was the result of that.

Cool, huh? (YMMV)

See you next time, ciao!

¹ Semi-automatic = Cock the weapon and pull the trigger, the weapon will reload itself after each round but you have to keep pulling the trigger, once per round.

² Automatic = Cock the weapon and pull the trigger and the weapon will continue to fire until you're out of ammunition. (Or the weapon jams. 😒)