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- "B.A.R." redirects here, for the racing team, see British American Racing.
The Browning Automatic Rifle (more formally the Browning Automatic Rifle, Caliber .30, M1918 and commonly known as the BAR), is a family of automatic rifles (or machine rifles) and light machine guns used by the United States and other countries during the 20th century.
It was designed in 1917 by the weapons designer John Browning, primarily as a replacement for (and improvement on) the French-made Chauchat and Hotchkiss M1909. The BAR was originally intended as a light automatic rifle, but spent much of its career in various guises used in the light machine gun role with a bipod. The original M1918 version was and remains the lightest service machine gun to fire the .30-06 Springfield cartridge, though the limited capacity of its standard 20-round magazine tended to hamper its utility as a light machine gun.
[edit] History and design
The BAR is a gas-operated, air-cooled, magazine-fed automatic rifle that fires from an open bolt. As built for the U.S. military, the BAR was chambered for the standard service round of that period, the .30-06 Springfield. It weighed from 16 to 19 pounds (7.3 to 8.6 kg) empty, depending upon the model. The barrel is screwed into the receiver and is not quickly detachable. The magazine was a detachable box-type model with a capacity of 20 rounds, though a 40-round version was briefly issued for anti-aircraft use.
The BAR remained in limited use during the early part of the Vietnam War
From its inception, the BAR M1918 was a selective fire automatic rifle allowing the user to choose either semi or fully automatic fire. First issued in February 1918, it was hoped the BAR might help break the stalemate of the trenches by the concept of "walking fire"; an automatic weapon accompanying advancing squads of riflemen rushing from trench to trench. In addition to shoulder-fired operation, BAR gunners were issued a belt that held magazine pouches for the BAR and sidearm along with a "cup" to support the stock of the rifle when held at the hip. This allowed the soldier to lay suppressive fire while walking forward, keeping the enemy's head down until it was too late. It is not known if any of these belt-cup devices actually saw combat use. The BAR saw little action in WWI, in part due to the Armistice, in part because the U.S. Army was reluctant to have the BAR fall into enemy hands, its first action being in September of 1918. Eighty-five thousand BARs were built by the war's end.
In 1922, the M1922 BAR was introduced. This version was equipped with a flanged or finned barrel and side-mounted sling swivel, and was intended for use by the U.S. Cavalry. The M1922 had no bipod as issued, although one could be fitted if desired. In June 1937, a small number of M1918s were modified to include a spiked bipod attached to the gas cylinder and a hinged buttplate. These weapons were designated M1918A1.
In 1940, the final BAR model—the M1918A2—was introduced. This model did away with the semi-automatic fire option in favor of fully automatic fire only. The rate of fire was adjustable, with a choice between "fast-auto" (500–650 round/min) and "slow-auto" (300–450 round/min). This was accomplished by the use of a highly complicated recoil buffer mechanism that was difficult to clean, and often proved susceptible in service to damage from moisture and corrosion, often rendering the weapon inoperable. The (unspiked) bipod was now attached to the barrel, a flash hider was added, a rear monopod was hinged to the butt, and the weapon's role was changed to that of a squad light machinegun. Its success in this role was mixed at best, since the BAR's fixed non-replaceable barrel and small magazine capacity greatly limited its utility in comparison to genuine light machineguns such as the BREN or the Japanese M1936 Nambu. The bipod and flashhider, being easily removable, were often discarded by troops to save weight and improve the portability of the BAR. In combat, particularly in the Pacific theatre of war, the BAR effectively reverted to its original role as a portable, shoulder-fired automatic rifle. In 1942, a fiberglass buttstock replaced the wood version, and late in the war, a barrel-mounted carrying handle was added.
Issued as the heavy fire support for a squad, all men were trained at the basic level how to operate and fire the BAR in case the man carrying it was out of action. While not without its design flaws (a thin-diameter, fixed barrel that quickly overheated, limited magazine capacity, complex field-strip/cleaning procedure, unreliable recoil buffer mechanism, a gas cylinder assembly made of corrosion-prone metals, and many small internal parts), the basic BAR design nevertheless proved itself when kept clean and earned a reputation as being rugged and reliable. It served as a frontline standard weapon from the latter days of World War I through World War II, and was pressed into use in the Korean War as well. The BAR was also used in the early stages of the Vietnam War, when the U.S. passed a quantity to the South Vietnamese. Many nations in NATO and recipients of U.S. foreign aid adopted the BAR and used it into the 1990s. Poland (Browning wz.1928), Belgium (FN M1930) and Sweden (Kulsprutegevär m/21 and m/37) developed and issued BAR variants during the 1930s which had pistol grips and quick-change barrels.
While itself no longer serving on the front lines, the BAR does live on with armed forces across the world in the form of the FN MAG, or M240 Medium Machine Gun for the US forces. Mounted on humvees, tanks, helicopters, boats and even carried into battle in place of the M249 Minimi SAW, the MAG is essentially a modernized BAR with an inverted feeding mechanism that has been adapted to belt feed the 7.62 NATO. Widely praised for its reliability, it has largely replaced the M60 machine gun that had superseded the original BAR in Vietnam and works closely with the smaller M249.
[edit] Civilian ownership
The BAR also has a place in civilian history. Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde was known to prefer the use of a shortened BAR (stolen from National Guard armories) during his spree in the 1930s, rather than the stereotypical Thompson submachine gun. The six lawmen who would famously kill Bonnie and Clyde also used the BAR in their ambush.
The BAR proved a popular civilian weapon in the U.S., although fully automatic models were greatly restricted in the 1930s, which made them much harder to own and transfer. Importation of machine guns for U.S. civilian transfer was banned in 1968, and U.S. production of machine guns for civilian transfer was banned in 1986. Transferable civilian-owned BAR models remain, however.
A modern manufacturer of firearms has produced a semi-automatic version of the Browning Automatic Rifle known as the 1918A3 SLR ("self-loading rifle").[1]
The 'BAR' hunting rifle currently offered by Browning is a completely different firearm, unrelated in design to the Browning military weapons.
[edit] Variants
[edit] United States
- Initial model fielded during WWI and the "intra-war" period
- The commercial version of the M1918 was a popular civilian firearm.
[edit] M1918A1
- Produced in 1937 by modifying existing M1918
- Attached bipod
[edit] M1918A2
- Produced from 1940 onwards
- Detachable bipod
- Fully automatic, with "slow" (300–450 round/min) and "fast" (500–650 round/min) rates of fire
- Late-war models switched to plastic stock
- Predominant model of all BAR variants
- Bipod and stock-mounted rear monopod
- Heavier barrel with small cooling fins
- Light machine gun version
[edit] International
[edit] Browning wz.1928
-
- A variant of the M1918 BAR produced by Fabrique Nationale (FN) in Belgium to Polish requirements prior to WWII. License-produced in Poland.
- Chambered for the 7.92 × 57 mm (8 mm Mauser).
- Used a pistol grip rather than the conventional rifle stock grip.
[edit] FN M1930
- Variant produced by FN for Belgian military, chambered for the 7.92 × 57 mm cartridge and featuring a pistol grip. FN also produced a subvariant with a quick-change barrel referred to as the Type D. See FN BAR.
[edit] Kulsprutegevär m/21 and m/37
- Swedish variant of the M1918 BAR, rechambered for the 6,5 × 55 mm Schwedenmauserpatrone ("Swedish Mauser standard") round.
- Pistol grip and spiked bipod; m/37 added a quick-change barrel.
- Initially produced by Colt, and then under license by Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori in Eskilstuna, Sweden.
[edit] BAR in .303 British
- Not much is known about the BAR in British Service, but some chambered in the .303 British round were believed to have been used by the Home Guard.
[edit] Commercial
[edit] Colt Automatic Machine Rifle
- Commercial variant made by Colt in several versions between the 1920s and the beginning of WWII, for civilian and law enforcement markets.
- One variant, the R80 Monitor, featured an 18-inch barrel, a lightweight receiver, and an ejection port cover along with a Cutts compensator.
[edit] Ohio Ordnance Works 1918A3 SLR
- The 1918A3 SLR (self-loading rifle) is a modern semi-automatic commercial version of the BAR aimed at the civilian market. The "1918A3" designation is not a military type-classification.
[edit] Barrow Scattergun
- The 'Scattergun' was a customised M1918 BAR with the barrel chopped shorter and sometimes the stock sawn off. This variant was customised by the Bonnie and Clyde gang.[citation needed]
[edit] Books and references
- Dunlap, Roy F., Ordnance Went Up Front, Samworth Press, 1948.
- Hogg, Ian V. and Weeks, John, Military Small Arms of the 20th Century, DBI Books Inc.
- FM 23–15: Basic Field Manual — Browning Automatic Rifle, Caliber .30, M1918A2 (30 June 1943)
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