While reading a WW2 sim game’s forums, someone brought up an argument that it would be impossible to land with any heavy guns (i.e Browning Automatic Rifle or BAR for short). It weighs 18.5 pounds, and heres the rest of it’s specifications
Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)
Operation M1918A1-selective fire
(fully and semiautomatic)
M1918A2-fully automatic
Caliber .30 (7.62 mm)
Muzzle velocity 853.4 mps (2,800 fps)
Capacity 20-round detachable box
magazine
Weight 8.33 kg (18.5 lbs)
Overall length 119.4 cm (47 in.)
Rate of fire 550 rounds per minute
Range up to 80 m (88 yds)
thanks to: http://texashideout.tripod.com/guns.html
Would I be able to jump with that and all my gear or would I impale myself and die a horrible death?
You jump with all that stuff in a bag clipped to you then, between the time your chute opens and the time you hit the ground, you unclip the bag from yourself and lower it on a piece of webbing so it hangs about ten feet beneath you as you descend. The gear bag hits the ground first and you hit the ground a few feet away from it.
In the “reminisces” part of “Band of Brothers” on HBO, they talked about such bags used on D-Day. They weren’t clipped close to the body IIRC, but were kicked out as you jumped. They said that the wind promptly ripped the bag off the cord.
A lot of D-Day jumpers appear to have lost their weapons, based on books, etc. I have read. Farmboys from Kansas don’t understand the forces at work, esp. when the chute pops open. (Bad movie physics: a parachutist holds a second person while the chute opens.) There’s a reason why parachute harnesses are made of thick material.
I don’t think the OP has really be answered. 18.5 lbs in and of itself is not that great. It would have to be secured quite well and in the right place. But a pack, ammo, etc. +18.5 lbs is something else.
That’s why paratroopers wore those high top, lace-up boots. The opening can jerk shoes off of feet quite easily.
I have no inside info on paratroopers weaponry, but I would be surprised if they took much in the way of automatic weapons. BAR rate of fire is listed at 550 rounds/minute so the logistics gets pretty horrendous pretty quickly. As assembled into a clip or belt a .30 round takes up about an inch. So one minute’s worth of ammunition would be a belt over 40 ft. long. One BAR man would need probably 5 or 6 other jumpers to keep him in ammo for 1 minute use. And how would this squad assemble after a night drop?
Ever since the days of the old silents, movie makers have forgotten the fact that, in action, ammunition gets used up. So movie shooters are equipped with eternally loaded weapons, horses that can go 10 miles at a dead run and vehicles that never run out of fuel.
In WWII paratroops were used to create confusion behind enemy lines, to take by surprise and hold vital points such as bridges and road junctions so as to hinder enemy movement and resupply, and generally cause confusion in the enemy logistic area. This was never intended to be a long term affair. For example, the first link-up of 101[sup]st[/sup] Airborne with landing forces from Utah Beach occurred about noon on D-Day (The Longest Day, Cornelius Ryan)
There was also the added function of interfering with enemy communications so that the battle commanders couldn’t be sure about what was happening. For this sort of work, automatic and heavy weapons aren’t all that valuable.
Where heavier weapons were required there was also the option of gliderborne equipment. IIRC US troops around Nijmegen used jeeps armed with .50-cal HMGs that were landed in large gliders.
I’m no expert and have no references here at work, so feel free to correct me, but paratroopers in WWII routinely jumped with loads in excess of a hundred pounds. In addition to personal gear and weapons, ammunition for heavier weapons (machine guns, anti-tank weapons, etc) and other gear like mines would be distributed among the soldiers. While certainly they couldn’t carry a huge amount of ammunition, they weren’t supposed to be fighting on their own for very long. In addition, in extended operations (like Market Garden) the paratroopers received (or at least were supposed to have received) daily supply drops by parachute and glider.
Heavy weapons and the ammunition, vehicles, etc. were landed by gliders. Land mines are laid by engineers who were not in the parachute assault groups.
Quote from the site: *"For D-Day, the division was composed of the following airborne regiments: 505th Parachute Infantry, 507th Parachute Infantry and the 325th Glider Infantry.
For the invasion, the division had designated over 6,000 paratroopers for the parachute assault and almost 4,000 glidermen for the glider assault."*
No mention of any supporting units like engineers, signal corps, ordnance etc. etc. According to Cornelius Ryan in The Longest Day there was a chaplain, though.
This site deals with the makeup of the 101[sup]st[/sup] Airborne Division D-Day glider operations. You have to further click on History of the 101[sup]st[/sup] to get to D-Day.
Use of airborne assault groups in WWII was a project continually under development. Sort of on the job training for all, from the top brass down to the buck-ass private.
I’m sticking with my original statement that heavy weapons weren’t part of the parachute infantry’s equipment until gliders could bring in them and the ammunition.
I suspect that the descent rate of a total load of 270 lb. (170 man, 100 equipment) would be pretty high in the WWII type parachutes. Some sky-divers or ex troopers would know more about that.
I agree with David Simmons. In most airborne operations I’ve read about, extreme emphasis was placed upon the necessity for units to hit the ground, coalesce into small units and move out toward their objectives straight away. Taking time to collect and assemble heavy weapons gives your enemy equal time to collect and assemble even heavier weapons. So the first wave is supposed to go and catch 'em with their pants down.
At Arnhem, the British took the firepower experiment too far, a Bridge too Far, and tried to effect a daylight concentration of force by landing paratroops and gliders nearly simultaneously many miles from their objective. Their .50 cal jeeps were nearly all wrecked, the radios didn’t work, and they still couldn’t concentrate enough heavy weapons to counter the two depleted SS Panzer divisions in whose midst they had inadvertantly landed.
In textbook fashion, the Germans cordoned off the 1st Airborne Division and their Polish reinforcements, and forced them back across the Rhine with over 50% casualties, save one small unit which actually reached the objective and managed to hold out for several days against desperate and ultimately hopeless odds.
Paras dropped with mortars and machineguns, not to mention the BAR. It was a perfect weapon for a mobile light machinegun. In the case of mortars and MGs though, the parts were usually split up among many of the jumpers. However, if someone can carry a mortar baseplate (~60 lbs.), they can carry a BAR. In fact, IIRC, some paras carried Tommyguns in addition to their Garands.
This is a description of the situation in 1942. It also mentions earlier considerations of the 60mm mortar, 75mm pack howitzer, and machine guns, but does not indicate that they were ever employed.
I have found numerous references to the Thompson, but no references to the BAR. (Certainly, no references to the Johnson or Lewis guns that might have been considered light enough for paratroop use, possibly because they were basically USMC and British weapons.)
