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The Specifications of the Browning M-17 water cooled, heavy machine gun specifications were as follows:
Weight Loaded:
103 lb. (47 kg)
Barrel length:
24 in (609 mm)
Cartridge: .30-06
Action:
Recoil operated automatic
Rate of fire:
450 round/min, 600 round/min for M1917A1
Feed system:
250 round fabric belt
The Browning Model 1917 Machine Gun is a heavy machine gun used by the United States armed forces in World War I, World War II, Korea, and to a limited amount in Vietnam and by other nations. It was a belt-fed water-cooled machine gun that served alongside the much lighter air-cooled Browning M1919. It was used at the battalion level, and often mounted on vehicles (such as a jeep). There were two main iterations of it; the M1917, which was used in WWI, and the M1917A1 which was used after. The M1917 was used on the ground and some aircraft, and had firing rate of 450 round/min; the M1917A1 had a firing rate of 450 to 600 round/min.
History
In 1901, John Moses Browning was issued U.S. Patent 678,937 for a recoil powered automatic gun. The design initially met with little interest in the US military. Browning's Model 1917 was essentially an updated version of this weapon. The Browning is a water cooled heavy machine gun, though some versions that did not use a water jacket were experimented with; the M1919 was preferred.
Unlike many other early automatic MG's the M1917 had nothing to do with Maxim's design. It was much lighter than Maxim types, while still being highly reliable. The only similarity, which its shares with any non-externally powered machine gun, is the use of gunpowder energy to reload.
The Army Ordnance Department initially showed little interest in Browning's design, but after war was declared in April 1917, Browning was able to arrange a test. The first test was a success, but the Army demanded a second test a short time later. In the second test, Browning fired the weapon in two lengthy bursts of 20,000 rounds each without a single mishap. The Ordnance Board was impressed but was unconvinced that the same level of performance could be achieved in a production model.
Browning produced a second weapon which he fired in a third test continuously for 48 minutes (over 21,000 rounds). Finally convinced, the Army adopted the weapon as its principal heavy machine gun.
Until that time, the Army had used a variety of older machine guns like the Colt M1895 "Potato Digger" (which Browning had also designed) and weapons like the Maxim Gun, Benet-Mercies M1909, and the Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun. Although the Model 1917 was intended to be the principal US Army heavy machine gun in the war, in fact the Army was forced to purchase many foreign weapons and the French produced Hotchkiss 8 mm machine gun was actually the most numerous heavy machine gun used by the American Expeditionary Force.
Service
The M1917 saw limited service in the latter days of the First World War. Because of production delays, only about 1,200 Model 1917s saw combat in the conflict, and then only in the last two and a half months of the war. They equipped about a third of the divisions sent to France; the others were equipped equally with machine guns bought from the French or the British Vickers machine guns built by Colt in the US. Where the Model 1917 did see action, its rate of fire and reliability were highly effective.
The Model 1917A1 was again used in the Second World War. Some were supplied to the UK in the .303 caliber for use by the Home Guard; all production of the Vickers .303 being needed to resupply the equipment abandoned during the Fall of France. The Model 1917 was called to service again in the Korean War.
The Model 1917 was slowly phased out of military service in the late 1960s in favor of the much lighter, and more suitable for modern warfare, M60 machine gun. The attributes of the Model 1917 and similar weapons such as the Vickers machine gun - continuous fire from a static position had been rendered useless by the movement to highly mobile warfare. Many of the 1917's were given to South Vietnam. The gun did continue to see service in some Third World armies well into the later half of the 20th century.
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