Just finished an article in my one of many magazine spripts. WW2 History. Article about this kid who was the squad BAR man in early 1945.It brought back memories about the initial testing of the rifle in 1917 by J.M. Browning to the military powers that be. They had invited our own San Antonio boy + crack shot,Ad Tupperwein to do the demonstration.He went through all the regular crap about function,etc. Then for accuracy he had them throw a washer in the air + he would shoot through it.Of course he did + of course they did'nt believe him so he said,put tape over the center opening + throw it again.You know the results.He was one helluva fine shot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Topperwein and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGHyp4OhMTc and also http://showmanshooter.com/html/body_toepperwein.html

my father in law in WW2 was a BAR man. he was part of an outfit on an island close to japan that would send scouts out to draw enemy fire then the guys hiding nearby would come out en mass and kill the japs. out of approx 215 members something like 12 guys came home. my sister in law has all the correct stats. he was awarded numerous medals, way after the war of course, as in the early 2000s. he was supposed to go to the white house to be awarded a medal but was too sick at that point. he sure loved that BAR though and told me lots of stories of how many japs he shot out of the trees, by streams etc etc. course i just thought it was pure BS until he started being awarded the medals. in the late 70s early 80s i was using mac 10s 45acps and on full auto could get off maybe a 10 rd burst before i could get off the trigger. one day at the range he asked me to shoot it. he started putting burst after burst of 3 shots. i kinda started believing his stories about his BAR after that.

ok....he was in the 165th Fighting Irish on okinawa. 16 out of 215 men came back. he was awarded the bronze star and purple heart.

John, wonderful memory of a fine American.
My Dad had great respect for the BAR in combat in Germany, although he was a squad sniper and carried the scoped Springfield.

One of my uncles was there at the freeing of the Philippenes (+ yes he had some stories). Another uncle that was a waist gunner in a B-17 in Europe. All are dead now;but thank God they were alive when they were needed.

Randy, what a nice way to look at it -- "thank God they were alive when they were needed."
Dad was in the 97th Infantry; Mom's brothers were all in the Army Air Corps -- one a P-47 crew chief, one flew recon planes in Burma, one was a B-24 pilot (trained here in Alamogorodo) and one was a B-17 tailgunner.

Several countries improved the BAR by modifying it for a changeable barrel. Strange the US never did.

Grizz

My old man carried one too in Italy... he hated it.. Said it was HEAVY... he was 6' and only 130# so there wasn't much of him to carry the load..

He never spoke more about it other than complaining of its weight.

Yeah,that was Bonnie Parker's weapon of choice + she was 97 lbs soaking wet w/ a pocket full of nickels.