Bunker MG tactics

[Dragunov]

Terve!

I heard from a friend (we were discussing the holes in saving Private Ryan) that one of the flaws in the movie was that the MGs fired on to the beach at an angle, as that was one of their tactics.

any more info in how/why they did this?

Kippis!
Dragunov

[Tom Houlihan]

any more info in how/why they did this?

Well, when your defensive positions are on a cliff, and the enemy is landing on the beach below you, you don't really have much choice.

Speaking as a former machine gunner, I'd prefer to have my gun firing level, in order to maximize enemy casualties. However, the reality of the terrain dictates how you deploy your weapons. In some cases, you just have to settle for the best position you can find.

[Reb]

Tom

So you were a gunner? Me too!

I believe the Rh. made a mistake in that sometimes they selected gunners on size. In my case it happened to work but I wonder if you agree that gunners are born, not made?

I can't even change a tire but I was quickly servicing the guns and teaching classes. Head spacing? I don't need no stinkin' headspacing!

The think I envy most about the modern US military is that light machinegun. I could have enjoyed that rascal!

Ever read "Guns Up" about a Marine gunner in VN?

cheers
Reb

[phylo_roadking]

Then again, you have the remarkable Blacker Bombard, a spigot mortar - like an overgrown PIAT - that was supplied to the Home Guard in England as an antitank weapon. And frequnetly as the war progressed mounted in hardened anti-invasion defences If THAT was depressed below the horizontal....the bomb slid off the spigot!!!

I wonder if any approaching panzer would have halted in reaction to a white flag, letting the defenders climb out of the trench, pick up the bomb and slide it back on its rod....

[Ogiwan]

Hahaha. I can see it now. "Time out! Time out!"

[Herbert Keltsch]

Speilberg done a lot of research on "Saving Private Ryan", and even showed the movie to WWII veterans who landed at Normandy. Also, I saw a interview where a German machine gunner returned to Normandy and met a British or American soldier who had landed in front of his position during WWII. The German pointed to the top of the hill where he was firing down on the forces that were landing on the beach.
Who know what happens in war...unless you are there right at that moment, then you have to depend on what others have said when they were there.
Herbert