M1941 Johnson LMG vs. M1918A2 BAR

On paper, the Johnson seems to be equal or better than the Browning in some areas, being 6 lbs.(13 lb vs 19 lb) lighter, uses the same cartridge, has a higher rof (300-900 rpm vs. 300-650 rpm), carries a slightly larger magazine, and has more-or-less the same muzzle velocity, but in practice, would the Johnson have been a good replacement of the BAR for service in regular Army and Marine units?

 

On paper yes it would have been. The major reasons it wasn't was the BAR was in production and had been a proven weapon since WW1 and the Johnson wasn't seen as a large enough improvement to justify switching over in the middle of a war.

I have no idea how well it could handle abuse and jungle environments but haven't seen any complaints.

 

higher RPMs could mean problems such as overheating, resupply and accuracy.....and it looks very awkward to carry, patrol with, and maneuver with, because of the side mag...

 

I consulted several authorities (Hogg, Weeks, Chamberlain & Gander) and they report that the Johnson was not robust enough and too prone to jamming. The side-feed magazine also tended to unbalance the weapon. On the other hand, the 1st SSF (Devil's Brigade) used the "Johnny gun" succesfully in Italy and liked it very much.

 

How easy was it to change barrels on the Johnson? That's been mentioned as a key weakness of the BAR especially as relates to sustained fire.

 

http://www.combatreform.org/lightmachineguns.htm

this article has many MGs....but if you scroll down, it asks and details the same question as this thread....many pics...also has a period ad for the Johnson

 

Thanks for the responses everyone.

 

I don't know much about the Johnson, but the lighter weight alone is not really an advantage in a "light" machine gun. You still need enough weight to hold the darned thing down for sustained bursts. This was the problem with the FAL (L1A1) and the M14 a few years later. They envisioned all infantrymen as essentially groups of men with light machine guns. Those rifles were not very effective in full auto mode because you couldn't hold them down or keep them on target. They'd walk all over the place.

Even today with the 5.56 and light recoil, you still need the SAW at 17 pounds for the sustained fire role.

 

The Johnson LMG does appear in the TOE of some marine raider and army special operations units. The consensus seems to be, not robust enough for infantry work but well liked by reconnaissance and direct action specialists.

 

So all-in-all the Johnson, although not suited for frontline Infantry service, nonetheless served well in recon and special ops units then?

 

This is one of my favorites. I wish I had purchased a transferable M1941LMG back when they were "cheap" but I went with an HK MP5K instead. I also wasn't too crazy about adding a 30-06 to the collection as that's just more, disparate ammo and limited my shooting locations. I also freely admit I don't enjoy getting hammered by recoil. When I finally got to test fire it, it was sold pending funds but the buyer wanted to test fire it and agreed to allow me to join. I was a novice and had very little understanding of what recoil operation meant. There was an immediate notice in the recoil difference however it did dance around a bit firing off the bipod. It still was able to achieve impressive first round accuracy on full auto(open bolt). Melvin Johnson loved to demonstrate the accuracy and recoil reduction by firing the LMG one-handed and would toss spent 30-06 brass into the air and nail it.

The reason for the LMG designation was more for marketing. There was an open solicitation for new LMGs and he hoped to get the belt-feed only requirement dropped. He considered it an "automatic rifle" but that conflicted with the M1941 semi-auto rifle nomenclature thus he settled on "machine rifle". Unfortunately, full-scale production never happened. As a result, the bugs weren't worked out and parts needing to be beefed-up or redesigned were used. The M1943LMG was their first attempt to improve the 41 but no orders were placed for it. The M1944LMG was the first major overhaul of the design.

As it stood, the Johnson was not suitable for regular infantry use. In the FSSF, Canadian troops that only had experience with the Bren loved it. However, US troops, trained on the BAR, tried using it and compared it to the BAR. The Johnson was best when used as a rifle until temporary full auto fire was needed. Kind of like 4-wheel drive-- you use it to get out of trouble not into.

I recommend "Johnson's Rifles and Machine Guns" by Bruce N. Canfield for more detailed information.

ETA any way to post pics larger than 500kb?

 

There are about umpteen free photo resizers on a google search...I use FastStone Image Viewer: http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

 

I'm using an iPad so I'll check the App Store. Thanks

 

Apple? No go on Faststone then...

Try Seashore
http://seashore.sourceforge.net/The_Seashore_Project/About.html

or

XnView MP
http://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/

 

The Johnson LMG was a far better machine gun. It weighed less like you just said, which means the soldiers lugging it wouldn't be as tired as someone holding the 20lb B.A.R. The reason the Johnson LMG didn't catch on was because it was built in 1941, around the time the war for the U.S started. The B.A.R on the other hand was built during the first world war. The Johnson could also be loaded from the side, which isn't the best for people who are left handed but for right handed people it meant they could load it faster compared to the B.A.R mag from the bottom.

 

Post number 4 mentions some issues that would bring to question the conclusion that it was a "far better machine gun". In general post #15 looks very one sided to me.

 

The BAR continued to serve in Korea and wasn't fully dropped by US forces from use until early Vietnam. It was well liked by the infantry in both WWII and Korea. The Johnson was NOT disregarded/ignored/not adopted because the BAR was already in inventory. It was not disregarded/ignored/not adopted because it was not the superior weapon. The BAR wasn't a perfect weapon, but good enough all around to be the best choice available.