Japanese Machineguns and deployment

You got to hand it to them- they were probably the only major combatant that had HMGs with the firepower of LMGs. Every 8 man Japanese squad was based around one LMG. Their company weapons platoon only had two HMGs.

In comparison, the Marines had 3 BARs for every 12 men and a weapons platoon with 6 M1919A4 30 cal. machineguns.

• Type 11 Light Machine Gun
• Type 96 Light Machine Gun
• Type 99 Light Machine Gun
• Type 3 Heavy Machine Gun
• Type 92 Heavy Machine Gun
• Type 1 Heavy Machine Gun

 

It's interesting that their HMG had only 30 round clips and fired @ only 450 RPM. Besides a stable platform, it's not that much better than their LMG.

 

Noticing that bayonet on the LMG, I'd like to ask: Did the gunners participate in their "banzai" charges or did they stay behind and cover the riflemen?

 

Damn. That is puny firepower. In comaprson, in an US Infatry Battalion Post Normandy, you are looking at 2-3 BAR men pre squad, and their the Heavy Weapons Company were will be one HMG and eight 30. M1919s LMGs
That's some serious automatic fire disavantages.

 

hey wolfy whats the name of the belt fed machine gun on the last picture