Marines of 4th Battalion 7th Marines firing and moving an M1917A1 Browning Belt-Fed Water-Cooled Heavy Machine Gun in Okinawa in April 1945.

[dartmaster666]

>When the gun needed to be moved from one position to another during combat, the soldier carrying the weapon itself would make use of an asbestos glove to protect his hands from the burning hot barrel casing. The guns’ water cooling and heavy tripods enabled them to fire thousands of rounds if necessary.

>It’s most notable usage was by John Basilone, who used it to mow down many Japanese soldiers in an ensuing battle, even while it was off its tripod. He kept using it throughout the battle, except when he moved some dead bodies out of the way of his friend’s field of fire. During the battle, Basilone’s asbestos glove was lost and he had to carry the gun by it’s hot barrel casing, even stopping en route to a new position to fire on several Japanese troops, causing himself third-degree burns on his hands and arms.

https://thepacific.fandom.com/wiki/Browning_M1917

[go_comatose_for_me]

I went to elementary school in the mid 70s in Okinawa. Part of every year we had to sit through a presentation about the dangerous of unexploded ordinance and what to do if we came across any while playing in the boonies.

[Eheran]

Why was water cooling droped? I would assume that having a portable, removeable water jacket would be very nice since it allows the gunner to keep firing all the time. Just pour some more water in if it gets too low, automatically limits the temperatue to ~100 °C.

There must be a good reason they stoped doing that even before WW2.