. The M2 .50 Browning machine gun has been used for various roles: • A medium infantry support weapon • As a light
anti-aircraft (AA) gun in some ships; up to six M2 guns could be mounted on the same turret. • As an anti-aircraft gun on the ground. The original water-cooled version of the M2 was used on a tall AA tripod or vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft weapon on pedestal mount. In later variants, twin and quadruple M2HB Brownings were used, such as the
M45 Quadmount (aka "meat chopper") used on the U.S.
M16 half-track carrier. Twin or quad-mount .50 M2 guns normally used alternating left-hand and right-hand feed. • Primary or secondary weapon on an
armored fighting vehicle. • Primary or secondary weapon on a naval patrol boat. • Spotting for the primary weapon on some
armored fighting vehicles. • Secondary weapon for anti-boat defense on large naval vessels (corvettes, frigates, destroyers, cruisers, etc.). •
Coaxial gun or independent mounting in some tanks, including but not limited to: the
M47 Patton,
M48 Patton,
M4 Sherman,
M24 Chaffee,
Heavy tank M6,
Heavy Tank T29,
M1 Abrams,
M60 Patton,
M46 Patton, and the
M26 Pershing. • Fixed-mounted forward-firing primary aircraft armament (AN/M2 and AN/M3 light-barrel versions only). The AN/M2 was used as primary armament in almost all World War II U.S.
pursuit aircraft (such as the
North American P-51 Mustang,
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt,
Lockheed P-38 Lightning,
Bell P-39 Airacobra,
Curtiss P-40 Warhawk,
Grumman F6F Hellcat, and
Vought F4U Corsair). It was also used in fixed mountings in bombers and ground attack aircraft like the
Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber,
Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber, and medium bombers such as
North American B-25 Mitchell,
Martin B-26 Marauder, and
Douglas A-26 Invader; usually 4–8 per aircraft but the bombers could mount 12 or more in certain configurations. The later, faster-firing electrically feed-boosted AN/M3 was used in many
Korean War–era
USAF fighter aircraft such as the
Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star,
Republic F-84 Thunderjet,
North American F-86 Sabre, and early versions of the
Martin B-57 Canberra bomber. The
U.S. Navy had largely completed their move to the (unrelated)
M2/AN 20 mm
autocannon for aircraft armament by this time. •
Turret-mount or flexible-mounted defensive armament, again only with the AN/M2 light-barrel version, in almost all U.S. World War II–era bombers and patrol aircraft such as the
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress,
Consolidated B-24 Liberator and
Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers, North American B-25 Mitchell and Martin B-26 Marauder medium bombers,
Consolidated PBY Catalina patrol flying boats, Goodyear
K- and
M-class blimps,
Grumman TBF/TBM Avenger torpedo bombers, and in a combined offensive/defensive turret mounting in many
Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighters. The AN/M3 was used as a flexible, quad-mounted, radar-directed tail-defense gun as late as 1980 on the
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, until replaced by 20 mm
M61 Vulcan Gatling-type cannon on the H model. • Variants of the AN/M3 are used as flexible door guns or as flexible remotely controlled armament subsystems on many U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and
Coast Guard helicopters, such as the
Bell UH-1 Iroquois,
Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawk and variants,
Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion,
Bell OH-58 Kiowa, and others.
United States stands guard with the M2HB installed on a dual-purpose mounting, 1944. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the United States had versions of the M2 in service as fixed aircraft guns, anti-aircraft defensive guns (on aircraft, ships, or boats), infantry (tripod-mounted) guns, and as dual purpose anti-aircraft and anti-vehicular weapons on vehicles. The .50 AN/M2 light-barrel aircraft Browning used in planes had a rate of fire of approximately 800 rounds per minute and was used singly or in groups of up to eight guns for aircraft ranging from the
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt to the
North American B-25 Mitchell bomber, which in the last J-version of the Mitchell could have up to 14 M2s firing forward for ground attack missions – eight in a solid metal-structure nose, four more mounted in a pair of conformal twin-gunned
gun pods on the lower cockpit sides, and two more if the forward dorsal turret's pair of M2 guns were also aimed straight forward. The later A-26 bested this with up to a maximum of 16/18 machine guns, 8 in the nose, four more per wing in flush-mount pods, plus 2 guns in the dorsal turret. In the dual-purpose vehicle mount, the M2HB proved extremely effective in U.S. service: the Browning's .50-caliber AP and API rounds could easily penetrate the engine block or fuel tanks of a German
Bf 109 fighter attacking at low altitude, or perforate the hull plates and fuel tanks of a German
half-track or
light armored car. It could even penetrate the sides and rear of the
Panzer I,
Panzer II,
Panzer III, and
Panzer IV tanks. While the dual-purpose mounting was undeniably useful, it did normally require the operator to stand when using the M2 in a ground role, exposing him to return fire. Units in the field often modified the mountings on their vehicles, especially tanks and tank destroyers, to provide more operator protection in the anti-vehicular and anti-personnel role. The weapon was particularly hated by the Germans, whose attacks and ambushes against otherwise helpless stalled motor convoys were frequently broken up by .50-caliber machine gun fire. Vehicles would frequently perform "recon by fire" with the M2 Browning; i.e., they would fire continuously at suspected points of ambush while moving through areas still containing enemy forces. Heavy weapons companies in some Army infantry battalions and regiments were issued a single M2 Browning with tripod (ground) mount. The M2HB proved particularly useful as a defensive weapon against German infantry and motorized forces. It could be mounted on a tripod and secured in place with sandbags, denying the enemy access to intersections and other choke points. Hearing the sound of an M2 was often enough to convince enemy infantry to take cover. There are numerous recorded instances of the M2 Browning being used against enemy personnel, particularly in infantry assaults or to suppress and eliminate artillery observers and snipers at long range. at
Firebase Phoenix, Afghanistan, in 2007 The M2HB was not widely used in the
Pacific campaign for several reasons, including the weight of the gun, the nature of infantry jungle combat, and because road intersections were usually easily outflanked. However, it was used by fast-moving motorized forces in the
Philippines to destroy Japanese blocking units on the advance to
Manila. The
quad mount .50 was also used to destroy Japanese emplacements. SFC Smith was killed during the firefight and was posthumously awarded the
Medal of Honor.
M45 Quadmount The M45 Quadmount was a mounting of four .50 M2HB guns with a single gunner situated behind an armored housing. This was used by U.S. anti-air battalions, fitted either on a towed trailer or mounted on a half-track carrier. With 200 rounds per gun in a powered tracking mount, the guns proved very effective against low-flying aircraft. The use of four guns adequately compensated for the fact that the individual M2HB's rate of fire (450–550 rounds per minute) was low for an effective anti-aircraft weapon. Towards the end of the war, as
Luftwaffe attacks became less frequent, the quad .50 (nicknamed the
Meat Chopper or
Krautmower The M45 Quadmount was still in use during the Vietnam War.
Commonwealth and other forces The
Commonwealth use of the M2 Browning .50-caliber machine gun (known as the .5 Browning in British and Commonwealth service) began in World War II, though from 1942 it was standard armament on U.S.-built
AFVs provided under
Lend-Lease such as the
M4 Sherman,
M7 Priest,
M8 Greyhound, or
M10 tank destroyer variously used by British, Canadian, Australian, South African, and New Zealand units. Nevertheless, the heavy Browning's effectiveness was praised by many British and Commonwealth soldiers in infantry, armored, and ordnance branches. Many commanders thought that the .50 Browning was the best weapon in its class, certainly the best of the American weapons, including the
M1 Garand and
M1 Carbine. In
North Africa, after Commonwealth units began to obtain sufficient parts, manuals, gauges, and ammunition for the new weapon, the .50 Browning was increasingly used, eventually replacing the
15 mm Besa, but in Italy, it was often deleted from top turret mountings because the mount exposed the operator to low branches and enemy fire. All
LRDGs, and some
SAS units, used the aircraft (AN/M2) version of the gun, while beam/waist-mounted and turret-mounted Brownings were used later in the war in such aircraft as the
Short Sunderland and
Lancaster bomber. After World War II, the .50 Browning continued to see action in Korea and other theaters, in aircraft, tripod (ground), ground AA (hip-ring), and vehicle mounts. One of its most notable actions in a ground role was in a fierce battle with a nine-man Special Air Service team at the
Battle of Mirbat in
Oman in July 1972, where the heavy Browning and its API ammunition was used to help repulse an assault by 250 Yemeni
Adoo guerrillas, though the more famous weapon from the battle is a
25 pounder gun. The
Scots Guards used the weapon in the 1982
Falklands War. A .50-caliber Browning was installed along with a .30-caliber Browning machine gun in each compact one-man turret on M113 APCs used by the Royal Australian Armoured Corps in South Vietnam. The M2HB has been in service with the
Israel Defense Forces since its establishment and has served in all of Israel's
wars, operations, and conflicts. In 2012, the IDF upgraded its M2HB machine guns to the M2HQCB model, with a heavy quick-change barrel. Today, the M2 serves as an infantry crew-served heavy machine gun, as a remote-controlled external
coaxial gun on
Merkava main battle tanks, as the main weapon on the
Samson RCWS, and as a secondary weapon on
Israeli Sea Corps gunboats and
missile boats. Nigerian troops have extensively deployed the .50-caliber Browning, mounted on Otokar Cobra APCs, Panhard VBL M11s and Landcruiser gun-trucks in counterinsurgency operations in the Niger Delta, N.E Nigeria, the Jos Plateau, and in Mali.
Sniper rifle CQBSS variable power scope The M2 machine gun has also been used as a long-range
sniper rifle when equipped with a high-powered
telescopic sight. Soldiers during the Korean War used scoped M2s in the role of a sniper rifle, but the practice was most notably used by U.S. Marine Corps sniper
Carlos Hathcock during the Vietnam War. Using an
Unertl telescopic sight and a mounting bracket of his own design, Hathcock could quickly convert the M2 into a sniper rifle, using the traversing-and-elevating (T&E) mechanism attached to the
tripod. When firing semi-automatically, Hathcock hit man-size targets beyond —twice the range of the standard-caliber sniper rifle of the time (a
.30-06 Winchester Model 70). Hathcock set the record for the longest confirmed kill at —about 1.4 statute miles, a
record which stood until 2002, when it was broken in Afghanistan by Canadian Army sniper
Arron Perry. ==Variants and derivatives==