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Post by connie on Jun 26, 2010 17:12:32 GMT -5
I'm sure others without a military background run into this problem.
Writings are often sprinkled with unfamiliar abbreviations.
Here's one I ran into today:
B.A.R.
context: "... was the assistant BAR gunner with Company I of the 423rd Regiment."
Can anyone tell me what the letters stood for and in layman's terms, what this fellow's responsibilities were?
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Carl W.
Active Member
Administrator
The Golden Lions
Posts: 265
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Post by Carl W. on Jun 27, 2010 0:47:12 GMT -5
The BAR was the Browning Automatic Rifle, a .30-06 caliber squad light machine gun used from WWI till the early stages of the Vietnam war. The BAR is a very heavy weapon and was usually outfitted with a bipod. A BAR team was comprised of an NCO, the BAR gunner, the assistant BAR gunner and an ammo bearer. I've got one of these at home and really, I wouldn't want to have to carry this weapon around with me every day. It weighs approximately 20 pounds.  Note from Connie: the image appears to have disappeared from this post. I did find a museum youtube post that covers this weapon well: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcwdzkZaCoEHere's a screen shot of the Browning Automatic Rifle from that presentation (click to enlarge)  |
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Post by floydragsdale on Jun 28, 2010 11:06:11 GMT -5
The B.A.R. brings back memories to me.
Every rifle company in an infantry division, during WWII, had three of those weapons. The 1st, 2nd. and 3rd platoons had a B.A.R. team. The 4th platoon was a heavy weapons (60 mm mortar & 30 caliber machine gun) platoon.
While we were at the Hedishiem, P.W. Compound every G.I. still carried a loaded weapon every day no matter where we were or intended to go.
A B.A.R. man, in one of our platoons, decided to "take a walk" along the Rhein river. Of course, he had his B.A.R. with him and he said, "I'll do some rabbit hunting along the way."
I don't remember if he shot any rabbits or not. Yet, if he did, the poor little bunnie would have been turned inside out after being hit with a blast from a rifle like that.
Now that I think about that incident, several other soldiers from our Company decided to go fishing with some concusion grenades. That's one way to get a mess of fish in a hurry.
It's a good thing there weren't any game wardens to contend with then.
Floyd
424th Regiment
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Post by connie on Jun 29, 2010 9:30:38 GMT -5
Thanks, Carl & Floyd, You have answered my question and provided helpful photo and detail. In addition, Floyd, you managed to provide me with my chuckle for the day! Connie PS To see reference to a member of the 106th with BAR assignment: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/932/thread |
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Post by connie on Jun 26, 2021 12:22:10 GMT -5
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Post by connie on Jun 28, 2021 2:20:11 GMT -5
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