War Dept. Film : US vs. German automatic weapons

Great video, I've seen this somewhere before. How about that MG42? That rate of fire is absurd.. Compared with the equivalent American machine guns, no comparison.

Thanks for sharing!

Great video

We need to have a video sticky section Craig....

Have there been objective tests comparing these weapons. As it is a American training film for the military I am pretty sure they wouldn't go, sorry men, we are outgunned. I did enjoy the video, wonder if there is a German equivalent floating around. Will try to do some searches on You Tube tonight.

Wonder if they had one of a similar bent for the tanker corp..

You know..."Dont fear the Tiger and Panther....yes they are bigger, heavier,and have a larger caliber gun,but they are slow and prone to breakdowns...you can out manuever them with your speed and numbers."

All of which is true...but still made for a bad day for a lot of our guys.

Hell guess you cant blame them...gotta figure the recruits were scared enough as it was...no point in in demoralizeing them before their feet even touched ground in Europe...gotta downplay the reality of what you were facing somewhat to keep confidence up I suppose.

Interesting none the less.

This is a really interesting perspective. Not something i have thought about before. Thanks for posting this!

If there ever will be a section for video stickies in the forum, this video definitely belongs in the Comedy subsection. 70 years later, the MG42 and its direct descendent MG3 are still "barking" all over the world while their allegedly more accurate rivals have become dense bottom layers in the scrap heap of history. The kind of denial demonstrated in the video has contributed to the unfathomable losses on the beaches of Normandy. It also explains why resources where wasted making the P51 Mustang the fasted propeller plane of the Jet Age. Or, as the commentator of the Automatic Weapons video would say "This is a Messerschmidt Me262, it is better armed, flies faster, turns faster and has a greater rate of climb than our P51 but the Me262 engines don't last and they are lacking our big, shiny propellers."

GunKraut said:

.... "This is a Messerschmidt Me262, it is better armed, flies faster, turns faster and has a greater rate of climb than our P51 but the Me262 engines don't last and they are lacking our big, shiny propellers."

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Ah, yes, but after they completed their missions the Me262s had to slow wayyyy down on their approach to the runway. I think they had to do so to keep from stressing out the engines made from poor grade materials. It didn't take long for P51 pilots to capitalize on this. They would keep an eye out for the landing Me262s, swoop down, and take them out.

The Me262s were not made in a two-seat trainer version. Pilots were given instruction by an officer standing on the wing while the plane was on the ground. After the pilots were "trained," they would take off, and if they were lucky, they wouldn't crash. I understand a lot of pilots were lost on their first takeoffs.

gummipuppe said:

Ah, yes, but after they completed their missions the Me262s had to slow wayyyy down on their approach to the runway. I think they had to do so to keep from stressing out the engines made from poor grade materials. It didn't take long for P51 pilots to capitalize on this. They would keep an eye out for the landing Me262s, swoop down, and take them out.

The Me262s were not made in a two-seat trainer version. Pilots were given instruction by an officer standing on the wing while the plane was on the ground. After the pilots were "trained," they would take off, and if they were lucky, they wouldn't crash. I understand a lot of pilots were lost on their first takeoffs.

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There was a two seat version used as a night fighter. I don't know if it was ever used for training.

HDH.