Marine Machine Gunners (1941-1945)

Battalion: An Organizational Study of United States Infantry

Marines train with a Browning light machine gun (Model 1919) (USMC)

During the Second World War, Marine infantry regiments employed two types of tripod-mounted .30-caliber Browning machine guns. The lighter of the two models, which was often described as the ‘light machine gun’, made use of an air-cooled barrel. The heavier weapon, known as the ‘heavy machine gun’, sported a water jacket.

The number of Marines who devoted their time and trouble to the feeding and firing of these machines guns varied greatly over the course of the war. This figure remained steady in 1942, rose considerably in 1943, and plummeted in 1944. In the last year of the war, however, it returned to a level comparable to the one authorized on the eve of the conflict.

Number of Marines in an infantry regiment serving as machine gunners

When the number of machine gunners allowed to each infantry regiment is expressed as a percentage of the total number of Marines rated by units of that sort, the overall pattern holds. Nonetheless, when compared to the great increase in the number of Marines allowed to each infantry regiment by the establishments approved on 1 May 1945, the recovery of the last year of the war appears to be less than a fully-fledged return to the status quo ante.