Help in understanding designations .

[lcm1947]

Ok, I admit I don't know what a lot of the designations you guys use stand for and since I really enjoy reading on this forum, I am having trouble keeping up as you can imagine not knowing what the heck you are talking about. So what is a LMG? what is a HMG42? I found out the hard way yesterday what a SMG was so am good to go on that one. Any help?

[jgdpzr]

LMG=Light Machine Gun

HMG42=Heavy Machine Gun 42

Hope this helps!

[lcm1947]

Thanks jgdpz5. If I can ask another question of you? Why do they put the 42 at the end of HMG and not a number at the end of LMG? This may sound stupid but don't know?

[jgdpzr]

Not sure as to the specific reason why one carries the 42 at the end, while the other doesn't. The principal difference between the two is the mount. The LMG uses only the bipod mount attached near the front of the gun. The HMG, on the other hand, uses a much more substantial and stable mounting system. The utility of each is that with the bipod, the gun is very mobile. This is the gun that is the squad support weapon organic to the German rifle squads. The heavy mount, or schwere in German, is used for sustained fire. It provides a more accurate platform, and allows the gunner to maintain higher rates of fire, with accuracy at greater ranges. This setup requires a larger crew to pack around the ammo and the spare barrels, which are critical to provide the gun with sustained firing capabilities.

BTW, in CM2, we'll get to see the similar versions of the MG34, I assume.

[gunnergoz]

These titles are more CM conventions than any official or historic designations. The actual German titles for these guns and their equipment can be looked up in various texts and they are long phrases indeed. The only difference of course is the fact that the heavy is simply the light mounted upon a fancy, well-engineered tripod with telescopic sights. It's more accurate and used more as a stand-off weapon.

[lcm1947]

Again thank you jgdpzr. Appreciate the speedy reply. Now that I know everything about the game I'm off to use my American LMG's against those HMG42's.

[Michael Dorosh]

German designations are

MPi - Machine Pistol (the Commonwealth also called the Sten a machine pistol - it is another word for submachine gun ie an automatic firing weapon, compact, which fires pistol sized bullets (such as 9mm or .45 calibre) over short distances).

sMG - scwhere maschinegewehr - Heavy Machine Gun. Some bad translations of German works will talk about SMGs and in English, you will assume they mean Sub Machine Gun. They don't.

lMG - leichte maschinegewehr - Light Machine Gun

lcm - LMG can be used as a general term, as can MMG and HMG. The addition of the number is, as pointed out, simply a convention.

In actuality the German weapons were GPMGs - General Purpose Machine Guns. A GPMG can be configured in light, medium or heavy mode depending on the accessories - an MG 34 or MG 42 on a bipod is an LMG, put it on a tripod you've got a medium, equip the tripod with telescopic sights, you have a heavy. (That's very simplified, if someone feels the need to expand, do so.)

The Americans, for example, did not have GPMGs - they also lacked a true LMG. They used the Browning .30 as a MMG, and the a water cooled version as an HMG, as of course was the .50.

They tried to take the aircooled .30 and put a butt and bipod on it, and call it an LMG, but it never replaced the BAR - which is properly called an automatic rifle.

The Germans also introduced the assault rifle; called variously Sturmgewehr (assault rifle) or Maschinepistole 44, the weapon was unique in firing rifle sized ammo (with a special short cartridge) over greater ranges either automatically (more than one bullet per squeeze of the trigger) or semi-automatically (without having to re-cock the weapon after every shot).

[lcm1947]

Thank you Michael Dorosh for clearing that up. So I was still wrong thinking that SMG meant Sub Machine gun. So we have SMG= Heavy MG, LMG= light MG and MMG= Medium MG. Right? And HMG also means Heavy MG? Ok, so unless someone corrects me I've got it. Many thanks to you.

[Mr. Johnson--]

You forgot the Fallschirmgewher 42, that was sort of like a BAR.

SMG does mean sub-machine gun in english, but in Germans S=Swhere=Heavy. So if your talking to me when you say SMG I'm gonna assume Uzi or MP-5, you say GPMG or MG when you want to talk about the M-60 or equivilent.