Can an HMG team share its ammo with squads?

[Kanonier Reichmann]

I had a situation the other night where onee of my infantry squads was dangerously low in M2 rifle ammo. I looked around and saw that a nearby Browning 1917 HMG team with accompanying ammo bearer team had oodles of M2 ammo so I moved up the ammo bearers to a position right alongside the squad hoping they would share their ammo with them. Didn't happen for at least 5 turns or so and then the battle ended.

The questions I have are, isn't the 30 cal. ammo the 1917 HMG uses exactly the same as the ammo a Garand uses and if so, why couldn't the ammo be shared? The only thing that I think may have been a factor is that the HMG team was attached to the 2nd platoon HQ while the rifle squad was from the 1st platoon. However, surely in the dire situation where an entire squad has virtually no ammo (down to 25 rounds in total), shouldn't it be able to share ammo from other platoons? Was the paperwork with everything in triplicate too much hassle back in the day?

Regards

KR

[Reaver]

They may have the ammo but would they have the metal clips for the Garand rifles?

[Sergei]

Generally, units only share ammo with their platoon mates so it's best to keep formations together.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

KR,

As I understand it units won't give ammo to other units that are running low, but will allow them to use their ammo if they are nearby enough. So low on ammo unit B will fire unit A's plentiful ammunition without it ever appearing in unit B's inventory.

Did this not happen either?

[Sergei]

KR,

As I understand it units won't give ammo to other units that are running low, but will allow them to use their ammo if they are nearby enough. So low on ammo unit B will fire unit A's plentiful ammunition without it ever appearing in unit B's inventory.

To expand on this, what happens is eg. unit A's soldier 1 runs out of ammo for his rifle and his mates are to their last clips, too. If there's a friendly team with ammo to share, soldier 1 will take one clip from them and load it. When soldier 2 spends his last clip, the same happens etc.

But if they don't belong to the same parent formation, it won't happen.

[Magpie_Oz]

The M1917 did use a different cartridge, the boat tailed M1 30-06 round which gave a much greater range. The M1 Garand used the M2 30-06 round.

I am not sure if the M1 could use the M1 or if the M1917 was always supplied with the M1 or if it generally used the M2 from the M1 and only used the M1 when it needed the extra range.

Ok that is NOT a piss take but does highlight the problems faced with the "M" numbering system.

Put simply the HMG used a different round for extra range but I am not sure if this was the only rounds they carried in the field or if it normally used the same round as the rifle. I also do not know if the rifle can use the HMG's special rounds.

[Kanonier Reichmann]

KR,

As I understand it units won't give ammo to other units that are running low, but will allow them to use their ammo if they are nearby enough. So low on ammo unit B will fire unit A's plentiful ammunition without it ever appearing in unit B's inventory.

Did this not happen either?

Ahhh, interesting explanation. I never fired the rifle squad in question as it was so low in ammo I feared that any return fire would cause their morale to break seing as they would have nothing left to throw back at the enemy. If I had known that nearby units share their ammo without explicitly showing this on the respective ammo levels then I certainly would have fired them.

Is it a definite confirmation that only units within the same platoon can share ammo with their fellow squads and not ones outside their immediate command structure?

Regards

KR

[Michael Emrys]

As a practical matter, even if the ammo could be shared, the cartridges would have to be pulled from the belts and loaded into clips. This would be a somewhat time consuming process. It wouldn't happen instantly. Whether or not the game models this...?

Michael