World War II and Later
The heavier water-cooled designs continued to be used throughout WWII and into the 1960s, but were gradually phased out in favor of air-cooled designs. The mediums were now used both as medium machine guns while mounted on tripods and as light machine guns while mounted on bipods. This was possible in part because a heavy, static MG position was not a very effective tactic in vehicle-centered warfare, and the significantly lighter air-cooled designs could nearly match the capabilities of the water-cooled versions.
Gatling-type machine guns such as the Minigun and GShG-7.62 reappeared after WWII. These are typically mounted on ships and helicopters because of their weight and large ammunition requirements (due to their extremely high rate of fire.) The need for sustained automatic fire on the ground, however, is now nearly entirely filled by air-cooled medium machine guns.
Read more about this topic: Heavy Machine Gun
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“Never mind the ridicule, never mind the defeat: up again, old heart!—it seems to say,—there is victory yet for all justice; and the true romance which the world exists to realize, will be the transformation of genius into practical power.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red:
They banish our anger forever
When they laurel the graves of our dead!
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the Judgment Day:—
Love and tears for the Blue;
Tears and love for the Gray.”
—Francis Miles Finch (1827–1907)