70th Anniversary of D-Day

[Anomalocaris]

Yep, nasty shit. One 75mm A/T gun hidden in the hedge backed up by a squad of infantry with an MG-42 and you could tie that road up for hours.
And you wouldn't know they were there until they opened up. And the bocage was ubiquitous to Normandy.

The MG-42 is a terrifying thing. Just the insane fire rate telling you it means business. Certainly something you wouldn't want to bump into at the wrong range.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwW31u6wYvE

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Yeah, but you also have to consider the following:

1. Outside the MG42, most German infantrymen are equipped with Mauser 98K bolt action carbines, and thus possess much less firepower than the ordinary American infantrymen with semi-automatic M1s, and somewhat less firepower than the British infantrymen with Lee Enfields. So while the German squad automatic weapon the MG-42 puts out a lot more firepower than American squad automatic weapoin the BAR, the American squad can put significantly more firepower from secondary directions than the German squad. And MG42 is more powerful than British Bren gun, but not nearly by as big a margin as over American BAR.

So while the MG42 makes a German squad a strong defensive strong point, the heavy focus on a single weapon makes the German sqaud much less flexible in attack, because firepower in American squads is more distributed.

2. There is no German equivalent to American company heavy weapons like the 50 caliber M2. So American companies can better engage enemy hiding under cover, or from much longer range, than German company.

3. America had overwhelming superiority in artillery, and American artillery were of higher quality both in fire direction, and in coordination with infantry. So MG42 is fearsome, but not as fearsome as a battery of 105mm howiters firing over a range of hills.