The M2 50 caliber machinegun

[Al]

Interesting topic that inspired me to see what numbers I could come up with.

My sources were "US Army Infantry Divisions 1942-43" & it's companion volume "US Army Infantry Divisions 1944-45". Both are by John Sayen and are part of Osprey's excellent Battle orders series.

1941 division - 113
1942 division - 156
1943 division - 141 (March)
1943 division - 236 (July - basically the 'final' organization of the war)

In the July '43 Division the vast majority of the M2 .50 cals were in the 3 infantry regiments which had 35 each and in the Divisional artillery which had 89 total! So, you can see that although the infantry division had a lot of these powerful weapons fully 37% were with the artillery & not with the 'front line' infantry regiments. Additionally, if one just counts the .50 cal's that were with the combat units (infantry, recon & engineer) & not with the various support units I come up with 120 .50 cal's or roughly 50% of the total contained within the division.

Something to consider as to what the units on the map actually represent.