John Browning’s heavy machine gun, developed in 1917, which saw action in the closing months of WW1. Firing the 30-06 Springfield cartridge, at a rate of about 450 rounds per minute. It was a crew-served, belt-fed, water-cooled machine gun that served alongside the much lighter air-cooled Browning M1919. It was used at the battalion level, and often mounted on vehicles (such as a jeep).
In 1900, John Moses Browning filed a patent for a recoil-powered automatic gun.Browning did not work on the gun again until 1910, when he built a water-cooled prototype of the 1900 design.Although the gun worked well, Browning improved the design slightly.
Browning replaced side ejection with bottom ejection, added a buffer for smoother operation, replaced the hammer with a two piece firing pin, and some other minor improvements.The basic design of the gun was still the 1900 design.At 21 kg it was much lighter than contemporary Maxim type guns.
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The only similarities with the Maxim or Vickers are the principles of recoil operation, T-slot breechblock, “pull-out” belt feed, water cooling, and forward ejection. Its sliding-block locking mechanism saved weight and complexity, and was used in many previous Browning designs. The belt fed left-to-right, and the cartridges were stacked closer together than Maxim/Vickers (patterns copied by most guns later)./wikipedia
