A question for you WW2 history buffs.

[Surtt]

Why was the MG42 allowed to fire so fast?

I understand that there was a psychological aspect to it.

But as a practical mater, I would think, the need to change out barrels and the rate it went through ammo would hinder it's usefulness.

[Coffee Warlord]

Wow, that's an obscure one. But, my guesses:

1) Most infantry are trained to only fire off short bursts anyway. The whole full auto, unload on people idea was never really a thing.

2) Even with the swapping out of barrels, my guess was the overall cost of parts and speed to manufacture still kept it cheap. Germany's biggest problems were always resources & production capacity - anything effective that was cheap to produce woulda been gold.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Surtt

Why was the MG42 allowed to fire so fast?

I understand that there was a psychological aspect to it.

But as a practical mater, I would think, the need to change out barrels and the rate it went through ammo would hinder it's usefulness.

It doubled at times as an anti-aircraft weapon, where the high rate of fire capability was useful. For use against ground targets there were strict orders to keep the weapon limited to short bursts.

[JPhillips]

From what I've read it was more reliable than the MG34 that it replaced.