[Billthedrill]

Great article, and thanks for posting. The invocation of that storied name causes folks to doff their caps hereabouts. But this:

The outbreak of World War I was the great crisis of Browning’s lifetime. The gun that started it all — a .32 Caliber FN Model 1900 semiautomatic pistol wielded by the Serbian assassin Gavrilo Princip — was a Browning invention.

That I did not know. And the notion that U.S. troops were issued the Chauchat when the BAR might have been available makes me grind my teeth.

A Browning BTT.

[yarddog]

I have read that the reason the BAR was not issued at least in large number during WWI was the Army felt it was such an extraordinary design that they were afraid the enemy would capture them.

As a matter of fact, John’s son Val used the BAR in World War I, I think he was testing it in combat.