Osprey Publications 6715 The Browning Automatic RifleFor nearly 50 years the hard-hitting, mobile BAR, served in US infantry units as a light squad automatic 'base of fire' weapon, providing quick bursts of concentrated fire. Designed in WWI, it didn’t reach the front until September 1918. In the interwar years US forces used the BAR across the world. It also became a favorite of notorious gangsters like Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, who prized its ability to punch through police armored cars. The BAR was not without its flaws; it was heavy and difficult to dismantle and reassemble, and it didn't cope well with sustained fire. Nevertheless, the BAR saw action in every major theater of WWII and went on to be used in Korea and in the opening stages of the Vietnam War. Features first-hand accounts, full-color artwork and detail photographs, many in color, this lively study offers a vivid portrait of this powerful, long-lived and innovative weapon that saw service across the world for much of the 20th century. Weapon 15; Hodges; 80 pages.
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