The US military renewed its interest in a new light, general purpose machine gun after WWII had ended. Another German WWII design intrigued the US ordnance community enough to begin some experiments with it. The Krieghoff FG 42 had been developed for German paratroop forces and was a combination of innovative ideas of its own, and some adoptions of interesting ideas of earlier weapons.
Designed as a lightweight machine rifle, the FG 42 was primarily made of metal stampings and welding to ease production. Magazine fed from the left side by a horizontal 20-round magazine, the FG 42 was not capable of truly sustained fire.
The bolt and operating rod of the FG 42 was very similar to that used in the much earlier Lewis gun. The German designers had modified the system so that the FG 42 fired on closed bolt for accuracy in semiautomatic fire, but switched over to firing from an open bolt when set on full automatic. The open bolt system allowed the weapon to cool more efficiently during full-auto fire.
The late-model FG 42, called the FG 42 type II, weighed in at only 11.44 pounds empty. The addition of an effective muzzle break and the in-line design of the stock helped minimize muzzle climb, but the weapon’s light weight worked against it in full auto fire. Accuracy, when fired in semiautomatic, was considered excellent, and the weapon was quick and easy to handle and lay on target.
A late model FG 42 was taken directly by the US Ordnance Corps to be refined into a belt-fed weapon. Bridge Tool and Die Works of Philadelphia was given the contract to produce the new weapon, designated the T44. A standard late model FG 42 was modified to accept the belt feed mechanism from the MG 42 on the left side of the weapon.
The orientation of the feed mechanism of the T44 allowed for minor changes in the basic design of the FG 42, but gave the weapon unique loading characteristics. The non-disintegrating German link belt would feed in from the lower left side of the T44, directly above the pistol grip. The empty link belt came out of the top of the weapon, falling down on the right side. Being that the T44 remained chambered for the German 7.92x57mm round, eliminating the problems that plagued the T24 project, the weapon was considered only a test bed to try out the feasibility of the design.
By December, 1946, the mechanical conversion of the basic FG 42 into the T44 prototype had been completed. Test firings proved much of what the German paratroops had found during the war, that the overall design was too light for sustained full automatic fire. The relatively light barrel of the FG 42 would overheat quickly, especially with the larger ammunition capacity given with the belt feed of the T44 conversion. In addition, the light weight of the weapon caused excessive spread of the rounds in a fired burst. But mechanically, the design had merit and a new contract was issued for further development.
The T44 itself never went beyond the prototype stage. But the basic bolt and operating rod mechanism of the FG 42 and the belt feed system of the MG 42 were incorporated into a new design.
Initiated in April 1947, the new weapon was designated the T52. Using much the same configuration as the original FG 42, the T52 had the feed mechanism placed on top of the receiver in the usual position, feeding from the left side of the weapon. In addition, the T52 had the wooden forearm and buttstock, bipod, muzzle brake, and trigger group of the FG 42. The barrel could not be removed from the weapon and the bolt locked into lugs in the receiver.
Prototypes: T44 (M60)
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By December, 1946, the mechanical conversion of the basic FG 42
to me that does not sound like a first prototype