Browning M1919A4 machine gun.
By Robert G. Segel
The Browning M1919A4 air-cooled machine gun in .30-06 was the standard rifle caliber belt fed machine gun of the United States for three decades from the 1930s to the 1960s. It was the main infantry machine gun during World War II and Korea and saw initial service in Viet Nam until replaced by the M60 General Purpose Machine Gun.
Produced in the tens of thousands by many manufacturers it saw service in every theater of war. A simple spare parts roll was developed in the mid-1930s for the gunners to carry with them to maintain their weapon in working order providing key spare parts that could be easily replaced if the original became worn, damaged or broken.
The M-13 Spare Parts Roll is a canvas carrier with a braided canvas carrying handle that folds in on itself four times and is closed with a simple snap. When unfolded, a series of nine pockets, each numbered, present themselves each containing one or more spare parts. No tools are present in this roll. The numbered pockets and their contents are listed below.
Spare parts and placement in appropriate pockets.
Pocket #1:
1 Firing Pin Assembly (1-1)
Pocket #2:
1 Trigger (2-1)
1 Cover Extractor Spring (2-2)
1 Belt Holding Pawl Pin (2-3)
1 Belt Feed Lever (2-4)
Pocket #3:
Contains a canvas Envelope, Small Parts, M1, No. 1 (3-1) with contents:
1 Driving Spring (3-2)
Pocket #4:
1 Extractor Assembly (4-1)
Pocket #5:
Contains a canvas Envelope, Small Parts, M1, No. 2 (5-1) with contents:
1 Sear (5-2);
2 Buffer Discs (5-3);
3 Sear Spring Assemblies (5-4);
1 Belt Feed Lever Pivot Assembly (5-5);
2 Breech Lock Assembly Pins (5-6)
Pocket #6:
1 Accelerator (6-1)
Pocket #7:
Can, Tubular (not shown) with contents:
2 Barrel Locking Pins (7-1);
1 shown of 4 Ejector Pins (7-2);
2 shown of 12 Breech Lock Pin Springs (7-3)
1 Spring (7-4)
1 shown of 2 Firing Pin Spring Pins (7-5)
1 Trigger Pin Spring (7-6)
1 Ejector (7-7)
1 Trigger Pin (7-8)
Pocket # 8:
1 Belt Feed Slide (8-1)
1 Belt Feed Spring (8-2)
1 Belt Feed Pin Assembly (8-3)
Pocket #9:
1 Bolt Handle (9-1)
| This article first appeared in Small Arms Review V20N3 (April 2016) |
