Browning automatic rifle

A .30-caliber air-cooled, automatic or semiautomatic, gas-operated, magazine-fed rifle used by U.S. troops in World Wars I and II and the Korean War.

[After John Moses BROWNING.]

Responding to the need to counter massed German machine guns in World War I, renowned American arms inventor John M. Browning developed his Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) in 1918. This was a 16‐pound, gas‐operated weapon that fired .30‐caliber bullets from a twenty‐round detachable box magazine. The BAR had a selector switch that allowed the user to fire individual shots or in a fully automatic mode that would empty the magazine in about two seconds. The muzzle tended to rise during automatic fire, making it difficult to stay on target. Sustained automatic fire also tended to overheat the barrel.

Various firms produced some 85,000 BARs during World War I. By World War II, modifications had increased its weight to almost 20 pounds, but it remained in use as the principal squad automatic weapon of the U.S. Army during World War II and Korea. Some indigenous forces on both sides during the Vietnam War also used these weapons.

Bibliography

• Joseph E. Smith and W. H. B. Smith, Small Arms of the World, 9th rev. ed., 1969.
• Ian V. Hogg and John Weeks, Military Small Arms of the 20th Century, 4th rev. ed., 1981

A .30-06 caliber gas-operated automatic rifle. The BAR was the U.S. Army's main squad automatic rifle in World War II and Korea.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a portable .30 caliber magazine-fed automatic rifle operated by gas pressure; used by United States troops in World Wars I and II and in the Korean War
  Synonym: BAR