Tank Bow Machine Guns

The bow machine guns in U.S. tanks and other armored vehicles had no sights. The Germans, Russians and British all provided telescopic sights for their bow machine guns but the Americans had to fire theirs "indirectly" (i.e., the gunner had to guesstimate the approximate elevation and traverse necessary to engage the target while looking through his vision slit or periscope, then observe the flight of tracers in order to correct his fire). Moreover, if the gunner's two periscopes (in the case of a Sherman tank) were unusable due to moisture condensation (a common problem) or due to high explosive or gunfire damage, he had to open his hatch and stick out his head (and neck!) to use the machine gun. Complaints from the field about the bow machine guns' inaccuracy led to the design of a remote sighting device for those in Shermans; unfortunately, it was not yet ready for issue at the war's end. 

Medium Tank M4 Crocodile flame-thrower of the 739th Tank Battalion in Julich, Germany, 1945.

 

Medium Tank M4A2E8 .30 caliber bow machine gun.

M1919A4 .30 cal. machine gun in the bow mount of an M4 medium tank.

.30 cal. machine gun M1919A4 in the bow mount of an M4 medium tank. 

Ball mount for the M1919A4 .30 cal. machine gun in the bow of an M4 medium tank. 

Exploded diagram of the ball mount for a M1919A4 .30 cal. machine gun in the bow of an M4 medium tank.

Removing .30 caliber machine gun M1919A4 from ball mount.

German MG 34 machine guns in hull mountings.

Kugelblende 100 MG 34 machine gun ball mount side view, as in the Tiger I.

Kugelblende 100 MG 34 machine gun ball mount top view, as in the Tiger I.

Kugelblende 100 MG 34 machine gun ball mount as in the Tiger I.

Kugelblende 100 MG 34 machine gun ball mount as in the Tiger I.

Type 97 (1937) 7.7-mm machine gun in a ball mount taken from the left front of a Type 97 (1937) medium tank hull. Securing bolts are not fitted.

Japanese Type 97 tank machine gun. The Type 97 was the standard machine gun used by the Japanese on tanks and armored vehicles. Approximately 18,000 were built between 1937–1945.

Type 97 Armored Vehicle Light Machine Gun. All blued steel construction apart from the wooden pistol grip and folding butt. The receiver is marked with the Nagoya Arsenal mark, the serial number and 16.1 (1941 January). The air cooled finned barrel is covered with a slotted armored cover. On the left side is a graduated one and a half power optical sight with a white rubber (split) eye piece. This type of gun is a copy of the Czech Bruno gas operated machine gun with a few modifications. It could be removed from the armored vehicle and used with a bipod.

Type 97 Armored Vehicle Light Machine Gun without the armored slotted cover on the barrel.

The Type 91 Vehicle-Mounted Light Machine Gun was the main Japanese tank machine gun used from 1931 to 1937. It was a slight modification of the Type 11 Light Machine Gun. The gun was equipped with a 1.5x magnification scope ranged at 300 meters. This scope could not be mounted with the standard Type 11. The stock was replaced with a pistol grip for operation in the vehicles.

German Panzerkampfwagen IV tanks used two types of ball mount for their hull MG34. On the left the Kugelblende 30 (30mm of armor) for MG34 on the A/D/E models. On the right the Kugelblende 50(50mm of armor) for MG34 on the F-J models.