58 SEPTEMBER 2019 AMERICAN RIFLEMAN
U.S. MODEL 1919A4 MACHINE GUN
Saginaw made 350,951 M1919A4s from 1942 to 1945,
while Buffalo Arms made 38,800 in 1942 and 1943. Due to
Saginaw’s much lower production costs, the Buffalo Arms
contract was canceled in July 1943.
Combat Use Of The M1919A4 Machine Gun
Despite not having the sustained repower capabil-
ity of the water-cooled M1917A1, the M1919A4 had other
advantages. Of course, the most obvious was that the
M1917A1’s weight and bulk limited it chie y to xed
defensive positions while the M1919A4 was much lighter
and, thus, much easier to move forward with rapidly
The Saginaw Steering Gear Division of General
Motors was the largest producer of the
M1919A4—350,951 were made there from 1942 to- Newly manufactured 1919A4s (l.) are packed
at Saginaw for shipment to the “using services.”
Saginaw Steering Gear Division of General Motors photo
Photo courtesy of Tom LaemleinIn this original color photo from
1944, U.S. Army paratroopers train
with the M1919A4 machine gun.advancing troops. It soon became one of the favorite arms
of the World War II American infantryman. In testimony
before an Army Ordnance committee meeting on Dec. 23,
1943, Marine Lt. Col. Victor Krulak had the following to
say about the M1919A4: “It has come to my mind at the
moment that I have done Mr. Browning a dreadful injustice
in omitting one of the nest pieces of ordnance that has
ever been designed, and that is the 1919A4 light machine
gun, which we used to prodigious effect. It is the most
dependable weapon that has ever come down the road. My
only comments are those of humility. I am a member of the
determined and belligerent school, which says, I repeat,
which says we have no need for a water-cooled machine
gun so long as we have that splendid weapon [1919A4] in
our possession.”
Lieutenant Colonel Krulak was not one to mince words,
and his effusive praise of the M1919A4 was ample evi-
dence of the esteem he, and many others, held for the gun.
Perhaps surprisingly, he also bluntly stated that the Marine
Corps “had no need for a water-cooled machine gun,” even
after the M1917A1 performed so well during brutal perim-
eter battles on Guadalcanal just a year earlier. Nevertheless,
Krulak was not alone in his opinion that the air-cooled
M1919A4 should replace the water-cooled M1917A1. Author
and World War II Army Ordnance veteran Roy Dunlap related
the following: “The 1919A4 Browning was the Army’s all-
around .30 caliber machine gun. Air-cooled, heavy-barreled
(took longer to heat up) and light enough to be moved and
carried by one man, it was used as a co-axial arm in tanks ...
also in all sorts of vehicle mountings and its most important
job, infantry machine gun. It was light enough to move up
with any size unit and well enough engineered to serve as