60 SEPTEMBER 2019 AMERICAN RIFLEMAN
U.S. MODEL 1919A4 MACHINE GUN
His assistant gunner, Pvt. Grover O. Boyce, was directly
behind him carrying the machine gun’s tripod. The wall
of German re was so intense ... it sounded like a million
mosquitoes in a con ned space.
“[S]ince he was hefting the weight one of those M1919A4
machine guns, Ed Jeziorski had not been able to re as he
crossed the causeway. Instead, he and Pvt. Boyce had con-
centrated on getting to the other side as quickly as possible.
Under Captain Rae’s direction, Jeziorski and Boyce kept mov-
ing and in seconds they came to a fork in the road. Jeziorski
remembered what happened next: ‘As we came to that fork,
150 yards ahead of us was a MG42 on the left-side of the
road and this guy opened up on us and when he did, Boyce
dropped the tripod and we set up the gun on the road.’
“With Boyce providing cover re with his ri e, Jeziorski
dropped the pintle of the M1919A4 into the tripod, opened
the weapon’s top cover, placed a cloth belt of .30-cal.
ammunition into the feedway, closed the cover and racked
the bolt. He then opened re on the MG42 from right there
in the middle of the road. In fact, one of Jeziorski’s bursts
struck the German machine gunner right in the neck ... .”
Jeziorski and his assistant gunner certainly couldn’t
have handled a M1917A1 machine gun and tripod in the
same manner, and the action illustrates the biggest advan-
tage of the M1919A4; its light weight and portability.
There were also some instances when an American
infantryman took a M1919A4 machine gun off the tripod
and wielded it has a hand-held gun. One such soldier was
Sgt. Thomas McCall of the Army’s 143rd Infantry when,
after crossing the Rapido River in Italy, McCall was engaged
in erce combat action with his unit under heavy re
and taking many casualties: “McCall realized the German
machine gun in front of him was preventing the men
behind him from expanding the bridgehead .... Reaching
down, he grabbed the .30-caliber machine gun (off its
tripod), the ammo belt dangling on the frozen ground, and
ran forward—directly toward the Nazi machine gun.
“The enemy gunners tried to cut McCall down, but in
their shock and fear missed him. Seconds later, McCall
stood over them, his legs spread wide. He opened re. He
didn’t miss. His raking re killed the gun’s crew.
“A second enemy machine gun now red on McCall from
his left. The sergeant, moving as if his anger and frustra-
tion had hypnotized him, turned and charged this gun too.
Still ring from the hip, he riddled the German crew and
silenced that weapon.
“A third machine gun, fty yards behind the second,
next opened re. When last seen, McCall was boldly walking
toward that gun ring his weapon in short, measured bursts.
He disappeared in the roar of an exploding artillery shell.”
Sergeant McCall’s brave actions resulted in him being
posthumously awarded a Medal of Honor. The intrepid
infantryman ring a belt-fed M1919A4 machine gun from
the hip while knocking out several enemy machine guns
was undoubtedly an inspiring sight.
Certainly, no gun is without faults, but the M1919A4 has
one of the better reputations of any American military small
arm used in World War II. The testimonies cited above are
ample evidence of the high esteem in which the gun was held
by the majority of its users. A report on the various arms used
by a U.S. Marine Corps Raider Battalion on New Georgia Island
perhaps sums up the prevailing feelings regarding the gun:
“Browning Light Machine Gun, M1919A4. Experienced practi-
cally no stoppages, highly praised. Properly head-spaced,
cleaned and cared for, the gun functions perfectly.”
The M1919A4 remained the U.S. military’s standardized
light machine gun until 1957 when, like the M1917A1, it
was of cially superseded by the “all-purpose” M60 machine
gun. Nonetheless, the M1919A4 continued to be used as a
secondary arm well into the Vietnam War era. Once again,
the genius of John Moses Browning was vividly displayed in
the M1919A4 light machine gun.In another
original color
photo, troops
of the Army’s
78th Division
train with
an M1919A4
—note the
250-round
fabric belt.U.S. Army photo, courtesy of Brennan Gauthier