Often, discussions get bogged down in what the definition of something is.
So to sow further seeds of confusion, here are some examples:
In WW1, the British considered the Vickers a heavy machine gun. In WW2 it was relegated to Medium machine gun status by the Browning M2. Other countries only ever used the terms LMG and HMG, never MMG.
Some sources call the MG34 or MG42 on a mount an HMG, but they could also be equally (probably better) an MMG, or more simply (and most accurately) a mounted GPMG.
What constitutes an LMG? What differentiates one from the american term “automatic rifle”? Is it the presence of a bipod and/or quick-change barrel? Being able to be mounted? All of the above? Nobody can quite agree.
What’s a rifle & what’s a carbine? Well, to make matters worse, there are really 3 categories - rifles (Gew 98, Lebel, Long Lee-Enfield), short rifles (SMLE, Springfield, Kar98k), and carbines (Mosin-Nagant M38, M40). Note that the Kar98k is grouped in short rifles & not carbines! Genuine Mauser carbines are fearsome, like the Iranian “camel carbine”, so the Germans never adopted a true one. This gets even more crazy with German definitions:
The Kar98b is as long as the G98, so is a full-size rifle
The Kar98k is only 1 inch shorter than the No.4 or SMLE (put a bantam butt on either of the Enfields & they’ll be the same length!)
The G33/40 is shorter than the Kar98a/k, despite being called a rifle!
Post-WW2, the Chinese Type 56 carbine (SKS) is significantly longer than the Type 56 Rifle (AK47) by 6 inches!
What’s an intermediate cartridge? Is the .30 carbine cartridge “intermediate” in the same spirit as 7.92x33 or 7.62x39, or is it a souped-up pistol cartridge? (I vote for the latter, personally, for reasons gone into at length on previous threads).
Ho what fun! :twisted: