The M1941 Johnson Light Machine Gun, also known as the ''Johnson'' and the ''Johnny gun'',
was an American
recoil-operated
Recoil operation is an operating mechanism used to implement locked breech, autoloading firearms. Recoil operated firearms use the energy of recoil to cycle the action, as opposed to gas operation or blowback operation using the pressure of the ...
light machine gun
A light machine gun (LMG) is a light-weight machine gun designed to be operated by a single infantryman, with or without an assistant, as an infantry support weapon. LMGs firing cartridges of the same caliber as the other riflemen of the s ...
designed in the late 1930s by
Melvin Johnson. It shared the same operating principle and many parts with the
M1941 Johnson rifle
The M1941 Johnson Rifle is an American short-recoil operated semi-automatic rifle designed by Melvin Johnson prior to World War II. Although the M1941 was used in limited numbers by the US Marines during the Second World War, it unsuccessfully ...
and the
M1947 Johnson auto carbine.
Design
The M1941 light machine gun was designed by a
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...
lawyer and captain in the
Marine Corps Reserve named Melvin Johnson Jr. His goal was to build a
semi-automatic rifle that would outperform the
M1 Garand the
US Army had adopted. By late 1937, he had designed, built, and successfully tested both a semi-automatic rifle and a prototype light machine gun. Each shared a significant number of physical characteristics and common parts, and both operated on the principle of short recoil with a
rotating bolt. He took the parts of other guns, switching them out and creating the M1941 light machine gun.
Johnson's curved, single-column
magazine attached to the left side of the receiver; company brochures list a 20-round magazine as standard. Additionally, the weapon could be loaded by stripper clip at the ejection port, or by single rounds fed into the breech. The rate of fire was adjustable, from 200 to 600 rounds per minute. Two versions were built: the M1941 with a wooden
stock and a metal bipod, and the M1944 with a tubular steel butt and a wooden monopod.
The design intended the recoil forces to travel, along with the mass of the weapon's moving parts, in a direct line to the shoulder of the gunner. While this design minimized muzzle climb, the sights had to be placed higher above the bore.
The weapon has many parallels with the German
FG 42. Both feed from the left side, and both fire from an open bolt while in automatic, and a closed bolt while in semi-auto. Both weapons were awkward to carry loaded, with a side-mounted magazine; the Johnson had an especially lengthy single-column magazine, and this feature tended to unbalance the weapon. Despite these similarities, there is no evidence that either weapon had any effect on the design of the other. Both weapons attempted to solve similar problems, and adopted similar solutions.
Prototypes of semi-automatic rifles, 20-round magazine-fed, based on the Johnson LMG were also produced. The
M1947 Johnson auto carbine is an example. A belt fed variant also existed.
Deployment
Johnson sold small quantities of the Johnson LMG to the U.S. Army and Marine Corps.
During the Second World War,
special forces within the Allies demanded a more portable, lighter, more accurate automatic rifle that provided the equivalent stopping power of the American
BAR
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar ( ...
. As a result, this machine gun was adapted as the BAR replacement for commandos operating behind
Axis
An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis
*Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinate ...
lines. The
First Special Service Force
The 1st Special Service Force was an elite American–Canadian commando unit in World War II, under the command of the United States Fifth Army. The unit was organized in 1942 and trained at Fort William Henry Harrison near Helena, Montana ...
, raised jointly with men from both Canada and the United States (the famous
Devil's Brigade
The 1st Special Service Force was an elite American–Canadian commando unit in World War II, under the command of the United States Fifth Army. The unit was organized in 1942 and trained at Fort William Henry Harrison near Helena, Montana ...
), traded the Marine Corps 125 of the new Johnson light machine guns for plastic explosives. They were used in lieu of BARs, but as they wore out and were lost in combat they were replaced by BARs.
The Johnson LMG was used by the Philippine Army and Philippine Constabulary during World War II under the Japanese Military Occupation from 1942 to 1945 and post-war from 1945 to 1960s including during the
Hukbalahap Rebellion
The Hukbalahap Rebellion was a rebellion staged by former Hukbalahap or ''Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon'' (People's Army against the Japanese) soldiers against the Philippine government. It started during the Japanese occupation of the Philipp ...
(1946-1954) and by the
Philippine Expeditionary Forces to Korea or PEFTOK (1950-1955).
Shortly after the
1948 Arab-Israeli War
Events January
* January 1
** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated.
** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect.
** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...
, the predecessor of the
Israel Defense Forces,
Haganah
Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the Is ...
, developed a close copy of the Johnson LMG, the
Dror, in both
.303 British
The .303 British (designated as the 303 British by the C.I.P. and SAAMI) or 7.7×56mmR, is a calibre rimmed rifle cartridge. The .303 inch bore diameter is measured between rifling lands as is the common practice in Europe which follows th ...
and
7.92×57mm Mauser
The 7.92×57mm Mauser (designated as the 8mm Mauser or 8×57mm by the SAAMI and 8 × 57 IS by the C.I.P.) is a rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge. The 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge was adopted by the German Empire in 1903–1905, and was the Ge ...
. Israeli forces found the Dror prone to jam from sand and dust ingress, and the weapon was discontinued after a brief period of service.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara
Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...
notably used a Johnson in the Cuban Revolution.
Aftermath
Melvin Johnson continued to develop small arms. In 1955, he was asked to assist Fairchild/ArmaLite in (unsuccessfully) promoting Eugene Stoner's
AR-10
The ArmaLite AR-10 is a 7.62×51mm NATO battle rifle designed by Eugene Stoner in the late 1950s and manufactured by ArmaLite (then a division of the Fairchild Aircraft Corporation). When first introduced in 1956, the AR-10 used an innovative c ...
rifle with the U.S. Department of Defense, then with ArmaLite and Colt's Manufacturing Company as an advocate for the
AR-15
An AR-15-style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on the Colt AR-15 design. The original ArmaLite AR-15 is a scaled-down derivative of Eugene Stoner's ArmaLite AR-10 design. The then Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporatio ...
. Armalite relied heavily on Johnson's efforts and the AR-15 used a similar bolt design to the M1941 Johnson. The AR-15 is still produced today by numerous manufacturers, as is its derivative, the
M16 rifle. One of Johnson's last postwar firearms ventures was a
5.7 mm-caliber version of the
M1 carbine, aka 'the Spitfire'.
Liquid propellant prototype
A prototype using
hydrazine for a caseless firearm was also developed. The firearms would have been very effective and pretty equivalent in performance to conventional propellants, while offering improved supply lines. The main concern was in the durability of pressure seals in field conditions as well as toxicity of the substance to the user.
Users
*: Known to be used by Canadian soldiers in the
Special Service Force
The Special Service Force was a designation used by two army units: a World War II Canadian-American formation, and a Canadian Army formation from 1977 to 1995.
Motto - OSONS (We Dare)
World War II: 1st Special Service Force
In 1942 a highl ...
*: Formerly used by the Royal Malaysian Police, now on display at the Police Museum.
*
*
*
Non-state actors
*
26th of July Movement
The 26th of July Movement ( es, Movimiento 26 de Julio; M-26-7) was a Cuban vanguard revolutionary organization and later a political party led by Fidel Castro. The movement's name commemorates its 26 July 1953 attack on the army barracks on San ...
See also
*
Dror
*
Sturmgewehr 52
The Sturmgewehr 52 (STG-52) was a battle rifle manufactured by the government-owned W+F Bern of Switzerland. It was chambered in the 7.5mm Kurzpatrone cartridge and later the 7.5mm Swiss service round as the Sturmgewehr 54, which was fed from ...
*
Kg/1940 Light machine gun
*
FG 42
*
Furrer M25
*
List of individual weapons of the U.S. Armed Forces
This is a list of weapons served individually by the United States armed forces. While the general understanding is that crew-served weapons require more than one person to operate them, there are important exceptions in the case of both squad a ...
*
M60 machine gun
The M60, officially the Machine Gun, Caliber 7.62 mm, M60, is a family of American general-purpose machine guns firing 7.62×51mm NATO cartridges from a disintegrating belt of M13 links. There are several types of ammunition approved for ...
*
Model 45A
The Model 45A was a .30 caliber bullpup battle rifle/light machine gun developed by the United States Army in the Philippines in 1945. The weapon existed in prototype or mockup form, but never entered production. The rifle was sparsely documented ...
*
M1946 Sieg automatic rifle
*
MG 30
*
TRW Low Maintenance Rifle
Notes
Books and References
*Johnson Jr., Melvin, ''Rifles and Machine Guns of the World's Armies'', Fighting Forces, 1944.
*Smith, Joseph E., ''Small Arms of the World,'' Stackpole Books, 1969.
*Weeks, John, ''WWII Small Arms,'' Galahad Books, 1980.
*Barnes, Frank C., ''Cartridges of the World,'' DBI Books, 1989.
*Pikula, Sam (Maj.), ''The Armalite AR-10,'' 1998.
*Canfield, Bruce N., ''Johnson Rifles and Machine Guns,'' Mowbray Publishing, 2002.
External links
{{WWIIUSInfWeaponsNav
.30-06 Springfield battle rifles
.30-06 Springfield machine guns
Firearms by Melvin Johnson
Light machine guns
Short recoil firearms
Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1940
Weapons of the Philippine Army
World War II battle rifles
World War II machine guns
World War II firearms of the United States