The vz. 52 (''7,62mm lehký kulomet vzor 52'') is a Czechoslovak

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 ...

developed after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

for the Czechoslovak Armed Forces.

Description

The vz. 52 was originally called the ZB 501, and was designed by

Václav Holek Václav Holek (24 September 1886, Malé Nepodřice – 13 November 1954, Brno) was a Czechoslovak firearm engineer. He had applied for more than 75 patents during his active years. Life Václav Holek was born in a village of Malé Nepodřice, ...

. It is gas-operated and uses a tilting bolt that locks into the roof of the receiver. Its overall action is based on the Czech ZB-26 light machine gun. It has an integral

bipod A bipod is a V-shaped portable attachment that helps support and steady a device, usually a weapon such as a long gun or a mortar. The term comes from the Latin prefix ''bi-'' and Greek root ''pod'', meaning "two" and "foot" respectively. Bip ...

and interchangeable barrels, and its feed system is designed to take metallic belts or

box magazine A magazine is an ammunition storage and feeding device for a repeating firearm, either integral within the gun (internal/fixed magazine) or externally attached (detachable magazine). The magazine functions by holding several cartridges withi ...

s interchangeably and without any modifications. Its compact and light lever-type feeding system was based on the ZB-53 and was later copied in UK vz. 59, PK and

Negev The Negev or Negeb (; he, הַנֶּגֶב, hanNegév; ar, ٱلنَّقَب, an-Naqab) is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its sout ...

. The vz. 52 initially used the Czech 7.62×45mm vz. 52 cartridge, but in the mid-1950s it was converted to the standard

7.62×39mm The 7.62×39mm (aka 7.62 Soviet, formerly .30 Russian Short) round is a rimless bottlenecked intermediate cartridge of Soviet origin. The cartridge is widely used due to the worldwide proliferation of Russian SKS and AK-47 pattern rifles, as ...

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republi ...

round by Jaroslav Myslík, and named the vz. 52/57. Both models were replaced in Czech service in 1963–64 by the Universal Machine Gun Model 1959, also known as the Uk vz. 59. VZ52-light-machine-gun-batey-haosef-1

References

Bibliography

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External sources

*http://www.valka.cz/newdesign/v900/clanek_11420.html *http://www.militaria.wz.cz/cs/kulomet-52.htm *http://www.historieavojenstvi.cz/2007/clanky/holek.pdf 7.62×39mm machine guns Infantry weapons of the Cold War Light machine guns Machine guns of Czechoslovakia Military equipment introduced in the 1950s {{Czechoslovakia-mil-stub

Description

See also

Weapons of comparable role, configuration and era

References

Bibliography

External sources