In many World War themed TV series, we can often see machine guns set up by soldiers with two small shields on both sides. Later, in and World War II, , the number of these machine guns with small shields decreased, and they were almost extinct for a period after World War II. But in modern times, some countries have slowly added such small shields to their firearms. So does this little shield comfort soldiers or can it really save lives? Why was it added after it was canceled?
Why the bulletproof plate appeared and disappeared
This small machine gun shield is called a bulletproof plate. The reason why it appeared more on machine guns during World War I than on machine guns during World War II is mainly because of the changes in the shape of war. Because during World War I was trench warfare , the biggest feature of trench warfare was that the positions were stable, and it was difficult to exchange positions.
Because tanks had not yet become mainstream at that time, the army needed to rely on physical charges to attack enemy positions. Therefore, as long as you pull up the barbed wire in front of the position and set up a few machine guns, you can harvest the enemy troops rushing toward your position in swaths. This resulted in the World War I often taking several months to move the front line forward hundreds or even several meters. Fighting became a pure act of fighting against the opponent's logistics and firepower.
In this context, machine guns have become weapons that can be safely installed on positions. This allows the machine gun to be designed to be very heavy, and it is common for designers to stuff tens of kilograms of extra weight on the machine gun. So bulletproof plates became popular during World War I. Anyway, there was no need to worry about the weight of the machine gun. Bulletproof plates could be added if they could be added.
During World War II, tanks became the mainstream on the battlefield, so the trench warfare model began to shift to mobile combat operations. Especially after the French Maginot Line was bypassed by the German army from the Ardennes Forest, it further promoted the development of mobile warfare ideas. So the machine gun can no longer stay in position, it needs to be light enough and able to be transported.
So we can see that compared with the heavy machine gun of World War I, the heavy machine gun during World War II was much reduced in size and weight. The bulletproof plates that would increase the weight of the machine gun were naturally banned. After World War II, tanks basically established themselves as the king of land warfare, and the bulletproof plates of machine guns were even less useful.
Regardless, it should be noted that not all heavy machine guns in World War I had ballistic plates, and not all heavy machine guns in World War II did not have ballistic plates. Whether the heavy machine gun has a bulletproof plate and whether it is easy to maneuver are the direct reasons. Not all heavy machine guns in World War I were too heavy to maneuver. For example, the Italian Perino M1908 was relatively lightweight in design (compared to World War I), and could be carried away by 3 to 5 people in an infantry squad .
Many of the guns with bulletproof plates we see in movies and TV series have a common feature, that is, they either have their own wheels or can be set up on a carriage. For example, the famous Maxim M1910 heavy machine gun , you can see that this thing has wheels and the bulletproof plate area is also very large.
If any country that industrialized between the end of World War I and the end of World War II had its heavy machine gun design ideas deeply influenced by machine guns with ballistic plates like the Maxim M1910, then the heavy machine guns it produced during World War II and after World War II could easily have such ballistic plates.
For example, Tsarist Russia imported this Maxim M1910 heavy machine gun during World War I. The later Soviet Union was greatly influenced by this gun. In World War II, the Maxim M1910 imitated by the Soviet Union, and the Kulyunov heavy machine gun used to replace this gun, all had thick bulletproof plates.
The Soviet Union's Guoliunov heavy machine gun influenced China. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it imitated the Guoliunov heavy machine gun and produced its own 3 heavy machine gun . This machine gun still has a bulletproof plate and was used in our country until the 1980s. The People's Liberation Army Army still has this thing in its inventory, and CCTV still displays it from time to time when filming.
The role of bulletproof plates
It can be seen that this kind of bulletproof plate for machine gun belts during World War I is not absolute. It is mainly affected by the designer's ideas. As for whether the bulletproof plate can play a role, it certainly can, otherwise China would not have to keep this bulletproof plate when building the Type 53 heavy machine gun.
The 12.7mm caliber aerial cannons carried by those fighter jets are definitely unstoppable, but it is enough to block rifle bullets of around 7mm caliber. Even in modern times, the bulletproof plates on machine guns during World War I still provide good protection. Because the power of modern bullets has decreased compared with the bullets from World War I and World War II.
Modern bullets usually use intermediate power bullets, which are lightweight. There is no point in increasing the power of a bullet when it is guaranteed that one bullet will kill someone. The bullets during the First and Second World War used full-power bullets with larger calibers and more charges. Compared with modern bullets, their penetrating properties were much stronger and they were easier to penetrate bulletproof plates. But again, as mobile warfare becomes mainstream, bulletproof plates will lag behind the version.
Modern bulletproof plates
However, after the 21st century, countries led by the United States began to install bulletproof plates on firearms. The reason why the bulletproof plates on firearms ushered in a second spring is due to the improvement of materials science. If we look carefully, we will find that modern bulletproof plates are not metal, but use some new materials.
These materials are mainly Kevlar fiber, which is the main material of US military helmets. It is light enough and difficult to penetrate. When firearms are equipped with bulletproof plates made of Kevlar fiber, they can ensure the safety of soldiers without adding much weight.
In addition to Kevlar materials, special ceramics , and some composite materials can be used as bulletproof panels. However, although these bulletproof panels are light and strong, they are relatively expensive. After all, the bulletproof plate in the past was just a piece of metal, and this piece of iron alone cost only a few cents.
But Kevlar or other synthetic materials are different. Adding two bulletproof plates will increase the cost of the firearm by tens to hundreds. It's okay if it's just a small force, but if the entire army is deployed, for countries like the United States, China, and India with armies of millions, the cumulative costs will be very large. Therefore, modern bulletproof panels are still uncommon products and are rarely used by troops.
