M2 HB identyfication

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v2

Captain
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10,693
Nov 9, 2005
Cracow
Some time ago, M2 HB was found in southern Poland. The serial number is known - does anyone have any idea how to find its traces during the war? Where did M2 come from to Poland? Has it been delivered as part of a lend lease for Russia? Is there any database where we can verify the fate of M2 by the serial numer?
 

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It could be delivered to Russians with one of a lend-lease jeep armed with the Browning .50 cal. Of course it could be taken form other lend-lease stuff sent Soviets during the WW2 that was carried the armament. For instance a M4A2 Sherman tank.

A lend-lease Jeep mounting a 50 M2 Browning machine gun.jpg

the pic source: A League of Ordinary Gamers: WWII Soviet Painting Guides

m4sherman.jpg

the pic source: Was the M4 Sherman really that bad? A Soviet perspective - Knowledge Glue

According to the Lend Lease records on Hyperwar the USSR got 3,340 "Scout, M3A1" vehicles. All of them still had the US 50cal Browning M2 machine gun mounted. Also they received 10,316 boxes of ammo, 200 rounds/box., 3,100 AA .50 guns, M2, with carriage and 600 MG Twin, Cal. .50, M23, Heintz.

HyperWar: Lend-Lease Shipments, World War II (Ordnance)

Lend lease M3 APC_b.jpg

Lend lease M3 APC.jpg

Lend lease M3 APC_a.jpg

M3 scout car.jpg

the pic source: http://armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2//galleries/Lendlease/M3A1.htm
 
Sidebar: earlier this year a Facebook post from the UK was subject of much commentary both sides of the Atlantic. The Brit chap who unearthed a rusty .50 cal. cartridge in his garden was worried that it would explode (or something) and sought advice. Fellow Brits informed him that the law/regs/whatever required him to notify The Authorities who would come remove the thing in the name of public safety. Or something. Which apparently is what happened. (Illegal possession of an "explosive device" was cited.) Yanks of course said "We'd just pick it up, rub it off and put it on the shelf." Concern about spontaneous ignition were dismissed by competent observers who noted (correctly) that a cartridge cannot fire without detonating the primer (if functional) and that in the vastly unlikely event of an uncommanded ignition the result would be a low-order detonation in the atmosphere rather than higher pressure in a firearm's chamber. Now, discovery of a UXB, let alone the Tallboy in Frankfurt (?), is a whole nuther matter...
 
Depending on location, two Mustangs and one B-17 went down in general region of Warsaw on September 18, 1944.
 

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