Over rated weapons of WW II

[The Basket]

One aspect of the Garand or say the No.4 is rate of fire. The Garand has better rate of fire plus continuous rate of fire. Even if you could fire the Enfield quick enough it will be tiring and so speed will be lost over time.

Mosin is ok for a peasant army with a life expectancy of an egg sandwich. Certainly in ww1 the Mosin would have been a rocket ship for the average Russian serf.

 

[yulzari]

The rate of fire limit for an infantry rifle is governed by the time it takes to re acquire the target in the short term and refill in the medium term. In the long term it is how much ammunition you have and your fire discipline of the soldier. Part of the re acquisition is a function of the recoil which itself is a function of the power of the round and the mass of the rifle. Automatic fire is to suppress the enemy and hitting them is incidental. Thus a lightweight intermediate round allows for a faster and longer rate of fire. Thus was born the sub machine gun in simple blow back form.

There are always special cases if you search for a 3 legged donkey scenario. A No 4 can fire 10 rounds faster than a Garand even from an empty rifle start. A wise No 4 user loads 11 and reloads after 6. Of course there was the Enfield 25 round trench magazine.....

 

[The Basket]

 

[The Basket]

What is needed is not how the best can shoot so many per minute but how do the worst do. Around Chosin Reservoir when it's freezing cold in the night and you're dog tired against human waves and its non stop.

The Garand is certainly not automatic though.

I guess a full power rifle round would be more preferred in a charge that a 45 ACP or 30 calibre from a M1 carbine.

 

[Freebird]

To keep from clogging/derailing the aircraft thread we could discuss overrated ground weapons here.

Tomo has suggested the German 88mm gun as a starter. And he certainly has a point.

Any other contenders/ candidates?

I wonder if the SC-497 small sub-chasers were really useful, 43,000 tons were constructed, 438 ships, but they failed to sink a single U-boat.
Perhaps it would have been better to build 40-50 frigates or corvettes of 900 - 1000 tons, a far more useful ASW vessel.

SC-497-class submarine chaser - Wikipedia

 

[Freebird]

One of the biggest waste of resources/ overrated weapons: the British Auxiliary Merchant Cruisers (AMC's)
List of auxiliary and merchant cruisers - Wikipedia
The Admiralty spent considerable resources converting at least 40 small liners to AMC's, which had little chance against a Kriegsmarine surface raider, and zero capability vs U-boats.

Instead of spending shipyard time installing 8-10 of 6" or 4" guns on each AMC, it would have been far, far better to have spent the resources to convert them to escort carriers, or even simple conversions as MAC's (Merchant Aircraft Carriers), like the Empire MacRea or Rapana.

Thanks to HazeGray for the superb pics & info on their website.
World Aircraft Carriers List: UK Merchant Aircraft Carriers