"Team Yankee: Iron Maiden SF GPMG?" Topic

I just recently got my pack of UK mechanized infantry. It's this kit right here:

link

If you scroll down a bit you'll find what appears to be GPMG teams (M240G machineguns with a tripod of us Americans). Looks nice: 16", ROF 6/2, AT 2, FP 6. Pretty standard for a Flames of War mg team.

Then I noticed the ARTILLERY stat line!
40", ARTILLERY, AT 1, FP 6

What's up with that? Is this a MG that can fire indirect fire? I've head about that being done and seem to remember seeing something about this in a TM somewhere… but it's the first time I've ever seen in a modern game.

Or is there some type of light mortar like the 2' and I don't see in in the stand?

Oh, and what does the SF stand for?

S.F. Sustained Fire

The British Army first used Map Predicted Fire during WW1
up to the present day.
If you look on the FOW stats for Vickers HMG you will see the same thing.
The GPMG can place a beaten zone out to 1800mtrs well beyond the burn out distance for tracer- 1100mts
Hope this helps?

Oh, I never noticed that before. Cool.

Too bad the US doesn't have that interesting little ability. I'll have to try it out when I get my UK company up and going. Thanks!

True story I think.

On the first day of the Somme I believe that British heavy machine guns were used to fire from behind the lines at the German positions as area fire.They were in corrugated steel/iron "emplacements" with a roof. The report I heard was that they fired for hours-and that many of the gunners went deaf as they were in these confined emplacement.

The reason I know this was I used to work in an oral-history achive here in England and listened to the real old soldiers give testamony on tape.

The beaten zone for an SF machine gun is elliptical in shape (oval), wider than it is long.

Too bad the US doesn't have that interesting little ability.

We touched on the theory, if not the practice, of indirect sustained fire with the M-60 in AIT in 1968, so I assume the US armed forces had the ability at some point. I never saw it actually used though.

LT

I remember it being one of those, "oh cool, we can do that?" kind of things. Like I said, I remember reading about it in a field manual but I've never seen it in practice. Then again, I was a tanker and we were more concerned with direct fire engagements.

Yes, the US Army does/did with their M60s, and I pointed that out, but sadly, my posting here about that was "censored" [e.g. deleted by an editor].