第二次世界大战前后,老式的机枪,如美国的马克沁、勃朗宁,英国的维克斯、刘易斯等重机枪,虽然笨重,但结构上却逐渐走向成熟。因此,在迫击炮、轻型支援火炮、坦克、飞机(主要是直升机)等出现之前相当长的一段时期内,它们都是步兵连以下唯一的火力支援武器,一直沿用到50年代才陆续被淘汰。而且其他机枪如轻机枪、通用机枪、车装机枪、航空机枪、舰艇机枪等也都得到了进一步的发展。 Before and after the Second World War, the old machine guns, such as the United States, Mark Qin, Browning, Britain's Vickers, Lewis and other heavy machine guns, though bulky, but the structure has gradually matured. Therefore, for quite some time before the advent of mortars, light assault artillery, tanks and aircraft (mainly helicopters), they were the only infantry following the infantry firepower support and were gradually used until the 1950s . And other machine guns such as light machine guns, general machine guns, car mounted machine guns, air machine guns, naval guns, etc. have also been further developed.