and 1907, which are the international treaties that do regulate the use of weaponry, and do not prohibit the use of .50 caliber weapons like the M2 against personnel. The US Army's own field manual concerning the employment of the M2 actually proscribes enemy personnel as an intended target. The origin of these myths is likely due to military commanders instructing their troops to conserve ammunition for targets that other lighter machine guns were not well suited to engage, such as aircraft or ground vehicles. One possible source of the misconception is from World War II, when American half-track units in Germany were told to stop firing their M2s at ground targets, to conserve ammunition in case of a Luftwaffe attack. Also, U.S. troops were told to use their M2s only against enemy equipment due to shortages of ammunition during the Korean or Vietnam War. It is also possible that a restriction during the latter period limiting the use of the M40 recoilless rifle's .50-caliber spotting gun to destroy enemy equipment only, since the M40 was meant to be used against armor and firing it at personnel would give away their position before it could be used as intended, was mistakenly applied to all .50 caliber weapons. See also DShK, NSV, and Kord 12.7 mm machine guns, Soviet/Russian equivalents. FN BRG-15 15.5 mm caliber machine gun HMG PK-16, 12.7×108mm Pakistani equivalent KPV heavy machine gun 14.5 mm caliber machine gun List of crew-served weapons of the U.S. Armed Forces List of individual weapons of the U.S. Armed Forces List of U.S. Army weapons by supply catalog designation M85 machine gun, a vehicle-borne replacement for the M2 that proved unreliable and was removed from service MG 131 machine gun, World War II 13 mm German aircraft-mounted gun MG 18 TuF, a German 13.2 mm machine gun from WWI Type 77/85, W85, Type 89, Type 171 12.7 mm machine guns, Chinese equivalents. References Citations General and cited references External links .50 BMG machine guns Cold War firearms of the United States Machine guns of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1930s Short recoil firearms Weapons of the Philippine Army World War II firearms of the United States World War II infantry weapons of the United States World War II machine guns