I'm reading a book on how we as a country did NOT accept far superior firearms offered to us and had to use inferior weapons instead.
During WWI, many long,bloody battles took place where the Lewis gun ( as seen by both sides as an outstanding firearm) was used with great success. In the book a passing sentence was " The British Army listed the ammunition used in the last battles fired by the Lewis Gun was 17 Billion rounds". At that time the Britt's only has 133,000 Lewis guns! This little tid-bit stopped me in my tracks until I realized just how many rounds of ammunition that really was per gun. And our Army thought that the Lewis gun was not worth a second look until many years later!
It truly was one of the best light machine guns ever made.
* as for total rounds fired by ANY small arm or artillery, no one knows. Records kept were not well recorded,or never recorded.
Most battles were fought with millions and millions of rounds.

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Gulf of Tonkin Yacht Club '70-72
GMCM(SW) USN 68-89
1776-2012 USA RIP
President NM MILSURPS

That's just north of 127,000 rounds per weapon, assuming ammo consumption was evenly spread. Considering it likely was not, I don't find that hard to believe for any class of machinegun. I'm sure they rebuilt many times, too. Impressive LMG, nonetheless.

Jack (not William ) Atwater, the former curator of the U S Army's weapons museum stated tho the U S troops were issued Lewis guns early on, they were pulled for political reasons. The British wanted our troops used as replacement s for their troops. Perusing ( kindle won't let me type P E R S H I N G) , wanted to keep our troops under U S command. So the British pulled the Lewis guns from U S service. I'd type more, but I've stretched my knowledge on this subject. I do like the Lewis gun as well. Would love to see a new semi auto made.

Edit for name, Jack Atwater....

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"The beatings will continue until morale improves -Management"

127,819 is what I got. Just a little more.

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Gulf of Tonkin Yacht Club '70-72
GMCM(SW) USN 68-89
1776-2012 USA RIP
President NM MILSURPS

Charles, I had heard the same thing. Pershing wanted to keep American boys in American units, while the French and British wanted them used to flesh out their depleted units.

I had heard the BAR was available in WWI but the high command was afraid the Germans would get their hands on some and copy them, so few were issued. Personally, I figure this was silly as a weapon unused is as good as a weapon never made. We had them, we should have used them.

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"Growing old is mandatory, Growing up is optional"
Beat the ammo price increases, shoot Russian Surplus!

I'm pretty sure the B A R just came along to late, or in insufficient numbers . Val Browning, son of John Browning used one. But that may have been more for propaganda or sales than combat.

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"The beatings will continue until morale improves -Management"

The BAR was in fact around in WWI. You were right in that they were afraid the Germans would capture guns and make them .
Same thing happened in the late 1930's with the Ljungman AG-42 and the FN-49. The model numbers do not denote when the were originally made, just the year the Army officially excepted them.
The Britts were offered the FN ('49) before WWII really took off! Can you imagine if they had been armed with the FN rifle?
It would have been in 8x57. The Britt's were all ready making millions of rounds for their tank machine guns.

_________________
Gulf of Tonkin Yacht Club '70-72
GMCM(SW) USN 68-89
1776-2012 USA RIP
President NM MILSURPS

Yep. I had a bunch of other numbers going through my head. Still, my statements stand.

The FN-49 was nothing but a prototype by the time WW2 rolled around. Mr. Saive worked on it in England while in exile, and it was not ready until well after the war was over. The "-49" is just FN's designation.

Let us not forget about the MAS 38/39 and 40 Effectively hidden from the Germans and produced post war as the MAS 44 and 49.

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If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.
Ronald Reagan