Browning automatic rifle (BAR)

The Browning automatic rifle (BAR) is both a physical burden Ben Givens is ordered to carry and the weapon through which he kills a German soldier in combat. Its part in the battle is not a clean account of marksmanship or control: under shellfire Ben fires toward no particular target, then hesitates when a wounded German reaches for a pistol and fires into the brush. The BAR makes the gap between carrying a weapon and being able to act with it brutally concrete.

Assignment and Burden

At Camp Hale, Ben is transferred without an apparent reason from L Company’s Second Platoon to N Company. He is placed first among the machine gunners, perhaps because he had scored highly firing the .30-caliber light machine gun. The company commander then transfers him again, to a rifle platoon, where a lieutenant hands him the BAR to carry. The successive assignments offer no clear account of Ben’s own choice; the rifle becomes part of the equipment imposed on him by military organization. The burden is made heavier by the arrangement around the weapon. Bill Stackhouse and Kelly Lastenpole are assigned as Ben’s ammunition bearers, responsible for hauling the extra clips, while Ben carries the rifle in addition to his field pack and his own extra clips. In training he flounders under the combined load in the snow. The BAR is therefore not a solitary object in practical use: its weight and supply depend on a small, assigned group of soldiers, although the equipment and its demands remain with Ben.

Carried into Combat

During the attack, Ben hears his own breathing as he vaults out of his foxhole, struggles into his field pack, and takes up the BAR. A shell passes so close to his face that he feels the wind from it. The weapon enters the scene amid bodily effort and immediate danger, not as an abstract symbol or a distant piece of military equipment. Ben has to shoulder his pack higher before moving into the open with the rifle. As the men advance over shell-pocked ground, the BAR’s use becomes uncertain. Ben reaches a ridge under machine-gun fire, sets the rifle up, and fires forward without a particular target. After aircraft pass low and men run down the slope, he follows them into a snow-covered hay field, moves into the pines, sets up the BAR again, and fires into the trees. He is separated from his squad; neither ammunition bearer has appeared, and Lieutenant Daniels is nowhere in sight. The weapon remains in Ben’s hands, but the support structure assigned to carry its ammunition has broken apart amid the attack.

The German in the Woods

After moving through the assault, Ben finds Kelly Lastenpole and Bill Stackhouse near trip wires. They pass through under fire and take cover among beech trees. When three Germans pass, including a badly wounded man being helped by a comrade, Ben considers shooting them in return for Lastenpole’s death. Stackhouse strongly advises against it, and the men let the Germans continue toward their rear. The BAR’s presence does not itself dictate that Ben shoot; in this encounter, another soldier’s counsel interrupts the impulse to retaliate. A later German, wounded and apparently dazed, stops near the concealed men. Ben places a finger on the BAR’s trigger but hopes Stackhouse will decide what to do. When the German notices movement in the brush and reaches for his muddy pistol, Stackhouse struggles with his rifle’s safety and urgently tells Ben to shoot. Ben remains unable to act as the German raises the pistol and fires three rounds into the underbrush. Stackhouse groans, and Ben squeezes the BAR’s trigger. The shot severs the German at the waist. Though Ben pulls his hands away from the rifle, the man remains alive, shuddering on the ground and meeting Ben’s eyes through his glasses.

Function and Significance

The BAR’s role changes with the conditions around it: in training it is an added load, in the open attack it is fired indiscriminately, and in the woods it becomes the means of a fatal close-range decision. The contrast matters. Earlier, Ben fires simply because the battle is moving around him; at the decisive moment, he has time to register the wounded man, Stackhouse’s struggle, and the danger of the pistol, yet remains paralyzed until the shots force a response. The rifle is thus not presented as a neutral extension of confident skill. Ben’s grip, hesitation, and recoil from it mark the human and material pressures converging in the encounter, while the violence of its effect outlasts the instant of firing: the German is still alive, and Stackhouse is wounded. The BAR’s narrative significance lies in this shift from assigned equipment to an object implicated in an irreversible act, without making that act feel effortless, justified, or complete.