I especially love the scene with the poor dogface hunkered down under the sound of a MG42. I read that the US Army felt that the greater firepower of the indivdual soldiers with their Garands would offset the superiority of the MG 42 over our own BAR and M1919 squad support weapons. The idea of using indivdual battle rifles, esp those with 8 rounds at a go, as base of fire weapons seems a bit silly to me. In the case of the BAR the Swedes did a bit better; including a quick change for the barrel. It seems the best we could manage is to bolt a stock on a 1919, the A4 model, and send out something like the 08/15 Maxim.
Not like they've found a happy solution even yet, the Marines want to dump the M249. and the Army is still casting about for a new squad automatic, The Brits and Bundeswehr both stuck big mags on a regular rifle and called it good, ala' RPK style almost.