British magazine placement

[AlexanderA]

M60 has a push through belt. The bolt rams the cartridge through the link straight into the chamber.

That idea was taken from the German MG34/42 guns. The difference is that the M60 has disintegrating links, whereas the German guns did not.

Designs that originally had cloth belts, such as the Browning, Vickers, and Maxim guns, had to first extract the rounds from the belt (to the rear) before pushing them into the chamber. This results in a lot of "lost motion" and slows down the cyclic rate. The legendary high cyclic rate of the MG42 would not have been possible with such a system.

 

[Jim Watson]

And Germany still uses it as the MG3. But nobody else wants that high cyclic rate.

 

[Archie]

M60 has a push through belt. The bolt rams the cartridge through the link straight into the chamber.

It is convenient to load the belt from the top.

Mr. Watson, the cartridges are removed from the links. Whether they are pulled - which I did not state, transported or pushed (and they are pushed, without argument) is irrelevant to the discussion. The M60 does have the cartridges in the path of the bolt at the top, functionally, of the receiver. The reason for the location is irrelevant to the same degree as why the BREN gun, the Fiat 1915, or anything else has the magazine situated any particular place.