Vickers machine gun
Posted: Jul 27, 2010 |Comments: 0
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History
The Vickers machine gun was based on the successful Maxim gun of the late 19th century. After purchasing the Maxim company outright in 1896, Vickers took the design of the Maxim gun and improved it, reducing its weight by taking out all unnecessary parts, and adding a muzzle booster.
The British Army formally adopted the Vickers gun as its standard machine gun on 26 November 1912, using it alongside their Maxims. There were still great shortages when the First World War began, and the British Expeditionary Force was still equipped with Maxims when sent to France in 1914. Vickers was, in fact, threatened with prosecution for war profiteering, due to the exorbitant price it was demanding for each gun. As a result, the price was slashed. As the war progressed, and numbers increased, it became the British Army's primary machine gun, and served on all fronts during the conflict. When the Lewis Gun was adopted as a light machine gun and issued to infantry units, the Vickers guns were redefined as heavy machine guns, withdrawn from infantry units, and grouped in the hands of the new Machine Gun Corps (when heavier 0.5 in/12.7 mm calibre machine guns appeared, the tripod-mounted, rifle-calibre machine guns like the Vickers became medium machine guns). After the First World War, the Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was disbanded and the Vickers returned to infantry units. Before the Second World War, there were plans to replace the Vickers gun; one of the contenders was the 7.92 mm (.312 in) Besa machine gun (a Czech design), which eventually became the British Army's standard tank-mounted machine gun. However, the Vickers remained in service with the British Army until 30 March 1968. Its last operational use was in the Radfan during the Aden Emergency. Its successor in UK service is the L7 GPMG.
Use in aircraft
The Vickers gun became a standard weapon on British and French military aircraft, especially after 1916. Although heavier than the Lewis, and using a belt feed which proved problematic in the air, its closed bolt firing cycle made it much easier to synchronize it to allow it to fire through aircraft propellers. The famous Sopwith Camel and the SPAD XIII types used twin synchronised Vickers, as did most British and French fighters between 1918 and the mid 1930s. In the air, the heavy water cooling system was redundant, but because the weapon relied on barrel recoil, the (empty) water-holding barrel jacket or casing needed to be retained. Slots were cut into the barrel jacket to aid air cooling.
As the machine gun armament of fighter aircraft moved from the fuselage to the wings in the years before the Second World War, the Vickers, with its fabric belts was generally replaced by the faster-firing Browning Model 1919 using metal-linked cartridges. Several British bombers and attack aircraft of the Second World War mounted the Vickers K machine gun or VGO, a completely different design.
Variants
Main article: Vickers .50 machine gun
The larger calibre (half-inch) version of the Vickers was used for armoured fighting vehicles and naval use.
The Gun, Machine, Vickers, .5-inch, Mk. II was used in tanks, the earlier Mark I having been the development model. This entered service in 1933 and was obsolete in 1944. Firing either single shot or automatic it had a pistol type trigger grip rather than the spades of the 0.303 in (7.7 mm) cartridge.
The Gun, Machine, Vickers, .5-inch, Mk. III was used as an anti-aircraft gun on British ships. This variation was typically four guns mounted on a 360 rotating and (+80 to 10) elevating housing. The belts were rolled into a spiral and placed in hoppers beside each gun. The heavy plain bullet weighed 1.3 oz (37 g) and was good for 1,500 yd (1,400 m) range (1,300 m). Maximum rate of fire for the Mark III was about 700 rpm from a 200-round belt carried in a drum. They were fitted from the 1920s onwards, but in practical terms, proved of little use. During the Second World War, the naval 0.5 in (12.7 mm) version was also mounted on power-operated turrets in smaller watercraft, such as Motor Gun Boats and Motor Torpedo Boats.
The Mark IV and V guns were improvements on the Mark II. Intended for British light tanks, some were used during the war on mounts on trucks by the LRDG in the North Africa Campaign
Foreign service
The Vickers was widely sold commercially and saw service with many nations and their own particular ammunition. It was also modified for each company and served as a base for many other weapons. For example:
6.5 mm Italian
6.5 mm Arisaka
6.5x54R Dutch
7x57 Mauser
7.5x55 Swiss
7.62x51 NATO
.30-06 Springfield
7.62x54R Russian
7.65x53 Mauser
8 mm Lebel
The Vickers MG remains in service with the Indian, Pakistani, and Nepalese armed forces, albeit as a reserve weapon, intended for emergency use in the event of a major conflict.
Specifications
The weight of the gun itself varied based on the gear attached, but was generally 25-30 lb (11-13 kg), with a 40-50 lb (18-23 kg) tripod. The ammunition boxes for the 250-round ammunition belts weighed 22 lb (10 kg) each. In addition, it required about 7.5 imperial pints (4.3 L) of water in its evaporative cooling system to prevent overheating. The heat of the barrel boiled the water in the jacket surrounding it. The resulting steam was taken off by flexible tube to a condenser containerhis had the dual benefits of avoiding giving away the gun's location, and also enabling re-use of the water, which was very important in arid environments.
Rimmed, centrefire Mk 7 .303 inch (7.7 mm) cartridge from World War II.
In British service, the Vickers gun fired the standard .303 inch (7.7 mm) cartridges used in the Lee Enfield rifle, which generally had to be hand-loaded into the cloth ammunition belts. There was also a 0.5 in (12.7 mm) calibre version used as an anti-aircraft weapon and various other calibres produced for foreign buyers. Some British tanks of the early Second World War were equipped with the 0.5 in (12.7 mm) Vickers.
The gun was 3 ft 8 in (1.1 m) long and its cyclic rate of fire was between 450 and 600 rounds per minute. In practice, it was expected that 10,000 rounds would be fired per hour, and that the barrel would be changed every hour two-minute job for a trained team. Firing the Mark 8 cartridge, which had a streamlined bullet, it could be used against targets at a range of approximately 4,500 yd (4.1 km).
Use
The gun and its tripod were carried separately and were both heavy. The original design did not anticipate its being carried up jungle-covered mountains on men's backs, but such was the weapon's popularity that men were generally content to man-pack it to all manner of difficult locations. The tripod would be set up to make a firm base, often dug into the ground a little and perhaps with the feet weighted down with sandbags. The water jacket would be filled with water around the barrel. The firing of the gun would make the barrel heat up, and conducted heat would then boil the water in the jacket, and steam would be carried away down a rubber pipe, to condense in a metal can. The condensed water could then be poured back into the jacket to top it up, but another function of the condenser tin was to hide the emissions of steam, that might give away the gun's position. This cooling system, though heavy, was very effective, and enabled the gun to keep firing far longer than air-cooled rival weapons.
The loader sat to the gunner's right, and fed in belts of cloth, into which had been placed the rounds. The weapon would draw in the belt, push each round out of the belt and into the breech, fire it, and then drop the brass cartridge out of the bottom, to gather in a pile of spent brass underneath the weapon, while the cloth belt would continue through to the left side and wind up on the ground.
Clinometer for Vickers .303 machine gun
The Vickers was used for indirect fire against enemy positions at ranges up to 4,500 yards. This plunging fire was used to great effect against road junctions, trench systems, forming up points, and other locations that might be observed by a forward observer, or zeroed in at one time for future attacks, or guessed at by men using maps and experience. Sometimes a location might be zeroed in during the day, and then attacked at night, much to the surprise and confusion of the enemy. New Zealand units were especially fond of this use. A white disc would be set up on a pole near the MMG, and the gunner would aim at a mark on it, knowing that this corresponded to aiming at the distant target. There was a special back-sight with a tall extension on it for this purpose. The only similar weapon of the time to use indirect fire was the German MG 08, which had a separate attachment sight with range calculator.
A British World War Two Vickers MMG platoon typically had one officer in command of four guns, in two sections of two, each with a crew and a small team of riflemen whose job was to protect the gun, and keep it supplied with ammunition.
Users
Commonwealth of Nations
Australia
Canada
New Zealand
Rhodesia
South Africa
United Kingdom
Pakistan
India
Nepal
Bolivia
Ireland
Egypt
Gallery of images
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vickers machine gun
British Vickers gun team in action at the Battle of the Somme. Both are wearing gas masks
Rear view of Vickers gun team in action at the Battle of the Somme
Vickers gun set up for anti-aircraft purposes during the First World War
Vickers machine-gun of the 1st Manchester Regiment in Malaya, 1941
British Vickers gunners in action in Holland during Operation Market Garden. All are wearing the Mk III Turtle helmet
View of the breech of a Vickers gun showing brass feed ramp
Dorsal view of a Vickers gun showing fluted water-cooling tank
See also
Kjellman machine gun
M1917 Browning machine gun
Maschinengewehr 08
Schwarzlose MG M.07/12
Skoda M1909 machine gun
Vickers K Machine gun
Vickers .50 machine gun
Notes
^ Hogg, Ian V.; Batchelor, John (1976). Weapons & War Machines. London: Phoebus. pp. 62. ISBN 0-7026-0008-3.
"The Vickers gun accompanied the BEF to France in 1914, and in the years that followed, proved itself to be the most reliable weapon on the battlefield, some of its feats of endurance entering military mythology. Perhaps the most incredible was the action by the 100th Company of the Machine Gun Corps at High Wood on 24 August 1916. This company had ten Vickers guns, and it was ordered to give sustained covering fire for 12 hours onto a selected area 2,000 yards away in order to prevent German troops forming up there for a counter-attack while a British attack was in progress. Two whole companies of infantrymen were allocated as carriers of ammunition, rations and water for the machine-gunners. Two men worked a belt-filling machine non-stop for 12 hours keeping up a supply of 250-round belts. One hundred new barrels were used up, and every drop of water in the neighbourhood, including the men drinking water and contents of the latrine buckets, went up in steam to keep the guns cool. And in that 12-hour period the ten guns fired a million rounds between them. One team fired 120,000 from one gun to win a five-franc prize offered to the highest-scoring gun. And at the end of that 12 hours, every gun was working perfectly and not one gun had broken down during the whole period. It was this absolute foolproof reliability which endeared the Vickers to every British soldier who ever fired one. It never broke down; it just kept on firing and came back for more. And that was why the Mark 1 Vickers gun was to remain the standard medium machine-gun from 1912 to 1968."
^ http://www.vickersmachinegun.org.uk/
^ http://www.vickersmachinegun.org.uk/
Further reading
Anon, Vickers, Sons and Maxim Limited: Their Works and Manufactures. (Reprinted from 'Engineering') London (1898).
Plates showing the mechanism of the forerunner of the Vickers gun, the Vickers Maxim gun as well as numerous plates of the factories in which they and other arms were made.
External links
British Vickers Gun tactics during the Great War
Vickers machine gun
Spartacus Educational - Vickers machine gun
v d e
British Empire Small Arms & Ordnance of the First World War
Rifles, side arms,
Hand grenades
Short Magazine Lee-Enfield rifle Pattern 1914 Enfield rifle Martini-Enfield rifle Ross Rifle (Canada) Webley Revolver Mk. II
Grenade, No 1 No 2 grenade "Hales Pattern" Rifle grenades, 3, 20, 24, 35 Hales No.s 5, 23, 36 Mills No. 6 grenade No.s 8, 9 Double Cylinder Jam Tin No. 13 Battye No. 15 Ball grenade No. 27 Smoke Grenade No. 34 Egg grenade
Artillery
Tank guns
QF 6 pounder Hotchkiss QF 6 pounder 6 cwt
Field Artillery
BL 12 pounder 6 cwt QF 12 pounder 8 cwt QF 12 pounder 18 cwt QF 13 pounder BL 15 pounder BLC 15 pounder QF 15 pounder QF 18 pounder QF 4.5 inch Howitzer
Mountain artillery
RML 2.5 inch Mountain Gun BL 10 pounder Mountain Gun BL 2.75 inch Mountain Gun QF 2.95 inch Mountain Gun QF 3.7 inch Mountain Howitzer
Howitzers, medium,
and heavy artillery
QF 4 inch gun Mk III BL 4 inch gun Mk VII QF 4.7 inch Gun BL 5 inch Howitzer BL 5.4 inch Howitzer BL 60 pounder gun BLC 6 inch siege gun BL 6 inch Gun Mk VII BL 6 inch Gun Mk XIX BL 6 inch 30 cwt howitzer BL 6 inch 26 cwt howitzer BL 8 inch Howitzer Mk I - V BL 8 inch Howitzer Mk VI - VIII
Siege artillery
BL 7.5 inch Mk III naval gun BL 9.2 inch Howitzer BL 9.2 inch Mk X naval gun BL 12 inch Howitzer BL 12 inch Mk X naval gun BL 15 inch Howitzer
Mortars
Garland Mortar 3 inch Stokes Mortar 4 inch Stokes Mortar 2 inch Medium Mortar Newton 6 inch Mortar 9.45 inch Heavy Mortar
Smoke and chemical weapons
4 inch Stokes Mortar Livens Projector
Railway guns
BL 9.2 inch Railway Gun BL 12 inch Railway Gun BL 12 inch railway howitzer BL 14 inch Railway Gun
Anti-aircraft guns
QF 1 pounder pom-pom QF 2 pounder pom-pom QF 12 pounder 12 cwt QF 3 inch 5 cwt QF 13 pounder 6 cwt QF 13 pounder Mk IV QF 13 pounder 9 cwt QF 3 inch 20 cwt QF 18 pounder QF 4 inch Mk V
Machine guns
Vickers machine gun Lewis Gun Maxim gun Hotchkiss Mark I
Foreign weapon designs
in British Army use
Hotchkiss Mark I Lewis Gun 75 mm AA gun QF 15 pounder 9.45 inch Heavy Mortar
v d e
British & Commonwealth small arms of World War II and Korea
Side-arms
Webley Mk IV & Mk VI Revolvers Enfield No. 2 Mk I Revolver Browning GP-35 "High Power" Pistol Smith & Wesson "Victory" Revolver Welrod
Rifles & submachine guns
SMLE No.1 Mk III* & Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk.I Lee-Enfield No.5 Mk.I "Jungle Carbine" De Lisle Commando Carbine Sten SMG Lanchester SMG Austen SMG Owen Gun Welgun M1921/M1928/M1 Thompson SMG
Machine-guns &
other larger weapons
Bren gun Charlton Automatic Rifle Lewis Gun Vickers MG PIAT Rifle, Anti-Tank, .55 in, Boys SBML 2inch Mortar ML 3-inch Mortar No.2 "Lifebuoy" Flamethrower
Grenades
British grenades of WWI and WW2 Mills Bomb F1 grenade
Small arms cartridges
.303 British 9mm Parabellum .45 ACP .455 Webley .38/200 .38 Special .50 BMG
v d e
Weapons of the British Empire & Commonwealth of Nations 17221965
Handguns
Beaumont-Adams Revolver Webley Revolver Mk. II Enfield No. 1 & No. 2 Revolvers Browning Hi-Power
Rifles and carbines
Brown Bess Musket Ferguson rifle Baker Infantry Rifle Brunswick rifle Enfield 1853 Rifled Musket Snider-Enfield Martini-Henry Martini-Enfield Lee-Metford Lee-Enfield L1A1 SLR Lee-Enfield No.5 Mk.I "Jungle Carbine" De Lisle Commando Carbine
Submachine guns
Lanchester Sten Owen gun Sterling L2 F1 submachine gun
Rapid-fire weapons
Nordenfelt gun Gatling gun Gardner gun Maxim gun QF 2 pdr "Pom-Pom" Vickers Gun Lewis Gun Charlton Automatic Rifle Bren gun
Anti-tank weapons
2 pdr Anti-Tank Gun 6 pdr Anti-Tank Gun PIAT Rifle, Anti-Tank, .55 in, Boys L6 Wombat
Field guns
and other weapons
25 pdr Field Gun Congreve rocket SBML 2-inch Mortar Ordnance ML 3 inch Mortar No.2 "Lifebuoy" Flamethrower Stokes Mortar
Categories: Medium machine guns | Aircraft guns | Tank guns | Vickers | World War I aircraft guns | World War I machine guns | World War I British infantry weapons | World War II British infantry weapons | Military equipment of the British Empire | Machine guns of the United Kingdom | World War I infantry weapons of Australia | World War II infantry weapons of Australia | Korean War infantry weapons of AustraliaHidden categories: Articles lacking in-text citations from March 2008 | All articles lacking in-text citations
The Vickers machine gun was based on the successful Maxim gun of the late 19th century. After purchasing the Maxim company outright in 1896, Vickers took the design of the Maxim gun and improved it, reducing its weight by taking out all unnecessary parts, and adding a muzzle booster.
The British Army formally adopted the Vickers gun as its standard machine gun on 26 November 1912, using it alongside their Maxims. There were still great shortages when the First World War began, and the British Expeditionary Force was still equipped with Maxims when sent to France in 1914. Vickers was, in fact, threatened with prosecution for war profiteering, due to the exorbitant price it was demanding for each gun. As a result, the price was slashed. As the war progressed, and numbers increased, it became the British Army's primary machine gun, and served on all fronts during the conflict. When the Lewis Gun was adopted as a light machine gun and issued to infantry units, the Vickers guns were redefined as heavy machine guns, withdrawn from infantry units, and grouped in the hands of the new Machine Gun Corps (when heavier 0.5 in/12.7 mm calibre machine guns appeared, the tripod-mounted, rifle-calibre machine guns like the Vickers became medium machine guns). After the First World War, the Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was disbanded and the Vickers returned to infantry units. Before the Second World War, there were plans to replace the Vickers gun; one of the contenders was the 7.92 mm (.312 in) Besa machine gun (a Czech design), which eventually became the British Army's standard tank-mounted machine gun. However, the Vickers remained in service with the British Army until 30 March 1968. Its last operational use was in the Radfan during the Aden Emergency. Its successor in UK service is the L7 GPMG.
Use in aircraft
The Vickers gun became a standard weapon on British and French military aircraft, especially after 1916. Although heavier than the Lewis, and using a belt feed which proved problematic in the air, its closed bolt firing cycle made it much easier to synchronize it to allow it to fire through aircraft propellers. The famous Sopwith Camel and the SPAD XIII types used twin synchronised Vickers, as did most British and French fighters between 1918 and the mid 1930s. In the air, the heavy water cooling system was redundant, but because the weapon relied on barrel recoil, the (empty) water-holding barrel jacket or casing needed to be retained. Slots were cut into the barrel jacket to aid air cooling.
As the machine gun armament of fighter aircraft moved from the fuselage to the wings in the years before the Second World War, the Vickers, with its fabric belts was generally replaced by the faster-firing Browning Model 1919 using metal-linked cartridges. Several British bombers and attack aircraft of the Second World War mounted the Vickers K machine gun or VGO, a completely different design.
Variants
Main article: Vickers .50 machine gun
The larger calibre (half-inch) version of the Vickers was used for armoured fighting vehicles and naval use.
The Gun, Machine, Vickers, .5-inch, Mk. II was used in tanks, the earlier Mark I having been the development model. This entered service in 1933 and was obsolete in 1944. Firing either single shot or automatic it had a pistol type trigger grip rather than the spades of the 0.303 in (7.7 mm) cartridge.
The Gun, Machine, Vickers, .5-inch, Mk. III was used as an anti-aircraft gun on British ships. This variation was typically four guns mounted on a 360 rotating and (+80 to 10) elevating housing. The belts were rolled into a spiral and placed in hoppers beside each gun. The heavy plain bullet weighed 1.3 oz (37 g) and was good for 1,500 yd (1,400 m) range (1,300 m). Maximum rate of fire for the Mark III was about 700 rpm from a 200-round belt carried in a drum. They were fitted from the 1920s onwards, but in practical terms, proved of little use. During the Second World War, the naval 0.5 in (12.7 mm) version was also mounted on power-operated turrets in smaller watercraft, such as Motor Gun Boats and Motor Torpedo Boats.
The Mark IV and V guns were improvements on the Mark II. Intended for British light tanks, some were used during the war on mounts on trucks by the LRDG in the North Africa Campaign
Foreign service
The Vickers was widely sold commercially and saw service with many nations and their own particular ammunition. It was also modified for each company and served as a base for many other weapons. For example:
6.5 mm Italian
6.5 mm Arisaka
6.5x54R Dutch
7x57 Mauser
7.5x55 Swiss
7.62x51 NATO
.30-06 Springfield
7.62x54R Russian
7.65x53 Mauser
8 mm Lebel
The Vickers MG remains in service with the Indian, Pakistani, and Nepalese armed forces, albeit as a reserve weapon, intended for emergency use in the event of a major conflict.
Specifications
The weight of the gun itself varied based on the gear attached, but was generally 25-30 lb (11-13 kg), with a 40-50 lb (18-23 kg) tripod. The ammunition boxes for the 250-round ammunition belts weighed 22 lb (10 kg) each. In addition, it required about 7.5 imperial pints (4.3 L) of water in its evaporative cooling system to prevent overheating. The heat of the barrel boiled the water in the jacket surrounding it. The resulting steam was taken off by flexible tube to a condenser containerhis had the dual benefits of avoiding giving away the gun's location, and also enabling re-use of the water, which was very important in arid environments.
Rimmed, centrefire Mk 7 .303 inch (7.7 mm) cartridge from World War II.
In British service, the Vickers gun fired the standard .303 inch (7.7 mm) cartridges used in the Lee Enfield rifle, which generally had to be hand-loaded into the cloth ammunition belts. There was also a 0.5 in (12.7 mm) calibre version used as an anti-aircraft weapon and various other calibres produced for foreign buyers. Some British tanks of the early Second World War were equipped with the 0.5 in (12.7 mm) Vickers.
Use
The gun and its tripod were carried separately and were both heavy. The original design did not anticipate its being carried up jungle-covered mountains on men's backs, but such was the weapon's popularity that men were generally content to man-pack it to all manner of difficult locations. The tripod would be set up to make a firm base, often dug into the ground a little and perhaps with the feet weighted down with sandbags. The water jacket would be filled with water around the barrel. The firing of the gun would make the barrel heat up, and conducted heat would then boil the water in the jacket, and steam would be carried away down a rubber pipe, to condense in a metal can. The condensed water could then be poured back into the jacket to top it up, but another function of the condenser tin was to hide the emissions of steam, that might give away the gun's position. This cooling system, though heavy, was very effective, and enabled the gun to keep firing far longer than air-cooled rival weapons.
The loader sat to the gunner's right, and fed in belts of cloth, into which had been placed the rounds. The weapon would draw in the belt, push each round out of the belt and into the breech, fire it, and then drop the brass cartridge out of the bottom, to gather in a pile of spent brass underneath the weapon, while the cloth belt would continue through to the left side and wind up on the ground.
Clinometer for Vickers .303 machine gun
The Vickers was used for indirect fire against enemy positions at ranges up to 4,500 yards. This plunging fire was used to great effect against road junctions, trench systems, forming up points, and other locations that might be observed by a forward observer, or zeroed in at one time for future attacks, or guessed at by men using maps and experience. Sometimes a location might be zeroed in during the day, and then attacked at night, much to the surprise and confusion of the enemy. New Zealand units were especially fond of this use. A white disc would be set up on a pole near the MMG, and the gunner would aim at a mark on it, knowing that this corresponded to aiming at the distant target. There was a special back-sight with a tall extension on it for this purpose. The only similar weapon of the time to use indirect fire was the German MG 08, which had a separate attachment sight with range calculator.
A British World War Two Vickers MMG platoon typically had one officer in command of four guns, in two sections of two, each with a crew and a small team of riflemen whose job was to protect the gun, and keep it supplied with ammunition.
Users
Commonwealth of Nations
Australia
Canada
New Zealand
Rhodesia
South Africa
United Kingdom
Pakistan
India
Nepal
Bolivia
Ireland
Egypt
Gallery of images
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vickers machine gun
British Vickers gun team in action at the Battle of the Somme. Both are wearing gas masks
Rear view of Vickers gun team in action at the Battle of the Somme
Vickers gun set up for anti-aircraft purposes during the First World War
Vickers machine-gun of the 1st Manchester Regiment in Malaya, 1941
British Vickers gunners in action in Holland during Operation Market Garden. All are wearing the Mk III Turtle helmet
View of the breech of a Vickers gun showing brass feed ramp
Dorsal view of a Vickers gun showing fluted water-cooling tank
See also
Kjellman machine gun
M1917 Browning machine gun
Maschinengewehr 08
Schwarzlose MG M.07/12
Skoda M1909 machine gun
Vickers K Machine gun
Vickers .50 machine gun
Notes
^ Hogg, Ian V.; Batchelor, John (1976). Weapons & War Machines. London: Phoebus. pp. 62. ISBN 0-7026-0008-3.
"The Vickers gun accompanied the BEF to France in 1914, and in the years that followed, proved itself to be the most reliable weapon on the battlefield, some of its feats of endurance entering military mythology. Perhaps the most incredible was the action by the 100th Company of the Machine Gun Corps at High Wood on 24 August 1916. This company had ten Vickers guns, and it was ordered to give sustained covering fire for 12 hours onto a selected area 2,000 yards away in order to prevent German troops forming up there for a counter-attack while a British attack was in progress. Two whole companies of infantrymen were allocated as carriers of ammunition, rations and water for the machine-gunners. Two men worked a belt-filling machine non-stop for 12 hours keeping up a supply of 250-round belts. One hundred new barrels were used up, and every drop of water in the neighbourhood, including the men drinking water and contents of the latrine buckets, went up in steam to keep the guns cool. And in that 12-hour period the ten guns fired a million rounds between them. One team fired 120,000 from one gun to win a five-franc prize offered to the highest-scoring gun. And at the end of that 12 hours, every gun was working perfectly and not one gun had broken down during the whole period. It was this absolute foolproof reliability which endeared the Vickers to every British soldier who ever fired one. It never broke down; it just kept on firing and came back for more. And that was why the Mark 1 Vickers gun was to remain the standard medium machine-gun from 1912 to 1968."
^ http://www.vickersmachinegun.org.uk/
^ http://www.vickersmachinegun.org.uk/
Further reading
Anon, Vickers, Sons and Maxim Limited: Their Works and Manufactures. (Reprinted from 'Engineering') London (1898).
Plates showing the mechanism of the forerunner of the Vickers gun, the Vickers Maxim gun as well as numerous plates of the factories in which they and other arms were made.
External links
British Vickers Gun tactics during the Great War
Vickers machine gun
Spartacus Educational - Vickers machine gun
v d e
British Empire Small Arms & Ordnance of the First World War
Rifles, side arms,
Hand grenades
Short Magazine Lee-Enfield rifle Pattern 1914 Enfield rifle Martini-Enfield rifle Ross Rifle (Canada) Webley Revolver Mk. II
Grenade, No 1 No 2 grenade "Hales Pattern" Rifle grenades, 3, 20, 24, 35 Hales No.s 5, 23, 36 Mills No. 6 grenade No.s 8, 9 Double Cylinder Jam Tin No. 13 Battye No. 15 Ball grenade No. 27 Smoke Grenade No. 34 Egg grenade
Artillery
Tank guns
QF 6 pounder Hotchkiss QF 6 pounder 6 cwt
Field Artillery
BL 12 pounder 6 cwt QF 12 pounder 8 cwt QF 12 pounder 18 cwt QF 13 pounder BL 15 pounder BLC 15 pounder QF 15 pounder QF 18 pounder QF 4.5 inch Howitzer
Mountain artillery
RML 2.5 inch Mountain Gun BL 10 pounder Mountain Gun BL 2.75 inch Mountain Gun QF 2.95 inch Mountain Gun QF 3.7 inch Mountain Howitzer
Howitzers, medium,
and heavy artillery
QF 4 inch gun Mk III BL 4 inch gun Mk VII QF 4.7 inch Gun BL 5 inch Howitzer BL 5.4 inch Howitzer BL 60 pounder gun BLC 6 inch siege gun BL 6 inch Gun Mk VII BL 6 inch Gun Mk XIX BL 6 inch 30 cwt howitzer BL 6 inch 26 cwt howitzer BL 8 inch Howitzer Mk I - V BL 8 inch Howitzer Mk VI - VIII
Siege artillery
BL 7.5 inch Mk III naval gun BL 9.2 inch Howitzer BL 9.2 inch Mk X naval gun BL 12 inch Howitzer BL 12 inch Mk X naval gun BL 15 inch Howitzer
Mortars
Garland Mortar 3 inch Stokes Mortar 4 inch Stokes Mortar 2 inch Medium Mortar Newton 6 inch Mortar 9.45 inch Heavy Mortar
Smoke and chemical weapons
4 inch Stokes Mortar Livens Projector
Railway guns
BL 9.2 inch Railway Gun BL 12 inch Railway Gun BL 12 inch railway howitzer BL 14 inch Railway Gun
Anti-aircraft guns
QF 1 pounder pom-pom QF 2 pounder pom-pom QF 12 pounder 12 cwt QF 3 inch 5 cwt QF 13 pounder 6 cwt QF 13 pounder Mk IV QF 13 pounder 9 cwt QF 3 inch 20 cwt QF 18 pounder QF 4 inch Mk V
Machine guns
Vickers machine gun Lewis Gun Maxim gun Hotchkiss Mark I
Foreign weapon designs
in British Army use
Hotchkiss Mark I Lewis Gun 75 mm AA gun QF 15 pounder 9.45 inch Heavy Mortar
v d e
British & Commonwealth small arms of World War II and Korea
Side-arms
Webley Mk IV & Mk VI Revolvers Enfield No. 2 Mk I Revolver Browning GP-35 "High Power" Pistol Smith & Wesson "Victory" Revolver Welrod
Rifles & submachine guns
SMLE No.1 Mk III* & Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk.I Lee-Enfield No.5 Mk.I "Jungle Carbine" De Lisle Commando Carbine Sten SMG Lanchester SMG Austen SMG Owen Gun Welgun M1921/M1928/M1 Thompson SMG
Machine-guns &
other larger weapons
Bren gun Charlton Automatic Rifle Lewis Gun Vickers MG PIAT Rifle, Anti-Tank, .55 in, Boys SBML 2inch Mortar ML 3-inch Mortar No.2 "Lifebuoy" Flamethrower
Grenades
British grenades of WWI and WW2 Mills Bomb F1 grenade
Small arms cartridges
.303 British 9mm Parabellum .45 ACP .455 Webley .38/200 .38 Special .50 BMG
v d e
Weapons of the British Empire & Commonwealth of Nations 17221965
Handguns
Beaumont-Adams Revolver Webley Revolver Mk. II Enfield No. 1 & No. 2 Revolvers Browning Hi-Power
Rifles and carbines
Brown Bess Musket Ferguson rifle Baker Infantry Rifle Brunswick rifle Enfield 1853 Rifled Musket Snider-Enfield Martini-Henry Martini-Enfield Lee-Metford Lee-Enfield L1A1 SLR Lee-Enfield No.5 Mk.I "Jungle Carbine" De Lisle Commando Carbine
Submachine guns
Lanchester Sten Owen gun Sterling L2 F1 submachine gun
Rapid-fire weapons
Nordenfelt gun Gatling gun Gardner gun Maxim gun QF 2 pdr "Pom-Pom" Vickers Gun Lewis Gun Charlton Automatic Rifle Bren gun
Anti-tank weapons
2 pdr Anti-Tank Gun 6 pdr Anti-Tank Gun PIAT Rifle, Anti-Tank, .55 in, Boys L6 Wombat
Field guns
and other weapons
25 pdr Field Gun Congreve rocket SBML 2-inch Mortar Ordnance ML 3 inch Mortar No.2 "Lifebuoy" Flamethrower Stokes Mortar
Categories: Medium machine guns | Aircraft guns | Tank guns | Vickers | World War I aircraft guns | World War I machine guns | World War I British infantry weapons | World War II British infantry weapons | Military equipment of the British Empire | Machine guns of the United Kingdom | World War I infantry weapons of Australia | World War II infantry weapons of Australia | Korean War infantry weapons of AustraliaHidden categories: Articles lacking in-text citations from March 2008 | All articles lacking in-text citations
Questions and Answers
Attention! A few hints and tips as follow to help you when choosing fashion jewelry for yourself, or a friend or lover.
Amber Laine offers stylish, high quality, and affordable jewelry for every age group. Our collection includes fashion jewelry and gemstones that range from imported amber, authentic turquoise, sterling silver, and gold to cubic zirconia, crystal, and more.
Find out the best advice on the way to apply Balanced Scorecard system in various companies. Find out more on Balanced Scorecard advantages in this article.
The current economic climate of China is growing at a rapid pace. China is even predicted too become the top manufacturer in the near future! China currently provides imported products to a majority of nations in the world today. One of these countries is Australia. In Australia, the wholesale business industry is a big success and many businessmen are looking for ways to make sure they improve their trading relationship with China.
The most important thing to consider whenever creating business in south America is always to defeat the language barrier and a superb technique to do this if you are willing to know would be to master Spanish language as well as Portuguese.
The Latin America market is among the swiftest widening in the world that's the reason why it is an excellent spot to build organizations or purchase shares from countries in this region. The location has great macroeconomic principles and along with sound political weather, it is quite the spot for traders to put their money in.
TV distributors are extremely getting more intense with the promotional plans and methods they utilize to get clients. You need to give credit to many of these sellers as most of these techniques call for big amounts of money and creativity to draw in attention to their items and frequently, even poach prospective clients from their rivals.
LED lights will become the future of automotive lighting market, the mainstream-LED lights - Lightin
Every office worker is now surely, home after work the first thing is open to all with the "power" character-related things: TV , Computers, lights ... ... for their laid-back fun after
Grade 4 billion yuan in Shenzhen paraelectric completed distribution center - Shenzhen Shun electric
< BR> recently, known as the Chinese called BESTBUY Shenzhen Paraelectric officially completed its relocation of distribution center upgrade program
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, steroids and anti-biological categories alleviate disease is rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatic drugs in the drug market, the rulers
Shandong: TM to consumers feel affordable appliances - appliances TM, Appliance Sales - appliances i
"Was originally 'TM to', and now is, what difference? Off the prices similar to earn money to go shopping." Appliances TM to the state implemented a formal trial at Beijing has
Xi'an pharmacies are still selling "Di beans" Factory: The exposure of fake products -
1 20, CCTV's "Weekly Quality Report" exposed "Di beans" pox-speed consumer cosmetic products containing banned substances were found to chloramphenicol
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