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The Vickers machine gun or '''Vickers gun''' is a name primarily used to refer to the Water-cooled '''.303 inch (7.7 mm) Machine Gun ''' produced by the Vickers company, originally for the British Army . HISTORY Vickers produced the original Maxim Gun s and therefore had an unrivalled knowledge of its operation and manufacture. After purchasing the Maxim company Vickers took the design of the Maxim gun and improved it, mainly in reducing weight. The British Army formally adopted it on 26 November 1912 and it remained in service until 30 March 1968 . The weapon typically required a six to eight-man team to operate: one to fire, one to feed the ammunition, and the rest to help carry the weapon, its ammunition and spare parts. The gun had a reputation for great solidity and reliability, and many of its gun crews became very devoted to the machine, spending off-hours lovingly maintaining each piece at highest efficiency. The weight of the gun itself varied based on the gear attached, but was generally between 25 and 30 pounds (11 and 13 kg), with a 40 to 50 pound (18 to 23 kg) tripod. The ammunition boxes for the 250 round ammunition belts weighed 22 pounds (10 kg) each. In addition, it required about 7.5 imperial Pint s (4.3 litres) 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 condensor container - this had the dual benefits of avoiding giving away the gun's location, and also enabling reuse of the water which was very important in desert environments. In British service, the Vickers gun fired the standard .303 Inch (7.7 x 56 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 inch (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 inch (12.7 mm) Vickers. The gun was 3 feet 8 inches (1.1 m) long and its cyclic rate of fire was between 450 and 600 rounds of ammunition per minute, with a range of approximately 4,500 yards (4,100 m). The machine gun became standard weapons on all British and French Military Aircraft after 1916. The gun was fitted with Interrupter Gear to allow it to fire through aircraft Propeller s, and slots were cut in the water jacket so that it was cooled by air flow instead. As the machine gun armament of fighters moved from the fuselage to the wings in the years before WW2, the Vickers with its cloth belts was replaced by the Browning Model 1919 with metal clips in some aircraft, especially fighters. The Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber was one British plane that used the Vickers in the Second World war. VARIANTS The larger calibre (half-inch) version of the Vickers was used as an anti-aircraft gun on British ships as the 0.5"/62 Vickers Machine Gun Mark III. These were typically four guns on rotating (360°) elevating (+80° to -10°) mounting. The belts were rolled into a spiral and placed in hoppers beside each gun. The heavy plain bullet weighed 1.3 oz and was good for 1,500 yd range (1,300 m). They were fitted from the 1920s onwards but in practical terms proved of little use. FOREIGN SERVICE The Vickers was widely sold commercially and saw service with many nations and their own particular ammunition. for example
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: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 SEE ALSO |
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