Vickers machine gun
Vickers machine gun | |
---|---|
11mm Vickers others | |
Action | Recoil with gas boost |
Rate of fire | 450 to 500 round/min |
Muzzle velocity | 2,440 ft/s (744 m/s) (.303 Mk. VII ball) 2,525 ft/s (770 m/s) (.303 Mk. VIIIz ball) |
Effective firing range | 2,187 yd (2,000 m) |
Maximum firing range | 4,500 yd (4,115 m) indirect fire (.303 Mk. VIIIz ball) |
Feed system | 250-round canvas belt |
The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more men to move and operate it: one fired, one fed the ammunition, the others helped to carry the weapon, its ammunition, and spare parts.[18] It was in service from before the First World War until the 1960s, with air-cooled versions of it on many Allied World War I fighter aircraft.
The weapon had a reputation for great solidity and reliability. Ian V. Hogg, in Weapons & War Machines, describes an action that took place in August 1916, during which the British 100th Company of the Machine Gun Corps fired their ten Vickers guns to deliver sustained fire for twelve hours. Using 100 barrels, they fired a million rounds without breakdowns. "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."[19]
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, inverting the mechanism as well as reducing its weight by lightening and simplifying the action and using high strength alloys for certain components. A muzzle booster was also added.
The British Army formally adopted the Vickers gun as its standard machine gun under the name Gun, Machine, Mark I, Vickers, .303-inch on 26 November 1912.
1914 (Aug.–Dec.) | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
266 | 2,405 | 7,429 | 21,782 | 39,473 | 71,355 |
When the
Before the Second World War, there were plans to replace the Vickers gun as part of a widescale change from rimmed to rimless rounds; one of the contenders was the 7.92mm Besa machine gun (British-built Czech ZB-53 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.[13] Its successor in UK service is the British L7 variant of the FN MAG general purpose machine gun.
Use in aircraft
In 1913, a Vickers machine gun was mounted on the experimental Vickers E.F.B.1 biplane, which was probably the world's first purpose-built combat aeroplane. However, by the time the production version, the Vickers F.B.5, had entered service the following year, the armament had been changed to a Lewis gun.[23]
During World War I, the Vickers gun became a standard weapon on British and French
By 1917 it had been determined that standard rifle calibre cartridges were less satisfactory for shooting down
The famous
In 1918 the slotted modified original barrel jacket was replaced with a slimmer jacket on the Mk. II version,
As the machine gun armament of US and UK fighter aircraft moved from the fuselage to the wings in the years before World War II, the Vickers was generally replaced by the faster-firing and more reliable[30] Browning Model 1919 using metal-linked cartridges. The Gloster Gladiator was the last RAF fighter to be armed with the Vickers, later replaced by Brownings.[31] The Fairey Swordfish was fitted with the weapon until production ended in August 1944.[32]
Several British bombers and attack aircraft of the Second World War mounted the Vickers K machine gun or VGO, a completely different design, resembling the Lewis gun in external appearance.
Vickers machine guns, designated as models E (pilot's) and F (observer's, fed from a
Variants
The larger calibre (half-inch) version of the Vickers was used on armoured fighting vehicles and naval vessels. 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) weapon.
The Gun, Machine, Vickers, .5-inch, Mk. III was used as an anti-aircraft gun on British ships.[34] 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. 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
The Mark IV and V guns were improvements on the Mark II. Intended for
The Vickers machine gun was produced, between the wars, as the vz.09 machine gun.[citation needed]
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 country and served as a base for many other weapons.[
- 6.5×52mm Mannlicher–Carcano[35]
- 6.5×50mmSR Arisaka[36]
- 6.5×53mmR[37]
- 7×57mm Mauser[38]
- .280 British[5]
- 7.5×55mm Swiss[36]
- 7.62×51mm NATO[39]
- .30-06 Springfield[40]
- 7.62×54mmR[41]
- 7.65×53mm Argentine[42]
- 7.7×58mm Arisaka (licensed as the "fixed type" Type 89 machine gun)[43]
Service after World War II
The
In the mid-1960s, the Vickers machine gun remained in service in countries such as India,
Colt–Vickers M1915
By the early 1900s, the U.S. military had a mixed collection of automatic machine guns in use that included
The Board of Ordnance & Fortifications held a meeting on March 15, 1913 to consider the adoption of a new type of machine gun. ... The Board is of the opinion that, with the exception of the Vickers gun, none of the other guns submitted showed sufficiently marked superiority for the military service, in comparison with the service [Benét–Mercié] Automatic Machine Rifle to warrant further consideration of them in the field test. The Board is of the unanimous opinion that the Vickers rifle caliber gun, light model, stood the most satisfactory test. As to the merits of the Vickers gun there is no question – it stood in a class by itself. Not a single part was broken nor replaced. Nor was there a jam worthy of the name during the entire series of tests. A better performance could not be desired.
Captain John S. Butler, Office of the Chief of Ordnance[41]
Field tests were conducted of the Vickers in 1914, and the gun was unanimously approved by the board for the army under the designation "Vickers Machine Gun Model of 1915, Caliber .30, Water-Cooled". One hundred twenty-five guns were ordered from Colt's Manufacturing Company in 1915, with an additional 4,000 ordered the next year, all chambered for .30-06. Design complexities, design modifications, and focus on producing previously ordered weapons meant that when the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917, Colt had not manufactured a single M1915.[41]
Production began in late 1917 with shipments to the Western Front in mid-1918. The first twelve divisions to reach France were given French
After World War I, the Colt–Vickers machine guns were kept in reserve until World War II. Several hundred were sent to the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines, and were all eventually lost to enemy action.
Specifications
The weight of the gun itself varied based on the gear attached, but was generally 25 to 30 pounds (11 to 14 kg) with a 40-to-50-pound (18 to 23 kg) tripod. The ammunition boxes for the 250-round ammunition belts weighed 22 pounds (10.0 kg) each. In addition, it required about 7.5 imperial pints (4.3 L) of water in its
In British service, the Vickers gun fired the standard .303 inch 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 calibre version used as an anti-aircraft weapon and various other calibres produced for foreign buyers.
The gun was 3 feet 8 inches (112 cm) long and its cyclic
Use
The gun and its tripod were carried separately and both were heavy. The Vickers Mk I was 30 lb (13.6 kg) without the water and tripod, and weighed 40 lb (18.1 kg) with the water. The original design did not anticipate it being carried up jungle-covered mountains on men's backs, but such was the weapon's popularity that men were generally content to 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 about 4 litres (1.1 US gal) of water from a small hole at the rear end, sealed by a cap. The evaporative cooling system, though heavy, was very effective and enabled the gun to keep firing far longer than its air-cooled rival weapons. If water was unavailable, soldiers were known to resort to using their urine.[53] It was sometimes claimed that crews would fire off a few rounds simply to heat their gun's cooling water to make tea, despite the resulting brew tasting of machine-oil.[54] In extremely cold weather, the cooling water could freeze and damage the gun. This problem was addressed using an insulating water jacket cover, introduced in 1918 but still in use during the Korean War. Some crews added vehicle antifreeze, others drained the water jacket, or simply fired a few rounds periodically to keep the water from freezing.[55]
The loader sat to the gunner's right, and fed in belts of cloth, into which the rounds had been placed. The weapon would draw in the belt from right to left, pull the next round out of the belt and into the chamber, fire it, then send the fired brass cartridge down and out of the receiver while the cloth belt would continue out the left side. During sustained fire, the barrel would heat up which heated the water in the jacket until hot enough for the water to evaporate or boil thereby cooling the barrel releasing the heat through steam. It took the Mk I 600 rounds of continuous fire to boil the water in the jacket, evaporating at a rate of 1.5 pints (0.852 L) per 1,000 rounds.[34] The steam would reach the top of the jacket and enter a steam tube which led to a port that was situated under the jacket near the muzzle. A hose was connected to this, which released the steam into a metal water can allowing it to be vented away from the rest of the gun hiding the steam cloud and the gun's position. This also allowed any condensate to be reclaimed from the steam. Before the can got too full, it would be emptied back into the jacket to replenish the water level which would have fallen as the water evaporated and boiled away. If the water jacket needed to be emptied, a plug under the jacket could be unscrewed to drain the entire jacket.
The Vickers was used for indirect fire against enemy positions at ranges up to 4,500 yards (4,115 m) with Mark VIIIz ammunition.[56] 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 II Vickers medium machine gun 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.
Operating mechanism
The Vickers is a fully automatic
The feed block assembly sits directly above the breech. It accepts the canvas belt loaded with ammunition. With each firing cycle, it advances the belt by one round so that a fresh cartridge is presented ready for loading. The belt is advanced by pawls which move from side to side. The pawls are operated by a linkage that engages with the floating action. A second set of spring-loaded pawls tilt up and down as the belt passes over them. These hold the belt during the return cycle of the feed pawls.[57][58][59]
The breechblock assembly is roughly as high as the receiver of the gun. On its front face is the extractor block. Levers cause this to move up and down as the action is cycled. It has a slot with two grooves which allow the rim of the cartridge to be held from each side, much like a stripper clip does. With the breechblock assembly closed and ready to fire, the extractor block grips the base of two cartridges: the lower cartridge in the chamber ready to fire and an upper cartridge held in the canvas belt within the feed block. When the breechblock assembly unlocks after firing, the extractor pulls the spent cartridge from the chamber and, once clear, this falls through an ejection port in the underside of the gun's body. Unlocking the breechblock assembly also withdraws the upper round (the next round to be chambered) from the belt. When there is sufficient clearance, the extractor block lowers the new round until it is aligned with the chamber. Forward movement of the breechblock assembly then chambers the round. Near the very end of the forward cycle, the extractor block rises to engage the next round ready to be loaded.[57][58][59]
The breechblock assembly houses the firing pin and trigger mechanism. The firing pin, under spring tension, strikes the primer of the cartridge through a hole in the extractor block. It must therefore be retracted before the extractor block moves down as part of the loading cycle. Once retracted, the firing pin is held in a cocked position by a sear, ready for the next firing cycle. As the breechblock assembly fully closes on the breech, the sear disengages but the firing pin is held rearward by the trigger. The end of the trigger protrudes from the top of the breechblock assembly.[57][58][59]
To fire the loaded gun, the gunner depresses a paddle at the rear of the gun. Through a lever, this pulls on a sliding bar that trips the trigger to release the firing pin. The weapon then cycles to load the next cartridge for firing. If the paddle is still depressed when the breech closes, the trigger is tripped again and a further firing cycle occurs.[57][58][59]
Users
- Kuwait
- Australia[60][61]
- Bangladesh[62]
- Belgium[63]
- Bolivia Used during the Chaco War[3]
- British Empire
- Canada[70]
- Ceylon Used by Ceylonese army in the 1971 JVP insurrection.
- China[71]
- Cyprus: possibly used during the Cypriot intercommunal violence and supplied from Greece or Turkey [72][73]
- Egypt[74][75][49]
- France: 2,000 ordered in 1914[76]
- Winter war.[77]
- German Empire: in 1918, Schutztruppe used 17 Vickers guns captured during the South West Africa campaign.[78]
- Greece[79][73]
- India[80][81]
- Indonesia[82]
- Ireland[12]
- Israel[74][83]
- Italy chambered in 6.5×52mm Carcano for infantry and .303 British for aircraft.[35]
- Jordan: Arab Legion[84]
- Latvian Police Battalions[86]
- British Malaya[87]
- Mexico[88]
- Nepal
- Netherlands: More than 1,000 were purchased from the British in December 1918, designated as Vickers M.18 No.1. In 1935, 800 units were rechambered to 7.92x57mmR and designated as Vickers M.18 No.2.[89] The East Indies colonial army variant designated as M.23 machine gun, chambered in 6.5×53mmR.[37] Used some Australian or British-made .303 Vickers during the Indonesian National Revolution.[90]
- New Zealand[91]
- Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948.
- Paraguay: captured from Bolivia[3]
- Philippines.[50]
- Poland aircraft version, later rechambered in 7.92×57 mm
- Portugal produced locally as m/917[92]
- Kingdom of Romania: 200 Vickers in service[93]
- Russian Empire: Vickers manufactured by Colt in 7.62×54mmR[41]
- Sierra Leone[94]
- South Africa[39]
- Spanish Republic[4] Supplied to during the Spanish Civil War, by the Soviet Union, Bolivia, and Paraguay.[95]
- Tonga[96]
- Turkey[72]
- United Kingdom
- United States: 12,125 Vickers were issued to the US Army in France[40]
- Vietnam: Used by Viet Minh[7]
- South Yemen[97]
Gallery of images
-
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 the Netherlands duringMk III Turtle helmet.
-
Britishcommandos on the outskirts of Wesel during Operation Plunderin 1945.
-
View of the breech of a Vickers gun showing brass feed ramp.
-
Dorsal view of a Vickers gun showing fluted water-cooling tank.
-
Vickers machine gun from Polish Army Museum's collection.
See also
Weapons of comparable role, performance and era
- M1917 Browning machine gun – United States
- MG 08 – German Maxim machine gun
- Parabellum MG 14 – aircraft version of MG 08 which copied the upwards toggle from Vickers
- Marlin M1917/1918 machine gun
- PM M1910 – Russian Maxim machine gun
- Schwarzlose machine gun – Austro-Hungarian
- Hotchkiss Mle 1914 machine gun – French
Notes
- ^ Pegler 2013, p. 5.
- ^ Neeson, Eoin (22 August 2003). "So, once and for all, who did shoot Michael Collins?". The Irish Times.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84908-901-2.
- ^ ISBN 9781782007852.
- ^ a b c d Pegler 2013, p. 49.
- ^ Bloomfield & Leiss 1967, p. 769.
- ^ a b "Indochine 1945-1954: Le Viet-Minh". Militaria (in French). No. 180. Histoire & Collections. July 2000. p. 16.
- ^ "Arms for freedom". 29 December 2017. Archived from the original on 7 April 2018. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
- ISBN 978-1-85532-658-3.
- ^ Bloomfield & Leiss 1967, p. 854.
- ^ Somasundaram, Jayantha (6 April 2021). "The JVP's Military Battle for Power (The April 1971 Revolt – II)". The Island. Archived from the original on 29 January 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
- ^ a b Byrne, Ciaran (27 July 2016). "The True Story of the Heroic Battle That Inspired the New Netflix Film The Siege of Jadotville". Time.com.
- ^ a b c Suciu, Peter (4 May 2021). "The Vickers Gun - Britain's World War Warrior". The Armory Life. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023.
- ^ Footage of weapons which were handed over by rebels to the Syrian Arab Army in Southern Damascus. SyrianCivilWarMap. 12 May 2018. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 5 September 2021 – via YouTube.
- ^ "Vickers Gun". spartacus-educational.com.
- ^ "MR. KELLAWay's STATEMENT. (Hansard, 24 June 1919)".
- ^ "SIR L. WORTHINGTON-EVANS' STATEMENT. (Hansard, 15 March 1926)".
- ^ [1] Archived 1 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- to France in 1914, and in the years that followed, proved itself to be the most reliable weapon on the battlefield..."
- ^ Pegler 2013, p. 28.
- ^ Pegler 2013, p. 29.
- ^ Statistics of the military effort of the British Empire during the Great War : 1914–1920. London: HMSO. 1922. p. 479.
- ISBN 978-0-86193-234-4. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
- ^ "Metal Belt Links For WW1 U.S. M1915 Vickers Aircraft Gun, Phosphate Finish". International Military Antiques. 2015. Archived from the original on 31 January 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
- ^ a b François, Guy (April 2023). "Mitrailleuses et canons des avions français". Histoire de Guerre, Blindés et Matériel (in French). No. 145. pp. 27–38.
- ISBN 978-1-4402-4642-5.
- ^ Imperial War Museums, "11x59R: 11 mm Gras Machine Gun & 11 mm Vickers", iwm.org.uk, retrieved 4 June 2018.
- ^ ".303-inch Mk II – the Vickers Machine Gun". 23 November 2017.
- ^ ".303-inch Mk II* - the Vickers Machine Gun". 23 November 2017.
- ISBN 978-1-78096-603-8.
- ^ Rickard, J. (21 March 2007). "Gloster Gladiator". Military History Encyclopedia on the Web. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
- ISBN 978-1-58663-762-0.
- ISBN 83-11-07266-3, p. 141 (in Polish)
- ^ a b c Fisher, Richard E. "The Vickers Machine Gun". Vickers Machine Gun Collection & Research Association. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
- ^ a b di Difilippo, Max (2006). "Le mitragliatrici italiane della Grande Guerra" [Italian machine guns of the Great War]. Peaks and Trenches Historical Association (in Italian). Retrieved 20 February 2015.
- ^ ISBN 0-88935-147-3.
- ^ ISBN 9781472833754.
- ^ In very small numbers with Chile and El Salvador
- ^ ISBN 978-1-920169-00-8.
- ^ a b Pegler 2013, p. 33.
- ^ a b c d e f Segel, Robert G. (6 January 2012). "U.S. Colt Vickers Model of 1915". Small Arms Defense Journal. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
- ^ In very small numbers with Argentina and Belgium
- ISBN 0-7643-2097-1.
- ^ "France – the Vickers Machine Gun". 13 December 2017.
- ^ "CHIPYONG-NI, KOREA. 1951-02. VICKERS .303 MACHINE GUN ENGAGED IN COMBAT WITH THE CHINESE ON ONE ..." www.awm.gov.au. Retrieved 9 October 2019."CHIPYONG-NI, KOREA. 1951-02. VICKERS .303 MACHINE GUN ENGAGED IN COMBAT WITH THE CHINESE ON ONE ..." www.awm.gov.au. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- ISBN 978-1-911096-52-8.
- (PDF) from the original on 4 August 2020.
- ^ Bloomfield & Leiss 1967, p. 706.
- ^ a b Bloomfield & Leiss 1967, p. 711.
- ^ a b "The U.S. Colt Vickers Model of 1915 Water-Cooled Machine Gun". Small Arms Review. 2 September 2022. Archived from the original on 1 April 2023.
- ^ Goldsmith 1994, p. 229
- ISBN 978-0889351479.
- ^ "Vickers Mk.I machine gun". Royal Armouries. Retrieved 26 September 2012.
- ISBN 978-0752450001.
- ^ Pegler 2013, pp. 70.
- ^ "Range Tables - The Vickers Machine Gun". vickersmg.blog. 4 July 2017.
- ^ a b c d e TAB Episode 52: Vickers Gun Disassembly, accessed 14 July 2021.
- ^ a b c d e Vickers Mk1 1914, accessed 14 July 2021.
- ^ a b c d e Vickers MG study: H 5529 (and the Vickers machine gun mechanism), accessed 4 July 2021.
- ^ Pegler 2013, pp. 48–49.
- ^ Smith 1969, p. 203.
- ^ "Arms for freedom". 29 December 2017. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
- ^ Smith 1969, p. 212.
- ^ "British Empire/ Colonies and Protectorates" (PDF). Armaments year-book : general and statistical information. Series of League of Nations publications. IX, Disarmament. Vol. A.37.1924.IX. Geneva: League of Nations. 1924. p. 126.
- ^ League of Nations 1924, p. 156.
- ^ League of Nations 1924, p. 163.
- ^ League of Nations 1924, p. 173.
- ^ League of Nations 1924, p. 185.
- ^ League of Nations 1924, p. 196.
- ISBN 9781841763026.
- ISBN 978-1-84908-402-4.
- ^ a b Bloomfield & Leiss 1967, p. 861.
- ^ a b Bloomfield & Leiss 1967, p. 863.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-85109-841-5.
- ^ Smith 1969, p. 613.
- ^ Pegler 2013, pp. 32–33.
- ^ "FINNISH ARMY 1918 - 1945: MACHINEGUNS PART 2". www.jaegerplatoon.net.
- ISBN 9781472813275.
- ^ Smith 1969, p. 450.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-58663-762-0.
- ^ Smith 1969, p. 460.
- ^ Smith 1969, p. 461.
- ^ Smith 1969, pp. 464&467.
- ISBN 978-0-85045-084-2.
- ^ Dambītis, Kārlis (2016). Latvijas armijas artilērija 1919.-1940.g.: Vieta bruņotajos spēkos, struktūra un uzdevumi [Artillery of the Latvian Army (1918–1940): structure, tasks and place in the Armed forces] (PhD thesis). University of Latvia. p. 225.
- ISBN 9781841761930.
- ^ "RaRe & Klasik – Anggota Tentera dari Regimen Askar Melayu di Singapura – 1941". Facebook (in Malay).
- ^ Smith 1969, p. 147.
- ^ "Vickers M.018". grebbeberg.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 October 2023.
- ^ Bloomfield & Leiss 1967, pp. 79, 89.
- ISBN 9781780961118.
- ^ Smith 1969, p. 530.
- ^ Ministerul Apărării Naționale Marele Stat Major Serviciul istoric (1934). "Documente–Anexe". România în războiul mondial : 1916-1919 (in Romanian). Vol. I. p. 56.
- ^ "World Infantry Weapons: Sierra Leone". 2013. Archived from the original on 24 November 2016.
- ^ Heinz, Leonard. "Small Arms of the Spanish Civil War" (PDF).
- ISBN 978-0864734532.
- ^ "WWII weapons in Yemen's civil war". WWIIAfterWWII. 9 September 2018. Archived from the original on 18 April 2023.
The Vickers machine gun also served the UK during both world wars. Water-cooled, it fired the .303 British cartridge from 250 round fabric belts at 450rpm. This weapon weighed 51 lbs and as designed, had a 3-man team assigned to it. During the Federation of South Arabia's [the predecessor to South Yemen's] short life, it had its own military, called the Federal Army. Its main medium machine gun was the Vickers.
References
- Goldsmith, Dolf L. (1994). The Grand Old Lady of No Man's Land: The Vickers Machinegun. Cobourg, Ontario: Collector Grade Publications. ISBN 978-0889351479.
- Pegler, Martin (20 May 2013). The Vickers-Maxim Machine Gun. Weapon 25. ISBN 9781780963822.
- Smith, Joseph E. (1969). Small Arms of the World (11 ed.). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Stackpole Company. ISBN 9780811715669.
Further reading
- Richardson, A. (1902). "Vickers, Sons and Maxim Limited: Their Works and Manufactures". Engineering. OCLC 457878220. (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.)
- Russell, Mark (2023). "The Vickers are Coming! The Ubiquitous Vickers Mk I Machine-gun". The Aviation Historian (45): 40–50. ISSN 2051-1930.