Historical Firearms

In Action: WWI US Tank GunsThis photograph shows troops from the US Army’s Tank Corps (National Army), not to be confused with the Tank Corps of the American Expeditionary Force, in France. The US arm of the Tank Corps was based at Camp Colt near...

In Action: WWI US Tank Guns

This photograph shows troops from the US Army’s Tank Corps (National Army), not to be confused with the Tank Corps of the American Expeditionary Force, in France. The US arm of the Tank Corps was based at Camp Colt near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The photograph was taken in June 1917, and shows troops learning how to use the various guns mounted in Allied light and heavy tanks.

From foreground to background we have a 37mm canon (the French Canon d'Infanterie de 37 modèle 1916 TRP) which was mounted in the FT light tank, a Hotchkiss Mle 1914, mounted in most French tanks, next is an M1917 Marlin Rockwell tank machine gun (which had an improved gas system designed by Carl Swebilius) which was planned to be mounted in US-built tanks. Next to the Marlin is the gun it evolved from, the Colt-Browning M1895, (likely present for comparison purposes) and finally is a Lewis Gun, mounted in several types of British heavy tanks.

Interestingly, there is no Hotchkiss M1909 Benét–Mercié present, which at the time was in the US inventory and was also in use by the British as the Hotchkiss Mark I/I* Portative and was used in a number of British tanks including the Medium Whippet MkI. The US entered the war with no tanks of its own and the Tank Corps in the US was without tanks of its own for much of the war, while the AEF’s Tank Corps used a mixture of British and French tanks and did see action in Autumn 1918.

Image Source

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5 years ago 105 notes

Some Boer War Machine Guns

These photographs from the Second Boer War show British and Empire troops in South Africa posing with machine guns. The first photograph shows a Colt Model 1895 mounted on a Dundonald galloping carriage (named for its inventor, Douglas Cochrane, 12th Earl of Dundonald, who commanded the South Natal Field Force’s Mounted Brigade).

The other guns are tripod mounted Maxim Guns. It’s difficult to tell from the photographs but the guns are likely Model 1893 Maxims mounted on Mk II tripods. The three photographs featuring the Maxim guns show it set up in camp all without ammunition. While the Boers are said to have made good use of the small number of Maxim guns they had at the outset of the Second Boer War, the British tried to use them to their advantage as well with some even being privately purchased.

Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Thorneycroft, a British mounted infantry officer, later reported:

“The moral effect produced on the enemy by machine gun fire has been great. I have frequently used it to support the advance of my scouts… on one occasion, [they] entirely cleared the camp of German [Boer] commando, and on all occasions has given valuable assistance in keeping down the enemy’s fire, especially their long-range sniping.”

Thorneycroft felt that the heavy limbers and carriages, even lighter ones like the Dundonald galloping carriage, were a hindrance and that tripods were more flexible and manoeuvrable.

Sources:

Images: 1 2 3 4

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5 years ago 139 notes

Tagged: #History #Machine Guns #Boer War #Second Anglo Boer War #Maxim Gun #Military History #Firearms History #Firearms #British Army #M1895 Colt–Browning machine gun #Colt M1895 #Guns #Gun history #gunblr #Dundonald galloping carriage

Colt-Vickers M1915: America’s 2nd Maxim Gun

While the heavy machine guns of John Browning have become synonymous with the US Army since the turn of the 20th century, it was actually the Maxim gun, which was the US Army’s most used machine gun of the First World War, with 13 US divisions equipped with the Colt-Vickers M1915.

First introduced in 1887, the Maxim gun was revolutionary. It instantly made all preceding hand operated machine guns like the Gatling Gun obsolete. Over the next 15 years the Maxim was adopted by almost every major military power across the globe including Great Britain who adopted an improved model built by Vickers Ltd. It was this Vickers-improved design which the US would adopt in 1914. However, the Colt-Vickers Model of 1915 was not the first Maxim adopted by the US Army, in 1904, after several years of fitful testing an order was placed with Vickers, Sons & Maxim of England to manufacture a run of 90 machine guns while licensed manufacturing was prepared at Colt. In the end only 287 Maxim Model 1904s were built before the US Army began to favour the Benét-Mercié, which was adopted in 1909.

With the outbreak of World War One and the obvious dominance of the machine gun the US began to realise that in comparison for example to Germany who fielded approximately 12,000 machine guns at the onset of war their machine gun capability was woeful. When the US entered the war in 1917 the US machine gun establishment was made up of a mishmash of guns dating from the turn of the century. These included Colt-Browning M1895s, Maxim M1904s, Benét-Mercié M1909s and Lewis light machine guns.

US troops training with the Benét-Mercié M1909 (source)

In 1913, US Ordnance had begun the search for a new machine gun to replace the mixture of designs then in service. Seven competing designs were tested including a British Vickers MkI which jammed just 23 times during extensive testing with no parts broken. This greatly impressed the selection board who unanimously deemed the Vickers as the best machine gun tested, Captain John Butler of the Office of the Chief of Ordnance later described how the Vickers gun “…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.”

The Vickers-Maxim was adopted as the ‘Vickers Machine Gun Model of 1915, Caliber .30, Water-Cooled' with an initial order of over 4,000 guns. However, as with the earlier Maxim M1904 production issues at Colt meant that by 1917, the US Army has not received any of the ordered guns, this put the Army at a grave tactical disadvantages as they had neither the machine guns to equip divisions shipping out to Europe nor had they had the chance to train and develop tactics for the use of machine guns in the field. As a result when the lead divisions of the American Expeditionary Force reached France they were equipped with French and British machine guns. The first US troops to be issued with the Vickers M1915 were the ten divisions that arrived in June 1918. By the end of the First World War thirteen US combat divisions in Europe were armed with the Vickers M1915, with some 7,600 guns in the field this made it the most widely use American-made machine gun of the war.

British Vickers Machine Gun MKI (source)

Physically the US Vickers M1915 is almost identical to the British Vickers .303 MkI. They share the instantly recognisable muzzle booster and indented barrel shroud. Both cycled at around 450 to 500 rounds per minute and while the guns could be differentiated by their markings, grips and sights the main difference between to two weapons was their ammunition.
The British Vickers fired the rimmed .303 round while the M1915 fired the rimless US .30-06, as such when the US shipped Vickers M1915s to British during World War Two as part of the Lend-Lease scheme the newly arrived American weapons were painted with a red stripe on the receiver to differentiate the very similar looking guns to prevent soldiers firing the wrong ammunition in the weapon.

By 1918, the US Army had adopted the American-designed Colt-Browning M1917 which was simpler to manufacture and began issuing this in the place of the Vickers M1915 in late 1918. By the time Colt ended production some 12,125 guns had been produced, today due to loss in action, Lend-Lease shipments to Britain during World War Two and the loss of remaining stocks in the Philippines during the early Pacific campaign the Vickers M1915 is a rare weapon with its important role as the US Army’s main machine gun during World War One largely forgotten.

Sources:

Image One Source
Image Two Source
Image Three & Four Source
U.S. Colt Vickers Model of 1915 - Small Arms Defense Journal, January 2012, (Source)
Vickers American Roots & Ties (Source)
Military Small Arms, I. Hogg & J. Weeks, (1985)

10 years ago Reblogged from Historical Firearms 147 notes

Canadian ‘Autocar’ Machine Gun Carrier

In mid 1914 Britain began to mobilise its Imperial forces calling for assistance from its major colonies; India, Australia, South Africa and Canada. The Canadian Expeditionary Forces arrived in Britain in October 1914, accompanying it was the world’s first mechanised armoured unit: The Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade.

Formed in September 1914, the Automobile Machine Gun Brigade was the brainchild of Major (later Brigadier) Raymond Brutinel. The brigade included mortar batteries, motorcyclists and bicycle mounted infantry but most impressively 20 armoured lorries/trucks - eight of which were mounted with a pair of machine guns.

Brutinel, who had served as Captain in the French Army before emigrating to Canada in 1904, raised the corps using private funding donated by Canada’s wealthier citizens. This private funding enabled him to quickly contract a number of American manufacturing companies to provide the components needed for his armoured vehicles. Brutinel contracted the Autocar Company - a Pennsylvania manufacturer of cab over engine trucks, to build a run of small armoured trucks which would eventually number 20. The armour plate was purchased from theBethlehem Steel Company, finally a contract for 20 M1895/14 Colt-Browning machine guns chambered in US .30 calibre was ordered.

Each of the machine gun-armed trucks initially mounted two M1895/14 Colt-Browning machine guns(see image #1 & #3), the Canadian Army’s standard machine gun at the beginning of the war. However, with the Colt-Brownings being chambered in US .30 and not .303 as with all of the Canadian Army's M1895/14 the machine guns were found lacking and subsequently replaced with the British Army’s standard .303 Vickers Guns once these were available in 1916.

The armoured lorries were built onto the chassis of two-ton Autocar trucks. An armour plate skirt was fitted to the chassis with 5 mm thick steel plate at the front and sides and 3 mm at the rear of the vehicle. The protection did not enclose the gun crews and would only offer the minimum protection from long range small arms fire. The armoured side skirts could be lowered if needed and in addition to the two swivel machine gun mounts there was also a position to mount a Lewis Gun.

The Autocar truck itself was powered by a 22 horsepower engine which gave the 'Autocar’ Machine Gun Carrier a top speed of 25 miles per hour on decent roads. It’s off-road capability was lacking as it used solid rubber tires with rudimentary commercial suspension. The truck was served by two three-man machine gun crews, a driver and an officers (who might also man a Lewis Gun). The other armoured trucks were used as supply carriers and officers transports and one was outfitted as an ambulance.

The 'Autocar’ Machine Gun Carriers of the Automobile Machine Gun Brigade spent the first two years of the war in Britain until they deployed to France in 1916. Primarily the Machine Gun Carriers were intended to provide indirect supporting machine gun fire to suppress enemy troops while Canadian infantry advanced and were not directly engage the enemy. They frequently acted as a mobile flying-column which could move to give increased machine gun support to sectors that needed it. They played a large role in stemming German advanced in 1918 and in the allied counter attack, alongside other allied armoured cars, which followed.

The last remaining example of a Autocar Machine Gun Carrier is part of the Canadian War Museum’s collection in Ottawa. The armoured machine gun carriers predated the British Tanks developed in 1916 by two years and could easily be described as one of the first example of an armoured mechanised vehicle adopted by a major military power.

Sources:

Image One Source
Image Two Source
Image Three Source
Image Four Source
Image Five Source
Image Six Source
Image Seven Source
Ironsides: Canadian Armoured Fighting Vehicle Museums and Monuments, H.A. Skaarup, (2011)

10 years ago 54 notes

Colt-Vickers M1915: America’s 2nd Maxim Gun

While the heavy machine guns of John Browning have become synonymous with the US Army since the turn of the 20th century, it was actually the Maxim gun, which was the US Army’s most used machine gun of the First World War, with 13 US divisions equipped with the Colt-Vickers M1915.

First introduced in 1887, the Maxim gun was revolutionary. It instantly made all preceding hand operated machine guns like the Gatling Gun obsolete. Over the next 15 years the Maxim was adopted by almost every major military power across the globe including Great Britain who adopted an improved model built by Vickers Ltd. It was this Vickers-improved design which the US would adopt in 1914. However, the Colt-Vickers Model of 1915 was not the first Maxim adopted by the US Army, in 1904, after several years of fitful testing an order was placed with Vickers, Sons & Maxim of England to manufacture a run of 90 machine guns while licensed manufacturing was prepared at Colt. In the end only 287 Maxim Model 1904s were built before the US Army began to favour the Benét-Mercié, which was adopted in 1909.

With the outbreak of World War One and the obvious dominance of the machine gun the US began to realise that in comparison for example to Germany who fielded approximately 12,000 machine guns at the onset of war their machine gun capability was woeful. When the US entered the war in 1917 the US machine gun establishment was made up of a mishmash of guns dating from the turn of the century. These included Colt-Browning M1895s, Maxim M1904s, Benét-Mercié M1909s and Lewis light machine guns.

US troops training with the Benét-Mercié M1909 (source)

In 1913, US Ordnance had begun the search for a new machine gun to replace the mixture of designs then in service. Seven competing designs were tested including a British Vickers MkI which jammed just 23 times during extensive testing with no parts broken. This greatly impressed the selection board who unanimously deemed the Vickers as the best machine gun tested, Captain John Butler of the Office of the Chief of Ordnance later described how the Vickers gun “…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.”

The Vickers-Maxim was adopted as the ‘Vickers Machine Gun Model of 1915, Caliber .30, Water-Cooled' with an initial order of over 4,000 guns. However, as with the earlier Maxim M1904 production issues at Colt meant that by 1917, the US Army has not received any of the ordered guns, this put the Army at a grave tactical disadvantages as they had neither the machine guns to equip divisions shipping out to Europe nor had they had the chance to train and develop tactics for the use of machine guns in the field. As a result when the lead divisions of the American Expeditionary Force reached France they were equipped with French and British machine guns. The first US troops to be issued with the Vickers M1915 were the ten divisions that arrived in June 1918. By the end of the First World War thirteen US combat divisions in Europe were armed with the Vickers M1915, with some 7,600 guns in the field this made it the most widely use American-made machine gun of the war.

British Vickers Machine Gun MKI (source)

Physically the US Vickers M1915 is almost identical to the British Vickers .303 MkI. They share the instantly recognisable muzzle booster and indented barrel shroud. Both cycled at around 450 to 500 rounds per minute and while the guns could be differentiated by their markings, grips and sights the main difference between to two weapons was their ammunition.
The British Vickers fired the rimmed .303 round while the M1915 fired the rimless US .30-06, as such when the US shipped Vickers M1915s to British during World War Two as part of the Lend-Lease scheme the newly arrived American weapons were painted with a red stripe on the receiver to differentiate the very similar looking guns to prevent soldiers firing the wrong ammunition in the weapon.

By 1918, the US Army had adopted the American-designed Colt-Browning M1917 which was simpler to manufacture and began issuing this in the place of the Vickers M1915 in late 1918. By the time Colt ended production some 12,125 guns had been produced, today due to loss in action, Lend-Lease shipments to Britain during World War Two and the loss of remaining stocks in the Philippines during the early Pacific campaign the Vickers M1915 is a rare weapon with its important role as the US Army’s main machine gun during World War One largely forgotten.

Sources:

Image One Source
Image Two Source
Image Three & Four Source
U.S. Colt Vickers Model of 1915 - Small Arms Defense Journal, January 2012, (Source)
Vickers American Roots & Ties (Source)
Military Small Arms, I. Hogg & J. Weeks, (1985)

10 years ago 147 notes

Franklin Roosevelt with a Springfield 1903

Seen above is the 35 year old, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt firing and handling a Springfield M1903 at the Marine Corps’ rifle range at Winthrop, Maryland in 1917. The photographs were taken during a range demonstration of some of the US Military’s small arms currently in service for top brass and politicians. The M1903, Colt-Browning M1895 machine gun and Lewis Gun were among the weapons demonstrated on the day. Also visible in the firing line in the photographs above is a Hotchkiss M1909 Benet–Mercie machine gun, a light machine gun adopted by the US military in 1909. Roosevelt became an Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913 and held the office until 1920. A year later he was struck down by Polio which paralysed him below the waist.

General Barnett testing a Colt-Browning M1895, with a Lewis Gun in the foreground and a Hotchkiss M1909 in the background

The Department of the Navy was and still is responsible for the US Navy and the US Marine Corps, as such Roosevelt would have been responsible for the training and equipping of both services making an understanding of their weapons essential. Roosevelt would have probably relished occasions like this as it is said that even with his position of importance at the Navy Department he was eager to join the military and see the fighting in Europe.

Image One Source

Image Two Source

10 years ago 56 notes

Tagged: #History #franklin d. roosevelt #Franklin D Roosevelt #Military History #Springfield 1903 #Springfield M1903 #US Marine Corps #US Navy #Assistant Secretary of the Navy #Hotchkiss M1909 Benet–Mercie #Hotchkiss M1909 #Colt-Browning M1895 #Colt M1895 #Lewis gun

Elephant Gun

A corporal aims a Colt M1895 atop a Sri Lankan Elephant. The M1895 was developed by John Browning during the 1890s, it was a belt-fed, air cooled, gas operated machine gun. As the weapon was air cooled it did not require the water cooling system used by the Maxim Gun, as a result it was much lighter weighing just 35 lbs.

The M1895 was lever actuated which meant that the gun was cocked by retracting the lever and once the first round was fired the propellent gas was tapped from a gas port several inches from the muzzle this gas pushed the lever down and swung it back towards the receiver to cock the gun for the next round. If the gun’s tripod was set too low, or impeded by cover, then the lever would catch any obstruction, as a result it quickly became known as the ‘potato digger’ by troops. There looks to be more than enough clearance on top of the elephant.

While there is historical precedent for the use of elephants in warfare for over 1000 years, used by the Persians, Alexander the Great, Indian Sultans, Siamese warriors who mounted Jingals (small guns often mounted on walls) on elephants well into the 1880s, and later by the British Army in India as pack animals capable of carrying mountain guns and supplies over difficult terrain. Why the corporal is atop the elephant is a mystery but it was never a weapons platform adopted by the US Army.

Image One Source

Image Two Source

11 years ago 64 notes

Tagged: #Colt-Browning M1895 #Colt M1895 #machine gun #John Browning #elephant #elephant gun #History #Military history #firearms #potato digger #US Army

Canadian Colt-Browning M1895
The caption to this German postcard reads: “English surreptitious patrol, equipped with a take-down machine gun, is trying to reach cover.”
The profiles of the Ross MkIII rifles the men are carrying and the very presence...

Canadian Colt-Browning M1895

The caption to this German postcard reads: “English surreptitious patrol, equipped with a take-down machine gun, is trying to reach cover.”

The profiles of the Ross MkIII rifles the men are carrying and the very presence of a Colt-Browning 1895, which was used by the Canadian Army between 1899 and 1915, indicate that this Machine Gun Section are Canadian rather than English. The Canadian Experditionary Force used the M1895 during the first two years of the First World War, but they were steadily replaced by the British Vickers .303. The Canadian M1895’s were then passed on to the exiled Belgian forces fighting in Northern France where they saw continued action.

The first Canadian troops did not reach France until the end of 1914 and their first substantial involvement came in 1915 at the Battle of Ypres. The ground the men are covering and the uniforms they are wearing indicate that the photograph was most probably taken prior to the beginning of WWI during a training exercise either in Canada or in Britain prior to the C.E.F’s initial deployment to France.

Source

11 years ago 23 notes

Tagged: #WWI #1910s #History #Military History #great war #first world war #world war one #Ross Rifle #Colt-Browning M1895 #Machine Gun #John browning #Battle of Ypres #Canadian Experditionary Force #Canadian Army #Canada #Colt M1895

In Action: WWI US Tank Guns

Some Boer War Machine Guns

The Bren

Historical Trivia: Under Supplied & Misunderstood

Historical Trivia: Under Supplied & Misunderstood