Vickers Machine Gun

"Fire one round or a thousand, you still gotta clean `em".

Thats what my SGM used to always say to us with a big grin on his face

You certainly don't want to be on the wrong end of those!

Thanks for sharing the video.

I first came across John Sukey on the old "Gun & Knife" forum along with MJ; I was pretty new to the internet back then and was surprised to find so many people from across the pond with an interest in Enfield's.

John came to the UK some years ago for a reenactment display to do with Victorian artillery which as an ex gunner was close to my heart; we often discussed things like the "Screw Gun" made famous by Kipling in one of his poems.  

Honkytonk wrote: I watched a show yesterday on the demise of the Red Baron in WW1. Interesting. in this show, it was suggested he may have been was shot down from the ground by an Australian soldier and I think it was with a Lewis Gun. I'm not sure if it was an old show and they have since proven or disproved this theory, but it was an interesting watch!

I watched that show and found it intriguing, the way forensics was used to determine the Barons death on 100+ years old indecent reports, how the low entry and high exit of the lethal shot could have only come from a ground based shot.

But will that change the history or the story telling, most likely not.

As to the Lewis gun, our opinion: Good gun as a light automatic. Bad machine gun. Tried to use it for too much sustained fire when first introduced (as it was considered like-for-like with the Vickers) and this reputation affected it for many years after. When realised in the later part of the war that it was used at a section level, it was ideal, if too heavy for an 'assault' weapon.