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During World War I, the Lewis machine gun, as the main weapon of the British army, was seen everywhere. With the end of the war, the military's demand for the Lewis machine gun plummeted, but the British arms companies continued to improve the inventory of the gun. Please take a look –
After the end of World War I, the Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) stopped mass production and supply of military Lewis machine guns in early 1919, but many British arms companies continued to improve their inventory of Lewis machine guns. On the one hand, these arms companies hope that these improvements will be selected by the military as the next generation of standard weapons, and on the other hand, they are trying to export them around the world. It was not until 1935, when the Bren light machine gun was officially adopted by the British army, that such work came to an end.
Lewis machine gun produced by the British company Birmingham Small Arms
The Lewis machine gun had a circular protrusion in front of the trigger, which housed a coil spring (reentry spring) that was mated by a rack to a cogging at the lower end of the piston rod to propel the bolt re-advance
At the beginning of World War II, the British army lost a lot of weapons and equipment in the Dunkirk retreat, and the mainland continued to be bombed by the German army, and the rearmament of the army and the National Guard stationed on the mainland was imminent. At the time of crisis, many of the "World War I veterans" Lewis machine guns in stock underwent a series of modifications and were distributed to the British army, once again taking on the task of defending the homeland and the country.
FlawedAlthough the Lewis machine gun was reliable and durable among the light automatic weapons of World War I, it still exposed some problems. After the end of World War I, the British criticized the Lewis machine gun for its shortcomings, such as the heavy body of the gun, which was not suitable for fast movement, and was prone to failure, especially the lack of strength of the coil spring (re-entry spring) used in the gun, which would break from time to time. In addition, the Lewis machine gun had to disassemble the receiver in case of jamming failures to rule it out. The ammunition disc used as a ammunition feeder also has the problem of insufficient strength, which can lead to poor ammunition supply after deformation. As a result, the British army began to test various foreign machine guns, such as the Browning automatic rifle (BAR), the Harchiques light machine gun, and the Betier light machine gun, to replace the Lewis machine gun, but the arms company has not given up on various improvements and tests of the Lewis machine gun. In 1921, George Browne, chief inspector of the machine gun department of the Royal Light Weapons Factory in Enfield, and Frank Forster, another inspector, applied for a patent: the two worked together to design a chain feeding device for the Lewis machine gun without the need to modify the original gun. However, this design did not interest the military and soon died. Lightweight: After the removal of the air-cooled sleeve after World War I, the Birmingham Light Weapons Company took some lightweight improvement measures to address the bulky defects of the Lewis machine gun, and introduced four schemes on the basis of reducing the rate of fire and improving the trigger, codenamed "A", "B", "C" and "D", each of which produced 25 sample guns. Birmingham Small Arms' lightweight Lewis machine gun uses a modified trigger designed by George Norman to allow for single shot with a quick pull and burst fire with a hold on. Thanks to the single-shot trigger, the barrel of the lightweight Lewis machine gun no longer had the same problem of overheating as before, and the large air-cooled sleeve was removed, which reduced the mass by 10 pounds (about 4.5 kg). In addition, the 22-round cartridge disc was also used, and the ammunition capacity was reduced by about half, further reducing the mass of the gun.
The 22-round cartridge used by the Birmingham Small Arms Company's lightweight Lewis machine gun
In October 1923, the Birmingham Small Arms Company's "D" Lewis machine gun competed with the Madsen machine gun, the Browning automatic rifle, the Harchikis magazine light machine gun, the Harchikis cartridge light machine gun, and the Beardmore-Farquhar machine gun, but the performance was not satisfactory. The military believes that the "D" type Lewis machine gun is still heavier and unsuitable for high-mobility combat; The gun has many faults and is worrying about reliability; The versatility is also not ideal, and it cannot meet the operational needs of different arms; The rate of fire is "too high", which is not conducive to saving ammunition. After the test, the British army was most optimistic about the Browning automatic rifle, and continued to localize and improve it, trying to replace the Lewis machine gun and become the second generation of light machine guns in the UK, but it also failed to achieve satisfactory results. With the official adoption of the Bren light machine gun, the project "British BAR" was aborted.
Lightweight Lewis "D" machine gun from the Birmingham Small Arms Company
In 1935, the British army officially adopted the ZGB-33 light machine gun from the Brno Arsenal in Czechoslovakia, and took the first two letters of the names of Brno and Enfield to form the name of the new machine gun - "BREN". The installation of the Bren light machine gun announced the end of the "Lewis era", and the British army ushered in the second generation of light machine guns. Despite this, the refinement and testing of the Lewis machine gun by the arms company did not end. Turning to foreign trade: Magazine-type lightweight Lewis machine gun After the British army adopted the Bren light machine gun, the Birmingham Light Arms Company and the Soley Armaments Co., Ltd. tried to combine some design elements of the Bren light machine gun with the Lewis machine gun for foreign trade, so a series of magazine-type Lewis machine guns appeared.
British Bren light machine gun, the successor to the Lewis machine gun
In 1937, the Birmingham Small Arms Company introduced a lightweight Lewis machine gun using a Bren magazine and bipod, with fragile coil springs replaced by traditional spiral re-entry springs for enhanced reliability. According to the Birmingham Small Arms Company manual, the gun weighs only 21 pounds (about 9.5 kg) with a handle and bipod, which is more than 3.5 kg lighter than the original.
The lightweight Lewis machine gun, improved by the Birmingham Light Weapons Company in 1937, used the magazine of the Bren light machine gun, and the reentry mechanism was also improved
Drawing of another lightweight Lewis machine gun improved by the Birmingham Small Arms Company in 1937 with a caliber of 7.92mm
In order to attract overseas customers, Birmingham Light Arms claims to be able to offer versions of any military caliber. In addition to the original version of the .303 caliber, there are also models of the 7.92mm caliber. Interestingly, this lightweight Lewis machine gun also borrowed from the magazine socket dust cap of the Bren LG, which was a popular design of the era. The Soli company had improved the Lewis Mk III. aviation machine gun to use the Bren magazine, a weapon suitable for infantry use. Since Soli was a surplus exporter and had no independent processing capacity, it had to work with the Etaed G. Grimard plant in Liège, Belgium, to make these improvements.
The first lightweight Lewis machine gun from the Sorley company
Close-up of the magazine socket of Sorley's first lightweight Lewis machine gun, showing the small hole on the left side of the magazine socket for mounting the door
The first lightweight Lewis machine gun from Sorley had a strap slot on the left side of the butt, which was common on French carbines
The last lightweight Lewis machine gun from the Sorley company
索利公司的最后一种轻量化刘易斯机枪机匣上刻有"ETAED. G. GRIMARD LIEGE SYSTEME LEWYS 1939 PATENT"的铭文,表明该枪采用埃德加·格里马尔工厂的专利
Soley's first lightweight Lewis machine gun retains the original coil spring, shortens the barrel length, and adds a strip heat sink to the barrel. Two small holes are provided on the left side of the magazine socket piece for mounting the door. After all, the magazine was inserted from above, blocking the sight of aiming, and its illumination had to be tilted to the left. In addition, the left side of the butt was provided with a strap slot common on French carbines. Soon after, a second lightweight Lewis machine gun from Sorley appeared. The partner, Edgar Grimard, overhauled the design of the first model, abandoning the coil spring in favor of a spiral recoiling spring, removing the heat sink and adding a foregrip to double the monopod function.
Sorley's second lightweight Lewis machine gunAlthough the British army had already adopted the Bren light machine gun, Sorley submitted two lightweight Lewis machine guns (the second type) for testing in 1938, and the results slapped themselves in the face: because the new gun's air vents became smaller, the operation became unreliable, and it was not solved until the original air guide was replaced with the original air guide device; The shooting accuracy was poor, and the monopod was positioned too far back, making it difficult to control when firing with a full gun. In addition, the first feed failed, and the testers recommended switching to magazines of Czech origin - their stock springs were lighter. Later tests were still not satisfactory, and the report again criticized the monopod. The Small Arms Commission recommended that the Sorley company switch to the bipod of the Bren LMG gun, which was mounted near the gas hoop. After modification, the "Soli-Lewis" machine gun with the Bren bipod performed reasonably well in tests, but the Ordnance Bureau considered it very unwise to replace the Bren light machine gun with it, and at most threw it at the armed forces eager to switch to new equipment. In 1940, the Edgar Grimar factory arrived in England with the last lightweight Lewis machine gun, but it was too late. A memorandum dated April 21, 1939, indicated that the official suspension of the improvement of the Lewis machine gun was officially halted, and any subsequent improvements to the Lewis machine gun were no longer considered. Excess Lewis machine gun parts should be used to maintain guns in stockpiles, not to be used for "unpromising modifications".
A lightweight Lewis machine gun from the Birmingham Small Arms Company, improved in 1940, with the company's commercial markings "BSA" engraved on the receiver. Needless to say, the efforts of the Birmingham Light Weapons Company were in vain
Ironically, after testing the last Soli-Lewis machine gun, it was found to be worse than the second, and no reason could be found. In 1940, despite the negative reviews of the Sorley's lightweight Lewis machine gun after testing, and the official halt to such improvements, Birmingham Small Arms continued to develop a Lewis machine gun using the Bren magazine. It is also an improved version of the Mk III. Aviation and uses the barrel handle and bipod of the Bren LMG gun. Large-caliber test: Birmingham Small Arms Company .50 machine gun In 1921, the Birmingham Small Arms Company introduced a .50 caliber barrel-retractable machine gun that looked similar to the Lewis machine gun, and was available in air-cooled and water-cooled versions, as well as aviation and land versions. There is a factory drawing from 1924 depicting the Birmingham Small Arms Company's M1924 .50 caliber machine gun, which can also fire single shots.
Illustration from the manual of the Birmingham Small Arms Company .50 machine gun, this is the land version
Birmingham Small Arms Company .50 machine gun, this is the aviation version
According to the Birmingham Small Arms Company manual, the air-cooled version of the gun weighs 46 pounds (about 20.9 kg) and is fed with a 37-round cartridge. It can be used to destroy air targets or lightly armored targets on the ground, and has the potential to occupy an important position in the air force, army and navy. Representatives of the British Small Arms Commission first noticed the machine gun during a visit to the Birmingham Light Weapons Company in November 1921, but its rate of fire was simply too slow for military weapons. In subsequent tests, it was not smooth to draw and throw shells, and there were often stutters, and the single-shot mode required a very fast trigger pull to achieve, and its single-shot shooting function was as if it were non-existent. High rate of fire test: Birmingham Small Arms Company's dual aviation machine gun In 1930, on the recommendation of the deputy director of the British Arms Research and Development Department, the Birmingham Small Arms Company received a contract to develop a .303 caliber dual high rate of fire aviation machine gun, requiring a total rate of fire of 1500 rounds per minute for two barrels, striving to be light and compact under this standard. In the same year, the Birmingham Small Arms Company introduced the first dual Lewis machine gun, which was fed by two 97-round discs, mounted on the left and right sides, with the cartridge casings thrown from the bottom of the receiver. This concept may have been influenced by two high-velocity dual aviation machine guns developed by the enemy during World War I, the Gast machine gun (Germany) and the Gebauer machine gun (Austria-Hungary).
The first two-way aviation machine gun of the Birmingham Small Arms Company
The Gast machine gun (left) and the Göbauer machine gun (right), two high-velocity twin machine guns born in the late World War I
However, the Birmingham Small Arms Company's dual aviation machine gun did not perform well in firing tests, and there were always cases of broken parts. Despite this, it was allowed to participate in air tests in 1932, but the quality of the gun and the resistance of the aircraft slipstream made it difficult for the heavy to operate in an open cockpit. Subsequently, the Birmingham Small Arms Company immediately made modifications to the problem and introduced the second at the end of the same year (1932), the year of air tests. The air duct of the second dual aviation machine gun was changed from the bottom of the barrel to the inside of the two barrels, which made the two air guides almost close together. The coil spring of the Lewis machine gun was replaced with a spiral reentry spring, the mass of the bolt was reduced, the guide groove was shortened, and the total rate of fire soared to 2000 rounds / min. During the tests in 1935, the Birmingham Small Arms Company's dual aviation machine gun still failed to succeed. Although the rate of fire has increased, it is very difficult to actually operate in the air. As a result, the concept had to be abandoned, and the Birmingham Small Arms Company's dual Lewis machine gun remained at the prototype stage. In February 1936, the improved Vickers-Bettier machine gun launched by the Vickers company, the Vickers G.O. Aviation Machine Gun (G.O. is the abbreviation of "Gas Operated", which means "gas conduction automatic mode"), and the Lewis Aviation Machine Gun finally ushered in a successor.
Vickers G.O. Aviation Machine Gun, which became the replacement of Lewis Aviation from heaven to earth: Lewis Aviation machine guns were changed to land, sea, and guard models In the early days of World War II, due to the lack of weapons, the British improved many Lewis Aviation machine guns (including the .30 caliber model produced in the United States), installed a butt to facilitate shoulder shooting, and added a handguard or foregrip for easy holding. Make it capable of ground combat and use it to compensate for the lack of automatic weapons for the Navy, merchant mariners, and the National Guard. Mk I.* Land Machine Gun Mk I. * Land Machine Gun was an improved version of the Lewis Mk I. Aviation Machine Gun (the British customary "*" represents a major improvement, this symbol can be used in combination), the coil spring was abolished, and the Bullen machine gun was replaced by a spiral re-entry spring, which was mounted in a metal tube at the rear end of the receiver. A stock, called the "Butt Skeleton Lewis", was produced and mounted at the rear of the receiver to replace the original aero spade grip.
The Mk I itself was converted from a land version to an aviation machine gun, which was changed back to the land version during World War II
Mk I.* (N) Machine gun for sea Mk I.* (N) is a naval model based on Mk I.*, "N" stands for "Navy". It used a different style of tail rest, and the grip and trigger retainer were also made of bent iron bars, indicating that there was a shortage of grips and other parts at that time. Mk III.* (.30) machine guns British stocks have not only .303 caliber Lewis machine guns, but also .30 caliber M1918 aviation machine guns produced by the American company Savage. During World War II, many M1918 aviation machine guns were simply modified with handguards or foregrips for easy grip and issued to seafarers, merchant sailors, or the National Guard.
The American Savage M1918 aviation machine gun, is a .30 caliber Lewis aviation machine gun
In 1940, members of the British National Guard were conducting an air drill using the Savage M1918 machine gun. The gun was fed with a 97-round cartridge disc but was not equipped with an anti-aircraft sight
In addition, part of the Savage M1918 machine guns was modified more thoroughly. The rear of the spade grip was fixed with an iron bar frame, and the door was also fixed to a 400 yard (365.76m) aiming position, which made it inconvenient to use the 97-round cartridge, which would otherwise obscure the sight. These modified guns were designated Mk III.* machine guns. Due to the insufficient supply of parts for the "skeleton tail stock" of the Mk I.* machine gun, the Mk III.* machine gun had to be extended into a frame with iron bars at the rear of the spade grip; The recoiling spring receptacle was also in short supply, so the original coil spring was retained.
British Royal Admiral Frederick Dreyer test-fired the Savage M1918 machine gun. To prevent hot hands, the gun added a handguard outside the barrel and air duct
Part of the Savage M1918 machine guns was modified more thoroughly. The rear of the spade grip was fixed with an iron bar frame, and the door was also fixed to a 400 yard (365.76m) aiming position, which made it inconvenient to use the 97-round cartridge, which would otherwise obscure the sight. These modified guns were designated Mk III.* machine guns
The Mk III.** (.303) machine gun was similar to the Mk III.* machine gun, and the Lewis Aviation machine gun of .303 caliber was improved in the same way as the Mk III.** machine gun. Except for the caliber, the two are almost identical. However, due to the haste of improvement work, their component styles are not uniform.
Mk III.** machine gun, modified from the .303 Lewis aviation machine gun
After the outbreak of World War II, the British Royal Navy was in dire need of a defensive weapon, because even before the Dunkirk retreat, many warships and merchant ships had only outdated Ross bolt-action rifles as self-defense weapons. In 1943, when production of the Bren LMG resumed, more and more idle Lewis guns were transferred to Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships (DEMS) to be used to return fire when enemy aircraft dived.
Mk III. DEMS machine gun
The Mk III DEMS machine gun, which sits on a display gun mount, has a cartridge case collection device, but the cartridge case collection bag underneath it is not attached
These models, which were improved from the Mk III. aviation machine gun, were given the designation Mk III. DEMS machine gun. Compared to the original, the gun was equipped with a wooden butt and a foregrip. These machine guns were in service with the Navy until the end of World War II. After the Allied landings in Normandy, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his men crossed the English Channel by boat, with an Mk III. DEMS machine gun for self-defense by his side.
The naval soldier was aiming with the Mk III. DEMS machine gun
Compared to the previous modifications, the Mk IV machine gun was made up of a purely patchwork of parts. The gun may be from the land or aviation version, and is mostly supplied by arms companies rather than state-run arsenals.
Lewis Mk IV. machine gun
It is worth mentioning that due to an improvement by the American company Savage in 1917, the coil spring and grip parts of the Lewis machine gun produced in the United States were basically not common to the Lewis machine gun produced in the United Kingdom. During World War II, faced with a shortage of spare parts, the British decided to replace the coil springs with spiral recoiling springs, and the grip was changed to an iron bar frame like the Mk I.* (N) machine gun. Keep firing? Lewis machine gun with finsIn addition to the above "name and surname" modifications, there is also a modification of the Lewis aviation machine gun with a heat sink in the group photo of cadets. What is this heat sink for? Is it to shoot longer? The reason is unknown, and there are currently no official sources documenting this model. It has not been seen anywhere else, except for a photo of a military school, perhaps some kind of training gun.
Group photo of British cadets with a Lewis machine gun with a heat sink in the lower right corner
Front-firing device from the United States
In 1918, the American J.R. Fordays designed a forward-firing device for the Lewis machine gun, that is, a primitive stockless conversion device. It consisted of a pistol grip, an auxiliary trigger and a sight, mounted on the front end of an air-cooled sleeve.
In 1918, the American J.R. Fordays designed a forward-firing device for the Lewis machine gun, that is, a primitive stockless conversion device. It consisted of a pistol grip, an auxiliary trigger and a sight, mounted on the front end of an air-cooled sleeve
The shooter can carry this gun horizontally on his shoulder, control the direction of the gun with a grip, fire through the auxiliary trigger. The device was also tested by the British army. However, due to its extremely poor ergonomics and low practicability, it was not favored by Britain and the United States, and it was just a brain hole design. Epilogue Lewis, as one of the first light machine guns to withstand actual combat testing, although there were many shortcomings, still supported the firepower of the British army with good performance: whether in the sky or on the ground, there are Lewis machine guns. However, it gradually became obsolete during the interwar period and was surpassed by a new generation of light machine guns such as the Bren. Due to the large stockpile, the British tried to adapt the Lewis machine gun to the new battlefield and new needs, but without success. At the beginning of World War II, in order to solve the problem of lack of weapons, Lewis machine guns, a "World War I veteran", had to be re-employed to serve as the firepower of the National Guard and seafarers, radiating the last residual heat. (The original article was published in the 9th issue of "Light Weapons" in 2023, and the official account article has been deleted) Important notice! The 2023 bound book is on the shelves, scan the code to enter the link to buy:
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| Editor: Liu Yuzhen, Ding Yongqiang |
| Proofreading: Wei Kaigong |
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