(edited title) Museum's inventory: Vickers Mk I.

[maple_leaf_eh]

For entrenched defense, there indeed may not have been anything better.

"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 Army's 100th Company of the Machine Gun Corps fired their ten Vickers guns continuously for twelve hours. Using 100 new barrels, they fired a million rounds without a single failure. "It was this absolute foolproof reliability which endeared the Vickers to every British soldier who ever fired one."

We all talk about the reliability you can count on an AKM or an SKS to deliver, but the Vickers by all accounts was simply incredible.

It speaks less of the machine guns, and more of the doctrine, logistics, training and discipline to fire 2000 boxes of belted .303 by a company. Two hundred boxes per gun over 12 hrs is 16 boxes per hour. The crews would have needed shovels to clear the brass.

 

[RRCo.]

The Canadian Machine Gun Corps pioneered a number of tactical methods in WWI, including battery or barrage fire. That fire was so heavy at times it would literally pound barbed wire flat in the beaten zone. More effective than shell fire in some respects due to it's plunging angle of at long range and greater surprise factor than shell fire.

 

[myenfield]

My apologies for the sidetrack, but since the water cooled MG gurus seem to be present, does anyone recognize this canvas bag?

It has a C broad arrow mark and no flap on top. I can't find it in any books and I was wondering if anything like this would have been used to transport or cover the metal water cans for the cooling of these beasties?