Museum's inventory: Lewis MG

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dauph197

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Hi Guys,

I am a bit sad about this Lewis. It is incomplete... we do not have the magazine, nor the bipod or tripod. The Lewis MG is some kind important for us, here at the Museum because one of our Vandoo member won his VC by using a Lewis MG.

Here his feat of arms:

On the night of June 8, 1918, in the region of Amiens in France, Corporal Joseph Kaeble, a veteran of the 22e Régiment, was posted in a front-line trench where he commanded a machine gun section. Suddenly, the enemy artillery began to bombard the trench held by Kaeble and his men, and kept on firing for close to an hour. When it ended, Kaeble realized that he was the only uninjured soldier in his section. Stunned and disoriented, he looked out into no man’s land only to see tens of German soldiers charging his position.

Corporal Kaeble jumped over the parapet and, with his machine gun on his hip, preceded to fire some 20 magazines with 47 cartridges each at the enemy. Though hit several times by shrapnel, he kept on firing until he finally fell backward into the trench. Lying on his back, gravely injured, his legs broken, he fired his last cartridges over the parapet. The Germans retreated. Before losing consciousness, he shouted to the injured around him, “Hold on boys! Don’t let them through! We have to stop them!” Corporal Kaeble died from his wounds in hospital the next evening. He was the first French Canadian soldier to be decorated with the Victoria Cross.



This MG is quite something to disassemble... so enjoy for those who don't know what it looks like.





































































I am very impress... the first bilingual rifle part I ever seen. It is written in French ''unscrew''.



Here is the English version...





































































 
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Nice one. One of the first machine guns that I owned was a Lewis. Back in the early 1960s the Irish Army rearmed with Bren Guns and surplused their Lewis Guns. Mine came with a carrying chest, spare barrel, recoil spring and lots of parts. It had one magazine in the box and two canvas cases with another two magazines in each of them. It had the bipod, and even had anti-aircraft sights that clamped onto the barrel similar to the bipod. The cost was a whole $65.

It was kind of interesting. When the Regiment went to the Ranges for practice, we took the Lewis along with the Brens. It seemed like EVERYONE wanted to fire it.

I would have been more surprised if your Museum did NOT have a Lewis Gun in it's Collection.

You also need a Fence Post for changing the barrel. By hitting the muzzle of the old barrel vertically down against the fence post, while holding the aluminum radiator with both hands, the barrel will come out of the radiator and a new barrel can be put back into the radiator by the same method.:)
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i understand the venturi effect is used to draw air over the fins as the gun fires.

what is that cogged wheel ahead of the trigger for?
 
scott585 said:
i understand the venturi effect is used to draw air over the fins as the gun fires.

what is that cogged wheel ahead of the trigger for?
Click to expand...

That is the recoil spring and housing. It sort of works like a tape measure or recoil spring on a pull start lawnmower When the gun fires and recoils, the teeth on the piston assembly engage the teeth of the wheel, and tighten up the spring. When the trigger is pulled, the spring unwinds, rotating the wheel and driving the piston assembly and breech block forward. The Lewis fires from an open bolt.

The big projection on the top rear of the receiver contains the pivoting feed tray. When the drum magazine rotates, it drops a round onto the tray where it sits until the breech block pushes it forward into the chamber and fires it. Removing the magazine does not mean the gun is safe, as there is a live round still on the feed tray, and this round must be removed. This can be done by easing it through the chamber while holding onto the cocking handle securely, or in the trenches, simply by firing it off. The cocking handle can be switched so that it is on the left side or the right side. The safety is a pivoting bar underneath the cocking handle slot (with notches in it to hold the cocking handle so that the action can not be worked.) It will work with the action cocked or forward and closed (without a cartridge in the chamber.)
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scott585 said:
i understand the venturi effect is used to draw air over the fins as the gun fires.

what is that cogged wheel ahead of the trigger for?
Click to expand...

It's the recoil spring assembly. The wheel is attached to a clock spring and the teeth engage the notches on the gas piston.
 
The Canadian military was one of the biggest buyers of the 303 Lewis gun. It was part of the reason the Canadians were
called "Storm Troopers" by the Germans in WW1
 
can14 said:
The Canadian military was one of the biggest buyers of the 303 Lewis gun. It was part of the reason the Canadians were
called "Storm Troopers" by the Germans in WW1
Click to expand...

The Americans adopted the Lewis in 1916 in 30-06 Calibre. Savage made them, and you can see the difference in the bipod.

The Lewis was also stripped of it's aluminum radiator and the butt stock replaced by a hand grip for aircraft use in fighters and bombers. You will also see pictures of two Lewis guns mounted side by side as armament for small ships and WWII airfield and Naval defence.
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I hope you are putting these guns all back together when you are done! I can just imagine the fun the next person would have when they went to find a particular piece and there was a big bucket of parts sitting there. ;)
 
Does the bolt have 4 locking lugs on rear of the bolt?
Interesting...whole bolt arrangement reminds me a bit of early S-R design.I hope I'm looking at it right way.

Is that the idea?

On the other hand whole "forced air movement" idea for cooling is really good(other than added weight).
Prevents overheating ( to some degree),physical damage to barrel and crown,burning of hands(i'm not sure how hot it gets but less than naked barrel or water jacket).
 
Historically, the Lewis is a most interesting gun. It was the first machine gun to be fired from an airplane, it was the first machine gun to shoot down a Zeppelin oer London. As far as the ground war was concerned, the Lewis was the only machine gun of the period which was relatively lightweight, very reliable and available in quantity. Granted, it was a nightmare to make, but made they were and in serious numbers: enough for BOTH World Wars. The German beach photos from Dunkirk show very little of the Bren, but the beaches are paved with Lewis Gun drums.

It was invented by an American, Isaac Newton Lewis. The prototype gun did not function perfectly, so the US refused even to test the gun a second time. Two years later, after hearing all the paeans of praise for the gun from the Belgians and from the Commonwealth, suddenly the US could not get enough of the Lewis.

Between the Wars, the BSA company produced a small number of what must be the Ultimate Perfection of the Lewis Gun: they modified the gun with a Bren-type magazine and called it the Soley Lewis.... and it is a smart-looking creation.

The Commonwealth troops liked the gun well enough. A former member of the CMMB one told me that "The Lewis light machine gun had 48 possible stoppages.... and 47 of them were in the Magazine!" Apart from bad ammo, he thought it was a great gun.

The Germans liked it and used them whenever they could get ammunition. They were impressed enough that during the next war, they allied the piston/bolt assembly of the Lewis with a side-mounted magazine and trigger group from a Johnson LMG.... and created the FG-42. The Americans were so impressed with this wonderful new GERMAN design that they crossed it with a feed derived from the MG-42..... and had the M-60, the "Pig" of viet-Nam repute. And along the road..... everybody managed to forget about Isaac Newton Lewis and the machine gun that nobody wanted... until the chips were down.

I am happy to say that, at one of the last legal machine-gun shoots in this country, I was able to catch up in a small way with my Grandfather and my Father... by putting a few rounds through a Lewis.
 
This one has been given a pintle mounting, doubtless in WW2 for fixed mountings on land or ships . The reinforcing strap around the front of the butt is missing.
It has acquired the oiler in the butt and the sling swivels - all late features.
 
Mk VII said:
This one has been given a pintle mounting, doubtless in WW2 for fixed mountings on land or ships . The reinforcing strap around the front of the butt is missing.
It has acquired the oiler in the butt and the sling swivels - all late features.
Click to expand...

Congratulations --in only four posts too. The two holes in the wrist of the butt stock and the pintle mounting gives this one away. I thought I would leave a bit of a "clue" in post number 7 when I wrote " You will also see pictures of two Lewis guns mounted side by side as armament for small ships and WWII airfield and Naval defence " and see how long it took before someone picked up on it.
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NavyShooter, you saw the same as me. That's the reason why the pictures are shown this way. I don't think I miss any other C/Arrow... but nothing is impossible.

Martin
 
The Lewis was famous for stoppages and most of it due to the magazine or pannier. If the pannier was dropped it was instantly out of round and would not feed correctly.
Pictured are the two tools used to keep the panniers in usable condition. First is the panniers...both loaded and unloaded. A pannier with the loading tool. Then the pannier with the straightening tools. The tool consisted of two parts: the actual gauge and the tool for straightening both the outside of the pannier and the inner pins that held the neck of the cartridge. You bend either the inner pin or the outer rim of the pannier until it would pass the gauge. The pannier tools are not a commonly seen item, much like the jack for removing the barrel. The barrel jack was a huge bit of brass and a steel collar that was put around the breech of the barrel when the barrel is in the jacket and then with a large hammer you hit the leg on the barrel jack. It removed the barrel quite quickly and saved beating the pi$$ out of the barrel on a fence post or other inanimate objects. The big thing with barrel removal is the nose cone had a LEFTHAND THREAD and if you forgot this you could beat up a barrel quit badly trying to get the cone off.
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