Vickers machine guns My father was in the Machine Gun Corps, British Army, 1916 to 1919. He volunteered when he was 16 years of age. He was made sergeant on his 18th birthday, in Basra, Mesopotamia. As he once said, "There was nobody left, so it was my turn to be sergeant." He was in Austin and Rolls Royce engined armoured cars all the way through Mesopotamia to North-West Russia, where the force was eventually disbanded and the armoured cars were run deliberately off the wharf into the harbour. The armoured cars had two Vickers machine guns in separate turrets, with an open slit to look through to aim and fire the gun. There was a very high rate of casualtis to machine gunners, most shot in the face between the eyes. He survived the war but malaria, stomach ulcers and minor shrapnel under the skin caused him to migrate from cold smoky Manchester UK to Adelaide, South Auistralia for his health. He was very proud of having served in "Locker Lamson's Army", as his force became known.
Hi LLA and welcome ! They were scary machines alright ... I can't imagine the thoughts that went through their heads as they were behind those guns ! What a time those MGC guys had ... I've been researching a soldier recently .... some of his stories were horrendous ! Good for your Dad to emigrate from " cold smoky Manchester " to Adelaide .... I hear it still rains there !! Would love to hear more stories .... come back and see us ! Annie
The machine gun, which so came to dominate and even to personify the battlefields of World War One, was a fairly primitive device when general war began in August 1914. Machine guns of all armies were largely of the heavy variety and decidedly ill-suited to portability for use by rapidly advancing infantry troops. Each weighed somewhere in the 30kg-60kg range - often without their mountings, carriages and supplies. http://www.firstworldwar.com/weaponry/machineguns.htm Annie
Here's a bit on Locker Lampson !! http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/yourplaceandmine/topics/war/rnacd.shtml
