The Lewis Gun

This is an IWM picture showing the gun mounted to a Home Guard sidecar and without a heat-exchanger.

I'm a bit surprised that the old Ariel side-valve can move fast enough with three blokes aboard to provide any sort of cooling effect. The limited arc of fire means that they would have to have ridden directly at the enemy as well. Brave men indeed



Rich.

I'd rather have some armament rather than no armament.

 

"You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well I'm the only one here."






Whattya mean I'm funny?

 

Nice one, Oberst! I'll not respond to that in kind in order not to hijack the thread even further, but surely a nice one!

 

Thanks, :innocent: Well I was just illustrating the use of the model 1911 which was a sidearm used in North Afrika during WWII.

Anyone have a picture of that LRDG truck, I think it was a Chevy, that has the 2 vehicles with the SAS guys mugging for the camera? Mounted was a Lewis Gun. It was a famous pic, similar vehicle in Kyt's post.:m8:

 

Anyone have a picture of that LRDG truck, I think it was a Chevy, that has the 2 vehicles with the SAS guys mugging for the camera? Mounted was a Lewis Gun.

I take it you don't mean this one:



Probably this one:

 

Is there a collective term for a load of Lewis Guns - gaggle doesn't sound right.

 

Ah Ha, You have jogged my memory I mixed up two pictures.

Kyt, I was thinking of the second one you mentioned but also this pic



And this one



Here's the one



Here's some more info



LRDG related links page

 

Probably not this one from:
Imperial War Museum Collections Online Database
as it's SAS, Jeeps and Vickers but any old excuse to post such an iconic picture will do me.



its not lewis guns are they (are they not supposed to be, did I miss a post?).

EDIT: yep!!

 

courtesy of 'Life'

 

Does anyone know how many of the un-jacketed (or otherwise) Lewis Guns the British had in stock (roughly in the immediately post-dunkirk period)? I'm becoming mildly puzzled as to why it seems to feature in the planning for so many armoured cars, and to a lesser extent tanks, of the period as secondary or commanders/AA armament. Loads available? Not enough Brens? Besa not quite on stream yet?


The Army lost 27,000 of its 29000 Mk1 Brens in France That was a BIG hole to fill first. Secondly - no Lewis spares had been manufactured since 1922, there was an ever dwindling supply of certain items...and they were getting plenty of use in the Empire; fitted in A/Cs, airfield defences etc. they would have a "relatively" easy life - but drilling/training with the Army they'd have a hard range/exercise life and run through the last of the spares stock far more quickly if they'd been issued to infantry units. It also wasn't quite as robust as the Bren.

 

Nice photos. I wonder how many people realize that the lewis gun was an offical addition to the armamament of the Lancaster bomber. They were used to defend the aircraft from attacks by aircraft underneath!

did not know that

 

Nice photos. I wonder how many people realize that the lewis gun was an offical addition to the armamament of the Lancaster bomber. They were used to defend the aircraft from attacks by aircraft underneath!

I would be very interested in seeing a photograph if one exists, showing the setup.

Regards
Tom

 

A picture of a lewis gun mounted on a
truck which runs on railway tracks, taken
in North Africa

 

Maybe you've already seen this.... Shooting the Lewis Gun - YouTube

Interesting to compare with this;

Shooting the Type 98 Machine gun - YouTube

 

Looking for something on shoulder-rested Lewis Guns for Soren, I pottered onto this:
HyperWar: The Machine Gun (Vol. I/Part IV)

"A Device for the Lewis Gun Allowing It to be Fired from the Shoulder with Ease."


Well you live and learn. Wonder if it actually made service... I'm guessing not.

That poor guys hearing was never the same if he pulled the trigger!