WW1 Heavy weapons, Allied

The Vickers Machine Gun was virtually a lightened Maxim Gun built under license by Britain and throughout the Commonwealth. It was the standard medium/heavy machine gun of the British army from before World War 1 and up to 1960.

While most armies had adopted some kind of air cooled machine gun for their principle MG, the British continued to rely on the water cooled Vickers.

Despite its weight it was unsurpassed in reliability. As long as the condenser was kept filled with water, the Vickers could be fired for an indefinite period of time.

In 1912 the British Army adopted the Vickers as its standard machine gun. Produced by the Vickers Company, it was a modified version of the Maxim Machine-Gun.

The Vickers Gun used a 250 round fabric-belt magazine and had the reputation as a highly reliable weapon.

The .303 Vickers Gun could fire over 600 rounds per minute and had a range of 4,500 yards. Being water-cooled, it could fire continuously for long periods. There were usually six men in a Vickers gun team. In his book, With a Machine Gun to Cambrai, George Coppard, explained how the Vickers Gun Team worked. "Number One was leader and fired the gun, while Number Two controlled the entry of ammo belts into the feed-block. Number Three maintained a supply of ammo to Number Two, and Number Four to Six were reserves and carriers, but all the members of the team were fully trained in handling the gun."

When war was declared in August, 1914, Vickers were manufacturing 12 machine guns a week. Demand from the British Army was so high that Vickers had to find new ways of increasing production. By 1915 Vickers supplied the British armed forces with 2,405 guns. These increases continued throughout the First World War: 7,429 (1916); 21,782 (1917) and 39,473 (1918). The Vickers Company was accused of profiteering when in the early stages of the war they charged the Home Office £175 per gun. Under pressure from the government, Vickers reduced the price to £80 per gun.

Fitted with interrupter gear, the Vickers was also standard armament on all British and French aircraft after 1916.

There are basically two types of large artillery - the cannon and the howitzer (or mortar). A cannon fires a shell over a long arc and typically hits its target head-on. The howitzer (or mortar) lobs the shell over a high arc so it lands atop its target. Your choice of artillery depends upon the job at hand. Large guns, like handguns, are measured in caliber. This is the diameter of the barrel, and roughly, the shell it fires. Sometimes this measurement is given in inches, other times in centimeters or millimeters (thus a 42cm shell is equivalent to a 420mm or 16.5 inch shell).

the 3 inch Stokes Mortar; a trench mortar of great effectiveness.

Given that in 1914 the Germans were considerably ahead in mortar preparedness it is remarkable that the Allied armies caught up so quickly and surpassed the Germans in mortar excellence.

A Mr. F.W.C. Stokes - later Sir Wilfred Stokes KBE - saved the day for the British in January 1915. That month he designed a mortar of brilliant simplicity.

It became the standard issue for the British army. Indeed, most mortars in use today are direct descendants of the Stokes mortar.

Stokes' design was simple but highly effective. It consisted chiefly of a smooth metal tube fixed to a base plate (to absorb recoil) with a light bi-pod mount. When a bomb was dropped into the tube an impact sensitive cartridge at the base of the bomb would make contact with a firing pin at the base of the tube, thereby ejecting the bomb.

3-inches in size the cast-iron mortar bomb itself weighed around 4.5 kg. It was fitted with a modified hand grenade fuse on the front, with a perforated tube (with minor propellant charge) and impact-sensitive cap at the back. The Stokes mortar could fire as many as 22 bombs per minute and had a maximum range of 1,200 yards. In addition to the light Stokes mortar the British also produced a 2-inch medium mortar and a 9.45-inch heavy mortar (bizarrely nicknamed 'Flying Pigs' by the British soldier) among other models.

By the final year of the war each British division possessed 24 light Stokes mortars, 12 medium and several heavy models.

The 2 inch Medium Mortar	Not to be confused with the small WW2 version 2 inch mortar
		Note. A 2 inch medium mortar was bigger than the Stokes 3 inch mortar for this reason. In the case of the Stokes the 3 inch was the size of the bomb. In the case of the 2 inch it was the size of the 'stick' that went into the weapon. The much bigger bomb stayed on the outside.

The terms 'howitzer' and 'mortar' tended to be interchangeable in the late 1800's - early 1900's, e.g. the Stokes 3-inch mortar was at first called a 'howitzer.' The 2-inch was manned by personnel seconded from 18-pounder batteries, and used mainly for cutting barbed-wire entanglements which quite often withstood action by field guns.

It consisted of a steel tube of 2-inch internal diameter mounted upon a wooden base and supported by a bipod fitted with elevating and traversing gears. Elevation was applied by means of a clinometer, while for line a 'tall periscopic sight attached to the piece' was supplied. No details of this sight are available.

Propellant charges consisted of packets of cordite of one and 1½ oz (28 and 44 grams), used to make up charges of 1½, 2½, and 3½ ounces, giving ranges of 100-220. 180-340, and 300-500 yards respectively.

Owing to the nature of the bomb, the charges were loaded separately by dropping them down the barrel. Ignition was by 'T' friction tube inserted into a vent at the breech or by a rifle mechanism firing a blank screwed into it.

The bomb (diagram, above right), consisted of a spherical iron container filled with amatol or ammonal attached to a piece of pipe known as the 'stick' which fitted into the bore of the mortar, while the bomb sat on the muzzle.

Total weight of the projectile was 60 lbs (27 kg). It could be fitted with a time fuse or a simple percussion fuse.

To load, the required packets of cordite were dropped down the barrel, the 'stick' of the bomb was inserted in the bore, and the detachment took cover. They fired the mortar with a long lanyard because sometimes the packets of cordite did not burn completely and the bomb fell short - occasionally dangerously short!

The mortars were transported over short distances on 'frames with perambulator wheels' and over longer distances by MT vehicles.

The 9.45 inch Heavy Mortar

"The Flying Pig"

GHQ proposed to provide each Division with 6 light batteries, 2 medium and 1 heavy; but this had not been achieved even by the opening of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916.

By May 1916 it was decided to standardize on three types: the 3-inch Stokes ('light'), the 2-inch Medium (superceded in 1917 by the 6-inch Newton Mortar), and the 9.45-inch Heavy.

The latter became available towards the end of 1916, after failed experiments in the summer. The army also called these 'Flying Pigs'. By 1918 each British Division had 24 Stokes and 12 Medium mortars, and a few 9.45-inch Heavy weapons.

4.5-inch (4.5") howitzer Introduced into service in 1909, the shell fired by this howitzer was 4.5-inch caliber (114mm); the shell weighed 35-lb (15.9 kg). It had a maximum range of 7,300 yards (6.67km), with this distance being covered in a little under 22 seconds. The gun could elevate to 45 degrees above horizontal, which meant that its shell plunged onto target - an ideal way of delivering high explosive onto a trench or fortification. Design Mark II came into service in 1917, with a modification that improved wear against the actions of the sliding block breech. (This design stayed in service until withdrawn in 1944). The howitzer weighed 3,010 pounds (1.362 tonnes).

18-Pounder Field Gun (Cannon)

18-pounder (18-lb) field gun

The shell fired by this gun was 3.3-inch caliber (84mm); the shell weighed 18.5-lb (8.4kg).

It had a maximum range of 6,525 yards (5.96km), with this distance being covered in a little over 12 seconds.

The gun could elevate to 16 degrees above horizontal, which meant that its shell had a fairly flat trajectory.

This design proved to be an excellent gun, and was the main field artillery weapon employed by the British Army, and the mainstay of Divisional artillery.

18 pounder. Note the mud paddles on the wheels.

A Mark II design came into service in 1916, with an improved recuperator (the device by which the gun is returned to the firing position after the rapid recoil produced when firing a shell) - the mechanical part of the gun that suffered most in conditions of prolonged firing. A Mark IV (III was not used) came into service later on, which had a faster loading mechanism, and allowed elevation to 30 degrees. With a good crew and conditions, this gun could fire at an incredible rate, over an extended range of 9,300 yards (8.5km). The gun weighed 2,821 pounds (1.282 tonnes).