By the outbreak of the First
World War, the British Army had adopted
the Vickers Machine-gun. Fitted with interrupter
gear, the Vickers was also standard armament on all British and
French aircraft after 1916. During the war the British also used the
Lewis Gun. Easier to produce and far lighter
than the Vickers, it was used by soldiers on the Western
Front and on armoured cars and
aircraft.
In
the Second World War the British
Army used the extremely reliable Vickers
303. It was a recoil-operated machine gun, water cooled and
belt fed. It weighed 40lb without its tripod and fired the standard
.303 British cartridge at about 450rpm.
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