I see you enjoyed my past topic, so today I’d like to talk about a weapon with a long history - the Lewis gun. Surprisingly, at the moment there is only one premium USSR squad with this weapon in the game, this must be fixed!
In 1906, the little known gunsmith Samuel McLean, who had a medical education, developed an original machine gun, whose task was to replace the Colt-Browning M1895. Looking at this machine gun you can see similar features to the Lewis machine gun, but the machine gun had a liquid cooling system, otherwise it had almost the same automatics. It can also be noted that the disk for this machine gun was designed for 148 rounds:
However, no one was interested in the new machine gun, and the machine gun was sold only to Automatic Arms Company in Ohio. It was in this company that Isaac Lewis worked as a consultant. Lewis started to improve the recently purchased machine gun, the main task was to lighten and simplify the machine gun. It became obvious that the use of water cooling system made the machine gun uncomfortable to maintain and added weight, so it was quickly abandoned:
The 148-round disk was too heavy and massive, so the capacity of the disk was reduced to 47 rounds (early series had 50-round disks):
Characteristics early series Lewis gun:
|Rate of fire - 900 rounds/min
|Weight - 11.3 kg/25 Ib
|Feed system - 50 round disk magazine
In spite of all the work done, the U.S. Army never took an interest in the Lewis machine gun. But Lewis was not about to give up, he retired and left the US in 1913. He went first to Belgium, and later to Great Britain. In Belgium, he founded Armes Automatique Lewis in Liege to manufacture the machine gun. In the UK, Lewis worked closely with Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) to overcome some of the difficulties encountered in producing the weapon. Production of the machine gun began at the BSA factories:
During World War I, aviation became increasingly popular. Although many saw aviation as an effective means of reconnaissance, as the war progressed the use of aircraft changed. Now airplanes became full-fledged combat units with armaments. The most popular machine gun in aviation was the Lewis gun.
Thus, since 1915 experiments on creation of aviation version of Lewis were underway, the main task was to lighten the weight, which could be done by removing the radial barrel casing. To increase efficiency, the rate of fire was increased to 600 rounds per minute, and a 97-round capacity disk was used:
In 1916, specifically for France, Savage Arms were producing aviation Lewis, the barrel shroud having already been finally abandoned:
Lewis gun was also used in air defense, for this purpose a special anti-aircraft sight was installed:
Especially for use in aviation, the original 400 rounds disk was created, but it never went into production:
In WW2 England used the Lewis gun after the defeat in France, when a large number of guns were lost. The Lewis gun was also used in the Pacific theater of war:
Often converted aircraft versions of the Lewis gun were used for ship defense and in infantry:
By World War II, the Lewis gun was in use in the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, but was never adopted by the Army:
Lewis guns were in service with the Red Army until 1926, after which they were transferred to storage warehouses, and the main handgun became the DP 27. Later, machine guns from tsarist-era warehouses were used by the People’s Militia divisions, and were used during the Battle of Moscow:
The Wehrmacht captured a significant number of British and Dutch Lewis guns in 1940, and put these into service with second-line troops as the MG 137(E) and MG 100(H). Somewhat remarkably, the Dutch Lewis gun (Lewis M20 gun) only had disks for 97 rounds:
Japan purchased a license to produce a Lewis gun designated Type 92, remarkably this was the aircraft version of the Lewis. The Japanese model can be easily distinguished by the enlarged trigger guard (to prevent the gloved hand from getting stuck). If necessary, the machine gun could be made into infantry machine gun, but as far as I can tell, it was not possible everywhere, so field modifications appeared:
Working in the experimental department of Royal engineering, B.S.A began experimenting with lightening and improving the Lewis gun. The new modification included the addition of a single shot capability, which would greatly reduce barrel heat, from which it was decided to remove the shroud, this made the gun much lighter. A new 22 round disk was made for the new model. It was this version that participated in the competition for the new English machine gun:
Characteristics Type D:
|Rate of fire - (550?) rounds/min
|Weight - (9?) kg/(21?) Ib
|Feed system - 22 round disk magazine
Despite the work done, the Bren machine gun performed the best and won the competition. In spite of this, the work on improving the Lewis gun did not end, so in 1937 a new modification was introduced:
Another attempt was made in 1941, but it was too late:
In turn, the company - Soley Armament Co. Ltd, in the second half of 1930, decided to make a light handgun based on the Lewis Mark III aircraft version. Like the B.S.A., it was decided to adopt the 30-round magazine from the Bren machine gun. The first samples worked badly, there were constant breakdowns, and when the machine gun was perfected, the army was already supplied with the Bren:
Characteristics Soley Armament Co. Ltd Lewis gun:
|Rate of fire - (600?) rounds/min
|Weight - (9?) kg/(21?) Ib
|Feed system - 30 round box magazine
From September 1917 through the summer of 1918, Isaac Lewis secretly developed an automatic rifle. Many solutions were borrowed from his machine gun:
Lewis decides to design a light machine gun along the lines of the BAR M1918. The new machine gun was based on the experience gained in the development of the automatic rifle, and almost nothing remains of the familiar Lewis gun:
Lewis Automatic Rifle Mark №3:
This time it was not possible to find a buyer, but the efforts were not in vain. Lewis gained invaluable experience that was needed when designing a new machine gun in 1924. The machine gun was originally designed for France, but lost the competition there. A small production was organized for at least some kind of sale, and just under 100 machine guns were produced, but after the occupation of France they went to Germany, where they were adopted for service under the designation MG 107 (F):
Characteristics MG 107 (F):
|Rate of fire - 450 rounds/min
|Weight - 8.5 kg/18.7 Ib
|Feed system - 25 round box magazine
The Canadian Expeditionary Corps needed an automatic weapon, then engineer Joseph Huot designed an automatic rifle based on the Ross rifle. Notably, the rifle’s cooling system was borrowed from the Lewis machine gun:
Characteristics Huot Automatic Rifle:
|Rate of fire - 475 rounds/min
|Weight - 5.9 kg/13 Ib
|Feed system - 25 round drum magazine
Degtyarev and Fedorov experimented a lot in 1920 with their weapons, among them were Fedorov’s automatic rifle and DP with Lewis gun cooling system:
Also a similar barrel casing on a similar principle of operation was tested on SG 43 machine guns (I have not saved the photo) and ShKAS machine gun:
Two prototypes were created in the development of the first light handgun. The Mark Ko uses the same barrel shroud and a very similar disk from the Lewis machine gun. The Type 11 prototype used a rather similar, but still original, barrel cover:
The author's work, which is worth a look:
P.S.
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