Outside the window it has been drizzling for the third day already, and in rare rainless hours everything is covered in thick fog ... It’s just British weather in the yard ... The family is already sleeping, and I’m sitting in an armchair by the burning fireplace, drinking whiskey (very little) and reading “Notes on Sherlock Holmes” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle… It feels like I’m in the British Empire…
I don’t know about you, but the first association that pops into my mind when mentioning Britain is the good old British weapon. First of all, of course, this is a Lewis light machine gun ... That, in fact, I want to tell you about this machine gun today ...
The beginning of the formidable 20th century passed "under the sign" of the active development of automatic weapons, in particular machine guns. This type of weapons was enthusiastically introduced into the troops, the patent bureaus were literally inundated with various projects and ideas in the field of automatic weapons, often very far from the realities of life. However, some developments turned out to be very successful, were actively used in hostilities and took their place of honor on the pedestal of the history of small arms. A similar fate awaited the Lewis light machine gun ...
British-made Lewis light machine gun (Russian order). Right view.
At the appointed time, the biplane entered the range area at a height of 120 meters, and Stellingwerf opened fire on a 7.5-meter square target. The results of this and subsequent firing confirmed Lewis's claims - an average of 28 hits on the target from each cartridge disc.
Weapons specialists from Woolwich carried out extensive tests. Despite the problem with overheating of the barrel, the machine gun was generally rated positively and recommended for adoption. In the same year, the machine gun was officially adopted by the Belgian army.
Of great importance in the fate of the Lewis machine gun were trial aerial firing conducted by the British Royal Air Corps (RFC - Royal Flight Corps) and the Royal Naval Aviation Service (RNAS - Royal Navy Air Service). After them, it became obvious that the Lewis machine gun was one of the best candidates for the role of aviation weapons. However, the British War Office was cautious, and BSA had to start shipping already produced batches of machine guns to Belgium. Focusing on the prospect of a big war in Europe, the BSA management decided to expand production and ordered new machines in the USA.
Literally on the eve of the war, in June 1914, the War Office and the Admiralty of Great Britain, as if “waking up”, urgently ordered 10 Lewis machine guns, and two weeks later another 45. Immediately after the outbreak of hostilities, BSA received an order for 200 machine guns, the production of which was then carried out at a rate of 25 pieces per week. And after the Lewis light machine gun, which was in service with the Belgian army, brilliantly proved itself in battle (the Germans, faced with this formidable weapon, called it the “rattlesnake”), applications for new machine guns fell like a cornucopia.
It soon became clear that the BSA alone could not cope with the growing wave of orders, so the British, together with the Canadians, ordered 12,000 machine guns from the Savage Arms Company, a large American arms company. By the end of 1915, the new production workshops in Burningham were operating at full capacity and the production of Lewis machine guns there reached 300 pieces a week.
In 1915, Savage Arms of the United States refused to work on order and acquired a license to produce these machine guns at its production facilities. In the USA, the production of Lewis machine guns of caliber .30-06 was organized. Machine guns were mainly supplied by government order for the air force and marines, but a small amount also went to the civilian market (Lewis machine guns were liked by travelers going to the wild parts of the world - to Africa, Asia, Amazonia).
In the Russian Empire, Lewis machine guns appeared in 1917 (9600 American and 1800 British-made machine guns), when the tsarist government, concerned about the acute shortage of automatic weapons in the army, ordered their production from foreign contractors. It should be noted that part of the machine guns (according to some sources, about 1200 pieces) were made in 7.62 * 54 caliber - that is, under our standard rifle cartridge. In these machine guns, the number "300" was stamped on the butt plate with a percussive stamp.
After the end of the World War, Lewis machine guns remained in service with the armies and participated in almost all armed conflicts until the mid-thirties. Licensed production of machine guns was organized in Japan and Holland, where they were in service. Many countries (Latvia, Estonia, Turkey, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, Australia, China, etc.) purchased these weapons.
The widespread use of "Lewis" during the First World War, along with the significant need for troops in such weapons, was also facilitated by the fact that the cost of one easel "Vickers" was equal to the costs spent on the manufacture of six "Lewis".
In the USSR, during the Great Patriotic War, the Lewises also returned to service - they were armed with militia forces and formed partisan detachments.
In addition, it is known that Lewis was one of the types of weapons carried by Kalev-class submarines (built for Estonia in the UK). After the accession of Estonia to the USSR, these submarines became part of the Baltic Fleet in 1940.
By the way, the Germans also armed their rear units with captured Lewises. They had Ying under the index MG100(h).
After the war, the use of Lewis in the Korean War and in the struggle of the Jewish people for the creation of the State of Israel is noted. And in Africa, Lewis was used in the former British colonies until the 70s of the twentieth century ...
Machine gun device:
Machine gun automation works on the principle of removal of powder gases.
The machine gun consists of the following main parts and mechanisms: a barrel with a radiator and a casing, a receiver with a lid and a feeder, a butt plate with a butt, a fire control handle with a trigger, a bolt, a bolt carrier, a reciprocating mainspring with a box, a magazine and a bipod.
In front of the casing there is a gas chamber regulator, which has two holes for venting gases with letter designations: “L” - a larger hole and “S” - a smaller hole. To move the regulator from one hole to another, it is rotated 180° using the regulator lever.
The barrel bore is locked by turning the bolt, the lugs of which are included in the transverse grooves of the receiver. The rotation of the bolt when locking is carried out by a curved groove on the bolt and the base of the bolt rack.
The percussion mechanism of the striker type is fixed on the bolt carrier. The trigger mechanism allows only automatic fire. The machine gun is fed with cartridges during firing from a disk magazine, which is driven by a feed mechanism. The lever-type feed mechanism is actuated by a protrusion of the bolt tail, which is included in the curved groove of the feed lever. There is a pawl on the feed lever, which, interacting with the transverse ribs of the magazine, rotates the magazine. Keeping the magazine from turning to the right and left is made by two levers, which are located on the cover of the receiver. Extraction of the cartridge case (cartridge) is carried out by two ejectors fixed in the bolt, and reflection is carried out by a lever-type reflector located in the receiver.
The machine gun has a fuse consisting of two strips with cutouts at both ends. The straps are placed on the right and left sides of the receiver. The cutouts are designed for setting the bolt carrier on the fuse in the forward and rear positions. To put the bolt on the fuse, the bar (left or right, depending on which side the charging handle is on) must be moved up.
The connection of the barrel with the receiver is threaded. Air barrel cooling. Cooling of the barrel is enhanced by the presence of a radiator and a casing with a pipe on the barrel. Frame sight, diopter; triangular shaped fly. For the convenience of shooting, the machine gun has a bipod. When using a machine gun as a light machine gun, it is attached to the swinging part of the machine and the butt plate with a butt is replaced in the machine gun with a butt plate with a handle.
The machine gun has a rack type sight. It is mounted on the cover of the receiver and has up to 20 divisions. The greatest range of aimed fire is 2000 yards, which corresponds to 1830 m
The machine gun comes with a set of accessories for disassembly for cleaning and the following spare parts: a bolt, a reflector, a reciprocating mainspring with a gear and a box, a pawl and two magazine locks, a feed lever and a tube for magazine equipment. Accessories and spare parts are placed in a special leather case.
And here is how Maxim Popenker describes the technical characteristics of the machine gun:
“The Lewis light machine gun uses gas-operated automatics with a gas piston located under the barrel with a long stroke. The barrel is locked by turning the bolt on four lugs located radially at the rear of the bolt. Shooting is carried out from an open shutter, only with automatic fire. The features of the machine gun include a spiral return spring acting on the gas piston rod through the gear and gear, as well as an aluminum radiator on the barrel, enclosed in a thin-walled metal casing. The radiator casing protrudes forward in front of the muzzle, so that when fired, air is drawn through the casing along the radiator, from the breech to the muzzle. Cartridges were fed from top-mounted disk magazines with a multi-layered (in 2 or 4 rows, capacity 47 and 97 rounds, respectively) arrangement of cartridges radially, with bullets to the axis of the disk. At the same time, the store did not have a supply spring - its rotation to supply the next cartridge to the chambering line was carried out using a special lever located on the machine gun and driven by the shutter. In the infantry version, the machine gun was equipped with a wooden butt and a removable bipod, sometimes a handle for carrying weapons was placed on the barrel casing. Japanese machine guns of the Lewis Type 92 system (manufactured under license) could additionally be used from special tripod machines.
Shop equipment and preparation for shooting.
Equipped magazine for 97 rounds.
The reliability of the weapon in any, incl. and adverse conditions deservedly earned him a reputation as one of the best light machine guns of the time, although the considerable weight and laboriousness of maintenance caused certain difficulties for the machine gunners. About this machine gun, it is quite possible to say that it was created in "its" time and honorably "served" its service in the armies of many countries of the world. The machine gun was widely used as an infantry machine gun, but its aviation versions received no less fame.
American Isaac Newton Lewis (1858-1931) served as an officer in the US Army. In addition, he was also an inventor, whose work is still used in the military industry in many countries. In 1911, Lewis improved on Samuel McLean's original machine gun design and launched a massive marketing campaign for the rifle that he ended up with. It was called the "Lewis automatic rifle" and was equipped with a mobile air-cooling system.
Rifle production
Throughout its history, this rifle has been used for defense, for shooting from the air and as a light version of the infantry machine gun. The Lewis rifle continued to be used during the First and Second World Wars. It is curious that the US authorities at first were not interested in the development of Lewis, and this forced him to sell his invention to Europe, where it served in the arsenal of the Belgian army. Belgium began serial production of the machine, then Britain and France became interested in it.
America found itself forced into World War I, and only then did it finally invest in the production of the Lewis rifle. Production was carried out in England, in Birmingham (BSA). The German attack on Belgium was swift, and the Belgian troops were forced to retreat. It was during this fierce battle that the Lewis rifle was used for the first time. By the time the war reached its peak, the Lewis rifle had already found its widest use. It was equipped with observation towers, biplanes and bombers. The war, which according to experts should have ended by Christmas 1914, eventually lasted four long years and became one of the bloodiest in history.
Huge front-line territories were entangled in a network of trenches, between which there were round-the-clock skirmishes. Areas not occupied by trenches were under constant crossfire and were called "deserted lands" because it was impossible to survive on them.
firing range
The machine gun played an important role in this war. Wartime practice showed that it was the side that was armed with machine guns that always won. At the same time, aircraft and tanks began to join the machine guns. The firing range and ballistics of rifle cartridges made it possible to keep the enemy at a great distance, preventing him from going on the offensive.
Machine gunners could also be combined into a detachment, where they, mutually covering each other, ensured complete control over enemy positions and shelters. Along with artillery fire, these weapons resulted in huge human casualties. In essence, the Lewis rifle was an automatic firing system equipped with a gas chamber and air cooling. She weighed about 13 kilograms. The machine gun was loaded with a 30-06 Springfield round drum, and its rate of fire was from 500 to 600 rounds per minute. The firing range varied from 800 to 3000 meters.
A distinctive feature of the Lewis machine gun was its casing. It was intended to protect the shooter from contact with the hot barrel and to better purge it with a forced cooling system. This system worked at the expense of spent powder gases and was innovative and very effective for its time. The machine gun, which has forced air cooling, compares favorably with its water-cooled competitors. It did not need to be additionally filled with water and one person could easily handle it (unlike the same Vickers).
By the time America adopted the Lewis machine gun, this weapon had already proven itself in battles around the world. America entered World War I only in 1917. By this time, Lewis already had wide popularity and was used almost everywhere. Especially often, aircraft and biplanes of the allied forces were equipped with this machine gun. There was a serious shortage of firearms in the American army. This forced America to buy Lewis machine guns from Britain, and they remained in service with America until the end of World War II, despite the fact that in parallel the Americans also bought the Czech machine gun Bren Light Machine.
Lewis Mark XI SS
At the end of the war, the Lewis was praised for its lethality and ease of use, but the machine gun often jammed and was too heavy. It was also condemned for its extremely inconvenient reloading and relatively complex mechanism, which was difficult to repair in the field. Despite this, it was inexpensive and was used everywhere: on land, in the air, infantry, navy and air force.
By the beginning, the Lewis machine gun had undergone a number of modifications and improvements and was again put into service. In 1942, Britain financed the development of another modification of the Lewis - Lewis Mark XI SS.
It was assumed that this would make it possible to make a full-fledged infantry LMG from the Lewis machine gun for firing from the shoulder. Similar developments were carried out by the Americans.
As a result, a series of Mark assault rifles saw the light, many of which were not successful and never entered service. The latest versions of Marks were widely used after the war, and the design elements used in this series served as the basis for modern automatic rifles.
The Lewis machine gun continued to be used later - during the Arab-Israeli war (1948-1949), during the Troubles (1960-1998) and during the Croatian War of Independence (1991-1995).
In 2010, in the state of ILLINOIS in the USA, a discussion arose among lovers of small arms. One of the lovers of small arms, a war veteran, found a non-working Lewis machine gun in an old estate. More specifically, it was a Lewis .30 caliber manufactured in 1917 by Savage Arms Co. in New York City.
About this find, they wrote to the head of the Catholic Society of War Veterans, Mike Anthony, asking him to explain how they could leave the machine gun in their organization, as I understand it, engaged in the reconstruction of the hostilities of the past. He asked a question to an ATF agent (Bureau of Firearms Tobacco Alcohol and Explosives), who, in turn, advised the machine gun to hand over to the authorities. And the machine gun had to be handed over to the sheriff, otherwise those who owned it were threatened with a term of 10 years and a fine of $ 250,000.
In this whole story, I liked the reaction of the local sheriff. He did not start cases against the finders, but tried in every possible way to help them in solving this problem. They were even ready to give the machine gun to the museum, but the ATF demanded that the rarity be destroyed. In turn, Sheriff Myrl Justus, said that while the find will be kept by him as a dock item, until a way is found to save this perfectly preserved machine gun, which, according to gunsmiths, can still be restored.
"Unfortunately, we are limited in capacity," Sgt. John Fulton, administrative assistant to the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department, told the press. “We will either keep it at our place or we will be obliged to hand it over for destruction, these are the requirements of the law.”
At the same time, the state shooting association is confident that it is worth fighting for the safety of this shooting exhibit, stating that the ATF, as a federal service, should control, and not seize or destroy what is the history of the United States of America.
I note that such attitudes towards machine guns in general are not in all US states! There are states where their personal storage is allowed.
From idea to metal
Lewis ("Lewis") - British machine gun during the First World War. It was created in 1913.
The original idea for the design of the machine gun belongs to a certain Samuel McLean. This idea was improved by an American, the captain of the American army, Isaac Lewis, and then patented. Initially, Lewis planned his machine gun as an easel, water-cooled, but later moved on to the idea of a light machine gun with forced air cooling of the barrel.
The machine gun was proposed by the designer for arming the American army, but in response there was a harsh refusal (caused by an old personal conflict between the inventor and General Crozier, then head of the US Army weapons department).
Having failed to convince the leadership of the American army of the need to adopt his design, Lewis retired and left the United States in 1913.
First he went to Belgium, and soon to the UK. In Belgium, he founded the Armes Automatique Lewis company in Liège to manufacture the machine gun. In the UK, Lewis worked closely with Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) to overcome some of the difficulties encountered in the production of these weapons.
The production of the machine gun began at the BSA factories (England), and the Belgian army was the first to adopt the Lewis RP in 1913, and the Lewis received its baptism of fire in 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War. By the end of the 1930s, it was withdrawn from service for the first time, but closer to the Second World War it was returned to service after a partial modernization, during which the radiators were removed, and two bipods were replaced with one telescopic one. In addition to the army, there were also aviation options.
Japanese Type 92 Lewis machine guns (manufactured under license) could additionally be used from special tripod machines. These machine guns were used by Japan until the end of World War II.
Design features
Machine gun automation works on the principle of removal of powder gases. The machine gun consists of the following main parts and mechanisms: a barrel with a radiator and a casing, a receiver with a lid and a feeder, a butt plate with a butt, a fire control handle with a trigger, a bolt, a bolt frame, a reciprocating mainspring in its box, a magazine and a bipod . The visiting card system is a casing, the edges extending far beyond the muzzle and forming a kind of ejector with its profile there - when fired, a wave of powder gases, passing through it with its inertia, created a rarefaction in the rear of the casing - and as a result - pulling portions of cold air under the casing, along longitudinally ribbed trunk. Active air cooling has never been used anywhere else in the history of small arms.
The barrel bore is locked by turning the bolt, the lugs of which are included in the transverse grooves of the receiver. The rotation of the bolt when locking is carried out by a curved groove on the bolt and the base of the bolt rack. The percussion mechanism of the striker type is fixed on the bolt carrier. The trigger mechanism allows only automatic fire. Shooting only from the "open bolt", which adversely affects the accuracy of the fire. The machine gun is fed with cartridges during firing from the original disk magazine with a multilayer (in 2 or 4 rows, capacity of 47 and 97 rounds, respectively) arrangement, which is driven by a rotary feeder. The store does not contain a feed spring, which radically sets it apart from all modern systems of this type.
The lever-type feed mechanism is actuated by a protrusion of the bolt tail, which is included in the curved groove of the feed lever. The rate of fire (the rate of operation of automation) is regulated by a valve on the gas chamber. The same valve compensates for the thickening of the lubricant at low temperatures.
The reciprocating mainspring is not telescopic like in modern systems, but a lamellar drum type, located inside the toothed drum, the mating part of the bolt frame is made by a toothed rack. It allows pulling up in case of loss of elasticity, for which there is a key in the machine gun accessories. Accessory - a leather bag containing a tool for minor repairs and eliminating delays in weapons. There are also a spare reciprocating mainspring and a drummer, as well as a tool for assembling and disassembling weapons.
Technical parameters of the machine gun "Lewis" arr. 1915
Caliber 7.71 mm
Length 1280 mm
Weight without cartridges 14.5 kg
Machine gun weight with magazine and ammunition. 17.8 kg
Muzzle velocity 747 m/s
Rate of fire 450 rpm
Rate of fire 150 rpm
Sighting range 1800 m
Disc capacity 47 (97) rounds
The total length of the machine gun 1 280 mm
Range of actual fire 800 m
Sighting range 1830 m
The Lewis machine gun is also used as a light machine gun, for which it is mounted on a light disturbing machine.
7.62 mm (-300) Lewis machine guns may be encountered. These machine guns have the number "300" on the butt plate.
The magazine with 97 rounds is designed for aviation.
LUIS in RUSSIA
Due to their maneuverability and general stealth, the Lewis machine guns were nicknamed the "rattlesnake" by the soldiers of Kaiser's Germany, which was facilitated by the characteristic sound of a machine gun burst. Captured machine guns by the Germans were actively reworked under the 7.92 mm Mauser cartridge and were used in assault squads along with other trophies.
In Russia, Lewis machine guns appeared in 1917 - they were supplied to the needs of the Russian army under a military procurement agreement (9,600 American and 1,800 British-made machine guns), so they managed to get first to the front, and only then to the hands of revolutionary military units along the entire western front. So the LUIS machine guns ended up in the troops of the UNR and at the guards of the headquarters of Father Makhno, and, accordingly, in service with the Red Guard.
There were also difficulties in their operation - some of the machine guns were under the British caliber, and some under the standard "three lines" - 7.62 mm. Machine guns of American origin were made under the Mosin cartridge 7.62 mm (stamp on the butt plate of the machine gun - 0.3). The English fired with a .303 British cartridge. So basically English machine guns "Lewis" were used in Russia in aviation.
With the rearmament of the Red Army, the Lewis machine guns remained in military warehouses until the Great Patriotic War, and were used in battles with the advancing German units from 1941 until the beginning of 1943.
The most famous photograph confirming this is a company of machine gunners with "Lewis" marching in a parade along Red Square on November 7, 1941 before leaving for the front.
Military parade on Red Square. Moscow, November 7, 1941. The photo is interesting in that the soldiers of the Red Army are wearing winter helmets, canceled in July 1940, and armed with old British machine guns of the Lewis system.
By the way, some of the LUIs ended up in the Baltic Fleet as trophies. These machine guns were installed on British-made Estonian Kalev-class submarines that became part of the Soviet Baltic Fleet in 1940.
Luis' second wind
By the beginning of the Second World War in the British army, the Lewis machine guns were mostly replaced by more advanced Bren machine guns. It would seem that this is the finale of the military career of the Lewis machine gun. But chance intervened.
When the British carried out a hasty evacuation of troops from Dunkirk in June 1940, they were forced to leave the enemy with the most modern weapons that the British army had. While the industry was desperately trying to increase the production of modern weapons, the British army in 1940-1941 compensated for its lack by the return of old systems, as well as a number of improvisations. Among other things, about 50 thousand Lewis machine guns, which were withdrawn from service in previous years, were returned to the army.
Aviation "Lewis" Mk 4, produced by "Birmingham Small Arms", were returned to the category of ground. Basically, they were issued to local defense units or installed as anti-aircraft machine guns on mobilized ships. Several hundred old "Lewis" chambered for .30-06 were purchased and received under lend-lease in the United States along with BAR - these were mainly aviation "Lewis" produced by Savage (in the UK they were called "Savage-Lewis") . Aviation machine guns "Lewis" did not have a barrel shroud and a massive radiator, a simplified sight was installed on them, which were designed for 400 yards, a skeletal metal butt with a back of the head and wooden lining was welded to the handle. A conical flame arrester-compensator was installed on the barrel. These machine guns were adopted by the British Navy. To distinguish between American machine guns and machine guns chambered for British cartridges, a large red stripe was applied to the receiver behind the nest of the Savage Lewis magazine, and the rear half of the magazine was also painted over in red. In addition, the old "Hotchkiss" and "Lewis" were used on local defense armored trains, various anti-aircraft installations, urgently completed armored vehicles and light aircraft.
In August 1942, the so-called SS modification (Shoulder Shooting, also referred to as Mk XI SS) was adopted for the conversion of Navy machine guns - the radiator, forend, shortened butt were removed from the English Lewises (caliber .303), and a muzzle compensator was installed. There are references to the transfer of a small number of Lewis machine guns to the Soviet Union.
It should be noted that the old captured Lewis machine guns were also used in the German army - for example, about 3.9 thousand machine guns of the 6.5 mm M.20 modification were captured in Holland and transferred to the German troops under the designation MG.100 ( h). These machine guns were equipped with a disk magazine with a capacity of 97 rounds and had a mass of 13 kilograms.
LUIS - retired
The Lewis-type machine gun was often used in Soviet feature films about the Civil War, which gave rise to one of the film critics to call it "duty, concert Lewis" by analogy with the piano.
In the cult Soviet film "The White Sun of the Desert", the Red Army soldier Sukhov was supposed to use Lewis in the battle with the Basmachi. Since the film crew could not find an appropriate weapon for filming, it was decided to use the DT-29 (Degtyarev tank machine gun) “made up as” Lewis thanks to the use of a special fake casing. And in the film "At Home Among Strangers, A Stranger Among Our Own" it is also implied that the captain Brylov, performed by Nikita Mikhalkov, uses the Lewis machine gun, but this is the same imitation as in the film "White Sun of the Desert".
By the way, LUIS was also successfully used in HOLLYWOOD, and not only in films about the war, but also in science fiction action films, where he played the role of a heavy blaster, as was shown in D. Lucas' film Star Wars.
Aviation machine gun "Lewis".
Developer: A.Lewis
Country: USA
Year of establishment: 1912
The light machine gun, whose thick black "pipe" on the bipod is familiar to many from Civil War films, was a wonderful weapon for its time. The combination of low weight, simplicity and reliability of the design with the rate of fire ensured its rapid spread in many countries of the world. The machine gun was widely used as an infantry machine gun, but its aviation variants were no less famous.
The creator of the machine gun, Colonel Isaac Newton Lewis (Isaac Newton Lewis) was a leading weapon specialist in the US Army. He was educated at West Point Military Academy, graduating in 1884. In 1911, Lewis became head of the artillery school at Fort Monroe, where he gained worldwide recognition as a specialist in mechanical and electrical engineering. With the approach of the moment of dismissal from the army, the colonel began working as a consultant for the AAC (Automatic Arms Company) in Ohio (pictured is Colonel I. Lewis).
For a number of years, Lewis worked on the creation of a light machine gun, the automation of which was powered by the energy of powder gases. At that time, AAS bought the rights to a machine gun designed by Dr. Samuel McClean. The technical solutions of McClean Lewis used in the development of his machine gun. For the right to produce a machine gun designed by Lewis, AAC gave him a controlling stake and control over production and distribution. Two years later, Lewis created a machine gun with a disc magazine and an air-cooled barrel. Machine gun automation worked on the principle of gas removal. When fired, the gases passed through the hole in the barrel and pressed on the piston. The piston, moving back, turned the gear of the spiral (as in a clock) return spring with a gear rack and thus started it.
At the same time, the stand on the rod turned the bolt and removed its lugs from the annular groove of the bolt box. With further movement of the piston with the shutter, the sleeve was removed from the breech, which was then thrown out by the reflector. The protrusion of the shutter, acting on the feeder, turned the magazine and fed the next cartridge to the receiving window. After the parts moved back, the return spring untwisted and sent the stem with the shutter forward. The shutter captured the next cartridge and sent it to the chamber. The feeder turned to the right and jumped over the next ledge of the store. The rod rack, moving along the slot of the shutter, turned it, the lugs entered the grooves of the box, the firing pin broke the primer and fired the next shot.
One of the problems of any automatic weapon is the intense release of heat during firing. To solve this problem, Lewis came up with an original air cooling system. The barrel of the machine gun was enclosed in an aluminum radiator, covered by a large cylindrical casing.
During firing, the powder gases that flew out of the barrel at high speed pulled air into the casing, which, passing through the radiator channels, took away heat from it. But, despite the fact that this design cooled the barrel, bursts longer than 20 shots led to its overheating, and it was necessary to take a break. The disc magazine with a capacity of 47 rounds was shot in just six seconds, but it was considered that this was enough, since an empty magazine was easily replaced.
During his service in the US armed forces, Lewis repeatedly went out with his inventions to the command, but did not find understanding. He was aware that the biased attitude of the army authorities towards inventors - "upstarts" was working against him. So Lewis decided to take a different approach.
In College Park, Maryland, there was a "reconnaissance air corps" manned by several Wright biplanes. It was commanded by an old acquaintance of Lewis, Captain De Forrest Chandler. Lewis explained to him his idea for a new weapon and offered to take part in the first aerial tests of a machine gun. Chandler set to work with great enthusiasm. Pilot Lieutenant De Witt Milling was involved in the tests.
Lewis informed interested officers about his project and on June 2, 1912, a wooden biplane took off. Chandler fired a burst at the canvas stretched across the grass in front of the hangar. He shot the rest of the ammunition at a nearby pond. This historic flight was widely reported in the press, but the army command was extremely outraged that Lewis did not even notify him in advance of this event. However, the flight was widely publicized and Lewis was offered to conduct official tests of his machine gun. The tests were successful, but the machine gun was again rejected, since the Artillery Directorate had already opted for the French Bene-Mercier machine gun, which was in many ways inferior to the Lewis system, in addition to using uncomfortable rigid clip belts. By that time, Lewis had retired from the US Army and moved to Europe.
Lewis' proposal for a demonstration of his machine gun was accepted by a group of Belgian businessmen. The machine gun showed itself on the good side, as a result, an agreement was signed, according to which a new company, Armes Automatic Lewis, was created to produce Lewis machine guns in Europe. However, the only manufacturer capable of offering the necessary production capacity was the British firm Bermingham Small Arms (BSA), with which they signed an agreement. The Burningham plant began preparing production tooling.
With the help of the BSA's public relations department, Lewis arranged for a public display of aerial firing from his machine gun. The show took place at the shooting range in Beasley on November 27, 1913. The plane of the famous pilot Graham White was equipped with an additional seat for the gunner, which was occupied by the Belgian Lieutenant Stellingwerf. Piloted by Marcus Menthon. At the appointed time, the biplane entered the range area at a height of 120 meters, and Stellingwerf opened fire on a 7.5-meter square target. The results of this and subsequent firing confirmed Lewis's claims - an average of 28 hits on the target from each cartridge disc.
BSA received orders for test batches of machine guns from the military departments of England, Belgium, Russia, and a number of other countries. Weapons specialists from Woolwich carried out extensive tests. Despite the problem with overheating of the barrel, the machine gun was generally rated positively and recommended for adoption. In the same year, the machine gun was officially adopted by the Belgian army.
Of great importance in the fate of the Lewis machine gun were test aerial firing conducted by the British Royal Air Corps (RFC - Royal Flight Corps) and the Royal Naval Aviation Service (RNAS - Royal Navy Air Service). After them, it became obvious that the Lewis machine gun was one of the best candidates for the role of aviation weapons. However, the British War Office was cautious, and BSA had to start shipping already produced batches of machine guns to Russia and Belgium. Focusing on the prospect of a big war in Europe, the BSA management decided to expand production and ordered new machines in the USA.
Literally on the eve of the war, in June 1914, the War Office and the Admiralty of Great Britain, as if “waking up”, urgently ordered 10 Lewis machine guns, and two weeks later another 45. Immediately after the outbreak of hostilities, BSA received an order for 200 machine guns, the production of which was then carried out at a rate of 25 pieces per week. And after the Lewis Infantry, which was in service with the Belgian army, brilliantly proved itself in battle (the Germans, faced with this formidable weapon, called it the “rattlesnake”), applications for new machine guns fell like a cornucopia.
It soon became clear that the BSA alone could not cope with the growing wave of orders, so the British, together with the Canadians, ordered 12,000 machine guns from the Savage Arms Company, a large American arms company. By the end of 1915, the new production workshops in Burningham were operating at full capacity and the production of Lewis machine guns there reached 300 units a week.
The design of the infantry version of the Lewis machine gun remained virtually unchanged until the end of the First World War. But for use in aviation, the machine gun began to be intensively modernized. The first change was the replacement of the rifle stock with a handle of the Maxim type, which is more convenient when handling a machine gun mounted on a rifle turret. Moreover, in this case, it was not required to rest against the shoulder to parry the recoil.
The massive "pipe" of the radiator casing prevented the shooter from aiming, because due to the large windage, the machine gun was subjected to strong air flow pressure. It soon became clear that due to the airflow in flight, the barrel was less prone to overheating than on the ground, and the clumsy casing was abandoned, although the radiator itself remained.
It also turned out that the spent cartridges that flew overboard damaged the fabric covering of the aircraft, and in cars with a rear engine, they also damaged the propeller. In combat units, they began to independently equip machine guns with bags or boxes for collecting cartridges. After receiving an official complaint, BSA began producing cartridge case bags for turret versions of the Lewis machine gun with a capacity of 94 shells. But for an intense battle, the capacity was insufficient and it was increased to 330 shells.
The 47-round double-row disc magazine also turned out to be too small for aerial shooting, since it was very problematic to change it often in thick mittens in a piercing wind. To make life easier for shooters in 1916, they created a new four-row magazine for 97 rounds. The store was equipped with a handle that allowed it to be replaced with one hand.
During the operation of the Lewis machine gun, damage to the gas cylinder under the barrel often occurred. To protect it, the barrel and cylinder were covered with a light metal pipe 2.5 inches (6.25 cm) in diameter. This revision, as well as a number of others, were made by BSA specialists in November 1915. A modified version of the Lewis Mk.II machine gun was put into mass production in the middle of 1916.
The principle of operation of the machine gun did not allow using it with a synchronizer. Consequently, for firing forward, the line of fire had to be directed outside the sweeping zone of the propeller. As a rule, on biplane fighters, the Lewis machine gun was fixed on rack-brackets above the upper wing. At first, replacing magazines in such installations was a dangerous "acrobatic stunt". The pilot had to, unfastening the seat belts and removing his feet from the pedals, stand in the cockpit to his full height, hold the control stick between his legs and in this position remove the empty magazine, and install a fuller one in its place. It is clear that in the conditions of air combat it was simply impossible to engage in such manipulations.
In 1916, for the convenience of replacing stores in England, a special device was created. Its inventor is considered to be Sergeant Foster from the 11th division of the RFC. This installation or "Foster carriage" was an arcuate rail on which a machine gun was attached and along which it could be moved back and down. To replace the store, the pilot unlocked the holder lock on the rail and pulled the machine gun towards him until it stops. In this position, the store was easily changed, and these could be done with one hand, without getting tired from the chair. Such installations were equipped, in particular, with the widespread British RAF SE.5a fighters.
In Russia, at about the same time, a similar installation for the Nieuport fighters, developed by engineer Jordan, appeared. But in it, the machine gun did not descend into the cockpit along the guide, but deviated back on a hinge.
In 1915, the Lewis machine gun became the standard defensive armament of the aircraft of the Royal Air Corps and the Royal Air Force of Great Britain, as well as the French Air Force. The machine gun was also very much appreciated by the German aviators, who willingly removed them from the broken and captured aircraft of the Entente and used them on their machines.
Meanwhile, the Lewis machine gun, like any technique, had its drawbacks. In flight at low temperatures, the lubricant often froze. The gas cylinder required cleaning after every 600 shots, otherwise the piston would jam. There was still the danger of overheating the barrel when firing in long bursts, but in the course of air battles, shooters often forgot about this, which led to weapon failures.
The Royal Naval Air Service used a slightly different version of the Lewis machine gun than the RFC. In many divisions, radiators were removed from machine guns, and a steel casing was installed to protect the gas cylinder. Machine guns modified in this way were successfully operated.
In 1917, RFC specialists concluded that the naval version of the machine gun was much lighter and had less air resistance than the Lewis Mk.II. Improvements of naval specialists, as well as a number of others, which made it possible to reduce the mass of weapons and increase the rate of fire, decided to introduce a new modification of the Lewis Mk III machine gun. This option has become widespread in the air forces of various countries over the next 20 years. The Lewis machine guns used by the Russian Empire and the United States used the 7.62 mm cartridge, while France, Italy and Japan used the standard British 0.303 (7.7 mm) cartridge.
Due to the rate of fire increased to 750-850 rounds per minute, the new modification had more frequent failures and accelerated wear of the mechanisms. And the increased flight altitudes exacerbated the problem with freezing grease. As a result, by the beginning of the thirties of the XX century, "Lewis" was already considered obsolete and not sufficiently reliable weapon.
In 1936, it was replaced by the more advanced and reliable Vickers in the British Royal Air Force. But even during the Second World War, Lewis machine guns on anti-aircraft turrets were still often used in British air defense.
The Lewis turret machine guns were usually equipped with conventional ring sights, which were later replaced by ring sights with a vane movable front sight designed by Lieutenant Norman. The vane sight took into account the aircraft's own speed, which made it possible to aim more accurately.
Modification: Lewis Mk.I(II) / Lewis Mk.III
Length, mm: 1280 / 1080
Barrel length, mm: 670 / 610
Caliber, mm: 7.7 or 7.62 / 7.7 or 7.62
Rate of fire, rds / min: 550 / 550-850
Weight, kg: 11.5 / 7.7
Infantry variant of the Lewis machine gun.
A variant of the Lewis machine gun for installation on aircraft is the Lewis 1915.
Aviation machine gun "Lewis" with a magazine for 97 rounds.
Machine gun "Lewis" on the upper wing of the Nieuport N.11 fighter.
The Lewis machine gun mounted on the Morane-Saulnier L.
One of the options for installing Lewis machine guns on the Farman F.40 aircraft.
Machine guns "Lewis" on the plane of the Russian air fleet Caudron G.IV.
Voisin LA reconnaissance aircraft of the Russian air fleet with a Lewis machine gun.
The pilot reloads the Lewis machine gun.
Machine gun "Lewis" on the gun carriage Foster.
One of the most recognizable examples of weapons from the 20th century is the Lewis machine gun, the photo of which clearly demonstrates its differences from other types. Such fame is due to the fact that it is often shown in films dedicated to both world wars. However, it was indeed used for quite a long time, since its combat characteristics were high. So - a machine gun of the Lewis system.
The history of the appearance of a machine gun and a little bit from the life of its designer
The creator of this weapon is considered the colonel of the American army Isaac Lewis. He was a talented and educated officer. He studied at the West Point Academy, and after that, in 1911, he became the head of the artillery school located in Fort Monroe. He remained in this post almost until the end of his service and his retirement. At this time, Colonel Lewis's activities included scientific work and the development of weapons, he also became famous as a first-class electrical engineer and mechanic. Before retiring, Lewis chose a calling for himself - he got a job as a consultant at the Automatic Arms Company. While working there, he became interested in one of the prototypes of an infantry machine gun, the designer of which was a certain Samuel McLean. Lewis then used many of the decisions and design features of these weapons when developing his own weapons.
Lewis filed many applications for his inventions, but never received a response to them. Since the command of the US Army was not then interested in the developments of the designers of their country, he went a slightly different way. In 1912, a friend of Lewis, an officer at that time in such a young branch of the air force, Captain Chandler, agreed to test a prototype machine gun on a Wright biplane. One of the pilots, Lieutenant Milling, was also involved in this.
Despite the fact that the machine gun proved to be quite good, the army command still did not pay due attention to it. Yes, official tests were carried out, but preference was given to a foreign-made machine gun - Bene-Merci. This French weapon was in many ways inferior to the Lewis machine gun. In addition, he had a specific supply of special hard tapes, which made it difficult to work with him. This position of the government forced Lewis to move to Europe, resigning from the US Army.
New features and growing popularity of the machine gun
There, the Belgians became interested in promising weapons. The designer conducted a series of tests and demonstrations, after which a contract was signed with the Belgian army and the Armes Automatic Lewis company was created, which was supposed to produce a machine gun. But some problems forced Lewis to close the company and give the right to manufacture the machine gun to the British company BSA. She also tested it on model airplanes, where quite good results were achieved. In 1913, a Lewis machine gun hit a target from the air at a distance of 120 meters. At the same time, most of the cartridges from the disk got into it.
These impressive results led to the fact that in the same year the company received a batch of trial orders from Russia, England and Belgium. Despite the problem of barrel overheating, most experts gave the machine gun high marks. The Belgian Army adopted it. Russia also received a small shipment. The British Air Force, on the other hand, were cautious and decided to watch from the sidelines.
Application in World War I
Since the mood in Europe suggested armed conflict, BSA decided to increase production capacity by ordering a batch of machine tools from the USA. With the outbreak of the First World War, the British army ordered first 10, a little later - 50, and after testing on the battlefield - a full batch of 200 machine guns.
Demand for the Lewis light machine gun increased exponentially after the Belgian forces successfully repelled several massive attacks by German forces. The Belgians were armed with the Lewis. But since the BSA could not cope with such an influx of orders, they ordered a batch of 12,000 machine guns from the American firm Savage Arms Company. By 1915, a new factory was opened in Birmingham, which produced about 300 machine guns a week.
It is curious that the German army called the machine gun "rattlesnake" because of the characteristic sound of the burst. Those machine guns that were captured as trophies were converted to the 7.92 mm Mauser cartridge. They were mainly used by assault squads.
Features and design of weapons
According to his idea, it was a machine gun with a disc magazine and air-cooled barrel. Its automation functioned as intended, thanks to the removal of powder gases from the bore. At the time of the shot, the gases acted on the piston, which, under their pressure, cocked the mainspring. At the same time, with the help of a rod rack, the lugs were removed and the bolt began to move. A spent cartridge case was ejected through the extraction window using a reflector. Then the bolt protrusion acted on the feeder - and he fed a new cartridge to the receiving window.
After all the parts were in position, the mainspring pushed the bolt and stem forward. The shutter at the same time picked up the cartridge and sent it into the chamber. The feeder shifted to the right and was held by a latch. Then the shutter turned, the lugs entered into special grooves, the drummer hit the cartridge primer and a shot was fired.
Like most automatic weapons of the time, the drawing of the Lewis machine gun showed some characteristic flaws. So, due to prolonged firing, the barrel very often overheated, which led to delays. But the designer took care of that. He came up with a special radiator, which was designed to cool the barrel, and enclosed it in a special aluminum casing. This was a kind of prototype of the modern barrel cooling system using an ejection pump. But even these measures did not help eliminate all the problems, and when firing bursts of more than 25 shots, the machine gun still overheated, which made it necessary to stop firing for a while.
Weapon nutrition
One of the characteristic external features of the Lewis machine gun is a disk magazine. Then such a power supply scheme for weapons seemed the most satisfactory. In total, the store held 46 rounds, which could be fired in just 6 seconds. The diameter and thickness of the disk machine gun "Lewis" could vary depending on the type of cartridge used.
Used ammunition
Since the Lewis machine gun was used by many countries, it was remade for the required type of cartridge. In the US and Russia it was the 7.62mm cartridge, while countries such as Japan, France and Italy used the "0.383" cartridge in 7.7mm.
The further life of the machine gun, its modifications and options
The first alteration was made on an aircraft machine gun. The main changes affected the butt, which was replaced with a trigger, similar to the analogue of the Maxim machine gun. The bulky casing was removed, since at a height the barrel was very well blown by the wind and there was no need for its cooling. They also added special devices, similar to bags, that caught spent cartridges, since during extraction they could damage the skin of the aircraft. It is noteworthy that in 1915 the Lewis machine gun became the standard for installation in military aircraft.
For more effective fire, the magazine capacity was increased to 97 rounds, in addition, it became larger in size. Also, for ease of replacement, it was equipped with a handle, which allowed all the necessary operations to be performed with one hand.
Russian modifications
In 1916, a new Lewis machine gun was released, the device of which was finalized and a number of design changes were made. It was named the Lewis Mk. II. In the same year, they created a more advanced turret for installation in an aircraft. It was a kind of arc-shaped rail, which allowed the machine gun to be moved back and forth. A similar design was soon developed in Tsarist Russia.
Russia itself also actively used Lewis machine guns. There they were remade under the most common cartridge - 7.62x54 mm. They were used during the Civil War (and not only by the Red Army, but also by the troops of the Whites, the anarchists of Makhno, the Basmachi), as well as at the initial stage of the Great Patriotic War. After it, there is no information about the further use of the machine gun.
A new version was also presented in 1917, when a naval variation of the machine gun was made. The weight was significantly reduced and the rate of fire of the weapon was increased. This modification was named Lewis Mk. III. It quickly gained popularity not only in the navy, but also in the ground forces and aviation, and remained the main one until the start of World War II.
The decline of the popularity of "Lewis"
By the 30s of the twentieth century, the machine gun had lost its former popularity. Some flaws were not completely eliminated, some appeared during further operation. For example, when the aircraft climbed to high altitude, the lubricant froze, the weapon needed regular cleaning and maintenance, which was not always possible in a fast and maneuverable war. The rate of fire, which was increased to 850 rounds per minute, overheated the barrel even faster, which was often overlooked in combat. Then the weapon simply failed.
Yes, and technical progress did not stand still, more and more advanced technologies appeared, new ideas were proposed, and they forgot about the outdated machine gun. The last time the British used it was during the evacuation from Dunkirk at the start of World War II. Then the "Lewis" armed the troops of the second echelon. In particular, not only infantry, but even aviation variants were used, which were reworked. After the war, all the remaining machine guns were most likely sent for recycling or handed over to museums.
But in the German troops it was also used during the Second World War, despite the fact that then there were already more advanced models. It was a Dutch batch of machine guns called M20, which the Germans, always striving to use as many trophies as possible in action, converted and adopted the Wehrmacht under the name MG100.
Lewis machine gun: characteristic
Caliber - 7.7 as well as 7.62 and others.
- Cartridge type - 7.7x57 R, 7.62x63 and others.
- Weight - 11.8 kg.
- Total length - 1283 mm.
- Barrel length - 666 mm.
- Disc capacity - 47 or 97 rounds.
- Rate of fire - 550 rds / min.
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