Could this gun be used from a bicycle? The Twin Villar Perosa with firearm expert Jonathan Ferguson
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ต.ค. 2024
- This week Jonathan looks at an experimental weapon, that gives us a closer look an unusual military innovation, bicycle mounted infantry.
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well this would make tour de france much more interesting
Given how much they cheat it would only be a matter of time before it escalated to the Davey Crockett nuke launcher.
All things considered, an M203 and a few flare rounds would produce similar results.
Tour de heavy metal
Well this might be the answer to stupid people like that woman who caused a bloody crash. Although I do not think the Tour de France organization will introduce SMGs on bicycles to wipe out idiots standing on the road.
Underrated comment
Cycling tours would be WAY more exciting if they use this type of equipment
I am just saying that if we combined BMX events with Paintball i would suddenly become very interested in the sport.
@@deathdude42 haha brilliant
@@deathdude42 Well if you chicken out paintball can be an alternative
WELCOME TO THE TWISTED METAL TOUR DE FRANCE.
@@FlauntyToaster THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT
This was cool, I never heard of any attempt by Revelli (which, incidentally, you pronounced right) to sell the Villar Perosa abroad.
Hurray! Thanks Agostino. I can't speak Italian, but I did pick up a little of your driving habits last I was there...
InRangeTV, Forgotten Weapons, C&Rsenal and Royal Armouries. All this with a nice beverage and pistachios. The bike is definitely more stable than the horrid bipod. Bicycles were also used in WWII. The commandos took a bridge riding over it on their folding bikes under heavy fire.
I would like to see the recoiless rifle vespa from the french paratroop regiment
I was unaware of a British 455 Wembley chambering of the Villar Perosa. Every day's a school day! I finally received the signed copy of the bullpup book. Magnificent work! Stunning!
Huzzah! Thank you very much :)
I came here from the videogame guns... but i have to admit, you sparked my interest far beyond pure entertainment.
Glad to hear it! And welcome :)
I DEMAND that you do a crossover with Ian from ForgottenWeapons!!!! That would be a fun conversation to watch!
*the Italian bicycle troops are retreating captain!*
-No sarge, they just fired their villa perosas without holding the brakes.
If this man or Ian taught me in any lessons at school, I’d have been a rocket scientist by now
Hope they collaborate at some point.
@@alexandernaeve1066 I think they did, but on camera with each other?
@@doublel1572 @Alexander Naeve th-cam.com/video/0TMrunbZLJw/w-d-xo.html :)
You probably wouldn't be a very good rocket scientist, they're more about the gun design. Get Scott Manley to teach you rocket science.
@@johnladuke6475 😆 I know, even if he didn’t know anything about science… I’d listen😆
Wow, I had no idea the British experimented with some of these. Pretty cool!
So glad to see my homie Jonathan this morning
Thanks for watching :)
@@jonathanferguson1211 I'll watch anything that you put out there, man. I learn all kinds of interesting things and you're a very cool dude. My friends are fans now, as well. Please keep up the good work :)
Easily one of my favourite experts to watch. I must admit I started with the Gamespot videos but I soon subscribed here too, perfect blend of personality and knowledge that makes learning enjoyable 👌
Wow! I had known for years of the Villar Perosa's copy made in 9 Steyr, with straight magazines, never imagined of a .455 version.
It's interesting that bicycles have been used in some very interesting places: a lot of maneuver forces in both world wars used them, as well as the IRA in the Irish War of Independence!
Next tour the france should have villar perosa category
Cool.
On topic of bicycles I recall french produced tandem ones for their MG teams that allowed them to easily move equipment.
It would've been better if it had two additional stabilizing wheels at the front, lower seat and slightly wider MG handles, so you could use them as a steering wheel and go on WWI drive bys.
Blaring the latest gansta ragtime songs and yelling vintage insults, getting a selfie with a box camera.
Dudes got a full stereo in a trailer playing vinyl
@@hermatred572 And a DJ in the trailer because the gramophone is hand-cranked.
Ah. Just in time for the lifting of lockdown and the soon-to-return hellish bike commute through city streets!
Finally, those motorists will rue the day!!!
That lifted ford raptor will rue the day it went into the bike lane.
Love your channel and love Royal Armouries! Bring from Leeds myself and loving history and firearms I envy your position to teach about these things very highly! I'll have to pop back in soon
Italians: Does it count a a new gun if we just bolt two guns together? Yes? Early Lunch!
can't wait to see jonathan shooting a lmg on bicycle
I always thought Villar Perosa sounded like an Italian race car .
( In a race announcers voice , slight Scots accent .)
“ And here we have Antonio Peretti in the Villar Perosa number ten , rounding the last turn in this grueling race .
He’s really given us a show today , considering the difficulties he experienced at the beginning of the race ....
Right , John ?”
Tour De France 1915 must have been wild
The Germans weren't invited but turned up anyway.
I'm so mad that I didn't know that Johnathan Ferguson of the Royal Armories had a channel this whole time.
Haha, well to be fair it's not my channel - I'm just hijacking it during lockdown :) But I'm not going anywhere either.
British Villar Perosa? What unicorn magic is this?
Ian and Othias both need to look at the examples you have there at the Royal Armouries Mr. Ferguson.
Pretty sure all these guns come from a room with a sign in Jonathan's handwiting that says something like *KEEP OUT NO HISTORICAL GUNS IN HERE AT ALL* and he always tells them it's a janitor closet.
I guessed it on Twitter 😂 Only the Italians would have maurding bands of SMG bicycles!
The Japanese had bicycle infantry as well during WW2, they just didn't strap the SMG to the handlebars
@@uptorest during the Russian revolution, there was a "bicycle death squad" fighting against the revolutionaries.
I think I just figured out the next thing I need for a Time Trial/TT bike. You've got the TT bars so you can have hands on the handlebars and get to the spade grips/triggers at the same time. Or add some Di2 remote shifters for fire control... The disc brakes can handle the recoil. Add either modern or period musette bags for the ammo, and I think we're in business.
I like it! Nice to see a cyclist in the comments. I have a 105 gravel bike myself.
Interesting side point you bring up: what kind of museum would you classify the Royal Armouries as if not a "military" museum? I assume that has some specific connotation vis-à-vis vehicles?
We are a museum of arms and armour :) Obviously the militaries of the world have the lion's share of both arms and armour, but we have two whole galleries devoted to non-military stuff.
There was a lot of "crossover" between the world of cycling/motorcycling in the past, in that a lot of companies specialised in both (also sewing machines), as they were all just machines with similar production methods. BSA, FN, Husqvana, Iver Johnson, Benelli, Royal Enfield, CZ and Simson are a few that spring to mind.
Great video, cool to know that there was a british version as well. Im firstly a warplane enthusiast, and thats where I learned about the Villar P. first. I actually thought that it was designed as a defence weapon for planes, that was quickly obsolecent when planes became powerfull enough to carry machine guns, and it was then turned into an infantry weapon (and later into the first sub machinegun, after beeing split up).
Before they invented the bicycle bell.
*BRRRAAAP* On your left!
*Ratatatatatata* "pistaaaaa!"
I can remember seeing a bicycle mount used from anti aircraft mount somewhere. There where 2 long legs mounted on pivots at the front wheel pivot that sat on clips along the top type of the bike with a swivel mount for the LMG on the top front of the headpiece. To use the bike was tilted back on its rear wheel which had a flat spade plate where the bottom of the rear mudguard you go and the 2 long legs unclipped and pivoted out to make a tripod mount, a toggle but was loosened on the handle bars and the wheel swung down to sit horizontal then the LMG was fixed to the flexible mount post on the handlebar headpiece.
I can't remember which country and if it was just an experimental idea. Was seen in a museum, somewhere between 1969-2000 and could've been in any of the following countries (I can't even remember which gun was supposed to be mounted on it.) UK, France, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia.
Wow world bicycle day sounds awesome I have only ever met a town bicycle
Holly fk didn't know that there was 455 Webley varient in that weapon a brute force option thanks for sharing this with us
Jonathan, if I remember correctly I had a device that was ordered from the back of a comic book back in the 60's that consisted of a hand cranked machine pistol/gun which fired BB's and came with an attachment for the handlebars of a bicycle. It was powered by a spring which I quickly modified so as to give more velocity and I after some practice could fire it with a modicum of accuracy whilst riding it. Quite irrelevant I know but I thought it might suggest the efficacy of such a device.
Nice to see you are in touch with the common man.Was associated with the Armouries in its conception in Leeds in the nineties and felt the fuddy daddies were a law unto themselves .As an amateur small arms historian,feel neglected by the way I was treated..
As a Dutch person this video is of high interest
"Bikes are just for losers with DWIs!"
*loads bike-mounted, dual-barreled machine gun with malice
There are guns designed for cyclists to protect them from aggressive dogs
@@mauricewalshe8234 where?
@@thegregitto Velo Dog revolvers were marketed to bicyclists
@@nebraska7598 okaaaay
@@thegregitto They were sold in France in about 1900, you could have your gun loaded with actual bullets and wax, wood, dust, or pepper loadings.
Addendum: I believe the concept of the Villar Perosa was to be worked with a two-man team; the gunner fired one barrel at a time while the loader replaced the magazine on the other after it had been emptied, thus by firing alternate barrels a continuous rate of fire could be kept up.
Two-men crews were common but the official doctrine, from what I have read, is that it was to be fielded by a four-man crew - one gunner, three ammunition carriers.
Great channel!
Birmingham Small Arms, Fabrique National and the French National armouries made bicycles. BSA made some quite good motorcycles too…
I never knew it was chambered in anything but 9mm Glisenti. Does Gun Jesus know of this?
Pretty sure this channel is mainly drawn from the wing of the building that Jonathan tells Ian doesn't have any guns in it, no sir, no historical firearms down that hall, just um... tax records about tea, yeah that sounds boring and British.
He does :)
What I need for my commute to work
Okay, that’s impressive. Probably would be impressively useless in service, but all that .455 going downrange at once is something to contemplate.
there are a few doctrines where the aim is not the hit the enemy but to make there fist shot miss so you and friends can get away from what ever your currently that is not where you want to be.
and for that I can see the bicycle gun working bike along oh X front trying to stop us.
fire a long burst almost before the bike have come to a stop get off get into cover or aim down site and fire a second or third more accurate burst.
I could see this weapon working mounted to a sidecar.
What about some weapons from the medival ages as a simular series? I'd love that..
Out of curiosity, does anyone know if any country/service/organisation/etc ever split/de-couple the Villar Perosa into its individual barrels to be used as single-barrelled firearms? Perhaps with a shoulder stock and a more conventional submachine gun style configuration?
Yes. The Italians did. Put a stock on it and used it as an infantry submachine gun. If I remember correctly they flipped it so the magazine was on the bottom. But I've been known to be mistaken on occasion.
Forgotten Weapons has a video examining both this model and the single-barrel SMG configuration, with more detail about the various mountings for the double version.
@@johnladuke6475 Nice! Thanks for letting me know. I'll check it out.
@@gungho1345 Not quite - they did that in concept, but not in practice. They had to design a new weapon (OVP 1918) based on the VP and using its mag plus some other bits. See Ian's video :)
That thing reminds me of a Dutch military band unit that performs while riding bicycles. (Especially impressivd for the tuba player.) Could they be a candidare for it?
Hi absolutely love your book
Is this the same firearm used in the gunner position of the biplane scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? Or just similar?
The gun in the movie is meant to look like the Villar Perosa Mod 15, but the prop used was actually built by mating two upside-down Beretta Model 38/42 submachine guns.
The Villa Perrosia was used as an aircraft gun until rifle caliber machine guns became available in Italy…(about 1916).
I transcribed the diary of a SWW officer who landed at Normandy a week or so after D-Day. He mentioned the platoon having a bicycle issued to them, but the bicycles went missing somehow..
So glad you said out right it's NOT a submachine gun which is what so many people do not do when talking about the monstrosity you have in your hands and on the desk. I mean thats clearly not an SMG but so many writers or documentaries flasely and intentionally give that impression to gullible viewers
I think it's down to people thinking in strictly technical firearms terms. It's man-portable and pistol calibre, so it's an SMG. I try to consider usage and doctrine however, and in my work with Armament Research Services we agreed that a true SMG needed a butt-stock.
@@jonathanferguson1211 yeah needs a butt-stock... and in its earliest configuration that double-barreled monstrosity it's not really man portable i mean an M2 is technically man portable too but not for long. I guess we need to know that exact day the italians first used the OVP-18 configuration to know who was first but I always go with the mp-18 as first because well it was built from day one to be what it is. and I just realized I keep getting unsubbed from this channel.
In the picture at 5:25 you can see two levers under the handlebars. One in the right looks like it has a cable attached to it, that goes somewhere in the rear of the bike, but the left lever has not. However it looks a bit like it's attached to the firing mechanism, doesn't it??
thats the breaks.
Huzzah! Now we can see the presented weapon.
So, you're saying that UK could have been producing domestic versions of Beretta M1918(just split it in two separate guns with proper stocks as italians did) for 20 years before they woke up?
This weapon tenderizes your thumbs to perfection.
"A SENTRY KIT HAS BEEN LOCATED NEAR YOUR LOCATION."
Get a bit more space on the road when the tin box pilots spot this pair.
I believe you missed the true "Bicycle Day" a month and change Mr. Ferguson.
nationaltoday.com/world-bicycle-day/
Who wants to help crowdfund a modern variant in 22lr to help destress the morning commute?
Being a bike messenger and finding out that texting while riding is pretty freaking difficult, I'm glad they figured out that using a gun on a bicycle is somewhat loony
And then we have OVP. A Villar Perosa split in two guns with a buttstock. Technically the first sub-machine gun.
It's actually a different design using some of the same parts. Ian's video covers it well. As to first SMG... the ghost of Hugo Schmeisser would disagree ;)
I've never played any of the Battlefield games, but I've watched a couple of Gamespot videos depicting a gun an awful lot like this one in the latest Battlefield game (Battlefield 1?). I find it funny that they treated this gun more like a hand-held assault rifle and nothing like the mount-required/stationary sub-machine gun it actually was/is.
unfortunately I cannot find an online link, but I saw an exhibition which showed Belgian "special forces" (as the term wasn't really in use in WW1) using bicycle infantry to strike. IM saw the exhibit at autoworld in Brussels.
We did bicycle marches when I served in the Finnish army in the '80s. Being half-Dutch and exceedingly tall by Finnish standards, I found the regular bicycle frames too small, so they found me a WW1-era German bicycle. I had no complaints. It was just like veldrijden.
I need this to keep traffic away from me. Pedestrians and bikes have right away.
Still waiting for the C&Rsenal Villar Perosa special, but I suppose this’ll carry me over.
You could also tell us how it operates, that would also make the video more interesting. But nevertheless it's a good video. I am waiting eagerly for the next one. Cheers from Indonesia!!
There are videos on that already. C&Rsenal even fired it. This bit of history is new to almost everyone I think, except for bicyclegun phd students
@@thijsvandervoort8261 Yes, we're trying not to tread on the toes of Othais and Ian - these are meant to be five minutes but I never manage to keep to that :D
Damn, I always just assumed curved magazines were an aesthetic design choice. I had no idea it was determined by the shape of the cartridge. I guess it stems from living in the UK and never actually ever seeing a gun or a bullet.
During the Warsaw uprising of 1944 there was a guy who used a Sten on a bicycle in the attack on Goosefarm concentration camp.
Any idea why the Italians didn't make non-linked Villar-Perosas? For the cost on one V-P and a bit of wood they could've had 2 V-Ps.
It would deter car drivers from swinging their murderbox across bike lanes. Or at least prevent repeat occurrence.
Had this been WWII era I'm sure it would of made an appearance in Dads Army loved that show
This gun was used in BF1 as a heavy gun.
Maybe they did it for the meme?
I can ride my bike with no handle bars, no handle bars..
hicock45 doesn't need any mounts when firing his uzi from his bike
Now i mad at DICE for not putting the Villar Perosa mounted on a Bicycle in Battlefield 1
imagine, today everyone cycling around with these mounted, firing blanks instead of using the bell xD
This bike would make the tour de France a bit more interesting next year...
That's nothing. The French had mounted on a moped an antitank recoilless rifle.
Look up "vespa 150 tap"
while being on a moped was very useful in vietnam, iirc it was fixed which would affect its usefulness somewhat
The Danes mounted an anti-tank rifle on a sidecar. There are scenes with it in the Danish film April 9th. Interestingly, the main characters are bicycle soldiers.
I like April 19th's Bicycle Day much better
.
.
.
.
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But I like guns so I'll allow this.
Well, I suspect that the one in the photo was meant to be fired from the bicycle as either an extremely light ambush vehicle with good mobility on narrow streets, or as a pursuit weapon to chase after a specific target (on foot, on bicycle, horseback, or unarmored vehicle). My reasoning for the second possibility is that a bicycle was much easier to start and get you over short distances than most cars at the time, but also that there could be high value targets carrying items or information of interest that one could approach and take down easier (quieter, faster, on narrower streets) on a bike. In the context of no submachine guns, no assault rifles, only two machine pistols (Repetierpistole M1912/P16 and Borchardt C-93), coupled with crank-started and unreliable cars at the time, this seems to make a bit of sense.
Of course, I am only speculating and do not claim to have any knowledge about the subject, but this is the internet, so please don't judge me; or do, if you really want to.
Putting this on a bicycle seems to make more sense that to put it on a vehicle which could support a much heavier gun. Also from the photo's I've seen bicycle troops would carry their folded bikes on their backs to carry them through rough terrain.
It could have just been a joke which somebody took a photograph of lol.
Oh my.
I do think Leeds Royal Armouries is somewhat lacking in the modern displays of firearms. When I visited last, the limited WW2 area and even more limited post war displays feel poor.
Has he ever done a collaboration with Forgotten Weapons? Would love to see him and Ian shoot the shit (pun intended)
That 9mm double-barrelled automatic weapon, at 1200 rounds a minute, would quickly hammer the headstock bearing to scrap. Heaven knows what a .455 would have done!
obligatory mention of the bicycle gun from the metro games
Ackchyually, the Villar Perosa was originally, specifically designed as an aircraft gun, and was repurposed as a ground gun only later, when rifle-caliber LMGs were in short supply.
Not true. When the gun was first delivered to the Italian Army in 1916 it was issued to both airmen and infantry, with substantially more weapons going to the infantry than to the air force. Officine di Villar Perosa (OVP) produced VPs for the air force while Mecchanica Bresciana Tempini (MBT) produced VPs for the army.
I don't care if they attach this- the cyclist still has to wait for a red light like everyone else on the road!!
1200 rounds per minute makes that red light change real fast.
You haven't seen them in London. Red lights are as nothing to them, even without a machine gun on the handle bars.
@Something Mildly Homophobic My "So funny"? What's a "So Funny"? Ohhhhhh, you don't know how an apostrophe works.
It's alright, you'll get to big boy school soon!
(I've never seen such a mild, nothing comment get attacked like this- and you're [see how that works?] talking about parents being proud?! Perspective, man! Get some!)
@@gonufc
*weeping in proper contractions and nested parentheses*
You guys are both sycophants
nice akumu ink shirt
The smart way to do that would probaby to fix a swivel mount on the side of the biycle above the rear wheel and throw down the bicycle on the ground and use it as an slightly akward tripod.
If you could get the recoil to power the pedals ...................
Wow I want one for my bike please
This is one of the craziest weapons I've ever seen; riding the heavy bikes of that era and firing a heavy gun with a puny muzzle velocity ? - more dangerous for the rider than the intended target!
At 2400 rounds a minute it's practically a shotgun
When I was a kid in '80s we used to ride our BMXs while shooting each other with BB guns. It was so much fun!
🤣. We just roamed the local woods and shot each other with bb guns. Many years before airsoft and paintball. I remember two guys holding another down while I dug a bb out of his forehead with my pocket knife. Good times before all the pussies took over.
@@gungho1345 still have a 4.5mm air pellet in my eye socket.
I have a scar above my right eye where a BB embedded itself after glancing off my shades. I thought the blood and stainless steel made me look like the Terminator.
Do you guys have any clue how stupid you sound? Three separate stories reminiscing about how great it was that time that a kid almost got blinded. For any kids reading this and forming an opinion of your elders, let me be clear that I remember those days too, and there were *a whole lot* of other kids who refused to play with these guys. Why? Because when they came around someone was always getting severely hurt in a very predictable way by a stupid brat who didn't think about the consequences of actions.
@@johnladuke6475 Also have stories about kids dying if you prefer those.
This gun would become beretta model of 1918
Thanks Jonathan and team, that was really interesting to see.
I trust you have some velo-dog revolvers in your collection, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velo-dog
Just a few ;) collections.royalarmouries.org/#/objects?search=velo+dog&sort=relevance