Sorry, internal process switch has completely ruined workflow in the short term as we resettle, but may save me 20 hours a week or more in the long run. First year fans are likely already familiar with re-uploads. If there is some minor spelling or visual error it's not worth the confusion but any data issues get fixed and the show goes back up.
No problem there. I saw the mistake in the old video and I wanted to point it out. But you and others were faster. And as always good job for the episode, love the show and keep up the good work.
Othais and Mae. I GREATLY APPRECIATE AND ENJOY every single one of your videos. Every time a new video is released and its longer then 45 mins I get excited. I am truly (as you said at the end of the episode) here to educate myself. Good God how I wish (and cant wait for you to do WW2. ****There is also a big part of me that would like to see guns of the civil war. When I say this, I don't mean the basic musket. I mean the top 5 or so advanced firearms. I think this is brought on by my last weekend watching God and generals and Gettysburg back to back... God bless you both -Stephen
An Imperial ton is 2,240 lbs, a Short ton is 2,000 lbs. 1000kg is 2204, and a bit lbs. So at 28lbs weight , you get about 80 Vickers to the Imperial Ton
@@dakkahead517 What with that Dammed American Maxim, using his new fangled gun to cut down shrubs at Eltham Palace, and the Woolwich Arsenal lossing of fthe odd acidental ordnace, then Vickers playing with guns and aircrft around Erith Crayford and Dartford, living in South East London out to Dartfore around that time must have been bloody exciting! Thats without the Plauge hospital , stuck up against the Vickers proving ground.
WHAT!!!!! You mean SNOOPY didn't shoot down the Red Baron??? You have just killed my childhood belief of over 50 years...OH THE HUMANITY...LOL AND I loved the "star" of the show at the end...
I thought it was generally Snoopy that was shot down _by_ the Red baron. At which point he'd scurry across France and back to blighty for a root bear. :-P
Yes! Been waiting for you guys' episode on the Vickers! Excellent work. Funny you should mention the Vickers with a stock! After the war Tokarev in Russia made it happen: th-cam.com/video/oYc3ifA9Xt0/w-d-xo.html
@@b1laxson The real machine genius is the evil person that thought of putting an electric motor on a Gattling gun. Going through 2000 rounds of.762 x 51 or 25 MM in seconds ought to have may grinning with that much destructive power for decades.
A really fascinating look at a famous firearm. Obviously the Vickers works quite well with blanks, so American kids of my age became familiar with the Vickers by seeing Humphrey Bogart shoot down a Japanese torpedo plane in "Across The Pacific", then kill Germans with one in "Sahara". Robert Taylor defended Bataan with a pair of them, etc, etc. They were used as "German" guns in war movies into the TV era ("Combat"). You did a nice job of presenting the gun and its history. As time goes on it would be interesting to have a video on WW1 machinegun tactics and employment. It wasn't always used as a bullet hose over open sights. Ian Hogg mentioned the use of Vickers and other machineguns in some of his books and they have quite a story. The use of the emplaced MG as light artillery or battlefield area denial would lend itself to a graphic presentation. Anyway, thanks for the great video. I'm looking forward to seeing any follow ups on the aircraft Vickers and the US M1915 (hopefully you can borrow one)
The Vickers does work OK with full powered blanks, except, on one embarrasing occasion when the recoil booster flew off. Not me that had checked the gun! On the face saving side, it is a Cause of Stoppage in the manual. There are battlefeild reports of two or thre guns being used to lay down, Barrages on a fixed point of three thousand or more rounds for short periods.
I appreciate this channel and the shows. While running some of the coolest firearms in history is a very entertaining aspect, what I like the most is that y'all are doing y'all's damnest to be as correct as possible. Thank you all, cast, crew, lenders, associates, and whistle tater, for this.
One of the reason the Vickers may have have been retained in British use as late 1968 was it was a vehicle mounted gun on the armoured version of FV1801A Austin Champ a 1/4 ton jeep style truck which was used by British units including the SAS and was retired in the same year.
You guys really know how to get my continued attention. Came home dirty and hungry from an exhausting work day just wanting to eat dinner and have a nice shower and now, one hour later i'm still dirty and hungry but well informed about an old engineering marvel :) cheers
To be totally honest, it's perfectly fine when you don't have the gun on the table, what I come to your show for is the history lesson, and damn are you a good history teacher.
As a German, I'm very hot on that TOTALLY NOT A SECRET PROJECT. The 08/15 was so numerous, it actually turned into a proverb that survived into the 1990s before falling out of use. Kinda like Velcro. Having said that, unfortunately, they couldn't tell my favourite Vickers story, since it didn't happen until they retired the old girl...
Snipers and aerial machineguns should be their own series not just episodes. You could add personalities that used different scoped weapons at their best. And what ace used to get their score (tank ace, fighter ace, you name it). You have a channel that could last years.
On 23 rd August 1914 at Nimy Bridge near Mons. Two Victoria Crosses were won, by Lt Maurice Dease and Prvt. Sidney Godley, using a Vickers gun to defend the bridge. After running out of ammunition and about to be over run Godley dumped the gun in the canal to prevent its capture. '
@@douglasclark9550 As most of the detail of the action seems to be from the German accounts, that could explain the description of Maxim. British descriptions , bear in mind the guys had a lot on there mind, just mention the Machine Gun section, two guns.
For a look at Belton Park, the RMGC training camp, see:- th-cam.com/video/2iKufS4UfNg/w-d-xo.html Time Team shows the scale of the effort quite well...
is anyone else imagining a C&Rsenal/the vintage aviator/peter jackson/NZ air force (gunnery range) collaboration, with Mae live firing at large scale rc models from the front of a FE2 and BE2/ back of a RE8 and F2B.
The raw numbers of MGs per nation are misleading. At the outbreak of war, the British deployed 2 MGs per infantry battalion or cavalry regiment. The Germans 6 per infantry regiment (of 3 battalions) or Jaeger battalion (44 such battalions on mobilisation) with none attached to cavalry, established by the army law of 1912. Also the British army consisted of 250,000 regulars and 250,000 territorials (the roughly 200,000 reservists were fed into the regular units to make up the casualties of 1914-15, so can be ignored). So that gives one MG per 500 men. On mobilisation of their active army, reserves and landwher in August 1914, the Germans fielded and army of around 3,800,000 men. Giving one MG per 760 men. Yes the Germans did pay more attention to training MG crews pre war, but the raw numbers are mislead. Russian at full mobilisation had about 4,400,000 men btw, giving one MG per 550 men.
Mae is having WAY to much fun shooting that machine gun. Look at that grin, haha. That much fun has to be illegal. I have been meaning to ask Suzie, is Othais Wrangler a good job? Should I take a collage course on Othais Wrangling?
There is a story I hear (possibly apocryphal) that as the Vickers was being removed from British service one officer decided to see how long it could be fired continuously before it broke down. Apparently they stopped after firing 5 million rounds over a week, and after they had finished the gun was still within spec.
Having pets check out the guns... Now that's MrGunsngear's thing 😀. Great presentation as always guys! Suggestion... If you are looking for a short to put up, I would clip the story of the American machine gunner and put that up by itself.
G'day, Oh, I say... Biggles(worth) had a pair o' Vickers Machiney-gun-gun-gunniez, Upon his Sopwith (F-1) Camel {Scout} [also known as an Archetypical "Fighter"] Such is Life... Have a good one, ;-p Ciao !
I did some digging through periodicals about the said song and I think I found the song you are looking for. According to A Yankee in the Trenches by R. Derby Holmes there was a very similar song floating about contemporaneously (and I suspect to the same tune): www.fulltextarchive.com/page/A-Yankee-in-the-Trenches1/ … "This time he thumped out the old one--"All policemen have big feet." Rat-a-tat-tat--tat, tat." Furthermore, Kokomo Tribune in 1931 mentions the same song was was so similar to another contemporary song all conductors have big feet that it can be confused for the other: www.newspapers.com/newspage/41685245/ "In such a volume Uncle Dan could set forth-his-own views on the popular-song fable that all policemen have big 'feet. Or Is It conductors?". Finally, I was able to find a modern version of the song from 2009 in a blog post.Its not much but you could see where the mg sounds would go. This one is of the policeman variety joyofconvention.blogspot.com/2009/07/all-policemen-have-big-feet.html
The English super begrudgingly adopted machineguns, as they thought they were cheap and gimmicky weapons. The Germans super begrudgingly adopted tanks, as they thought they were cheap and gimmicky weapons.
Not really. The numbers of guns in the British Army pre war is misleading for one very important reason. The British Army was a small volunteer force compared to the huge conscript armies of the Continental Powers. The British Army had less machineguns not because they thought they were useless but because the British Army was a tenth the damned size of the French Army, let alone the German or Russian. The BEF that fought in 1914 numbered 250,000 men, 180,000 of those being infantry. Compare that against the French and German armies. After mobilisation the French Army numbered some 2.8 million men, the German Army began at 700,000 men at peace time strength, rising to 3.8 million men a week after mobilisation. The fact is the French and Germans had more machineguns than the British because they planned from the start to put millions of men into the field. The British planned on small, mobile expeditionary forces made up of professional volunteer troops. As a result the British procured their equipment with that in mind. So given those differences in numbers how can people be surprised at the fact the British Army which was never envisaged to reach those huge sizes had fewer machineguns than the Germans or French? But no, it is always a case of 'oh, the British were stupid and ignored the potential of the machinegun.' Never a case of 'oh the British Army was less than a tenth of the size of the French or German armies when mobilised so did not NEED as many machineguns'.
I like the triple split screen on the firing portion! The gun seems to REALLY bounce around a lot while firing; I assume these would normally be sandbagged in to tighten up the beaten zone? Fine at point blank, but a little wide for several hundred yards downrange
The term 'darling of the great war' just sounds wrong to me. The MVP of biological warfare! The Ultimate Grand Supreme of the Mongolian horde! The bell of the ball torture devices!
"aand, when Properly Used..." (misses sword target) Foreshadowing? Edit: I tend to write comments in a "Stream Of Conscience" manner. When I heard how so many of the early Machine Gunners didn't survive, I thought "Bruce Bairnsfather, the writer/illustrator of Fragments From France was one of the few that did survive" This was followed by a sort of dark-humor war story that wouldn't look too out of place in Fragments From France, and then by the idea of a Vickers Gun on a rifle stock and forward bipod... I think I laughed a bit too much from this episode! :)
The best TH-cam channel bar none! I like Ian's Forgotten Weapons & work at In Range, Nigel's the Great War, plus Cap & Ball....but this channel is beyond excellent, it is phenomenal in my opinion. Thank you so much for all of your hard work and I depth research and talent.
Totally agree, it would have needed teaks, but the madsen had the potential to completely change the outcome of the Great War. Imagine a squad of these bad boys laying down targeted fields of fire from anywhere as groups leap frog forward and I think you’re in MG34 territory....
It should be noted that the British Army kept these in reserve until the 1960s. If the cold war went hot and these got called up, just imagine the incredulity of a Russian soldier seeing a British MG team firing on of these relics at them.....before they sighted in their own SG-43
I remember hearing somewhere that part of the reason the British pilot was credited with killing the Red Baron and not the vickers gunner on the ground was because the gunner was Australian
The pilot (Captain Arthur Roy Brown) was Canadian, so I'm not sure which would be "worse". However, Captain Brown does have the rare distinction of never having lost a pilot in his flight.
@@siestatime4638 The pilot was Canadian but was flying as part of the British army Royal Flying Corps. Australia was the only dominion to have its own separate flying corps at that time.
@@chooseyouhandle Not for the British. Though not so much racism (apart from the numerous Irish Australians) as class distinction (lower class convict stock).
comparison of machine guns numbers at the start of world war 1 seems a tad unfair to the British, their army was much much smaller, number of machine guns per division in the army would be fairer in some ways than just looking at absolute numbers. The British and German both had 24 machine guns in an infantry division. Love you work, great channel, mammoth effort much appreciated.
My wife got to fire an American Vickers in 30.06 one afternoon after a service rifle match. I was preoccupied with shooting a 1919a4, throwing $20's at it like all get out. Between the two of us, $120 later, was the best money spent for enjoyment. You really don't know the feeling of devastation or power granted to you until you get behind one, and respect is given. The MG tripod is a vastly overlooked piece of equipment. After the MG shoot my wife and I attended, I went out and bought a semi 1919a4, sans tripod. Although fun, my 1919a4 was never truly as effective because I devised many ways to bolt the beast down, but the simple adjustments granted by a T&E mechanism just wasn't there. These are necessary for the heavy machine gun to work as intended, and not swinging around willy-nilly (and exceedingly dangerously) throwing .308 (or your equivalent) rounds mindlessly downrange. The stacked triple shot footage of Mae shooting the Vickers is truly top-notch, you guys should pat yourselves on the back for that!
At 25:30 Othias' comment about Lord Kitchner could have just been left off at "not too understanding" . You talk about generals fighting the last war, well Kitchner was fighting the Napoleonic wars all over again. My favorite comment ever about the British in WWI comes from Rowan Atkinson's hilarious series, Blackadder Goes Forth. In one Episode Blackadder comments about yet another British frontal assault by saying His Lordship wishes to move his drinks cabinet 6 inches closer to Berlin.
58:00 I'm rewatching this in 2023 and Ukraine is using the Maxim 1910 against the Russian invaders. I'm sure the gunners would prefer this more "up to date" Vickers.
One of my great grandfathers fought through WWI and from what I can tell was one of the first into the machine gun corps. I've always wondered how many men he mowed down in his time. Regardless it apparently didn't seem to bother him as he came back home from the war and went straight back to work and preaching in the local chapel every Sunday.
Famous ambush in the Irish civil war 1921 at Beal na mBlath when the Fre State Army commander in chief was killed. I always wondered why was the Armoured car ineffective when it was carrying one of these weapons. It seems the second gunner did not show up, so the gunner only had a couple of loaded 250 round belts. He had a captain loading for him, but the book said the belt needed precise loading, so the gun was only used in fits and starts.
Can you post a second video without music? It's annoying and distracts from the narration. Use it to fill silence, but it should not compete with the subject matter. I had to stop about 14 minutes in, and I've been watching since you launched.
Excellent video, thanks. My grandfather (British) volunteered for the machine gun corps because they got more pay, a couple of shillings a week, but during training realised that going to the Western Front was essentially a suicide mission, the life expectancy of a machine gun crew was a few minutes. He managed by devious means to join one of the few groups sent to Mesopotamia (now Iraq ) and so survived the war.
Awesome demonstration of the Vickers, you guys have covered the Maxim, the BAR and a little of the Chauchat. Speaking of french machine guns Othias, have you thought about covering the 1909 Hotchkiss? Was that just as good as the Maxim or the Vickers despite the awkward steel feed strip?
Last used by the Paras in the Radfan in 1968. BTW one of the reasons for the emphasis on rapid fire musketry was in response to the shortage of machine guns. The emphasis on accuracy was the legacy of the South African War. One reason for the formation of the Machine Gun Corps was to have the valuable MMGs under the command and control of officers who knew how to use them and not subordinate to (MMG) untrained infantry officers. It enabled them to be used en masse at the direction of higher command and ensured they received the man power and logistical support to make best use of them. They ate up a lot of carrying power and needed large crews to keep them going 24/7. As ever there was more to it than just the machine itself. Great video. Well done. look forward to the WW1 air weapons one day. Oh, and the Madsen. That requires an animation to show why the round does not need to bend to make it work. Did I mentioned the Comblain rifle at all?
@@mugwump58 See th-cam.com/channels/K-MdBJJw-0glJZgw8dO1Ag.html for 8 videos on the 'mad minute' which was not a military exercise but a demonstration one only. My grandfather went to France with the BEF in 1914 as a regular. Rapid aimed fire reloading every 5 rounds.
Very interesting video, thank you, The musical Vickers may have been a regular feature on the Western Front I found another account by a gunner officer Lt Col Frazer-Tytler who, In his book 'Field guns in France' describes on p 59 on 22-March-1916 '…one M.G. artist to the north of us who regularly plays a few bars of "Policemans Holiday" with his gun.You will realise that it needs a really artistic finger on the trigger to produce a tune!'
Normally we don't see Mae smile until after she shoots the gun, this time it looked like she was laughing out loud as she was shooting. Mae, were you having fun, our am I just imagining it?
A couple of things. The Vickers was also made in Australia at Lithgow. By WW2, the "old" factory buildings were given over almost entirely to Vickers production. An entirely new building had been erected to produce the BREN in the late 1930s. Rifle component production was sent out to "annexes" in new plants built in towns like Orange, Bathurst, Forbes, etc. While looking at all things "Vickers", how about the air-cooled "Vickers K", originally intended as an aircraft weapon, but often "repurposed" by groups like the Long Range Desert Patrol and David Stirling's SAS in North Africa and Europe. See also: The Vickers Berthier as adopted in large numbers by India.
hold on, Othias, is that a madsen behind you, how is it you can keep that machine gun in the office lol, cant wait to hear about that and it's use by the sturmtruppen
I believe when they don't have a MG in the office is because that gun is out of state and transporting those type of guns is significantly more hassle across state lines legally . This is going more into why that is, but the rules of the National Firearms Act of 1934 or Gun Control Act of 1968 (US Federal government) regulate that those guns (or other restricted guns) in this situation by contacting the BATF and saying that you're planning on going across state lines with it and then see if they grant you permission. The process takes if you're lucky like a month or two, but usually like four months minimum to over a year, so that's also why you can see other gun TH-camrs go to different locations to shoot MGs/short barrelled shotguns/short barrelled rifles[and pistols]/etc.
Also we've added an SOT and a gunsmith to our team so we can take in MGs that need repair, like this Madsen. That makes them easy to snag footage of while they are under the hammer.
The Machine gun totals at the outbreak of the war (25.51). At first sight UK looks to be well behind, however thats just looking at the raw numbers. What about proportunately (i.e. number of troops per gun). The German and Russian armies were both much larger than the British Army, so proportunately there looks to be much less of a gap.
In italian army trial the italian Perino machine-gun performed better than the vickers, I really hope you have the occasion to try one of these althought they are pretty scarse even in Italy
@@chooseyouhandle sure they did but before that they tested with the Perino and ordered 120 pieces; brobably the biggest advantage of the Fiat was a lower price but I think it was ultimately choosen for political connections: Abiel Revelli was of a noble family from Turin historically connected with the army, on the other hand Perino was a simple engineer
![[Full Episode] The Restaurant War Thailand ศึกพ่อค้าซ่าแม่ค้าแซ่บ Episode 2 | 29 ก.ย. 67](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/r3lfLNH6Ke4/mqdefault.jpg)
Sorry, internal process switch has completely ruined workflow in the short term as we resettle, but may save me 20 hours a week or more in the long run.
First year fans are likely already familiar with re-uploads. If there is some minor spelling or visual error it's not worth the confusion but any data issues get fixed and the show goes back up.
smort
No problem there. I saw the mistake in the old video and I wanted to point it out. But you and others were faster.
And as always good job for the episode, love the show and keep up the good work.
No worries, Gun Moses. You gotta work efficiently to work well.
Efficiency never hurts. Even with some errors the content is very well done, which might explain why I watch this more than TV now.....
Othais and Mae. I GREATLY APPRECIATE AND ENJOY every single one of your videos. Every time a new video is released and its longer then 45 mins I get excited. I am truly (as you said at the end of the episode) here to educate myself.
Good God how I wish (and cant wait for you to do WW2.
****There is also a big part of me that would like to see guns of the civil war. When I say this, I don't mean the basic musket. I mean the top 5 or so advanced firearms. I think this is brought on by my last weekend watching God and generals and Gettysburg back to back...
God bless you both
-Stephen
''... I bet they order a metric butt-ton of these things.'' They're British, they can only order imperial butt-tons.
Long or short butts? Err, butt-tons I mean. ;)
@@carlcarlton764 Tonnes*
An Imperial ton is 2,240 lbs, a Short ton is 2,000 lbs. 1000kg is 2204, and a bit lbs. So at 28lbs weight , you get about 80 Vickers to the Imperial Ton
Bravo good sir. *claps
@@dakkahead517 What with that Dammed American Maxim, using his new fangled gun to cut down shrubs at Eltham Palace, and the Woolwich Arsenal lossing of fthe odd acidental ordnace, then Vickers playing with guns and aircrft around Erith Crayford and Dartford, living in South East London out to Dartfore around that time must have been bloody exciting! Thats without the Plauge hospital , stuck up against the Vickers proving ground.
WHAT!!!!! You mean SNOOPY didn't shoot down the Red Baron??? You have just killed my childhood belief of over 50 years...OH THE HUMANITY...LOL AND I loved the "star" of the show at the end...
I thought it was generally Snoopy that was shot down _by_ the Red baron. At which point he'd scurry across France and back to blighty for a root bear. :-P
@@aussiebloke609 that’s correct
Inhumanity?
Yes! Been waiting for you guys' episode on the Vickers! Excellent work. Funny you should mention the Vickers with a stock! After the war Tokarev in Russia made it happen: th-cam.com/video/oYc3ifA9Xt0/w-d-xo.html
The cooler the gun the bigger the grin on Mae.😃
Should we introduce an inch of Mae as a unit of measurement of gun coolness?
@@b1laxson I vote we use cups instead of inches. Reason being, sugar is measured in cups and o think that's more fitting for Mae.
@@b1laxson The real machine genius is the evil person that thought of putting an electric motor on a Gattling gun. Going through 2000 rounds of.762 x 51 or 25 MM in seconds ought to have may grinning with that much destructive power for decades.
Make that an open-ended scale then ;)
A really fascinating look at a famous firearm. Obviously the Vickers works quite well with blanks, so American kids of my age became familiar with the Vickers by seeing Humphrey Bogart shoot down a Japanese torpedo plane in "Across The Pacific", then kill Germans with one in "Sahara". Robert Taylor defended Bataan with a pair of them, etc, etc. They were used as "German" guns in war movies into the TV era ("Combat"). You did a nice job of presenting the gun and its history. As time goes on it would be interesting to have a video on WW1 machinegun tactics and employment. It wasn't always used as a bullet hose over open sights. Ian Hogg mentioned the use of Vickers and other machineguns in some of his books and they have quite a story. The use of the emplaced MG as light artillery or battlefield area denial would lend itself to a graphic presentation. Anyway, thanks for the great video. I'm looking forward to seeing any follow ups on the aircraft Vickers and the US M1915 (hopefully you can borrow one)
The Vickers does work OK with full powered blanks, except, on one embarrasing occasion when the recoil booster flew off. Not me that had checked the gun! On the face saving side, it is a Cause of Stoppage in the manual. There are battlefeild reports of two or thre guns being used to lay down, Barrages on a fixed point of three thousand or more rounds for short periods.
Isnt an area denial kind of a bullet hose
I appreciate this channel and the shows. While running some of the coolest firearms in history is a very entertaining aspect, what I like the most is that y'all are doing y'all's damnest to be as correct as possible. Thank you all, cast, crew, lenders, associates, and whistle tater, for this.
One of the reason the Vickers may have have been retained in British use as late 1968 was it was a vehicle mounted gun on the armoured version of FV1801A Austin Champ a 1/4 ton jeep style truck which was used by British units including the SAS and was retired in the same year.
22:45 He's dead, Mae.
22:50 He's dead.
23:00 HE'S DEAD MAE!
23:20 Want another belt, just to make sure?
Almost feel this might have happened during the war.
You guys really know how to get my continued attention. Came home dirty and hungry from an exhausting work day just wanting to eat dinner and have a nice shower and now, one hour later i'm still dirty and hungry but well informed about an old engineering marvel :)
cheers
To be totally honest, it's perfectly fine when you don't have the gun on the table, what I come to your show for is the history lesson, and damn are you a good history teacher.
Wait a minute! Who is running this show? Othais, Mae or our friend with a taste for blueberries?
Yes.
My only complaint is that my popcorn didn't last the whole hour...
Good see you appreciating high culture as well
hooo boy that Madsen on the wall though
As a German, I'm very hot on that TOTALLY NOT A SECRET PROJECT. The 08/15 was so numerous, it actually turned into a proverb that survived into the 1990s before falling out of use. Kinda like Velcro.
Having said that, unfortunately, they couldn't tell my favourite Vickers story, since it didn't happen until they retired the old girl...
"Mae-chine Gun Connoisseur" Yep, I'd subscribe to that channel ,-j
I spot a Madsen LMG on the wall
I used to drive past the old Vickers factory on Scotswood Road, Newcastle every day.. (later BAE Systems factory and now something else)...
Is it not still BAE Systems?
Snipers and aerial machineguns should be their own series not just episodes.
You could add personalities that used different scoped weapons at their best.
And what ace used to get their score (tank ace, fighter ace, you name it).
You have a channel that could last years.
Mae had it really dialed in. I may be wrong, but I think she enjoyed that.
What gave me away?
@@maewinchester2030 I'm old, not blind.
Mae, that smile was a little too...evil. Glad you are on our side!
On 23 rd August 1914 at Nimy Bridge near Mons. Two Victoria Crosses were won, by Lt Maurice Dease and Prvt. Sidney Godley, using a Vickers gun to defend the bridge. After running out of ammunition and about to be over run Godley dumped the gun in the canal to prevent its capture. '
Thought that was a Maxim? Either way a valiant effort by these two gentlemen.
@@douglasclark9550 As most of the detail of the action seems to be from the German accounts, that could explain the description of Maxim. British descriptions , bear in mind the guys had a lot on there mind, just mention the Machine Gun section, two guns.
Just quickly though. Period photgraphs of the Royal Marine coloum at Antwerp show armoured cars , armed with Maxim guns.
Both men survived the war, Godley I think spending it as a POW.
Roger H Werner I thought Lt. Dease was KIA in that action, and was awarded his VC posthumously? I could be wrong about that.
And Crozier gets busted. Hehehe...
For a look at Belton Park, the RMGC training camp, see:- th-cam.com/video/2iKufS4UfNg/w-d-xo.html
Time Team shows the scale of the effort quite well...
Haven't watched TT in years, good catch!!! >___
is anyone else imagining a C&Rsenal/the vintage aviator/peter jackson/NZ air force (gunnery range) collaboration, with Mae live firing at large scale rc models from the front of a FE2 and BE2/ back of a RE8 and F2B.
The raw numbers of MGs per nation are misleading. At the outbreak of war, the British deployed 2 MGs per infantry battalion or cavalry regiment. The Germans 6 per infantry regiment (of 3 battalions) or Jaeger battalion (44 such battalions on mobilisation) with none attached to cavalry, established by the army law of 1912.
Also the British army consisted of 250,000 regulars and 250,000 territorials (the roughly 200,000 reservists were fed into the regular units to make up the casualties of 1914-15, so can be ignored). So that gives one MG per 500 men.
On mobilisation of their active army, reserves and landwher in August 1914, the Germans fielded and army of around 3,800,000 men. Giving one MG per 760 men. Yes the Germans did pay more attention to training MG crews pre war, but the raw numbers are mislead.
Russian at full mobilisation had about 4,400,000 men btw, giving one MG per 550 men.
Mae is having WAY to much fun shooting that machine gun. Look at that grin, haha. That much fun has to be illegal.
I have been meaning to ask Suzie, is Othais Wrangler a good job? Should I take a collage course on Othais Wrangling?
Madsen. Oooh yeah. Can't wait for it!
Check this video out:
th-cam.com/video/b29-BgRQkxU/w-d-xo.html
If Othais was to find a Christmas tree...............
That Maeversation was spectacular. It's so much fun to watch you guys have fun.
A video so good they couldn't upload it just once.
Didn't Vickers build a 50 caliber version during World War II for small boats and PT boats and stuff?
Reupload gang, call out!
Crozier the Amateur Armorer!
There is a story I hear (possibly apocryphal) that as the Vickers
was being removed from British service one officer decided to see how long it could be fired continuously before it broke down. Apparently they stopped after firing 5 million rounds over a week, and after they had finished the gun was still within spec.
It actually was to remove their outdated mk7 .303 ammo
@@wuppieigor It was used for area denial at the Somme. Several guns kept up non-stop fire over several days.
Having pets check out the guns... Now that's MrGunsngear's thing 😀. Great presentation as always guys! Suggestion... If you are looking for a short to put up, I would clip the story of the American machine gunner and put that up by itself.
This has kept me going through lockdown.
G'day,
Oh, I say...
Biggles(worth) had a pair o'
Vickers Machiney-gun-gun-gunniez,
Upon his
Sopwith (F-1)
Camel
{Scout}
[also known as an Archetypical "Fighter"]
Such is Life...
Have a good one,
;-p
Ciao !
Mae's smile after shooting!
The engineering that went into this thing is incredible. How could they have ever come up with things like this on paper?
I did some digging through periodicals about the said song and I think I found the song you are looking for. According to A Yankee in the Trenches by R. Derby Holmes there was a very similar song floating about contemporaneously (and I suspect to the same tune): www.fulltextarchive.com/page/A-Yankee-in-the-Trenches1/ … "This time he thumped out the old one--"All policemen have big feet." Rat-a-tat-tat--tat, tat." Furthermore, Kokomo Tribune in 1931 mentions the same song was was so similar to another contemporary song all conductors have big feet that it can be confused for the other: www.newspapers.com/newspage/41685245/ "In such a volume Uncle Dan could set forth-his-own views on the popular-song fable that all policemen have big 'feet. Or Is It conductors?". Finally, I was able to find a modern version of the song from 2009 in a blog post.Its not much but you could see where the mg sounds would go. This one is of the policeman variety joyofconvention.blogspot.com/2009/07/all-policemen-have-big-feet.html
The English super begrudgingly adopted machineguns, as they thought they were cheap and gimmicky weapons.
The Germans super begrudgingly adopted tanks, as they thought they were cheap and gimmicky weapons.
Not really. The numbers of guns in the British Army pre war is misleading for one very important reason. The British Army was a small volunteer force compared to the huge conscript armies of the Continental Powers. The British Army had less machineguns not because they thought they were useless but because the British Army was a tenth the damned size of the French Army, let alone the German or Russian. The BEF that fought in 1914 numbered 250,000 men, 180,000 of those being infantry. Compare that against the French and German armies. After mobilisation the French Army numbered some 2.8 million men, the German Army began at 700,000 men at peace time strength, rising to 3.8 million men a week after mobilisation.
The fact is the French and Germans had more machineguns than the British because they planned from the start to put millions of men into the field. The British planned on small, mobile expeditionary forces made up of professional volunteer troops. As a result the British procured their equipment with that in mind. So given those differences in numbers how can people be surprised at the fact the British Army which was never envisaged to reach those huge sizes had fewer machineguns than the Germans or French?
But no, it is always a case of 'oh, the British were stupid and ignored the potential of the machinegun.' Never a case of 'oh the British Army was less than a tenth of the size of the French or German armies when mobilised so did not NEED as many machineguns'.
I like the triple split screen on the firing portion!
The gun seems to REALLY bounce around a lot while firing; I assume these would normally be sandbagged in to tighten up the beaten zone? Fine at point blank, but a little wide for several hundred yards downrange
Did xhamster know that their mascot was moonlighting? They're a union shop after all. ;- D
That was priceless.
The term 'darling of the great war' just sounds wrong to me.
The MVP of biological warfare! The Ultimate Grand Supreme of the Mongolian horde! The bell of the ball torture devices!
planescaped The queen of the battlefield.
The gold standard of explosive diharrea
"aand, when Properly Used..." (misses sword target) Foreshadowing?
Edit: I tend to write comments in a "Stream Of Conscience" manner. When I heard how so many of the early Machine Gunners didn't survive, I thought "Bruce Bairnsfather, the writer/illustrator of Fragments From France was one of the few that did survive" This was followed by a sort of dark-humor war story that wouldn't look too out of place in Fragments From France, and then by the idea of a Vickers Gun on a rifle stock and forward bipod... I think I laughed a bit too much from this episode! :)
You forgot the most important function of the Vickers for the British...
They used the water coming out of the cooling jacket to make tea.
Gotta say, this is my favorite firing segment. A vickers gun blasting away with "Oh what a lovely war" playing in the background? Perfection
The best TH-cam channel bar none!
I like Ian's Forgotten Weapons & work at In Range, Nigel's the Great War, plus Cap & Ball....but this channel is beyond excellent, it is phenomenal in my opinion.
Thank you so much for all of your hard work and I depth research and talent.
Yes! Finally something to distract me from doing actual work!
That three part letterbox cut was epic.
I see Madsen. Probably the LMG that could have won the war.
I would love to know why the germans didn't mass produced more of these
Did Germany make any? I thought they were all imported from Denmark.
Stay tuned for answers to both Carl and Guilherme...
Totally agree, it would have needed teaks, but the madsen had the potential to completely change the outcome of the Great War. Imagine a squad of these bad boys laying down targeted fields of fire from anywhere as groups leap frog forward and I think you’re in MG34 territory....
I noticed that on the wall rack right away. ;-)
It should be noted that the British Army kept these in reserve until the 1960s. If the cold war went hot and these got called up, just imagine the incredulity of a Russian soldier seeing a British MG team firing on of these relics at them.....before they sighted in their own SG-43
I remember hearing somewhere that part of the reason the British pilot was credited with killing the Red Baron and not the vickers gunner on the ground was because the gunner was Australian
The pilot (Captain Arthur Roy Brown) was Canadian, so I'm not sure which would be "worse". However, Captain Brown does have the rare distinction of never having lost a pilot in his flight.
Siesta Time let’s not be coy. We all know which was/is worse
@@siestatime4638 The pilot was Canadian but was flying as part of the British army Royal Flying Corps. Australia was the only dominion to have its own separate flying corps at that time.
racism against Australians? that is oddly specific
@@chooseyouhandle Not for the British. Though not so much racism (apart from the numerous Irish Australians) as class distinction (lower class convict stock).
Great, just great! And i love yours furry potatoes.
Now fiat-revelli 1914.
comparison of machine guns numbers at the start of world war 1 seems a tad unfair to the British, their army was much much smaller, number of machine guns per division in the army would be fairer in some ways than just looking at absolute numbers. The British and German both had 24 machine guns in an infantry division. Love you work, great channel, mammoth effort much appreciated.
My wife got to fire an American Vickers in 30.06 one afternoon after a service rifle match. I was preoccupied with shooting a 1919a4, throwing $20's at it like all get out. Between the two of us, $120 later, was the best money spent for enjoyment. You really don't know the feeling of devastation or power granted to you until you get behind one, and respect is given.
The MG tripod is a vastly overlooked piece of equipment. After the MG shoot my wife and I attended, I went out and bought a semi 1919a4, sans tripod. Although fun, my 1919a4 was never truly as effective because I devised many ways to bolt the beast down, but the simple adjustments granted by a T&E mechanism just wasn't there. These are necessary for the heavy machine gun to work as intended, and not swinging around willy-nilly (and exceedingly dangerously) throwing .308 (or your equivalent) rounds mindlessly downrange.
The stacked triple shot footage of Mae shooting the Vickers is truly top-notch, you guys should pat yourselves on the back for that!
At 25:30 Othias' comment about Lord Kitchner could have just been left off at "not too understanding" .
You talk about generals fighting the last war, well Kitchner was fighting the Napoleonic wars all over again.
My favorite comment ever about the British in WWI comes from Rowan Atkinson's hilarious series, Blackadder Goes Forth. In one Episode Blackadder comments about yet another British frontal assault by saying His Lordship wishes to move his drinks cabinet 6 inches closer to Berlin.
Just taking the Vickers to the tripod store, brb. (49:10)
58:00 I'm rewatching this in 2023 and Ukraine is using the Maxim 1910 against the Russian invaders. I'm sure the gunners would prefer this more "up to date" Vickers.
I spy with my eye a madsen , trying to be all slick and tease us
No, teasing is having Mark appear on IV8888 with a ChauChat
One of my great grandfathers fought through WWI and from what I can tell was one of the first into the machine gun corps. I've always wondered how many men he mowed down in his time. Regardless it apparently didn't seem to bother him as he came back home from the war and went straight back to work and preaching in the local chapel every Sunday.
Famous ambush in the Irish civil war 1921 at Beal na mBlath when the Fre State Army commander in chief was killed. I always wondered why was the Armoured car ineffective when it was carrying one of these weapons. It seems the second gunner did not show up, so the gunner only had a couple of loaded 250 round belts. He had a captain loading for him, but the book said the belt needed precise loading, so the gun was only used in fits and starts.
It’s 5 p.m. where I live, so I can’t make a typical comment of sacrificing sleep for CRsenal :(
You guy's are the Best, you make all the rest just seem like self-indulgent blabbermouths. Keep up the Excellent work!!
Can you post a second video without music? It's annoying and distracts from the narration. Use it to fill silence, but it should not compete with the subject matter. I had to stop about 14 minutes in, and I've been watching since you launched.
Excellent video, thanks. My grandfather (British) volunteered for the machine gun corps because they got more pay, a couple of shillings a week, but during training realised that going to the Western Front was essentially a suicide mission, the life expectancy of a machine gun crew was a few minutes. He managed by devious means to join one of the few groups sent to Mesopotamia (now Iraq ) and so survived the war.
Awesome demonstration of the Vickers, you guys have covered the Maxim, the BAR and a little of the Chauchat. Speaking of french machine guns Othias, have you thought about covering the 1909 Hotchkiss? Was that just as good as the Maxim or the Vickers despite the awkward steel feed strip?
Last used by the Paras in the Radfan in 1968. BTW one of the reasons for the emphasis on rapid fire musketry was in response to the shortage of machine guns. The emphasis on accuracy was the legacy of the South African War. One reason for the formation of the Machine Gun Corps was to have the valuable MMGs under the command and control of officers who knew how to use them and not subordinate to (MMG) untrained infantry officers. It enabled them to be used en masse at the direction of higher command and ensured they received the man power and logistical support to make best use of them. They ate up a lot of carrying power and needed large crews to keep them going 24/7. As ever there was more to it than just the machine itself.
Great video. Well done. look forward to the WW1 air weapons one day. Oh, and the Madsen. That requires an animation to show why the round does not need to bend to make it work.
Did I mentioned the Comblain rifle at all?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_minute
@@mugwump58 See th-cam.com/channels/K-MdBJJw-0glJZgw8dO1Ag.html for 8 videos on the 'mad minute' which was not a military exercise but a demonstration one only. My grandfather went to France with the BEF in 1914 as a regular. Rapid aimed fire reloading every 5 rounds.
@@johnfisk811 no, it was a requerment to shoot 15 rounds in aminute to be british infantry. British muzleloaders did a good video on it
Bruh, good content, but please stop talking over Mae. It's disrespectful.
Very interesting video, thank you, The musical Vickers may have been a regular feature on the Western Front I found another account by a gunner officer Lt Col Frazer-Tytler who, In his book 'Field guns in France' describes on p 59 on 22-March-1916
'…one M.G. artist to the north of us who regularly plays a few bars of "Policemans Holiday" with his gun.You will realise that it needs a really artistic finger on the trigger to produce a tune!'
What is the group si..
DAKKA
Group size?
DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA
Ok but really..
DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA
Seen the Vickers, just never fired one. Mae looks like my daughter. No not being funny.
The Victorian Ministry of War invented Yoda Speak.... did it, they
Normally we don't see Mae smile until after she shoots the gun, this time it looked like she was laughing out loud as she was shooting. Mae, were you having fun, our am I just imagining it?
That could make mince out of a village worth of young men.
Horrific.
Use shorter Bursts for best accuracy, was the official recommendation.
I can tell that Mae didn't like that at all......HaHa!
It's cruel to force Mae to fire such guns when she obviously hates doing so.
I love how Mae always has a big dumb grin on her face when she gets done shooting. That would be me 100%
I prefer my machine guns to feed from the left and flip the spent casing forward and right.
I remember crawling through an obstacle course with a Vickers firing a couple of feet above me , sometime about '87,'89.
1987 at fort dix, NJ did something similar with the m60. Somebody lost their gas mask so we were up very late looking for it.😂
A couple of things. The Vickers was also made in Australia at Lithgow. By WW2, the "old" factory buildings were given over almost entirely to Vickers production. An entirely new building had been erected to produce the BREN in the late 1930s. Rifle component production was sent out to "annexes" in new plants built in towns like Orange, Bathurst, Forbes, etc.
While looking at all things "Vickers", how about the air-cooled "Vickers K", originally intended as an aircraft weapon, but often "repurposed" by groups like the Long Range Desert Patrol and David Stirling's SAS in North Africa and Europe.
See also: The Vickers Berthier as adopted in large numbers by India.
The K gun is undoubtedly a very interesting subject (which I would love to know more about), but in this case, out of topic
I just realized i didn't thumbs up this video. Shame on me!
hold on, Othias, is that a madsen behind you, how is it you can keep that machine gun in the office lol, cant wait to hear about that and it's use by the sturmtruppen
I believe when they don't have a MG in the office is because that gun is out of state and transporting those type of guns is significantly more hassle across state lines legally . This is going more into why that is, but the rules of the National Firearms Act of 1934 or Gun Control Act of 1968 (US Federal government) regulate that those guns (or other restricted guns) in this situation by contacting the BATF and saying that you're planning on going across state lines with it and then see if they grant you permission. The process takes if you're lucky like a month or two, but usually like four months minimum to over a year, so that's also why you can see other gun TH-camrs go to different locations to shoot MGs/short barrelled shotguns/short barrelled rifles[and pistols]/etc.
Also we've added an SOT and a gunsmith to our team so we can take in MGs that need repair, like this Madsen. That makes them easy to snag footage of while they are under the hammer.
The Machine gun totals at the outbreak of the war (25.51). At first sight UK looks to be well behind, however thats just looking at the raw numbers. What about proportunately (i.e. number of troops per gun). The German and Russian armies were both much larger than the British Army, so proportunately there looks to be much less of a gap.
It's also a question of where the guns were actually deployed. Many German guns were not at the front.
Is that a Winchester 1897 “trench gun” that I see on the far left?
"elites of the battlefield..."
24:19 Guy misses. XD
“Range Fresh” - nothing beats a free range heavy machine gun!🦊
There is an excellent Time Team S20 E1 on the Machine Gun School .
they sure did like their toggle-locks back then.
Test it naked... maybe ease into that one and go for the Borat Mankini first Othais.
Totally jealous of how much fun she had. :-)
Which Vickers was easy to produce the air craft model or the ground model?
They are the same basic gun.
Wouldn't like may firing at me as I run.
(wakes up to finish watching the rest of the episode, sees it got re-uploaded) pup pupping with Crozier :3
Yay you got an ad.
Yarp. Cheapest I could find that book is £475 🇬🇧. Any tips?
yarp
Get a job. ;)
well its only 4500 on amazon so buy it for 475 and resell it lol
👍
A new updated issue coming out early 2019
that rear sight looks like it goes out to 10 kilometers.
Sighted to 3,000 yards.
Vickers was skomethin like Skoda works in AustroHungarian empire.. later in Czechoslovakia. And those factories were later given to Hitler..
In italian army trial the italian Perino machine-gun performed better than the vickers, I really hope you have the occasion to try one of these althought they are pretty scarse even in Italy
I thought the Italians used the fiat machine gun
@@chooseyouhandle sure they did but before that they tested with the Perino and ordered 120 pieces; brobably the biggest advantage of the Fiat was a lower price but I think it was ultimately choosen for political connections: Abiel Revelli was of a noble family from Turin historically connected with the army, on the other hand Perino was a simple engineer
Good day
New episode
And I got my t shirts