Cornish - Machine guns and the Great War

List of Plates

1. Sir Hiram Maxim.

2. The Maxim system. This drawing shows the action locked (above) and fully open (below). The operation of the toggle mechanism is clear. The cartridge floating above the barrel represents the one held in the feed block. Beneath the barrel is the ejector tube. (See pp..)

3. The smokeless powder revolution. Left: a Russian 10.67mm black powder cartridge.Right: a Russian 7.62mm cartridge with smokeless propellant.

4. Part of a sign advertising Vaux Maxim Ale.

5. The German MG08, fitted with an optical sight and an armoured cover for its water-jacket. ( Taylor Library )

6. Postcard showing French soldiers demonstrating AA fire with the M1907 machine gun.

7. Austro-Hungarian troops with Schwarzlose Machine Guns; making a show of readiness against air attack. ( Photograph courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, London, Neg. no. Q 56997 )

8. Italian machine gunners with a Revelli gun. ( Photograph courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, London, Neg. no. Q 54778 )

9. A graphic representation of machine gun cones of fire and beaten zones. Taken from British machine gun training notes. (See pp..)

10. The Vickers gun. Empty petrol cans were frequently used to condense the steam from the water-jacket. ( Taylor Library )

11. Vickers gunners in action on the Somme. The gun is well dug in, with its tripod legs covered with sandbags and earth. The rear sight appears to be set for a range of 2,200 yards. The auxiliary tripod is folded up under the water-jacket. ( Photograph courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, London, Neg. no. Q3995 )

12. Emergency Indirect Fire. Taken from British machine gun training notes, this diagram shows barrages fired by three sections of a machine gun company at the assembly area for a German counter-attack at Pozires. (See pp..)

13. Advertisement for Beechams Pills, with artwork by machine-gunner Bruce Bairnsfather.

14. German machine-gunners advance, in an etching from Otto Dixs Der Krieg cycle of prints.

15. A sectional view of the Lewis gun. ( Taylor Library )

16. A Lewis gun in the anti-aircraft role. It is being fired from a mount extemporized from a Vickers gun tripod and a cartwheel. The man on the right is using a Barr and Stroud range-finder, which was also used in conjunction with the Vickers gun. ( Taylor Library )

17. A French CSRG gunner of the 53rd Colonial Infantry Regiment. The distinctive pouches on his belt each contain two magazines. He also carries a 7.65mm pistol purchased from Spain: standard issue for CSRG gunners. ( Photograph courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, London, Neg. no. Q 55032 )

18. An abandoned German machine gun nest. The MG08 is mounted on a simple trench-mount, of the type favoured for forward machine gun positions. The guns former owners have disabled it by removing the feed block. ( Taylor Library )