Milsurp After Hours

I have a 3 hour long DVD that is one of the best accounts of the battles on and around Guadalcanal in late 1942 and early 1943.

One thing that surprised me was that one of the vets that they interviewed was a Marine who was pressed into service as a gunner on one of the Higgins boats. He talked about loading Lewis gun drums and said that he was completely unfamilier with the gun.

I was not aware that the Navy was using Lewis guns in WWII. I guess it's true that the Marines were equiped with whatever no one else wanted.

I found this

http://books.google.com/books?id=rB-hOp ... &ct=result

interesting that they where still using them I would have figured that those would have been phased out way before that.

The Lewis gun was used throughout the WW2 by the British, particularly the Royal Navy.

A rugged and reliable weapon with a reasonable rate of fire (550rpm) and large capacity magazine (97) it was a good anti-aircraft weapon. Also popular with the LRDG.

From Wiki:

American forces used the Lewis gun (in .30-06 calibre) throughout World War II; The United States Navy used Lewis guns on armed merchant ships, small auxiliary ships, landing craft, submarines, and for ships' landing forces, and the United States Coast Guard also used the Lewis on their vessels.[37] Despite being a US design, however, the US Army never officially adopted the design for anything other than aircraft use.[9]

Oneshooter
Livin in Texas

I knew they had them in the navy.and some were in the philipeans.ground guns used 47 rd drums.aircraft used the 97 rd,but you use any thing you can get.I always had a hankering for one.the japanese were licensed to make them.I came upon several that were torched in the naval dump and a pile of 47 rd drums as high as 6 ft and there were hundreds.if there had been a receiver I would have scouped it.they were cut to bad.that
was in 1945.I ran into a jap in the 70s but did not get it.it is probably in the mans den.it was not registered.

Another gun that we don't hear much about is the Vickers-Berthier which not only saw service in WW II but is still a reserve weapon in the Indian Army.

see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers-Berthier

Man, I hate it when someone posts a link like that. I always end up spending an hour and a half wandering around wikipedia.

Me too.

Regards
Peter.