Deactivated 1918 Dated Smooth Jacket Vickers Machine Gun With Tripod

This is a 1918 dated smooth jacket Vickers MKI Machine gun with tripod. The gun was made at the Vickers, Erith factory in Kent and dates to 1918 as the year of manufacture. Eriths production figures from October to December 1918 show that serial numbers H4240 to H6240 were completed, with this gun being number H5276 from that batch. Smooth jacket Vickers were first introduced in 1918 with the majority being observed on H series guns. One of the earliest known examples is gun number H4999. This gun - H5276 just 277 higher, is among the very first to have been made with a smooth jacket. In total only 6,849 H series guns were ever made of which less than 1800 were smooth jacketed. However this figure may well be a lot lower as Vickers were still assembling guns with corrugated or fluted jackets using existing or available parts. Note that the initials V.S.M. - Vickers Sons & Maxim were still being applied even though the name of the firm had been changed to Vickers Ltd in 1911. The 1934 dated tripod and cradle are matching numbers 466 with broad arrow acceptance stamps.

 

The gun would have remained in service with the British army until called upon during WWII. The Vickers was used on all fronts and theatres during WWII seeing active service in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East to name but a few.