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Catalogue number 126050 Royal Navy Gatling gun "The Naval Annual" for 1886 gives the ten-barrel Gatling gun was issued for servce and trials took place at Shoeburyness. The side-cranked gun shown here fired 326 rounds per minute. 14cm x 7.9cm Printed image

Catalogue number 115078 Type 92 Japanese Navy machine gun This was a copy of the British Lewis gun, the difference being a trigger guard whilst the barrel shroud was removed in naval aircraft but maintained for ground operations as shown here. 9cm x 14cm Printed image

Catalogue number 115077 Japanese Navy Vickers gun The top cover of the feed block is open on this Vickers machine gun during an exercise of the Imperial Japanese Navy (I.J.N.). Note the shouder pad to help improve accuracy when firing. Ground troops of the I.J.N. suffered heavily to fire from Russian-held Vickers machine guns during land operation of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). 13.4cm x 8.3 Printed image

Catalogue number 116036 Mounted Maxim machine gun A major problem with the Vickers-Maxim machine gun was its weight, here the gun is mounted on a shielded carriage. 13.9cm x 8.8cm Printed image

Catalogue number Navy armoured car with a Vickers gun Mounted in vehicules like this Wolsely amoured car, the Vickers machine gun could be rapidly deployed to where it was needed. The Royal Naval Air Service made great use of these cars and their Vickers machine guns in World War 1. 13.5cm x 6cm Printed stereo-image

Catalogue number 126035 Ship-mounted Vickers machine gun H.M.S. Hazard (commissioned 1894) was converted to a submarine depot ship 1914 and is shown here with H.M.S. A2 alongside. As well as 6-pdr guns, the ship had pedestal-mounted Vickers machine guns for close-in defence. It must have been a hard job to keep the brass cooling water case buffed up whilst at sea! Recto: "A British submarine alongside parent ship" 13.4cm x 8.2cm Gelatin silver print

Catalogue number 124116 Royal Marine Maxim machine gun crew Two early Maxim machine guns in the hands of the Royal Marines. Note the ammunition boxes, to the left "Maxim 303 inch belt ammunition", to the right " Maxim GG chamber belt ammunition". "GG" may stand for Gatling-Gardner ammunition but this was 0.45 inch calibre. The early Maxim guns were designed around the 0.45 inch round. In the background is what looks like a coastal defence fort, maybe at Shoeburyness. 14cm x 8.8cm Gelatin silver print

Catalogue number 114013 Machine gun drill, 1915 Vickers four gun battery at the Royal Navy barracks, Portsmouth with two Royal Navy and two Royal Marine squads. Note squatting position of gunner and the ammunition limber in the left background. A machine gun required a team of six to eight men, a gunner, a man on the ammunition feed and the others to bring up ammunition and to carry the gun. Verso: "Dear Ethel, this is part of what the Germans will have to face. It is part of our barracks. Walter" in black ink 13.4cm x 7.7cm Gelatin silver print

Catalogue number 124110 Turkish guns Three sailors are shown with two Vickers machine guns and a primitive, muzzle-loading morter in front of the headquarters of the Royal Naval Forces in Ghemlek (now Gemlik), Turkey after the fall of the Ottoman Empire following the end of the First World War. 14.4cm x 7.8cm Gelatin silver print

Catalogue number 119104 Saint-Etienne 8 mm machine gun Although produced in large numbers during the First World War, the French St. Étienne Mle 1907 8mm machine gun was temperamental and it was withdrawn from the front line trenches after mid-1917. Here a carriage-mounted gun is with sailors from the training ship Magellan. 10.2cm x 6cm Gelatin silver print

Catalogue number Notes on Naval Progress 1899 The Nordenfelt 1-inch gun This image shows a two-barrelled Nordenfelt 1-inch gun on the barbette mounting of H.M.S. Rodney in 1899. Nordenfelt guns were adopted by the Royal Navy from the 1870’s. The development of this and other light automatic guns was in response to the arrival of fast torpedo boats in naval combat. The ammunition holder is raised vertically and the sailor is ready to load the two barrels by a back and forth movement of the lever to his right. Credit: Notes on Naval Progress 1899, Office of Naval Intelligence, Washington,U.S.A.

Catalogue number Penetration power of the Nordenfelt gun The Nordenfelt guns were of such a calibre to pierce the steel and iron plate that could be found on the present-day torpedo boats. These images show a two-man gun crew on a four-barrelled 1-inch gun. Ammunition was gravity fed into the barrels and volley-firing was the standard method. Credit: The Naval Annual, Lord Brassey, 1886, Griffin and Co.

Catalogue number Tests of a Nordenfelt gun The 1-inch Nordenfelt “Anti-torpedo boat machine gun” was subject to trials in 1880 when shots from H.M.S. Medway running at 9 knots were fired into a model torpedo boat. The penetration by 1-inch shells from the Nordenfelt gun was compared with shells fired from the Hotchkiss 37mm gun and were found to have greater penetrating power. Credit: The Naval Annual, Lord Brassey, 1886, Griffin and Co.

Catalogue number 27037 The Maxim gun The rapid-firing Maxim gun replaced the slower Nordenfelt gun and the two companies merged in 1888 to form the Maxim Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Co. The gun shown here was manufactured by the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield between 1891-1917 as can be seen on brass plate just in front of the trigger grip. The gun is on its mount out on the starboard wing of the bridge of H.M.S. Goliath and has a light metal splinter screen. What isn’t visible in the photograph is the tank for cooling water. We can see the semaphore signaling post behind sailors. Recto: “Blue jackets at Maxim practice, H.M.S. Goliath, Yokohama Harbor, Japan, 1902 Credit: C.H. Graves 15.2cmx 8.2cm Gelatin silver print stereo-photograph

Catalogue number 113021 Quadruple Vickers machine guns, 1940, detail This photograph shows 0.5-inch Vickers machine guns in a vertical quadruple mk III mounting on a destroyer in 1940. After the fast torpedo boat, the new menace was fast-flying aircraft and rapid-firing machine guns in multiple mounts was a stop-gap solution prior to the adoption of the more powerful Oerlikon and Bofors anti-aircraft guns. Ammunition was belt-fed from drums, two to either side of the mount which was trained and elevated by hand wheel. Verso: “B.E.F. arrives home. A general view on board the transport ships Credit: War Office Photograph. Crown Copyright 15.4cm x 20.4cm Gelatin silver print

Catalogue number 23013 Quadruple Vicker machine gun mount Another good view of the 0.5-inch Vickers machine gun in a quadruple mark III mounting on board a Royal Navy ship. With the aim of throwing up as much metal as possible into the flight path of an attacking aircraft, the rate of fire was 650 to 700 rounds per minute, the ammunition drums held 200-round link belts and a bullet weighed 37.6 grams. A sustained rate of fire was possible due to the water cooling system as opposed to the air-cooled Mauser MG34 gun which required changing barrels, although it be quick, after about 200 rounds. Verso: “Air attack from the sea. Gunners in steel helmets stand by a battery of anti-aircraft machine-guns aboard a British Minerwerfer(sic) in the North Sea. This card can be sent from the war zone.” In French and in English. 13cm x 8.3cm Gelatin silver print

Catalogue number 96060 French Navy Saint-Etienne 8 mm gun, 1907 model The Saint-Etienne 8 mm, 1907 model, machine gun equipped the French army in the early 1900s but was not a success - problems of overheating and a complex and difficult to maintain firing mechanism. Production stopped in 1917 although some were still available in 1940 when this photograph was taken. Here one has found its way onto a French armed merchant cruiser as a stop-gap anti-aircraft defence. It had ammunition strips with 25 rounds. Without a raising system on the pedestal, the gunner had to crouch down when firing at even modest angles of elevation. Verso: "With the French Navy. On board a merchant ship, an unidentified aircraft has been spotted; the crew of the Armed Merchant Cruiser are at action stations. 27-03-40 Credit: Official photograph 12.2cm x 17.2cm Gelatin silver print

Catalogue number 104079 The 13.2mm 76 calibre Hotchkiss gun, 1929 model The 13.2mm 76-calibre Hotchkiss gun was commonly installed as a twin Type R4 mounting as shown here. Training (left hand wheel) and elevation (right hand wheel) was manually controlled by the layer sat in an almost horizontal position with his feet on the footplates seen to the left of the pedestal. The trapeze sight is just in front of this sailor. Ammunition was in 30-round magazines, not shown here. 12.8cm x 9cm Gelatin silver print

Catalogue number 35163 Twin 13.2mm Hotchkiss, detail The twin 13.2mm Hotchkiss on the type R4 mounting was present on most French warships in the 1930s. A parallelogram sighting system enabled the gunner to remain sitting, in an almost horizontal position, at all angles of elevation and with his feet resting on footplates in front of the mounting. Hand wheels were used for manual training (left hand, horizontal wheel) and elevation (right hand, vertical wheel) and the gun crew was three or four. The gun was air-cooled and the magazines held 30 rounds. With a 50gm solid bullet and a range of 4,200m, this gun was no match for the fast attacking aircraft and high level bombers that appeared during the Second World War. Verso: “10 August 1940” in French and in black ink 6.3cm x 10.4cm Gelatin silver print

Catalogue number 35224 A German light machine gun, the Mauser MG-34 Although the Mauser MG-34 was a powerful and technically advanced machine gun with a high rate of fire when it came into service in 1935-6, the precise engineering tolerances and the use of high-quality metal alloys made it too complex for mass production. In this photograph, the round sight is folded down, 50-round belt ammunition was in the boxes to the left of each gun. The effective range was up to 2,000m with a 7.92mm rifle bullet. Verso: “Norway 44 Mauser f…. sergeant Fernelsen” in German 9.2cm x 6.3cm Gelatin silver print

Catalogue number 113045 The Lewis gun A single Lewis gun is being fitted to a trawler, the pedestal seems rather flimsy! The crew member to the right is holding a pan magazine with the canvas holder on his left arm. Verso; “Scots trawlers now armed against Nazi planes. Scots trawlers are now being supplied with defensive measures to help protect them against enemy aircraft, which has already taken a toll of peaceful fishing vessels. Lewis guns are now being mounted on the trawlers and their crews trained in the use of them. Several trawlers have already given a good account of themselves when threatened by hostile aircraft. The Lewis gun being placed in position on its stand before a trawler leaves port. Members of the crew look on.” 19-3-40. 21.6cm x 16.7cm Gelatin silver print

Catalogue number 113046 A twin Lewis gun mount, 1940 This is a more solid twin Lewis gun installation with a metal-lined gun pit probably with concrete between the inner steel casing and the outer wooden case. The guns have the tangent leaf front sight. Verso: “English trawlers are now armed. A Lewis machine gun in action in the turret on the deck of a trawler.” 26-3-40. 20cm x 14.5cm Gelatin silver print.

Catalogue number 44048 Quadruple Lewis guns on a MTB, 1940 Here is a fine array of quadruple Lewis guns in tubs on board a motor torpedo boat. Given the cramped space on the boat’s bridge and in the tubs, it must have been quite a job to keep up the flow of ammunition drums. Verso: "These pictures show the Navy motor torpedo boats on duty off the East Coast. These craft are used for patrol work and are capable of fast speeds and have a wide cruising radius. Photo shows gunners at action stations on board one of the motor torpedo boats during duty off the East Coast. Judging by this picture enemy aircraft would certainly get a warm welcome" with "2 MAART 1940" (translated from Dutch as 2nd March 1940) stamped in blue. 14.2cm x 19.6cm Gelatin silver print

Catalogue number 114001 Russian Navy 12.7mm twin gun This twin DShKM-2 mounting has the guns one above the other and has a light metal shield. The trapeze system for the gyro sight enables the gunner to remain standing at all angles of elevation and at low angles of elevation, the curve of the gunner’s handle bar goes into the recesses in the shield. This 12.7mm gun was for the Russian Navy what the M2 Browning was for the United States Navy, designed in 1938 it is still in use today. We can see the left magazine support rack for the lower gun but there is no magazine in place. Note the trigger on the right handle bar. 24cm x 18.2cm Gelatin silver print

Catalogue number 114002 The Degtjarev M38 machine gun, 1973 This postcard shows a twin 12.7mm Russian made Degtjarev DSHK M38/46 automatic gun on an Albanian fast motor launch. To the left and right of the guns are the magazines each containing a 50-round belt. Note the depth charges by the guard rail and the “spider” sight. Verso: "1943–1973 30 year of the People’s Popular Army. Guarding our maritime borders.” In Albanian. 14.2cm x 10.1cm printed image