Light machine gun "Lewis. Lewis light machine gun (Lewis) ... The procedure for unloading a Lewis light machine gun

At the beginning of the 20th century, a triumphal procession of manual automatic weapons began on the battlefields, one of the most successful examples of which is the Lewis light machine gun.

The fusion of revolutionary solutions and dead-end moves took its place on the pedestal of the longest-lived weapons, along with Hiram Maxim's masterpiece. Few people know that for the first time in a hundred years he repeated circuit diagram barrel cooling, tested on Lewis mod. 1913.

But there were also enough dead-end solutions - the use of a springless magazine, lamellar coil springs in the mechanism and an overcomplicated shutter. But first things first.

History of creation

The scheme using the long stroke of the gas piston came from Samuel McLean. At that time, it was a heavy machine gun with the usual water cooling at that time. But he implemented the idea, in a slightly modified version, Colonel american army Isaac Lewis.

The changes he made turned a mediocre easel machine gun into a revolutionary manual one. A new cooling system was introduced, the locking system was somewhat modified. But as was often the case in the USA of those times, due to the lobby of General William Crosier, Lewis's application for the competition was rejected.

Colonel Lewis resigned and moved to Europe to promote his weapons in pre-war Britain.

It was 1913, the tension future war was already up in the air.

The weapon was adopted in Belgium and the royal armed forces Great Britain.

In Belgium, Lewis organized his enterprise. But due to the lack of production capacity, all weapons were made to order in the workshops of Birmingham Small Arms in Britain, and later in the USA, at the factories of the Savage Arms Company.

For 1913, Lewis machine guns were produced under the cartridge .303 British, or 7.7x56R. In the USA, weapons were produced under the American rifle cartridge. 30-06 Springfield.

After the start great war Lewis machine gun has gained a truly world-wide fame. It was used by all warring states. Including Germany, the captured machine guns were converted to the 8 (7.92 mm) mm Mauser cartridge and they fought again, only on the other side of the front.

About 15 thousand of these machine guns were delivered to Russian empire. They were actively used both in rifle units and in the emerging aeronautical units of Russia.

It is worth noting that once again, but not the last time, part of the delivered machine guns was chambered for the Russian cartridge 7.62x53R.

After the end of the First World War, in the 20-30s, these machine guns were actively produced in Europe, and were in service with a number of countries.

Moreover, in 1923 in Britain, Lewis underwent modernization during which the production process was somewhat simplified and the machine gun itself was lightened.

Lewis weapons were also used in the Second World War, moreover, single samples of these weapons fought in the 50s, in Korea.

Design, features and principle of operation

Lewis light machine gun mod. 1913 represents automatic weapon. The principle of operation of automation is based on the energy of the removal of powder gases from the barrel, with a long piston stroke, a rotary shutter, with 4 stops.

The fire mode is only automatic, firing is carried out from an open shutter. Lewis' device is extremely original in a number of ways, and in many ways ahead of its time.

Peculiarities

main feature of this weapon is its cooling system, a metal casing with an aluminum radiator inside.

This pipe gives it a somewhat eccentric image of a minigun, work to facilitate this design was carried out constantly, but they only came to the operation of a machine gun without it at all.

The barrel cut ended in the casing itself, when fired, air was drawn through the radiator, thereby cooling the barrel. Now this cooling system is often criticized, citing the post-war years and the use of Lewis without radiators as an example.

But keep in mind that at the time of the release, this decision was fully justified.

Moreover, the same cooling scheme is now used at the PKP Pecheneg.

Using a coiled mainspring - feature Lewis designs. The manufacture of such springs was quite expensive, in addition, the metal of these springs quickly "tired".

Shop disk, placed on top of the receiver. The design of the magazine is quite original, it does not have a feed spring, the cartridge is fed by the lever of the weapon mechanism when the magazine rotates.

The magazine capacity was 47 or 97 rounds. The store had an extremely simple form, his equipment was organized quite simply. I turned the axis of the disc, inserted the cartridge into the socket, turned the axis and inserted the next one.

Despite the original and simple design, the store has the following disadvantages:

• the duration of the equipment, each cartridge is inserted alternately with the axis scrolling, the use of the bar did not greatly speed up the process;
• the magazine box open from below led to the contamination of the cartridges, which could cause delays in firing;
• rotation of the magazine disk when firing could cause injury if the weapon was handled carelessly.

Nevertheless, despite all the shortcomings, the device of the store was simple, the store itself had a significant capacity, in addition, it required only automatic actions from the equipper.

Operating principle

The principle of operation of the machine gun was quite simple, when fired, part of the powder gases fell into the underbarrel gas chamber.

The gas piston moved, releasing the shutter and moving it back, while twisting the spring and turning the magazine disc.

The shutter, moving, removed the spent cartridge case from the chamber and threw it to the side, simultaneously cocking the rear sear. Moving to the rearmost point, the shutter stopped. The mainspring untwisted, moved it forward. The feed lever lowered the cartridge from the magazine down to the bolt.

The cartridge was sent into the chamber, and at that moment a shot took place. The cycle was repeated again.

Performance characteristics and comparison

At the beginning of his career, Lewis had only three main competitors - the German MG-08 / 15, the Danish Madsen and the French. But in practice, the MG-08/15 was a converted Maxim, adapted as a manual, with a mass of 18 kilograms and external bulkiness, mobility was below average.

Which, in general, affected its application.

The Madsen system, a fairly successful weapon model, but having inherent flaws, such as a box magazine sticking up, which blocked the shooter's view.

The Shosh system, with a 20-round magazine and drawbacks like constant jamming and contamination, is also not a full-fledged competitor.

Thus, it was the English machine gun that was the king of the First World War. This was due to both a successful design and performance characteristics. In addition, one must take into account the fact that he had significant reserves for modernization.

This was shown by numerous alterations for different cartridges, both with a welt sleeve - 7.62x53R, and without a welt - 8 mm Mauser.

The 1913 Lewis machine gun of the year had following characteristics:

• cal. 303 British;
• weight (empty) - 11.8 kg;
• barrel length - 665 mm;
• total length - 1283 mm;
• technical rate of fire 650 rds / min;
• magazine capacity 47 or 97 rounds, weight 1.8 kg (47 rounds);
• effective range 3200 meters.

According to the totality of characteristics at the time of the start of production, this machine gun overtook all analogues. A fully equipped machine gunner carried a loaded 13 kg Lewis machine gun and two magazines for it. The rest of the disks were at the second number of the calculation.

Application

The peak of his career fell on the First world war where it was used on all fronts. Among the Landwehr infantry, Lewis earned the nickname " rattlesnake”, which is to some extent deserved by the sound of firing, but its mobility and tactics of use on the battlefield also played a significant role.

The machine gun was also produced after the end of the war, and moreover, it was actively used as an air defense weapon on ships and boats back in the 40-50s.

Moreover, a well-known photograph of the parade on November 7, 1941, where the Red Army soldiers go to the front with Lewis machine guns, apparently seized from long-term storage warehouses.

A lot of historical shots were captured by Lewis in the service of the royal troops and Her Majesty's Navy.

Britain used them everywhere, but mostly on secondary sectors of the front.

The machine gun was also actively used as a turret for aviation. But they finished using it for aircraft defense already in the early 40s. Rifle-caliber bullets could no longer damage an all-metal aircraft with a single hit.

And the low rate of fire did not allow to achieve a significant number of hits on a high-speed target.

In cinema

The most famous appearance of Lewis in the film "White Sun of the Desert", where his role was played by a DP machine gun.

Lewis was also noted in the film "Own among strangers, a stranger among his own." In the series "Makhno" and "Chapaev", where he occasionally flashes in the frame.

In foreign films, he appeared in the frames of the films All Quiet on the Western Front, The Battle of the Cortes, The Mummy and others.

In computer games

The machine gun model is found in a number of modifications of the STALKER game, in addition, the Lewis gun can be seen in the World of Guns: Gun Disassembly simulator.

In Battlefield I, the Lewis machine gun is carried by the fire support team.

In addition, it was Lewis who was taken as the basis for creating the appearance of the blaster in Game Star Wars Battlefront.

Video Review

The American Isaac Lewis developed his light machine gun around 1910, based on an earlier machine gun design by Dr. Samuel McLean. The machine gun was proposed by the designer for arming the American army, but in response there was a harsh refusal (caused by an old personal conflict between the inventor and General Crozier, then head of the US Army weapons department). As a result, Lewis directed his steps to Europe, to Belgium, where in 1912 he founded the company Armes Automatiques Lewis SA to sell his offspring. Since the company did not have its own production facilities, an order for the production of the first experimental batch of Lewis machine guns was placed with the British company Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) in 1913. Shortly before the start of the First World War, Lewis machine guns were adopted by the Belgian army, and after the start of the war, they began to enter service. English army and royal air force. In addition, these machine guns were widely exported, including to tsarist Russia. In the United States, the production of Lewis machine guns of caliber .30-06 was mainly in the interests of the nascent air force and marines was deployed by Savage arms. In the twenties and thirties, Lewis machine guns were quite widely used in aviation. various countries, while the barrel casing and radiator were usually removed from them. During the Second World War, a significant number of British Lewis were withdrawn from reserves and used to arm territorial defense units and for air defense of small commercial transport vessels.

light machine gun Lewis uses gas-operated automatics with a gas piston located under the barrel with a long stroke. The barrel is locked by turning the bolt on four lugs located radially at the rear of the bolt. Shooting is carried out from an open shutter, only with automatic fire. The features of the machine gun include a spiral return spring acting on the gas piston rod through the gear and gear, as well as an aluminum radiator on the barrel, enclosed in a thin-walled metal casing. The radiator casing protrudes forward in front of the muzzle, so that when fired, air is drawn through the casing along the radiator, from the breech to the muzzle. Cartridges were fed from top-mounted disk magazines with a multi-layered (in 2 or 4 rows, capacity 47 and 97 rounds, respectively) arrangement of cartridges radially, with bullets to the axis of the disk. At the same time, the store did not have a supply spring - its rotation to supply the next cartridge to the chambering line was carried out using a special lever located on the machine gun and driven by the shutter. In the infantry version, the machine gun was equipped with a wooden butt and a removable bipod, sometimes a handle for carrying weapons was placed on the barrel casing. Japanese Type 92 Lewis machine guns (manufactured under license) could additionally be used from special tripod machines.

Lewis machine gun(English) Lewis gun) or simply "Lewis"- a light machine gun developed before the First World War in 1913 and was in service with the armies of different countries of the world until the middle of the 20th century.

History of creation and production

The design idea belonged to Samuel McLean (eng. Samuel MacLean), but it was embodied by an American - US Army Colonel Isaac Newton Lewis (Eng. Isaac Newton Lewis).

Initially, Lewis intended to use his machine gun as a water-cooled machine gun, but later moved on to the idea of ​​developing a light machine gun with a forced air-cooled barrel.

Lewis failed to convince the leadership of the need to adopt his design, retired and in 1913 moved to Europe.

Lewis' offer to demonstrate his machine gun was accepted by a group of Belgian merchants. The machine gun showed itself on the good side, as a result, an agreement was signed, according to which in the Belgian city of Liege was created new company Automatic Lewis for the production of the Lewis machine gun. However, the only manufacturer able to offer the necessary production capacity, became a British firm Birmingham Small Arms(BSA), with which they entered into an agreement.

Firm BSA received orders for test batches of a machine gun from the military departments of England, Belgium, Russia, as well as a number of other countries. After thorough testing, despite the problem with barrel overheating, the machine gun was generally rated positively and recommended for adoption. In 1913, the machine gun was officially adopted by the Belgian army.

Of great importance in the fate of the "Lewis" were trial aerial firing conducted by the British Air Force. After them, it became obvious that the Lewis machine gun was one of the best candidates for the role of aviation weapons. However, the British War Office was cautious, and BSA had to start shipping already produced batches of machine guns to Russia and Belgium.

Literally on the eve of the war, in June 1914 war ministry and the British Admiralty urgently ordered 10 Lewis machine guns, and two weeks later another 45. Immediately after the outbreak of hostilities, BSA received an order for 200 machine guns, which were then produced at a rate of 25 pieces per week. And after the Lewis machine guns, which were in service with the Belgian army, brilliantly showed itself in battle, applications for new machine guns fell like a cornucopia.

It soon became clear that the BSA alone could not cope with the growing wave of orders, so the British, together with the Canadians, ordered 12,000 machine guns from a major American weapons company. Savage Arms Co.. By the end of 1915 new production shops in Burningham they started working at full capacity and the production of machine guns there reached 300 pieces a week. After that, the British government agreed to cede to Russia their orders for Lewis machine guns placed in the United States. Deliveries of machine guns (chambered for .303 British) began in 1916.

In total, before June 1, 1917, 9,600 American-made Lewis machine guns and 1,860 English-made machine guns were delivered to Russia.

The license for the production of Lewis machine guns was bought by Japan and Holland, arming their armies with these weapons.

By the end of the 1930s, it was withdrawn from service, but with the outbreak of World War II it was returned to service after a partial modernization.

Variants and modifications

• Mark I- the first model of .303 caliber adopted by the troops of the British Empire in 1915.
• Mark II- a specially designed model for aviation based on Mk. I, with a lightweight casing without cooling fins. The butt is replaced with a handle similar to the handle of a garden shovel. The magazine receiver has been modified to accept a 97-round magazine.

  
  

• Mark II*- modification with an increased rate of fire, adopted in 1918.
• Mark III- further modernization Mk. II* with even more rapidly shooting made in the same year with a barrel without a cooling jacket.
  
• Mark III*- British designation for the American M1918 purchased under the Lend-Lease program in 1940 for use in parts of the second line. The “shovel handle” has been redesigned into a skeletal buttstock that allows you to fire a machine gun from a rest or from a “thigh”.
  Review of soldiers of the British Volunteer Territorial Defense Force Home Guard).
  The first soldier in the second rank is armed with a Lewis Mk. III*
• Mark III**- model designation Mk. III modified according to the model M1918.
• Mark III DEMS- model Mk. III* with a front holding handle, designed to arm the guards on merchant ships.
  Machine gun Mark III DEMS in the hands of a soldier from the guards of an armed merchant ship
• Mark IV- remanufactured and assembled from spare parts stocks of the Mark III** model, in which the old "fragile" reciprocating mainsprings were replaced with more reliable ones.
• Model 1915- machine gun Lewis Mk. I manufactured by an American company Savage Arms Co. for the Entente troops during the First World War.
  
• M1917 Lewis - Model 1915 with a modified gas automation system for a more powerful American cartridge .30-06 Springfield. Part of the issued machine guns was adapted for use on aircraft.

  
  
  

• M1918 Lewis- specially designed model for aviation chambered in .30-06 Springfield.
• Mitrailleur M.20- licensed version chambered for 6.5 × 53 mm R, manufactured in the Netherlands by the Staatsbedrijf der Artillerie Inrichtingen A / D arsenal in Hamburg, 10,500 copies were produced under license. By May 1940, 8,410 units were still in service.
• Type 92- Japanese aircraft machine gun. Licensed copy of the British machine gun "Lewis". It was widely used on Japanese naval aviation aircraft in the 1930s, but by the beginning of World War II it had become obsolete and was replaced by more powerful models.

  
  
  

Also, according to some reports, the machine guns of the Lewis system were produced in France and Czechoslovakia.

Design and principle of operation

Machine gun automation works on the principle of removal of powder gases. The machine gun consists of the following main parts and mechanisms: a barrel with a radiator and a casing, a receiver with a lid and a feeder, The back of the head of the butt - the back of the attachment to the arrows of the first weapon or from the del de tal attached to the la-e-may from the back side to p-kla-du."> butt pad with a butt, a fire control handle with a trigger, a bolt, a bolt carrier, a reciprocating mainspring in its box, a magazine and a bipod.

« calling card» system is a casing, the edges extending far beyond the muzzle and forming a kind of ejector there with its profile - when fired, a wave of powder gases, passing through it, created a rarefaction in the rear part of the casing with its inertia and, as a result, pulling portions of cold air under the casing along the longitudinally finned trunk. Active air cooling in history small arms was not used anywhere else (except for the modern Russian machine gun Pecheneg). The connection of the barrel with the receiver is threaded.

The design of the infantry version of the "Lewis" remained virtually unchanged until the end of the First World War. But for use in aviation, the machine gun began to be intensively modernized. The first change was the replacement of the rifle stock with a handle similar to the Hotchkiss Mle machine gun. 1914, more convenient when handling a machine gun mounted on a shooting turret. Moreover, in this case, it was not required to rest against the shoulder to parry the recoil.

frame sight, Diopter - a special variety of aper-tour-no-go-pri-la, in this vari-an-te whole-face half-no-stu-pe-re-roof-va- there is an overview of the eye of a spe-re-di, and sa-ma aper-tu-ra is very small in diameter (with a human-lo-ve-che-sky pupil) ra- bo-ta-et like a ka-me-ra-ob-sku-ra, projecting an image of an arrow on the pupil with greater contrast. This type of target gives the highest accuracy of all possible mechanical le-niy, ras-pay-toy for this serves a lot of time at-a-go-li-va-niya and labor-no-sti with on-ve-de-ni-em in condition-vi- yah su-me-rek and no-chi, it’s precisely for these reasons that we are given a given view at-tse-la it’s worth pract-ti-che-ski only on screws for target shooting would be for large distances, and it also requires special-ben-but right-vil-no-go-so-ba at-tse- li-va-niya."> diopter; triangular shaped fly.

Operation and combat use

By the end of the 1930s, Lewis machine guns began to be withdrawn from service, but with the outbreak of World War II they were returned to service.

• Belgium- adopted by the army in 1913. It remained in service until the outbreak of World War II.
• Great Britain- Adopted in the British Empire, including the dominions and colonies in 1914.
  Soldiers of the distant desert patrol ( Long Ran-ge De-se-rt Gro-up (juice-ra-schen-no LRDG, lit. va-tel-no-di-version-noe sub-raz-de-le-nie of the British army, su-stu-in-vav-neck during the Second-swarm of the world-ro - howl of war. Commander-blowing German Af-ri-Kan-sky Kor-pu-som Field Marshal Er-vin Rom-mel believed that LRDG “why-y-nya-et to us more harm than any other British unit of the same power. ">LRDG)

  By the beginning of World War II, the Lewis machine guns in the British army were mostly replaced by more advanced BREN machine guns, however, after the evacuation from France (in conditions of a shortage of small arms), the stocks of machine guns in the warehouses in the amount of 58,963 pieces. were hastily transferred to second-echelon units.

• Netherlands- Adopted and produced under license.
  
• Poland- in service Polish army since independence (from the arsenals of the tsarist army).
• USSR- in Russia, the first 10 Lewis machine guns were purchased in July 1913 and, after testing, transferred to the Officers' Rifle School. In 1916, at the initiative of the tsarist government, an agreement was signed on the supply to Russia of 9,600 American and 1,800 machine guns made in England. Lewis machine guns were also used during civil war. In particular, the personal guards of Makhno's father were armed with Lewis machine guns - "Luysists". Machine guns of American origin were made under the Mosin 7.62 mm cartridge (stamp on the butt plate - 0.3). The English fired the .303 British cartridge. The latter were more popular due to their increased crippling ability. Mk VII bullets. English machine guns "Lewis" under the 7.71-mm cartridge were used in Russia mainly in aviation

  Machine guns "Lewis" remained in military warehouses until the Great Patriotic War and used on it initial stage. A well-known photograph of machine gunners with manual "Lewis" marching at the parade on November 7, 1941 on Red Square before leaving for the front.

  
  Military parade on Red Square. Moscow, November 7, 1941. The photo is interesting in that the soldiers of the Red Army are wearing winter helmets, canceled in July 1940, and armed with old English machine guns of the Lewis system, brought to Russia in 1917

  Also, such machine guns were on Estonian submarines type "Kalev" British-made, which became part of the Soviet Baltic Fleet in 1940.

• USA- after the start of World War II, Lewis machine guns were in service with parts of the second line.
  
• Third Reich- due to maneuverability and general secrecy, Lewis machine guns were nicknamed by the soldiers of Kaiser Germany "rattle snake", which was facilitated by the characteristic sound of a machine-gun burst. Captured machine guns by the Germans were actively reworked under the 7.92 mm Mauser cartridge and were used in assault squads along with other trophies.

  In the Third Reich, captured machine guns were used under the name MG 137(e). In the autumn of 1944, during the formation of Volkssturm battalions, 2,891 units were transferred for their armament. 6.5 mm machine guns Lewis M. 20 from the arsenals of occupied Holland.

• Finland- in service Finnish army since independence (from the arsenals of the tsarist army).
  
• Japan- accepted into service Japanese Air Force, produced under license.

Video

Shooting from the Lewis Machine Gun, handling weapons and more:

Colonel Isaac Newton Lewis of the US Coastal Artillery offered this machine gun to the US Army, but the weapon was not accepted, and Lewis set up his own factory in Belgium. In 1914, his firm went bankrupt and the factory was taken over by the British Small Arms Company.
The action of the automation mechanisms of the Lewis system light machine gun is based on the principle of the removal of powder gases through a hole in the barrel. In front of the casing there is a gas chamber regulator, which has two holes for venting gases with letter designations: "L" - a hole of a larger diameter and "S" - a hole of a smaller diameter. To move the regulator from one hole to another, it is rotated 180° using the regulator lever.

The barrel bore is locked by turning the bolt, the lugs of which are included in the transverse grooves of the receiver. The rotation of the bolt when locking is carried out by a curved groove on the bolt and the base of the bolt rack. The percussion mechanism of the percussion type is fixed on the bolt carrier. The trigger mechanism allows only automatic fire.

The machine gun is fed with cartridges during firing from a disk magazine, which is driven during rotary motion feeding mechanism. The lever-type feed mechanism is actuated by a protrusion of the bolt tail, which is included in the curved groove of the feed lever.
There is a pawl on the feed lever, which, interacting with the transverse ribs of the magazine, rotates the magazine. Keeping the magazine from turning to the right and left is made by two levers, which are located on the cover of the receiver.
The extraction of the sleeve is carried out by two ejectors fixed in the gate, and reflection is carried out by a lever-type reflector located in the receiver.
This design of the feed mechanism proved to be too complicated and prone to delays when firing. In addition, the disc magazine with a capacity of 47 rounds was expensive to manufacture and low-tech. Therefore, in 1923, the design of the machine gun was modernized, during which a simple box magazine with a capacity of 20 rounds was introduced instead of a disk magazine. The feeding mechanism has been simplified accordingly.

The machine gun fuse consists of two strips with cutouts placed on both sides of the receiver. The cutouts are designed for setting the bolt carrier on the fuse in the forward and rear positions.

The design of the machine gun used air-cooled barrel. In order to increase the cooling efficiency, an aluminum radiator with high longitudinal ribs and a casing with a pipe are installed on the barrel. The barrel is connected to the receiver with a thread.

The machine gun has a rack type sight. It is mounted on the cover of the receiver and has up to 20 divisions. longest range aimed shooting is equal to 2000 yards, which corresponds to 1850 m.
To use the machine gun as a manual machine gun, it is equipped with a bipod, butt and trigger guard handle. AT lung variant easel machine gun, it was mounted on a light tripod machine, the butt plate with a butt was replaced with a butt plate with a handle.
The Lewis machine gun was also used as an aircraft. On aircraft, it was installed in turrets and equipped with disk magazines with a capacity of 97 rounds.
With the adoption of the Bren light machine gun by the British army, the Lewis machine guns were put into warehouses or transferred to the colonial troops. The shortage of light machine guns at the beginning of the Second World War forced the use of these machine guns in the regular units of the British army.

Originality of design and worthy specifications made the Lewis machine gun one of the most durable weapons of the first half of the twentieth century. In addition, memorable appearance helped the machine gun stay in the minds of fans military history as one of the symbols of the largest military conflicts in history.

The history of the development of the Lewis machine gun

The first developments in this area belong to the American Samuel McLean, but Colonel Isaac Lewis took up further development and "bringing to mind". It is curious that initially the colonel planned to create a water-cooled easel machine gun, but abandoned this idea due to the occupation of a niche by the developments of Maxim and Browning that had already proven themselves.

A forced air-cooled light machine gun is introduced in 1913, but does not attract the attention of the US War Department, after which Lewis begins production in Europe. So, Armes Automatique Lewis is founded in Liege, Belgium, and production in the UK is carried out under the auspices of Birmingham Small Arms (later American industry is involved in the business). In the same year, the Belgian army took the "Lewis" into service, and already in 1914 successfully used them with the outbreak of the First World War.

The first batch of ten samples arrived in Russia in July 1913 for testing at the Officers' Rifle School. Appreciating new pattern in comparison with the existing bulky counterparts, two years later, a decree was issued on the mass acquisition of the Lewis system for installation on light aircraft. Before the start of the revolutionary events, approximately 9,500 Lewises of American origin (for Mosin rifle ammunition) and about 1,900 British models (caliber 303 British) were purchased.

Description of the design and principle of operation

The already generally accepted principle of the removal of powder gases did not bypass this machine gun. Of the technical solutions that distinguish Lewis from analogues, it is especially worth noting a special valve on the gas chamber to control the rate of fire, the extraordinary structure of the disk store along with the feeder. There was no supply spring in the magazine, so it rotated with a protruding tail on the spring. The task of the unusual-looking casing is forced air cooling: at the time of the shot, the powder gases “getting stuck” in the casing forced cold air to circulate along the barrel due to its rarefaction in the rear and temperature differences.

However, it is worth noting that although the aviation variation of the machine gun was produced without such a device, this did not create difficulties in its use by parts of the British army, so the casing can be considered a design overkill. The rejection of a cylindrical reciprocating mainspring in favor of a lamellar one also looks unusual. Due to its wear and shrinkage after long-term firing, a special key was added to the set of accessories for the machine gun to tighten the spring.

Main structural elements:

• Barrel (with casing and radiator);
• Receiver;
• Gate;
• shutter frame;
• Box with reciprocating mainspring;
• Score;
• Bipod (later one telescopic).

The percussion mechanism belongs to the percussion type, fixed on the bolt carrier. The bore was locked by turning the curved groove of the shutter. The fuse is placed on receiver, and the design of the trigger mechanism excluded the possibility of firing single shots, which often led to an overrun of cartridges, taking into account the small capacity of the disk magazine.

Lewis gun ammo

There were practically no worthy opponents for the "British of American origin" in his niche. For example, the German MG 08/15 was essentially a "Maxim" that lost weight compared to the original, but was still too bulky. The French Shosh model was too unreliable and vulnerable to pollution, and the closest enemy, the Danish Madsen, with relative success, had absolutely no development potential due to a number of initial flaws. This situation allowed the designer to get the most out of his invention, and the machine gun was mass-produced for the following ammunition:

• .303 British (7.69*57mm);
• Mosin rifle cartridge (7.62 * 54 mm);
• .30-06 Springfield (7.62*53mm);
• .256 Mannlicher (6.5*53mm);
• Less well-known variants, in particular, chambered for the German 8mm cartridge.

The most common are the first two options from this list.

Tactical and technical characteristics

For a generalized understanding, the following table shows the parameters of the first British production model. Differences from counterparts adapted to other calibers are minimal.

Despite the fact that Lewis gun (that's how it is spelled in English, it official name in the ranks of the British armed forces) successfully coped with its main task - supporting the infantry in the offensive and even earned the nickname "machine gun with which you can run", various designs of machine tools and tripods for it have been preserved in history.

Pros and cons of weapons

Echoing the above, "Lewis" was the absolute leader among infantry weapons. First of all, due to the fact that now a machine-gun crew of two people (the first number carries weapons directly and two disk magazines, the second - additional ammunition) became as mobile as most of infantry armed with rifles (later - PP). Examples of application are also successful both in aviation on aircraft unable to carry heavier weapons, and as a means air defense. Until the 1940s, a number of machine guns were equipped with special wire sights.

The main disadvantage was the low density of fire - a standard magazine of 47 rounds with a mass of almost two kilograms was discharged in three seconds. The disc magazine was often criticized for its constant rotation, which, if handled carelessly, often injured shooters' fingers and led to misfires.

Lewis machine gun modifications

In addition to adaptations for various calibers, the British continued to develop the idea of ​​a designer.

Version history:

• Infantry modification Mk1 - slightly modified sample;
• Mk2 - specifically for air combat. Added a second handle for control, instead of the stock. For the first time, magazines for 97 rounds are used, a bag for cartridge cases appears, the casing and radiator are shortened, a flash suppressor is added;
• The Mk3 was redesigned from those already in service: the automation was improved and the gas outlet was enlarged.

Also, a licensed copy - Type 92 - was widely used in Japanese aviation.

Application in history

Shortly after being put into service, the first shots were fired from the Lewis in combat conditions. In the European theater of operations, he was appreciated by all opposing sides for multitasking and mobility. The soldiers of the countries where he was not accepted for service sought to get him as a trophy.

But this model earned the greatest fame a little later, becoming the most recognizable of the machine guns of the Civil War. Now MMG "Lewis" is almost an obligatory prop in any film about the confrontation between the "reds" and "whites". He deserved special love among the Makhnovists - Makhno's bodyguards were completely armed with them.

After the revolution, Lewis machine guns in huge number lay in the warehouses of the Red Army until the beginning of World War II. With them, the first of the formed divisions went to the front right from the 1941 parade of the year, and militia units like the Tula Workers' Regiment were massively equipped with them.

The last conflict where the massive use of the American designer's system was noticed was the Korean War.

I encourage readers to discuss this system ahead of its time or turned out to be an unnecessary whim of the designer?

We are waiting for your comments.

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