A parting shot(s) before the weekend starts
Just picking up on the Vickers MMG post of last night
During the Battle of Normandy, C Coy 2nd Kennsingstons, supporting a battalion attack fired 500,000 rounds of MMG ammunition in a day
which sounds impressive until you read this...
On 24 August one of the most celebrated machine gun actions of all time took place nearby. This was the famous barrage fired by 100th Machine Gun Company in support of the capture of High Wood.
With the assistance of two companies of infantry to do the fetching and carrying, rapid fire (officially laid down as 250–300 rounds per minute) by 10 guns was maintained continuously for twelve hours. At the end of this period they had fired 900,750 rounds.
Their target was the area behind the crest-line on which High Wood stands, through which German infantry attempting to counter-attack had to pass. According to a German prisoner, the effect of the machine-gun fire was ‘annihilating'. This barrage was of course rather out of the ordinary, both in terms of its duration and in the lavish expenditure of ammunition. Nevertheless, along with the preceding examples, it shows that by the late summer of 1916 the use of machine guns in the British army was showing signs of increasing sophistication.
Comments
It's a real thing of beauty!
It's unfortunate the only time we get to use them is in war and in training.
Posted by: POWinCA | July 18, 2009 4:44 AM
A serious case of throat erosion then. Is there a record anywhere of how many barrels they burnt out?
Posted by: bambi-ski | July 20, 2009 8:49 AM