Lewis Gun Love Affair

[Gil Boyd]

Doug,
Nice group photo there of the West Yorkshire Regiments Machine Gun Platoon 1917.

[RCS]

The combination that later became the M60

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Pity they seemed to have cut a few corners with the significance of the MG-42 "double-shuffle" feed system that could work reliably at outrageous cyclic rates. FN seemed to be paying more attention.

Any M-60 owners tried to graft a MaG-58 / M-240 feed onto their M-60?

[RCS]

You can find these 303 Lewis gun cartridges around as they are not really rare, most have the 18 headstamp. The 303 Lewis cartridge case is 62mm long but still the same overall length as the standard 303 cartridge in order to fit into and function in the Lewis drum.

After the war ended in 1918 little was done with this experimental cartridge but I did read that the Pattern 1914 also had been converted to fire this cartridge for testing

[Warren]

As an interesting side note on the Lewis, the Germans just loved the Lewis and converted a number of them to 7.92mm.
I know of one gun that remains however a 7.92 mag has shown up.
A number of 7.92 mm Lewis guns were captured at Hill 70 during WW I

[RCS]

The early WW2 Polish dive bomber called the Karas had a pilot with a rear gunner that used a 7,92mm Lewis and a bottom gunner also with a
7,92mm Lewis gun. I would think these were manufactured after WW1 ?

[RCS]

I was wrong about the crew served machine guns used on the Polish Karas dive bomber in 1939. From the photos I thought they were using Lewis guns but was wrong, they were using the Polish PWU wz 37 Vickers F with top mount drum in 7,92x57mm

[42rocker]

A friend of mine was working on restoring a 30.06 Lewis gun before he died. As I had tried to help him to find parts I was going to have a chance to shoot it after it was done. He passed on to soon.
Note finding 30.06 Lewis parts is not easy. I understand that only 500 of the Lewis guns were made in 30.06. This was one of them.
I have always found the Lewis Gun to be something that I would love to shoot and own. Someday.

Later 42rocker

[RCS]

Savage was the only US contactor to manufacture the Lewis machine gun in the USA. It took Savage two years to set up production once WW1 started.
The first were made in 303 cal then Savage produced the 30-06 caliber, 16,000 produced and delivered by May 1918. By Armistice Day 34000 Lewis
guns had been delivered most being aircraft. The USMC received 6000 Lewis guns from the 16,000 delivered in May 1918.

Fully equipped with Lewis guns, US Marine Divisions that landed in France and attached to the US Army were ordered to exchange them for the French
Chauchat machine guns (Gen Crozer Chief of Ordnance made sure the US ground forces would not have the Lewis)

[42rocker]

Thank you for the additional info. Updates are always welcome as I try to learn and correct errors.

Later 42rocker