Whippet machine gun

gregoire · 10 December 2001, 02:49 AM

I have a stupid question about the Whippet tank why was it armed with Hotchkiss machine gun and not vicker or lewis is it because being being air cooled they were better fitted for tank use ???

I wonder any idea?

Volker_Nemsch · 10 December 2001, 10:13 AM

Air cooled guns had the advantage that the cutouts in WW1 tanks for these guns were much smaller than those for water-cooled guns. Another thing is that the barrels of the water-cooled guns were exposed to enemy fire.

As far as I know the Hotchkiss is heavier than the Lewis and so was chosen for infantry and tank use while the Lewis was preferred for aircraft use. In my opinion it would have been a problem to handle a Lewis guns (including the big ammunition drum) inside a WW1 tank. Perhaps there were only production problems to chose the Hotchkiss instead of the Lewis.

Perhaps someone else knows more.

15 December 2001, 03:50 AM

Some tanks were also fitted with Marlin machine guns. The receiver size also entered into the reason for adoption. You will note that most aircraft mg's were heavily padded (after a few teeth were knocked out and poked through lower lips See Springs' description in "War Birds.") Riding in those primative machines was all bounce and bump.You can do further research on this subject in a Palladin book, "Portrait of Power" by Col. Robert Icks and Col. G.B. Jarrett.