Stoppages

[Terry_Crisp]

Could one of you gentlemen please define for me what constitutes the various numbered Machine gun stoppages or jams in the RFC nomenclature.
I am well aquainted with auto weapons but we use the descriptive terms for these Jams, ie. double feed, split case, stovepipe etc.
I am enjoying reading High In The Empty Blue but I find it a minor annoyance to repeatedly wonder just what kind of trouble these guys are having.
Thanks in advance and Best Regards to all,
Terry

[Barrett]

The Maxim/Vickers guns were prone to essentially four types of stoppages, based on the position of the charging handle/cocking lever at the time of malfunction:
1) charging handle slightly forward, usually caused by simple misfeed or poor maintenance. Pull handle full back and release.

2) Handle slightly aft of top center. Bad news: at best it's an oversized case that didn't go into battery. Hammering might help. Worse news: broken case (extractor ripped rim off) and next round tried to fill the occupied chamber. Go home, lad.

3) Handle full aft, unlocked. Various causes including lubrication or overheating (trigger control! Trigger control!). Probably needs armorer's attention.

4) Handle full aft, locked. Almost certainly a dud round (faulty primer). Tap-rack-bang, as they teach at Gunsite.

Dud rounds are the reason chain guns were invented. They're way cool.

Stoppages can be caused by defects in the gun and defects in the ammo, or both. As we knnow from our experience with all things made by machine there will be 'lemons'. This goes true because the very machine tools that produce an item wearout and get deformed, or the material they operate on is defective. In making MG rounds the powder might get degraded if there was too much humidity in the assembly rooms, or if cold casing, were brought into a damp environment. Parts may be out of spec which would generate problems in the firing cycle to throw off the timing: When you consider that an MG has to spit out 8 to 16 rds/sec the timing has to be precise. Belt-fed guns will work fine in the dry, but in the wet the web material will expand to the point where one single bullet will not get into the chamber in time. Even metallic linkage can be made defectively to cause jams. Imroper lubrication can cause a change in timing by freezing at high altitudes.
Not really mentioned in the books is the sabotage caused to American war material by IWW people who were against the war. By leaving out a vital part a complete weapon can be invalidated.
And so it went...

I need a point of clarification, Barrett. I assumed that when the loading handle was fully forward the gun was in battery (charged with a round on a closed breech). Wouldn't a type 4 with a dud round be in this forward position rather than with the loading handle aft? Or have I got it reversed?

[Barrett]

Ed: Now you got ME wondering if I'm reversed! But I don't think so...the charging handle on a Maxim/Vickers (they're nearly identical) is not comparable to that on, say, a Browning M1917/1919 in which there's a direct connection to the handle and the bolt. Rather, in the Maxim design the charging handle pivots fore and aft, which presumably would account for the difference.
But I've been wrong before...

[Droops]

In his book on who shot down the Red Baron, Norman Franks includes a discussion of the varous stoppages in an appendix. He even provides drawings of the positions. I happened to be reading that two days ago (avoiding doing my tax returns) and I believe (from memory, since I don't have the book in front of me) that Barrett's description is accurate. Numbers 1 and 4 jams usually could be repaired in the air. A number 2 jam MIGHT be repaired, but might not. Finally, a number 3 jam was big trouble and you needed to go home.

The number 2 jam apparently required the use of a small hammer to push the firing pin forward to the closed position.

Franks notes that all of the machine guns on both sides were essentially local adaptations from a single (older) design. I assume one could infer that the German side experienced a similar series of jams. Could anyone confirm or deny this?

Regards,

John

[Terry_Crisp]

I took a look at Franks book. He says that the weapons being essentially the same they suffered from the same problems.
Thanks for your input.
Best Regards,
Terry

[Barrett]

I would suspect that the Germans had more malfunctions than the Brits, not because of any inherent fault of the Maxim but because of poor(er) manufacturing, especially of ammo, as the war lengthened and strategic materials became scarcer.

Hi all,

Someone mentioned, what would the position of the charging handle be if the gun had a dud. On a LMG Maxim, the handle would be back in its' normal "back" position, just as it would when you would stop firing.

Best,
Dave

P.S. On captured German aircraft you will sometimes see the charging handles of the LMG Maxims in the forward position, this almost certainly means the firing trigger locks have been removed and someone tried to "charge" or cycle the charging lever, and when they did, the connecting piece flopped down and hung-up on the bottom trigger slide "locking-up" the weapon. To undo this, you would have to open the top cover lid and using your middle finger reach deep down and raise the connecting piece for the lock, and free the action. There is a well published photo of a Roland D.VIb cockpit, and you can see the charging handle levered forward and the top lid cover ajar,....someone boo-booed.

Two other Items: The other day I was flipping through a book on MvR at Barnes and Noble, when I chanced across a photo of two RFC men holding the Parabellems scavenged off the Baron's downed Tripe. I have seen this photo before, and what always puzzled me were the tubes projecting down and forward from the receiver.
Last month, I saw, in the book Weapons of The Third Reich, there is a full page drawing from the Imperial War Museum, documenting the details of the aircraft conversion of the German Maxim, including the slotted jacket and the "stepped" receiver. and this drawing shows that fired cases were ejected down and forward, thru the 'mystery' tube, into a hopper, which I presume was located somewhere so that the Armorer had to stand on his head with one foot near his armpit to retreive it. The cocking handle was drawn in the rear position, which I assumed was "cocked" (i.e. open bolt, like M1919 Browning).
Now, however, I am confused...