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Centenary of Machine Gun Corps Disbandment Commemoration Demonstration


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My grandfather was in the MGC transferring from 2nd KOYLI some time after the Somme. They trained at Belton Park in Lincolnshire. We have some ashtrays somewhere.

The last British unit equipped with the Vickers was the Royal Marines. He said they'd go out at night in the dark with a Vickers HMG and a map. They set up and the fire a belt at a map reference they'd been given using the dial sight. Then go back to barracks for cocoa and bed. The next morning they'd get up, have breakfast and go and inspect the targets that had been set up at the night before's map reference.

My late friend also extolled the virtues of his skill at "slicing" the Vickers in daylight for direct fire but said a fellow Marine was far batter! Essentially you placed empty metal five litre cans irregularly spaced at one hundred yards on the butts and fired one shot then tapped "or "sliced" as he called it the back of the gun to move it to fire at the next can and so on. He said he could do five or six but his friend could do a dozen plus.

Edited by enfieldspares
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