Vickers-Berthier

The Vickers-Berthier was an air-cooled light machine gun built by the British firm Vickers-Armstrong and adopted for service by the British Indian Army. It grew out of a French design by Berthier from the years just before the First World War, and Vickers bought the licence rights to the Berthier Model 1922 in 1925, producing it at its Crayford factory as a lighter alternative to its water-cooled Vickers machine gun and as a replacement for the Lewis gun. It worked by gas operation with a tipping bolt, fed from a 30-round box magazine, and had a removable barrel and a bipod, which led to it being mistaken for the Bren. In the British Army trials that began in 1932 it lost out to the Czechoslovak ZB vz. 26, which became the Bren, but the Indian Army adopted it in 1933 and a production line was set up at the Rifle Factory Ishapore. It was slightly heavier than the Bren and fired more slowly, yet its simpler design made it cheaper to produce. Mark 1 appeared in 1928, Mark 2 in 1931 and Mark 3 in 1933. Brens replaced it in Indian service from 1942, though reserve units kept it into the 1980s, and it saw combat in the Second World War.