Original British Pre-WWII Turkish Contract Vickers Display Machine Gun with Tripod & Accessories Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. Today examples of a true “Turkish Contract” Vickers gun are extremely hard to find. During World War One Turkey sided with Germany, but it was a close run thing. Turkey could have been swayed to the Allie’s cause, however, Britain lost the initiative by withholding promised arms and warship consignments directly prior to 1914, as they were understandably diverted for British use.

The Turks were furious and the Germans stepped up. The result was Britain faced another tenacious opponent in WW1 highlighted of course with the disaster of the Gallipoli campaign in and the immense Arab campaign.

Once WWI was over, Britain heavily supported Turkey and their new leader Ataturk providing copious aid including armaments. The result was that Turkey stayed neutral in WW2, much to Britain’s relief. Turkey adopted the British water cooled Vickers Machine Gun in the 1920s and with war looming all over Europe in the late 1930s asked for a further quantity of 1,176 from England in 1940 which Britain, despite its own precarious position, supplied.

The Turkish Vickers contract required all guns to be in the German 7.92mm caliber, since they had untold millions of cartridges in that caliber. They required their own model Tripod with different style legs and a very large brass soup-plate traversing dial. These guns were fitted with antiaircraft spider sights supported by a rear flag folding back sight.

Due to the great shortage of parts the Turkish contract featured many early Vickers traits such as a WWI “flat nosed” muzzle booster and many of the components bear the very early V.S.M. maker’s markings denoting Vickers Sons and Maxim of pre/early WW1. Masses of detailed information are available on pages 432-437 in “The Grand Old Lady of No Man’s Land,” by Dolf Goldsmith, published by Collector Grade Publications (1994).

This example falls right into this category having the above described antiaircraft sight system, the flat nosed muzzle gland and multiple VSM marked components. It has the correct “flag” rear anti aircraft sight mounted to the top cover, and there is the fitting for the spider sight attached to the back of the smooth water jacket, which is marked 9179 / V.S.M.. The feed block is the correct steel type, marked CAL 7.9 for the 8mm Mauser Rimless cartridges. Reconstructed from an original Turkish Contract Parts Set to BATF specifications with dummy side plate, this is totally legal to own as it has been classified as a NON-GUN by the BATF.

The included tripod is British make, and is not a Turkish Contract example as far as we can tell. The tripod is fitted with a British brass crosshead, which was unfortunately missing the elevation mechanism, which were often removed. We have added a custom fabricated spacer in its place so that the gun displays well. It has also been fitted with one of our reproduction ammo can carriers, which holds an original Vickers Ammo Can.

All Vickers MMGs have become EXTREMELY scarce recently, especially complete original tripods. Many more parts sets were imported than tripods, and they are highly sought after. A very nice “Turkish Contract” example, complete with a rare tripod and some great accessories. Ready to display!

The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name primarily used to refer to the water-cooled .303 inch (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The machine gun typically required a six to eight-man team to operate: one to fire, one to feed the ammunition, the rest to help carry the weapon, its ammunition and spare parts. It was in service from before the First World War until the 1960s.

The weapon had a reputation for great solidity and reliability. Ian V. Hogg, in Weapons & War Machines, describes an action that took place in August 1916, during which the British Army’s 100th Company of the Machine Gun Corps fired their ten Vickers guns continuously for twelve hours. Using 100 new barrels, they fired a million rounds without a single breakdown. “It was this absolute foolproof reliability which endeared the Vickers to every British soldier who ever fired one.”

The Vickers machine gun was based on the successful Maxim gun of the late 19th century. After purchasing the Maxim company outright in 1896, Vickers took the design of the Maxim gun and improved it, reducing its weight by lightening and simplifying the action and substituting components made with high strength alloys. A muzzle booster was also added.

The British Army formally adopted the Vickers gun as its standard machine gun on 26 November 1912, using it alongside their Maxims. There were still great shortages when the First World War began, and the British Expeditionary Force was still equipped with Maxims when sent to France in 1914. Vickers was, in fact, threatened with prosecution for war profiteering, due to the exorbitant price it was demanding for each gun. As a result, the price was slashed. As the war progressed, and numbers increased, it became the British Army’s primary machine gun, and served on all fronts during the conflict. When the Lewis Gun was adopted as a light machine gun and issued to infantry units, the Vickers guns were redefined as heavy machine guns, withdrawn from infantry units, and grouped in the hands of the new Machine Gun Corps.

After the First World War, the Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was disbanded and the Vickers returned to infantry units. Before the Second World War, there were plans to replace the Vickers gun; one of the contenders was the 7.92 mm (.312 in) Besa machine gun (a Czech design), which eventually became the British Army’s standard tank-mounted machine gun. However, the Vickers remained in service with the British Army until 30 March 1968. Its last operational use was in the Radfan during the Aden Emergency.