WWII Tech Pubs Briefing

Written by
Justin Riggir

[ Top of Page | Feedback ]

Overview

The Vickers-Berthier machine gun was designed by General Adolphe V.P.M. Berthier (fl 1885-1920), a French Army officer who was also responsible for the design of the Berthier rifle, an adaptation of the 8mm Lebel rifle to include a Mannlicher-type magazine that, as a carbine, was adopted into service in 1890. Berthier then progressed to the design of automatic rifles, taking out his first patents in Britain and Belgium in 1905. 

Berthier developed his design and produced a machine gun, which was manufactured for him by Pieper of Liège in 1908. This was among the first weapons that could be accurately called a light machine gun; being shoulder-fired, from a bipod, and fed from an overhead box magazine.  It was gas-operated and used a tipping bolt locking into the receiver, a system of operation remarkably similar to the later design used by Browning in his Automatic Rifle, which was also developed in Liège.  Berthier cooled his weapon by surrounding the barrel with a thin jacket, with water being pumped back and forth through this jacket by two rubber bellows units operated by the gunner's assistant.

In 1916 Berthier went to the USA in an attempt to organise production of his machine gun. Shortly after the US entry into World War I the US Army ordered several thousand, and Berthier arranged for manufacture to be undertaken by the Hopkins & Allen Company of Norwich, Connecticut.  Unfortunately, for Berthier the company set up to organise production, the United States Machine Gun Company, that controlled the Hopkins & Allen factory, had ran into severe financial difficulties and the factory was requisitioned by the Marlin-Rockwell Cor­poration in order to manufacture Browning Automatic Rifle parts. The war ended before Berthier could organise another source of production and the Berthier machine gun failed to appear.

Berthier then went to Britain and sold the manufacturing rights to the Vickers Company in 1925. Vickers modified the design slightly, notably doing away with the water-cooling system and turning it into an air-cooled gun with a finned barrel. The gun was then renamed to the Vickers-Berthier gun and manufacture of the Mark 1 gun beginning in 1928 with small numbers being sold overseas. There was an attempt to sell the gun to France, however with no success as they had committed themselves to the Châtellerault, which used a similar system of operation.

As a result of their sales, Vickers made some improvements; the rear sight was simplified, the barrel lost its fins, and a quick-change barrel was fitted. By grasping the barrel carrying handle and pressing in a latch, the barrel could be rotated and pulled from the gun body and a new barrel inserted in less than five seconds. This became the Mark 2 that was produced from 1930 onwards.

After many trials the Vickers-Berthier was adopted by the Indian Army as their standard light machine gun in 1933. A subsequent model, the Mark 3, was made by them, under license, at the Ishapore Ordnance Factory.  The Vickers-Berthier was to be found with Indian Army divisions throughout World War II, it was highly regarded, since it was a reliable, smooth-firing weapon, although in many cases battle losses were replaced by Bren guns where the logistic situation made this quicker and easier than providing new Vickers-Berthiers from India.

The Vickers-Berthier and the Bren are very similar in appearance, however there are small differences in contour of the barrel, barrel handle, pistol grip and other components.  Additionally the action is very similar, both weapons using a tilting bolt driven by a gas piston and feeding from a curved magazine mounted above the gun.

During the early 1930s the Vickers-Berthier was extensively tested in Britain and in many quarters was tipped as the coming British Army light machine gun.  However, it was beaten by the Bren gun and shortly afterwards Vickers gave up manufacture, leaving the Indian Army to continue making and using it until well after the end of World War II.

[ Top of Page | Feedback ]

Variants

[ Top of Page | Feedback ]

Specifications

Figures are for the Vickers-Berthier Mk.3 Light Machine Gun.

[ Top of Page | Feedback ]