BSA 1914 Lewis Gun

The Lewis gun was the brainchild of US Army officer Colonel Isaac Newton Lewis. It was a light machine-gun operated by gas tapped from the barrel at the moment of firing. The barrel was cooled by a patent system of aluminium fins within a jacket. The muzzle blast of the gun was supposed to draw air over through the jacket and over the fins. It was this apparatus which gave the gun its distinctive shape. The US Army declined to adopt Lewis's weapon and, in 1913, he retired from the service and set up a company in Belgium to produce it, anticipating a ready market in Europe. In the event the first serious production of Lewis guns took place at BSA Ltd in Birmingham. In the early stages of the First World War, the rapidly expanding British Army had a desperate need for machine-guns, which could not be met by current production of the Vickers Gun (see FIR 8032). Consequently large orders were placed with BSA for Lewis Guns. As the war progressed the Army became familiar with the respective characteristics of the two machine-guns and specialized tactics were developed for their use. While the Vickers was placed in the hands of the Machine Gun Corps, ever increasing numbers of Lewis Guns were issued to the infantry - two per platoon by the end of the war. The Lewis's portability enabled it to be used to provide local support in both attack and defence, although the most important task of Lewis Gun teams was the neutralization of enemy machine-gun nests; usually undertaken with the assistance of rifle grenadiers. The Lewis was also used to arm aircraft and (briefly) tanks. Although it was a rather complex weapon to maintain, it can lay claim to being the most successful light machine-gun design used by any of the combatant powers during the First World War. Although it was replaced by the Bren Gun in 1938, the Lewis saw limited use during the Second World War.