Welcome to at the moment’s Photo of the Day! In the early Twenties, officers of the United States army bought collectively to go over their present small arms and what could possibly be improved. Mainly, they needed to look again on the first world battle and what they realized, and the way that could possibly be utilized to their small arms in order that they have been higher ready going ahead. As everyone knows the lengthy story brief is that the United States would undertake the M1 Garand as their commonplace problem service rifle. One rifle that popped up early in trials was this Vickers-Berthier Model 1919 Semi-Automatic Rifle. This rifle was manufactured by Vickers and designed primarily by Berthier therefore the identify Vickers-Berthier. It didn’t carry out nice in trials struggling elements breakages a lot. The of us in cost didn’t admire its 10 lbs weight nor did they just like the top-mounted journal type.
“Manufactured by Vickers, little information is available on this rifle. While Vickers did work on a line of light machine guns derived from Berthier’s 1922 machine gun, this rifle appears to stem from a slightly different origin. In addition to his machine gun work, Berthier experimented in the “machine rifle” area, and was one, amongst many inventors, attempting to place dependable semi-automatic or full computerized firepower within the fingers of the typical infantryman. To this finish, a lot of patents have been submitted by Andre Berthier c.1917-1919 underneath the identify of the U.S. Machine Gun Company, a division of Hopkins and Allen, with a watch for gross sales to the Army and Marine Corps. The design was not picked up; Berthier’s machine rifle was one of many many “also-rans” of the army arms growth course of. The precise circumstances of the design ending up with Vickers are unknown, although it might be a logical match for the corporate; within the mid-Twenties, Vickers took an interest within the Berthier’s machine gun as a potential LMG companion to their already very fashionable Vickers heavy machine gun, and produced a number of variants. The Vickers rifle would make a really pure addition to the road. At coronary heart, this rifle very strongly resembles the Vickers-Berthier, if it have been transformed from an open bolt selective hearth machine gun to a closed bolt semi-automatic rifle, and scaled right down to make a comparatively light-weight and maneuverable rifle, coming in at about 10 kilos, in distinction to the 24+ kilos of the machine gun. The coronary heart of the rifle is an extended piston gasoline operated motion, with the piston meeting hid by the forearm and enclosed by an aluminum warmth protect. The sights are offset to the left to clear the top-load journal (not included) with a blade entrance sight and a peep rear; the rear sight is elevation adjustable, however with no commencement marks and solely two positions, suggesting an early prototype or take a look at mannequin.”
Lot 2632: Vickers-Berther ‘Model 1919’ Semi-Automatic Rifle – Rare and Interesting Vickers-Berthier “Model 1919” Prototype Semi-Automatic Rifle. (n.d.). Rock Island Auction Company. {photograph}. Retrieved December 20, 2022, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/75/2632/vickersberther-model-1919-semiautomatic-rifle.
