1 review    
Item:
ON1860

Original Pre-WWII Turkish Contract Vickers Display Machine Gun with Original Tripod

Item Description

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. The contract tripod with unique Turkish features is totally correct for this rare display gun. 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. Offered in very good condition.

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