On this day 72 years ago:
Vickers machine gun crew of ‘A’ Company, 2nd Middlesex Regiment, 3rd Division at Grubbenvorst, Holland, 13 January 1945. Note the complex sight and traversing mount for sustained and very accurately laid out fire from a defensive position.
The WWI-era .303 Vickers, though an outdated water-cooled sustained fire machine gun by the next big war, still soldiered on in the British and Commonwealth armies into the 1960s when it was replaced by the FN MAG 58 in 7.62x51mm NATO, which remains the standard GPMG of HMs forces today.
