Machine Gun

The light machine gun was the centre of a British platoon's firepower during the 1930s and the Second World War. The French designer Adolphe Berthier invented this example. In 1925 the Vickers Engineering Company purchased the manufacturing rights to the gun. It was marketed commercially but had little success until it was adopted by the Indian Government in 1933 as the standard light machine gun for the Indian Army. Manufactured at the Ishapore Rifle Factory, the Vickers Berthier Mark III was used by the Indian Army throughout the Second World War, although battle losses were replaced by the Bren gun which was produced in much greater numbers in Britain and Canada.