212467 Joseph Henry Hubbard British Army 176 Coy Machine Gun Corps This is a letter my grandfather, Joseph Henry Hubbard of the 176 Coy MGC, wrote to the Southern Daily Echo(Southampton) in the 1970s. My Grandfather was in 3rd Ypres and the Battle of Cambrai in 1917.
The Vickers Gun.
I have read with great interest your account of the history of the .303 Vickers machine gun, but I was so sorry that no mention was made of the men who manned this famous gun in the period 1916-18.
I am thinking of the Machine Gun Corps (badge, crossed guns and crown), which was raised in late 1915 and reached a total of 165,000 men and suffered 62,049 casualties.
Again, I cannot quite agree where you write of the slow rattle of this gun;it fired at a rate of 600 rounds per minute and if I remember rightly, this could be accelerated my tightening the fuzee spring. Now this is not surely a slow rattle, but considered rapid fire.
I believe I am correct in stating that the German heavy gun was somewhat slower. The stoppages were, of course, a nightmare to us, the wet belt being the cause of nearly all the trouble. I hope old comrades will bear me out.
J.H.Hubbard, late 176 Coy., MGC., BEF., France.
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