The Vickers .50 machine gun, also known as the 'Vickers .50' was basically the same as the 0.303 inches (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun

Vickers machine gun

Not to be confused with the Vickers light machine gunThe Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name primarily used to refer to the water-cooled .303 inch machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army...

 but scaled up to use a larger calibre 0.5 inches (12.7 mm) round.

Mark II, IV and V

Mark II entered service in 1933 and was mounted in some British tanks. Marks IV and V were improved versions and were also used mounted on trucks in the North Africa Campaign. It was superseded for use in AFVs (armoured fighting vehicle

Armoured fighting vehicle

An armoured fighting vehicle is a combat vehicle, protected by strong armour and armed with weapons. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked....

s) during World War II by the Besa machine gun

Besa machine gun

The Besa Machine Gun was a British version of the Czechoslovak ZB-53 air-cooled, belt-fed machine-gun, which in the Czechoslovak army was marked as the TK vz. 37...

 15-mm version.

Mark III

Mark III was a naval version used as an anti-aircraft weapon, mostly by the Royal Navy and allied navies in World War II, typically in mountings of 4 guns. It proved insufficiently powerful in the short-range anti-aircraft role against modern all-metal aircraft and was superseded during World War II by the Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original design by Reinhold Becker of Germany, very early in World War I, and widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others...

. The naval quad mount featured a 200 round magazine per barrel, with a maximum rate of fire of 700 rounds per minute, per gun.

During the Second World War it was also mounted on power-operated turrets in smaller watercraft such as Motor Gun Boat

Motor Gun Boat

Motor Gun Boat was a Royal Navy term for a small military vessel of the Second World War. They were physically similar to the Motor Torpedo Boats but equipped with a mix of guns instead of torpedoes. Their small size and high speed made them difficult targets for E-boats or torpedo bombers, but...

s and Motor Torpedo Boat

Motor Torpedo Boat

Motor Torpedo Boat was the name given to fast torpedo boats by the Royal Navy, and the Royal Canadian Navy.The capitalised term is generally used for the Royal Navy boats and abbreviated to "MTB"...

s.

External links

• War Office, UK, Tank Training, Vol II Part III, Pamphlet No. 3. .5 inch Vickers Machine Guns Marks IV and II. 1936 from Google docs
• War Office, UK, Tank Training, Vol II Part III, Pamphlet No. 5. .5 inch Vickers Machine Gun Mark V. 1937 from Google docs
• War Office, UK, Machine Gun Handbook (Technical) Volume I, Pamphlet No. 1. Vickers .303-in. and .5-in. Machine Guns and Appurtenances. 1940 from Google docs
• LRDG -- WEAPONS