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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association

@vickersmg.bsky.social
605 followers 52 following 728 posts

Registered Charity No. 1210266 (England and Wales). To advance the education of the public in the subject of military history and firearms, in particular (but not exclusively) in relation to the Vickers machine gun.

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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
#onthisday 1916 Private Andrew Sutherland of 56 Machine Gun Company, 19 Division was wearing this helmet when he received two bullets to the head at La Boiselle on the Somme. He survived and would go on to serve in the Royal Engineers and live until 1969.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
I enjoy writing these as there’s always something new to learn. On one about the Bren 1938-1941 at the moment and there’s lots of information in there to challenge misconceptions.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Head to Patreon to find out more about our Demo Day on Saturday 18 July 2026. We will be taking the #VickersMG and the personal weapons of the machine gunners to a range in the U.K. and people can come along to watch these iconic historic items being fired.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Machine-gun Tactics 1910! A brilliant book on how machine guns were used around the world prior to the First World War. Available in full as PDF and JPG for members of the Vickers MG Supporter Corps on Patreon. Join for £5 (plus applicable VAT and Patreon fees) per month.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
How many different types of #VickersMG ammunition box are there? Well we’re pretty sure we have most of them. For the last couple of days, a couple of our volunteers have been busy cleaning and cataloguing the belt boxes we have in the collection.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Unit markings! Great to find these stamped items while cataloguing in the #VickersMG collection. Some great #firstworldwar heritage here. These are my best guesses. Am I right?
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Pointer, Staff, Mark 1. Used to help indicate a target to someone looking over your shoulder. Part of a machine gunner’s kit in the Second World War but a general piece for instructors ever since it seems.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Can you see it? Given that we’re regularly printing and editing materials and publications, spotting a spelling mistake on something in the artefact collection is reassuring. Granted, they had more important things to focus on. This is a printed graticule card for indirect fire. #vickersmg
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
On Monday evening (27 April) we will be at G-Live, Guildford, to support @davidolusoga.bsky.social for his @faneproductions.bsky.social ‘A Gun Through Time’ stage show. We had the opportunity to show the devastation of the #VickersMG a few weeks ago and the audience get to see this.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
We’re pleased to have moved from the text drafting to the layout phase of our next book: The Bren Gun in North West Europe and at Home - Infantry 1938-41. It’ll be ready in the next couple of months and probably in time for TankFest.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Sight alignment with the Thompson: the cocking handle of the M1928 made a good quick battle sight and avoided the complexity of the adjustable aperture sight. This is from the 1942 Gale and Polden ‘Mechanism Made Easy’ pamphlet that we uploaded to our Patreon library recently. #tommygun
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
What was Army Form No 1? There have been thousands of forms generated in the British Army and we're currently uploading examples of hundreds of them to our online archive. Turns out that Form No 1 was just a confirmation of a letter receipt! This one is an interesting one too.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
We uploaded a batch of manuals to Patreon last night including a Canadian Army pamphlet on the Colt and S&W revolvers. This was a bespoke Pam to them rather than just a reprint of a British example. Great drawings. www.patreon.com/posts/154254...
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Friday Fonds - 13 February 2026 Our latest batch of archive uploads is now on Patreon. Here are some snippets of the files shared today, including a series of propaganda leaflets that will continue for several weeks.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
Interesting books for the Home Guard. We wonder how many survived filled in, let alone blanks like these. We have two examples from 7th North Riding of Yorkshire battalion that record a section’s attendance for 1943 to 1944 and all will be on our archive soon.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Another dozen or so items added to the online archive today, including #MachineGunCorps postcards and images. www.patreon.com/posts/150040...
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Lieutenant A Slater signed a lot of permits!! These are from our archive and have been scanned today and will be shared on our archive soon. The numbers range from 9688 to 67662 and ALL are signed by the same permit officer. Theres even a CSM’s wife with her own permit and photo!
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Our latest Extra! Dispatches from the Dugout video discusses the Bren and how easy it was to strip and clean. Also close ups of our skeletonised Bren. #militaryhistory #notjustvickersmg
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Available, along with our thousands of other items, from just £3 per month (or £27 a year!)
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Our other new archive uploads on the #VickersMG Patreon including Churchill, Crusader, Dingo and Carrier stowage diagrams, and papers for Manchester Regiment, King’s Own Lancasters and a tragic certificate of death for a Far East prisoner of war who died in an air crash on the way home!
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
This upload deserves its own post! A seemingly innocuous Army Book 136 - a notebook - but a platoon roll book, issue book, orders book and lectures for 8th (Saxmundham) Suffolk Home Guard in 1943! Completely digitised and uploaded to the #VickersMG Patreon today.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
The First World War Vickers MG! Our latest infographic is now on Patreon as a free access post. Head there to learn more about who did what and what equipment was carried. It is a great piece of work so, although free, please do subscribe to support the work we do. www.patreon.com/posts/vicker...
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
This came out of the box today! An officer’s advance book for a 2/Lt in the Royal Norfolk Regiment. He was taken prisoner ten days later! St Valery-en-Caux. It’s the only entry in the book.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
A preview of our next archive box to catalogue and share is now on YouTube. Propaganda leaflets, Christmas Cards, Home Guard notebooks, tank stowage diagrams and forms and much more! Check out the comments for where to find it.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
The Thompson M1928A1 is the subject of our next Extra! Dispatches from the Dugout over on Patreon.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Head to YouTube for our latest video. It’s a long one but Rich explains the changes in machine gun use during the First World War. There’s something for all aspects from the logistics to the technical aspects of the Vickers MG and a bit about the Lewis and Maxim.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Our latest video of the extras from Dispatches from the Dugout is now over on the VMGCRA Patreon. Dave and Rich take a closer look at the MP28 we fired during the range segments.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
For those in the south of England, Rich will be giving a talk to the Wessex branch of the Western Front Assoc this Saturday 3 January 2026 in Pimperne, near Blandford, Dorset. It will cover machine gunnery during the First World War, the Machine Gun Corps, their training and the people in it.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
Another great cartoon inside of this Machine Gun Corps Christmas Card (47 Battalion, 47 Division) and we have also included a special Christmas gift offer for those who would like to trial our Patreon access. Head to the VMGCRA Patreon and find this post.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Today’s Machine Gun Corps Christmas card was sent from 149 MG Company in 1917. Inside is a great cartoon illustration capturing a pillbox with men wearing the company flash. Part of 149 (Northumberland) Brigade. Full card accessible on the VMGCRA Patreon.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
An extra card today. ‘Almost MGC’ as it is a 1917 Tank Corps card sent by a former member of 24 Battery MGC Motors - Jack Harkness - for who we hold several pieces. @tankmuseum.bsky.social
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
A simple postcard but from a unit that had only a brief existence with the Machine Gun Corps. When Yeomanry troops found themselves on lorries for the last months of the war.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
What’s more festive that a #VickersMG mowing down a group of Germans? 8 Battalion Machine Gun Corps thought this was fine in 1918. Head to our Patreon to see the whole card.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
Our latest video: Extra! Dispatches from the Dugout taking a closer look at the PM1910 Maxim we fired and how it was to clean and maintain it. Only over on the VMGCRA Patreon. Join from £3 per month and access one of the biggest online military history archives.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
Another in house design from the #MachineGunCorps. This time from their camp at Alnwick, Northumberland in 1917. Head to our Patreon to see all the pages with no subscription required.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Another card from the archive. This is #MachineGunCorps ‘adjacent’ as the Machine Gun School was staffed by men of the Artists’ Rifles and School of Musketry at the time.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
Defensive measures. Adversaries have the same. From www.patreon.com/posts/119103...
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Our Christmas card today is not just for the Machine Gun Corps but all of the regiments and corps of the 14th (Light) Division are listed around the central picture of Delville Wood and remembers their actions of August 1916 - one of the more ‘interesting’ Xmas perspectives!
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Another MGC Christmas Card on the VMGCRA Patreon today (for everyone). This was drawn by Borlase Smart who was Artists’ Rifles and then an instructor in camouflage for the Machine Gun Corps.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Machine Gun Battalions in 1917? This Christmas card challenges our thoughts on that. Error or an area we haven’t really explored?
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
Another example of the #MachineGunCorps soldier’s name and company being printed inside this one. A great poem inside as well - not perhaps one of the ‘classics’ but pretty clever. Head to Patreon for free access to read it.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
Another Advent Machine Gun Corps card today. One for New Year more than Christmas but interesting because the sender’s name is printed, rather than written, inside alongside their company. Yesterday do our Friday archives we shared some more regular postcards too.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Alfred Leete? You’ve seen his work before! His #MachineGunCorps Christmas Card is now on the VMGCRA Patreon.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Some niche #VickersMG knowledge has helped describe this Machine Gun Corps Christmas Card. Two machine guns on the front but neither are the Mark 1 gun! More detail and a new card every day over on the VMGCRA Patreon.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
Today’s Machine Gunner Advent Christmas Card is for the Motor Machine Guns and has an amazing sketch inside of a motorcycle machine gun combination being chase by enemy cavalry! Available for free of the VMGCRA Patreon. #firstworldwar #militaryhistory
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Today’s #MachineGunCorps Christmas Card is from 62nd Battalion and captures their whole war service.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
Another Machine Gunner’s Christmas Card today for 41 MG Company, remembering their service on the Somme. Head to Patreon for the full card.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
Not the most ‘exciting’ Machine Gun Corps Christmas Card we are sharing this advent period but it is great to match them to the soldier who sent it! Head to our Patreon to see it in full.
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Head to the VMGCRA Patreon for another free access Christmas Card from the First World War. This one features a sketch of the #VickersMG drawn by The CSM of 247 MG Company!
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Vickers MG Collection & Research Association @vickersmg.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Today’s MGC Christmas Card over for free access on the VMGCRA Patreon
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