Machine Gun Memorabilia: V22N8
By Robert G. Segel
Commemorative remembrance wall plaque from the Machine Gun Corps’ 106th Company, Sergeants Mess, at Camiers, France. The Machine Gun Corps, established in 1915, was based in England at Belton Park. As soldiers trained and transitioned to France, they were sent to Camiers, which was the Machine Gun Corps’ base in France. This all-brass wall plaque measures 13½ inches high by 9 inches wide. It has a detailed, three-dimensional Vickers gun mounted independently that measures 6½ inches long. The plaque commemorates from 1915–1916 Sgt. R.W. Kennedy, Sgt. B.T. Anderson, Sgt. J. Welles and S-Sgt. J.J. Nelson with the notation to “Remember Them.” An additional side plaque for 1917 on the left commemorates Sgt. R.D. Richardson and Sgt. K. Williams, and a side plaque for 1918 on the right commemorates Sgt. W.J. Coombes. The plaque features the Machine Gun Corps cap badge insignia at the top of crossed Vickers under the King’s crown placed above the Machine Gun Corps ribbon banner. Two Machine Gun Corps uniform buttons are at the top left and right corners while the bottom button is a sleeve or pocket-size button.
German regimental reservist’s flask. .25L porcelain flask with metal cover with screw cap and cup with a finial of a Maxim Machine Gun on wheeled mount. The obverse has a hand-painted scene of a machine gun crew and has written across the top “Maschinen Gewehr, Abtheil Nr. 11, Metz, 1906-1908”. (Machine Gun Battalion Number 11, from Metz, with service from 1906-1908) with a red shoulder board with “11” to the center and below “Das Maschinen-Gewehr in der Schutzenlinie” (The Machine Gun Protects the Line). The Reverse has a scene of the machine gun on a horse-drawn cart in transit with “Res: Feukers” (reservist Feukers) to the top with “Das allerstarkste Kriegesheer kann ohne uns nichts machen” below (The strongest of all Armies can do nothing without us). Cloth-braided carrying strap.
British Vaux Breweries bar top ashtray for Double Maxim ale. Circa 1980-90s. With label logo in the center. Around outside edge are three Double Maxim logos and three Vaux logos. The rear reads, “Praesidium Melamine England.” 7 inches in diameter. This famous northeast brand first appeared as Maxim Ale in 1901 to mark the homecoming of the Maxim Machine Gun detachment that was led by Colonel Ernst Vaux in the Boer War. In 1938 the brew was increased in strength and so it was called “Double Maxim.”
South African Railway Police qualification breast badge. Large gold metal breast badge encased in a clear plastic coating consisting of wings and shield with Uzi submachine gun in center. Unit disbanded in 1986.
U.S. Doughboy helmet worn by a member of the 5th Division assigned to a machine gun battalion. Insignia consists of a Colt Vickers Model of 1915 water-cooled machine gun under a red diamond (the insignia of the 5th Division). The 5th Division was made up of regular army troops and had three machine gun battalions attached: the 13th, 14th and 15th. The shell is stamped ZF9 on inner rim. Once belonged in the collection of the Brownsville Military Museum in Historic Brownsville, Oregon. The unit was part of a major attack that reduced the salient at St. Mihiel. The division later fought in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. After the war, the division served in the Army of Occupation, being based in Belgium and Luxembourg and returning to the U.S. in July 1919.
This article first appeared in Small Arms Review V22N8 (October 2018) |
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