Editing Vickers machine gun (section)

====Colt–Vickers M1915====
[[File:111-SC-24659 - NARA - 55208929.jpg|thumb]]
By the early 1900s, the U.S. military had a mixed collection of automatic machine guns in use that included [[M1895 Colt–Browning machine gun|M1895 "potato diggers"]], 287 [[Maxim machine gun#American use|M1904 Maxims]], 670 [[Hotchkiss M1909 Benet–Mercie machine gun|M1909 Benét–Mercié]] guns, and 353 [[Lewis machine gun]]s. In 1913, the U.S. began to search for a superior automatic weapon.  One of the weapons considered was the British Vickers machine gun.

{{quote box|align=right|width=30%|The Board of Ordnance & Fortifications held a meeting on March 15, 1913 to consider the adoption of a new type of machine gun. ... The Board is of the opinion that, with the exception of the Vickers gun, none of the other guns submitted showed sufficiently marked superiority for the military service, in comparison with the service [Benét–Mercié] Automatic Machine Rifle to warrant further consideration of them in the field test. The Board is of the unanimous opinion that the Vickers rifle caliber gun, light model, stood the most satisfactory test. As to the merits of the Vickers gun there is no question—it stood in a class by itself. Not a single part was broken nor replaced. Nor was there a jam worthy of the name during the entire series of tests. A better performance could not be desired.
|Captain John S. Butler, Office of the Chief of Ordnance<ref name="m1915">{{cite web |url=http://www.sadefensejournal.com/wp/?p=756 |title=U.S. Colt Vickers Model of 1915 |work=Small Arms Defense Journal |date=6 January 2012|first=Robert G. |last=Segel |access-date=20 February 2015}}</ref>}}

Field tests were conducted of the Vickers in 1914, and the gun was unanimously approved by the board for the army under the designation "Vickers Machine Gun Model of 1915, Caliber .30, Water-Cooled". One hundred twenty-five guns were ordered from [[Colt's Manufacturing Company]] in 1915, with an additional 4,000 ordered the next year, all chambered for .30-06. Design complexities, design modifications, and focus on producing previously ordered weapons meant that when the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917, Colt had not manufactured a single M1915.<ref name="m1915" />

Production began in late 1917 with shipments to the Western Front in mid-1918. The first twelve divisions to reach France were given French [[Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun]]s, and the next ten had M1915s. The next twelve divisions were to have [[Browning M1917]] machine guns, but there was a shortage of parts. By August 1918, thirteen U.S. divisions were armed with the Colt–Vickers machine gun, and many aircraft were armed with the weapons as well (2,888 guns were converted). 7,653 guns were issued during the war out of 12,125 produced in total. War damage losses reduced the number of M1915s in the U.S. Army inventory from 9200+ to about 8,000 total.<ref name="m1915" />
[[File:Water-cooled machine guns just arrived from the USA under lend-lease are checked at an ordnance depot in England. - NARA - 196325.jpg|thumb|M1915 guns from the USA inspected in England]]
[[File:The Second World War 1939 - 1945- the Home Front H5842.jpg|thumb|In service with the Home Guard]]
After World War I, the Colt–Vickers machine guns were kept in reserve until World War II. Several hundred were sent to the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines, and were all eventually lost to enemy action.<ref name=colt1915>{{cite web|publisher=Small Arms Review|url=https://smallarmsreview.com/the-u-s-colt-vickers-model-of-1915-water-cooled-machine-gun/|title=The U.S. Colt Vickers Model of 1915 Water-Cooled Machine Gun|date=September 2, 2022|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230401011923/https://smallarmsreview.com/the-u-s-colt-vickers-model-of-1915-water-cooled-machine-gun/|archive-date=April 1, 2023}}</ref> In 1940 and 1941, a total of 7,071 M1915 guns were purchased by the United Kingdom<ref>Goldsmith 1994, p. 229</ref> to re-equip their forces after the [[Dunkirk evacuation]], which depleted the weapon from the U.S. inventory before their entry into the war. Because the M1915 Colt–Vickers was not chambered for the standard British .303, it was painted with a red band to differentiate it and restricted it to [[British Home Guard|Home Guard]] use.<ref name="m1915" />