Lewis Gum Ammo Box from a WW1 Vehicle ?

[garys39]

Found this box at the caboot sale this morning, label to the front says "LEWIS GUN AMMn", any ideas, it measures 8 3/4"x 8 3/4" x 6" deep, is this big enough to hold 2x Lewis Gun drums, it obviously bolted to a vehicle or something ? (Early tank or Armoured car). It has the appearance of 1914/18 or early 1920s manufacture about it ?

Regards

Gary

[Tony B]

Nice find! How much? Any dates on it? Lewis gun did soldier on till about 1943.

[steveo578]

Difficult to give a snap answer -most machine gun corps WW1 tanks-armoured cars tended to have Hotchkiss or Vickers machine guns. Only MKIVs used the Lewis until replaced by Hotchkiss -for some reason the Lewis was tried in place of the Hotchkiss and then reverted to the Hotchkiss. I can't see any advantage or disadvantage of either type- perhaps just a production bottle neck.

 

Some A/Cs in the middle east in the inter war period, especially those operated by RAF used ring mounted Lewis- but there are no signs of externally mounted ready use boxes, but that doesn't rule it out.

 

It could be a ready use locker for a naval- or armed merchant vessel which used Lewis until the end of WW2 -although many were US calibre 30-06in. or a stretch it could be a RAF equipment for air field defence.

 

Steve

[Rlangham]

The problem with the Lewis was it's bulkiness compared to the Hotchkiss, and the vulnerability of it's cooling jacket and fins to damage. There was also something to do with the cooling system, designed to suck cool air in and over the barrel through the jacket, in fact blowing more hot gas into the machine gunner's face.

[Great War truck]

i cant answer your question, but great box though.