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Lewis Gun The Lewis Machine Gun was widely used as an aircraft mounted weapon, and by the middle of the war was being issued in large numbers to infantry platoons. Despite the large cooling jacket, the Lewis was an air-cooled weapon; it was found during the Second World War that the elaborate cooling system (air was sucked into the cooling shroud by the muzzle blast of the weapon and forcing a stream of air over the barrel) was no more efficient then guns lacking the shrouds, and was dispensed with.
Guns in use during the First World War retained the cooling system, and Lewis guns continued in service - often as Drill Purpose only weapons - up until the adoption of the Bren in 1939. The Lewis remained in use for training after the Bren began to be issued. The weapon was commonly fired from the 47 round drum (or pan), and was reputed to frequently jam. A Lewis gun team in the latter part of the First World War consisted of a gunner and three to six men carrying loaded pans for the gun in canvas carriers. In early 1916 a Canadian battalion had an entitlement of 8 Lewis Guns, by early 1918 it had sixteen, or one per platoon with four extra for anti-aircraft protection. By the end of 1918, each battalion had 32 Lewis Guns, with two per platoon plus anti-aircraft guns (fired from a tripod, as illustrated at right). It was a weapon mounting such as this that brought down Manfred von Richtofen (known to the Allies as "The Red Baron"), Germany's highest scoring fighter pilot in the First World War, when light machine gunners of an Australian artillery battery fired on the famous all-red triplane which had flown dangerously low over Allied lines. The Lewis Gun was used between the wars, and into the Second World War.
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