Item Description
Original Item: Only One Available. This is an excellent Museum Grade Condition British WWI manufacture Hotchkiss .30 Caliber pattern Portative cavalry Display Machine Gun constructed from all original parts on a machined solid display BATF receiver. Complete with markings, Crows Foot Tripod and detachable "L" shoulder stock. These were extensively used in WWI, being the first portable machine gun. Very intricate and very rare.
Hotchkiss Mark I Light Machine Gun In British Service The Hotchkiss Portative has a very interesting battle history, although the gun is not as widely known as the other British light machine gun, the Lewis. Adopted as the Hotchkiss Portable Machine Gun Mark I, it was based on the French Hotchkiss Model 1909. The British considered it more suitable for mounted troops cavalry and mounted infantry than the more cumbersome Lewis. It was used by some famous units in equally famous battles.
The Australian Light Horse, New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, and the legendary Camel Corp used it in the Desert Campaign in Sinai and Palestine from 1915 1917. In Palestine, it was used by the 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade in their overwhelmingly successful attack at Beersheba (immortalized in the excellent film The Light Horsemen, 1987). This charge is known as the most successful attack by mounted infantry in history. The Mark I was used by the ANZACs in the Gallipoli Campaign, and by British mounted troops in the fighting on the Western Front.
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