Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "Vickers Heavy Machine Gun" video.

  1. The biggest problem with water cooled MG's was the tank getting holed by a stray round or shrapnel. Without the water jacket, the gun was reduced to firing nothing but short bursts before the barrel overheated. The other issue is water supply itself. Even in areas where water was available, it had to be put in cans and lugged to the gun since it boiled off about two gallons an hour with intermediate rates of fire and more like five gallons with continuous fire. Even in areas with plentiful water, it was common for the soldiers to urinate into water tins and use the urine for cooling since it obviated lugging cans down to the water supply and back In desert areas, urine was the primary coolant supply. One of the upsides in areas where water was used as a coolant was each gun provided about a gallon of very hot water when the action was over so the guys were able to do some washing up and shaving with hot water that didn't require a fire with the attendant smoke that gave away a position.
    1