M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun
Encyclopedia
The Colt-Browning M1895, nicknamed potato digger due to its unusual operating mechanism, is an air-cooled, belt-fed, gas-operated machine gun that fires from a closed bolt with a cyclic rate of 450 rounds per minute. Based on a John Moses Browning design dating to 1889, it was one of the first successful gas-operated machine guns to enter service.
During testing of the gun, it was found to be capable of firing extended bursts of over 1000 rounds before the barrel overheated and bullets began to tumble out of control; upon stopping, the red-hot barrel cooked off four or five additional shots before cooling down.
The gun was originally chambered in 6 mm Lee Navy and later, after the adoption of the Krag-Jorgensen rifle, in .30-40 Krag
, 7x57mm Mauser caliber (the same cartridge used in the Spanish Model 1893 Mauser), and .30-06 Springfield
in 1914. The 1914 version also included a lower tripod for firing prone; this is likely what led to the gun's nickname of "potato digger", as the operating lever would dig into the ground if it were fired from too low a position.
The M1895 was made for export as well; the Russians ordered several thousand M1895 machine guns in 1914 in 7.62 x 54R caliber for use in World War I. In .303 British
caliber, the M1895/14 saw service in England and France. The M1895 was also sold in 7x57mm Mauser caliber for use by various countries in South America.
The Colt's unusual method of operation had both advantages and disadvantages compared to competing machine gun designs of the day. The lever-operated repeating action gave the weapon a relatively slow rate of fire (less than 400 rounds a minute). However, the slow rate of fire combined with a heavy barrel also allowed the gun to be air-cooled, resulting in a simpler, lighter, and more portable machine gun compared to water-cooled designs. Though combat reports of action stoppages were not uncommon, most of these could be overcome by manually cycling the action. As gunners gained experience with operating an air-cooled machine gun, it became apparent that avoiding long continuous periods of fire materially added to the weapon's reliability and barrel life.
In 6mm Lee Navy
caliber, the M1895 saw service with the United States Marines during the Spanish American War, including the 1898 invasion of Guantanamo Bay, where a Marine battalion deployed four Colt guns (two of them borrowed from the USS Texas
ship's armory). The M1895 proved to be a significant advance in firepower for the Marines, who employed them in the first known use of machine guns by the American military to provide tactical support of infantry forces during an assault. In contrast, Army regular forces in the campaign were still burdened with heavy, manually operated Gatling gun
s that required heavy artillery carriages pulled by mule transport. Roosevelt's Rough Riders
, a dismounted volunteer cavalry regiment that fought in Cuba, also deployed two M1895 Colt machine guns in 7 x 57mm Mauser caliber (built for export, both guns were privately purchased for the Rough Riders), but although they did cause some Spanish casualties were reportedly somewhat unreliable. As Col. Roosevelt noted, "These Colt automatic guns were not, on the whole, very successful...they proved more delicate than the Gatlings, and very readily got out of order." The two M1895 guns were transferred to Lt. John Parker
's Gatling Gun Detachment, who used them in the siege of Santiago
.
The M1895 in 6mm Lee was also utilized by American Naval and Marine forces during the Philippine–American War, and the Boxer Rebellion
, where it proved to be accurate and reliable. Around 1904 the Mexican government purchased 150 of these guns in 7mm Mauser caliber, and these guns were employed throughout the protracted Mexican Revolution
. Use of the 7mm M1895 in the Mexican Revolution has been photographically documented, including the use of the gun by what appears to be a Villista. The US Navy also deployed some 6mm Lee M1895 guns from ship armories during the 1914 Vera Cruz fighting and occupation.
The US Army, while never formally adopting the M1895, purchased 2 guns in 1902, followed by an additional purchase of 140 guns in 1904. These guns, along with small quantities of Maxim and Vickers guns, were issued to various units for evaluation purposes. These would see intermittent use by Army and National Guard Units at least until 1921. The first formally adopted machine gun by the US Army was the M1909 Benet-Mercie (Hotchkiss) machine-rifle, a bipod-mounted, strip-feed machine gun.
Further south, the M1895 was also used by the Uruguayan Army against rebels during a late flare-up of the Uruguayan Civil War
in 1904.
Canadian mounted troops successfully used .303 M1895 guns in the Second Boer War (1899–1902). In one spectacular rear guard action a Colt gun mounted on a light carriage was able to stop a pursuing Boer Cavalry unit. The Canadian success with the M1895 led to the further use of the gun by the Canadian Army in World War I.
The M1895 was also used by various U.S. state militia and guard units, including the Colorado national guard
. A few of these guns fell into the hands of private militias staffed by mine company guards after the state discontinued funding of most of the guard units assigned to maintain order during a prolonged miners' strike. In 1914, an emplaced "digger" of one of these private militias fired extensively into a miner camp in Ludlow, Colorado, an event later termed the Ludlow Massacre
. A privately purchased M1895 also provided the main armament of an armored car of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency used to terrorize miners' camps during the strike, which the miners called the Death Special.
s. They were not taken out of combat however, but were instead given to equip formations of the Belgian Exile Army. The French also tested the Colt and some were used in early aircraft for testing. Additional Colt guns were sent to the Russians, who used them extensively. The Italian navy also used the Colts (and later Marlin production guns) for their navy. As many as four were mounted on each Italian torpedo boat
.
While the United States used the M1895 for training, it was considered obsolete by the point the United States entered the war, and saw no service. Colt ceased production of the M1895 and variants in 1916, selling the machinery and rights to manufacture to Marlin Rockwell who took over the still active Russian military and Italian Navy contracts in order to concentrate on increased Vickers production.
After Marlin started making the Colt 1914's, it developed an improved version of the M1895 was designed and produced by Marlin Rockwell (currently Marlin Firearms
) in 1917 and it was adopted by the US Army as a training weapon and approximately 2500 were purchased. This improved gun, the Colt-Browning M1895/14, was also called the "Marlin Gun" and "Model 1917". The primary improvement was the use of a detachable barrel, a more generous side plate cut-out and a sliding door on the right side plate opening (also made larger) for easier access. Despite these improvements, the Marlin was limited to 500 rounds of continuous fire due to a tendency to overheat. The Navy also purchased a version of the Marlin gun with a gas piston in lieu of the lever mechanism, although very few if any guns saw service aboard ship.
A second, much more radical version of the M1895 was introduced in 1917 for tank and aircraft use, later designated the Marlin M1917 and M1918. Like the Navy Marlins, these variants used a linear gas piston in place of the 'potato digger' arm and bore little outward physical resemblance to the basic "digger" design. The new reciprocating piston was located parallel to the barrel and below it, allowing the gun to be mounted lower to the ground. Another improvement was the use of aluminum fins as a heat radiator. Most Marlin M1917 and M1918 guns saw use in aircraft as defensive armament. By the last months of World War I, almost 50% of the Spad XIII fighter aircraft in France had their Vickers guns replaced with Marlins. Had the war progressed into 1919 the Marlin would have been the primary U.S. tank and aircraft gun. The M1917/1918 also equipped Thomas Morse Scout aircraft
used for advanced training at stateside bases.
The Marlin gun would see postwar use on the machine gun version of US Army's Six Ton Tank, an American copy of the French FT-17. However, the Marlin guns quickly disappeared from U.S. military service after the great success of the .30 Browning machine guns and variants subsequently adopted for air, ground, and shipboard use.
The last documented use of the type was by the National Guard against striking miners in the Battle of Blair Mountain
, West Virginia in 1921. A contemporary photo illustrates a Colt-Browning gun with a ribbed barrel in the hands of a guardsman supporting Sheriff's deputies. The ventilating ribs indicate the gun was most likely a Marlin M1917/18 machine Gun purchased by the Army in 1917-18 for training and familiarization purposes, as the U.S. military never purchased the Colt M1895/1914 variant.
The Belgian army acquired a large number of 7mm Mauser M1895/14 versions towards the end of World War I, which were kept in storage after the conflict and allocated to certain reserve infantry regiments before the outbreak of World War II. The guns were widely used in action during the German invasion of Belgium between 10th May and 28th May 1940.
Operating mechanism
Filed for patent in 1892, the M1895's operating mechanism was one of Browning's early patents for automatic rifles; he had previously been working on lever action rifles for Winchester such as the Winchester 1886. The M1895 uses a unique operating mechanism, which is quite similar to that of a lever-action rifle. The earliest prototype developed by Browning in early 1889 was a .44 caliber black powder cartridge rifle, weighing under 12 pounds. Operation was via a lever located under the barrel, which operated the action when swung downwards. The lever was actuated by the muzzle blast operating upon it.Development
An improved design based on Browning's prototype lever mechanism was offered to Colt by Browning in 1892. The lever was moved back, and power was supplied by a gas port about six inches (15 cm) back from the muzzle. To minimize heating during rapid fire, the gun used a very heavy straight countor barrel (finned for ventilation on later variants), bringing its weight up to 35 pounds; the standard tripod mount with seat for the gunner, added another 56 pounds. Despite the heavy barrel, the closed bolt mechanism would cook off shots if a round was left chambered in a hot barrel. This required that the gun be unloaded immediately after an extended burst of firing.During testing of the gun, it was found to be capable of firing extended bursts of over 1000 rounds before the barrel overheated and bullets began to tumble out of control; upon stopping, the red-hot barrel cooked off four or five additional shots before cooling down.
The gun was originally chambered in 6 mm Lee Navy and later, after the adoption of the Krag-Jorgensen rifle, in .30-40 Krag
.30-40 Krag
The .30-40 Krag was a cartridge developed in the early 1890s to provide the U.S. armed forces with a smokeless powder cartridge suited for use with modern small-bore repeating rifles to be selected in the 1892 small arm trials...
, 7x57mm Mauser caliber (the same cartridge used in the Spanish Model 1893 Mauser), and .30-06 Springfield
.30-06 Springfield
The .30-06 Springfield cartridge or 7.62×63mm in metric notation, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and standardized, and was in use until the 1960s and early 1970s. It replaced the .30-03, 6 mm Lee Navy, and .30 US Army...
in 1914. The 1914 version also included a lower tripod for firing prone; this is likely what led to the gun's nickname of "potato digger", as the operating lever would dig into the ground if it were fired from too low a position.
The M1895 was made for export as well; the Russians ordered several thousand M1895 machine guns in 1914 in 7.62 x 54R caliber for use in World War I. In .303 British
.303 British
.303 British, or 7.7x56mmR, is a .311 inch calibre rifle and machine gun cartridge first developed in Britain as a blackpowder round put into service in December 1888 for the Lee-Metford rifle, later adapted to use smokeless powders...
caliber, the M1895/14 saw service in England and France. The M1895 was also sold in 7x57mm Mauser caliber for use by various countries in South America.
The Colt's unusual method of operation had both advantages and disadvantages compared to competing machine gun designs of the day. The lever-operated repeating action gave the weapon a relatively slow rate of fire (less than 400 rounds a minute). However, the slow rate of fire combined with a heavy barrel also allowed the gun to be air-cooled, resulting in a simpler, lighter, and more portable machine gun compared to water-cooled designs. Though combat reports of action stoppages were not uncommon, most of these could be overcome by manually cycling the action. As gunners gained experience with operating an air-cooled machine gun, it became apparent that avoiding long continuous periods of fire materially added to the weapon's reliability and barrel life.
Use
The M1895 was the first machine gun adopted by the United States military, and it saw service with the Army (who never formally adopted it), and the US Navy/US Marines, and was adapted to use in many roles. It was mounted on tripods, horse drawn carriages, boats, aircraft, and even armored cars. The US Navy was the first to begin testing, as early as 1893, with a version chambered in the Navy's 6mm cartridge.Early conflicts
6mm Lee Navy
The 6mm Lee Navy aka 6mm U.S.N. is an obsolete American rifle cartridge. It was the service cartridge of the United States Navy and Marine Corps from 1895, officially replacing the .45-70 Government round, and was the first small-bore high-velocity smokeless powder cartridge to be adopted by...
caliber, the M1895 saw service with the United States Marines during the Spanish American War, including the 1898 invasion of Guantanamo Bay, where a Marine battalion deployed four Colt guns (two of them borrowed from the USS Texas
USS Texas (1892)
USS Texas was a second-class pre-dreadnought battleship built by the United States in the early 1890s. She was the first American battleship and the first ship named in honor of the state of Texas to be built by the United States...
ship's armory). The M1895 proved to be a significant advance in firepower for the Marines, who employed them in the first known use of machine guns by the American military to provide tactical support of infantry forces during an assault. In contrast, Army regular forces in the campaign were still burdened with heavy, manually operated Gatling gun
Gatling gun
The Gatling gun is one of the best known early rapid-fire weapons and a forerunner of the modern machine gun. It is well known for its use by the Union forces during the American Civil War in the 1860s, which was the first time it was employed in combat...
s that required heavy artillery carriages pulled by mule transport. Roosevelt's Rough Riders
Rough Riders
The Rough Riders is the name bestowed on the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish-American War and the only one of the three to see action. The United States Army was weakened and left with little manpower after the American Civil War...
, a dismounted volunteer cavalry regiment that fought in Cuba, also deployed two M1895 Colt machine guns in 7 x 57mm Mauser caliber (built for export, both guns were privately purchased for the Rough Riders), but although they did cause some Spanish casualties were reportedly somewhat unreliable. As Col. Roosevelt noted, "These Colt automatic guns were not, on the whole, very successful...they proved more delicate than the Gatlings, and very readily got out of order." The two M1895 guns were transferred to Lt. John Parker
John Henry Parker (General)
General John Henry Parker aka "Gatling Gun Parker" was a brigadier general in the United States Army. He is best known for his role as the commander of the Gatling Gun Detachment of the U.S...
's Gatling Gun Detachment, who used them in the siege of Santiago
Siege of Santiago
The Siege of Santiago also known as the Siege of Santiago de Cuba was the last major operation of the Spanish-American War on the island of Cuba. This action should not be confused with the naval battle of Santiago de Cuba.-Santiago Campaign:...
.
The M1895 in 6mm Lee was also utilized by American Naval and Marine forces during the Philippine–American War, and the Boxer Rebellion
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
, where it proved to be accurate and reliable. Around 1904 the Mexican government purchased 150 of these guns in 7mm Mauser caliber, and these guns were employed throughout the protracted Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
. Use of the 7mm M1895 in the Mexican Revolution has been photographically documented, including the use of the gun by what appears to be a Villista. The US Navy also deployed some 6mm Lee M1895 guns from ship armories during the 1914 Vera Cruz fighting and occupation.
The US Army, while never formally adopting the M1895, purchased 2 guns in 1902, followed by an additional purchase of 140 guns in 1904. These guns, along with small quantities of Maxim and Vickers guns, were issued to various units for evaluation purposes. These would see intermittent use by Army and National Guard Units at least until 1921. The first formally adopted machine gun by the US Army was the M1909 Benet-Mercie (Hotchkiss) machine-rifle, a bipod-mounted, strip-feed machine gun.
Further south, the M1895 was also used by the Uruguayan Army against rebels during a late flare-up of the Uruguayan Civil War
Battle of Masoller
The Battle of Masoller, which occurred on September 1, 1904, was the final battle of the intermittent Uruguayan Civil War which marked much of 19th century Uruguay, resulting in the victory of the Colorado forces.-Location and historical background:...
in 1904.
Canadian mounted troops successfully used .303 M1895 guns in the Second Boer War (1899–1902). In one spectacular rear guard action a Colt gun mounted on a light carriage was able to stop a pursuing Boer Cavalry unit. The Canadian success with the M1895 led to the further use of the gun by the Canadian Army in World War I.
The M1895 was also used by various U.S. state militia and guard units, including the Colorado national guard
Colorado Army National Guard
The Colorado Army National Guard is a component of the United States Army and the United States National Guard. Nationwide, the Army National Guard comprises approximately one half of the US Army's available combat forces and approximately one third of its support organization...
. A few of these guns fell into the hands of private militias staffed by mine company guards after the state discontinued funding of most of the guard units assigned to maintain order during a prolonged miners' strike. In 1914, an emplaced "digger" of one of these private militias fired extensively into a miner camp in Ludlow, Colorado, an event later termed the Ludlow Massacre
Ludlow massacre
The Ludlow Massacre was an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado on April 20, 1914....
. A privately purchased M1895 also provided the main armament of an armored car of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency used to terrorize miners' camps during the strike, which the miners called the Death Special.
World War I
The M1895/14 Colt-Browning saw use in France by some Canadian infantry formations. Deploying to France in 1915, the 21st Canadian Light Infantry Battalion used .303-caliber M1895/14 machine guns in combat. These guns saw significant combat but were soon replaced by Vickers machine gunVickers machine gun
Not to be confused with the Vickers light machine gunThe Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name primarily used to refer to the water-cooled .303 inch machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army...
s. They were not taken out of combat however, but were instead given to equip formations of the Belgian Exile Army. The French also tested the Colt and some were used in early aircraft for testing. Additional Colt guns were sent to the Russians, who used them extensively. The Italian navy also used the Colts (and later Marlin production guns) for their navy. As many as four were mounted on each Italian torpedo boat
Torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...
.
While the United States used the M1895 for training, it was considered obsolete by the point the United States entered the war, and saw no service. Colt ceased production of the M1895 and variants in 1916, selling the machinery and rights to manufacture to Marlin Rockwell who took over the still active Russian military and Italian Navy contracts in order to concentrate on increased Vickers production.
After Marlin started making the Colt 1914's, it developed an improved version of the M1895 was designed and produced by Marlin Rockwell (currently Marlin Firearms
Marlin Firearms
Marlin Firearms Co., formerly of North Haven, Connecticut, is a manufacturer of high power, center fire, lever action, and .22 caliber rimfire rifles. In the past, the company made shotguns, derringers and revolvers...
) in 1917 and it was adopted by the US Army as a training weapon and approximately 2500 were purchased. This improved gun, the Colt-Browning M1895/14, was also called the "Marlin Gun" and "Model 1917". The primary improvement was the use of a detachable barrel, a more generous side plate cut-out and a sliding door on the right side plate opening (also made larger) for easier access. Despite these improvements, the Marlin was limited to 500 rounds of continuous fire due to a tendency to overheat. The Navy also purchased a version of the Marlin gun with a gas piston in lieu of the lever mechanism, although very few if any guns saw service aboard ship.
A second, much more radical version of the M1895 was introduced in 1917 for tank and aircraft use, later designated the Marlin M1917 and M1918. Like the Navy Marlins, these variants used a linear gas piston in place of the 'potato digger' arm and bore little outward physical resemblance to the basic "digger" design. The new reciprocating piston was located parallel to the barrel and below it, allowing the gun to be mounted lower to the ground. Another improvement was the use of aluminum fins as a heat radiator. Most Marlin M1917 and M1918 guns saw use in aircraft as defensive armament. By the last months of World War I, almost 50% of the Spad XIII fighter aircraft in France had their Vickers guns replaced with Marlins. Had the war progressed into 1919 the Marlin would have been the primary U.S. tank and aircraft gun. The M1917/1918 also equipped Thomas Morse Scout aircraft
Thomas-Morse S-4
|-See also:-Bibliography:* Donald, David, ed. Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, p. 875, "Thomas Brothers and Thomas-Morse aircraft". Etobicoke, Ontario: Prospero Books, 1997....
used for advanced training at stateside bases.
The Marlin gun would see postwar use on the machine gun version of US Army's Six Ton Tank, an American copy of the French FT-17. However, the Marlin guns quickly disappeared from U.S. military service after the great success of the .30 Browning machine guns and variants subsequently adopted for air, ground, and shipboard use.
Postwar Service
After World War I, some Colt-Browning guns (possibly including the M1917/18 Marlin variants) saw use in the Russian Civil war. Its most spectacular use came during the Czech Legion's exodus from Russia, where the guns (either Colt-Browning M1914 or Marlin M1917 models) were photographed in sandbagged stations on the top of trains being used to transport the Legion as it withdrew from Soviet Russia. Many of these guns were also used in the Russo-Finnish war of 1920. At the outset of World War II, M1917 and M1918 Marlins were also sent to Britain for use by the Home Guard, but were never actually employed in combat.The last documented use of the type was by the National Guard against striking miners in the Battle of Blair Mountain
Battle of Blair Mountain
The Battle of Blair Mountain was one of the largest civil uprisings in United States history and the largest armed insurrection since the American Civil War...
, West Virginia in 1921. A contemporary photo illustrates a Colt-Browning gun with a ribbed barrel in the hands of a guardsman supporting Sheriff's deputies. The ventilating ribs indicate the gun was most likely a Marlin M1917/18 machine Gun purchased by the Army in 1917-18 for training and familiarization purposes, as the U.S. military never purchased the Colt M1895/1914 variant.
The Belgian army acquired a large number of 7mm Mauser M1895/14 versions towards the end of World War I, which were kept in storage after the conflict and allocated to certain reserve infantry regiments before the outbreak of World War II. The guns were widely used in action during the German invasion of Belgium between 10th May and 28th May 1940.