Landships II

The USA used the 1895 very little in France. It was largely confined to aircraft and known as the Marlin. The Browning M1917 soon replaced the few Colts and the Benet-Mercié (Short Hotchkiss).

Canada bought some Colts and used them in the Boer War. They were still in service in 1914 and it is claimed that some were taken to France and used until replaced by the Vickers. Pic shows Colts on Canadian Autocar, plus some interesting men in possibly dark blue. Some are also said to have found their way into British hands and been used no later than 1915.

The 1895/1914 was a modified version using 7.62mm rounds instead of 0.30. It had some other minor improvements but was virtually indentical in appearance. Italy bought a large number, and a few also cropped up in the re-equipped Belgian Army (pic).

A bit more from various sources.

The 1895/14 model was a significant improvement over the 1895 model in that the barrel was a quick change type that permitted changing of hot barrels which extended barrel life. Overheating itself was reduced with the use of a distinctive  finned barrel. Reliability also improved, although not so much to make it the equal of newer, heavier Hotchkiss and Maxim designs.

WWI: in use by Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Russia, Spain, USA, United Kingdom. The M1895/1914 was initially adopted by the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) at the start of WWI pending delivery of other weapons (amongst others Browning M1917).
 

Finnish Civil war (1918): Used by both sides throughout the conflict. The Finnish White Army captured about 100x Russian M/1895-14 machineguns from the Red side, where they became known as M/1895.

That's the best I can do for the moment. No indication of numbers purchased or in service. Pic below is captioned English Machine Gun, but they are said to be Canadian.

BTW, anyone any idea who the men in dark uniforms are in the pic of the Autocar?

Thanks you all for your input. This will really help me. I will try to locate some of those pictures you requested. But I'm not making any promises.

Perhaps the figures in dark uniforms by the Autocar are Royal Marines. (Illustration by Julian Allen.)

I would like to clear up some misconceptions about the Potato digger and hopefully not add any..... there were three basic "common" types of diggers:
1. Original Colt 1895 version  unribbed barrel, first adopted by the US Navy and used by the Navy (and Marines) extensively in the Span Am War, boxer rebellion and the taking of the Phillipines.   Also two privately purchased by T.R. and used by the Rough Riders in Cuba (the ones in the movie Rough Riders, are diggers, but the later 1914 version.  These MG's were also sold privately to corporations (used against striking workers).    The US Army purchased 2 guns after the Span Am War and purchased 140 along with Maxims for general field/use testing, but neither of these guns were adopted but remained in inventory. Some of these apparently saw National Guard use, see "Ludlow Massacre" for some of the civil uses of the digger.  With the Navy having adopted the digger, other small navies did the same.  Mexico bought 150 before 1910 for their army and they were used in the Revolution, at least one falling into the hands of a revoluntary (there is a popular picture of Mexican Army diggers mounted on the top of a train).  The Colts sold just enough to remain in production.
Canadian mounted troops purhased the Colt 1895 for use in the Boer War in 1899-1902.  They were successful and the Canadians developed a liking for the type and eventually purchased the new and improved 1895/1914 model with ribbed barrel.
This MG was liked especially for naval and mounted use due to it's lighter weight than the maxims.  However the light bipod mounted Hotchkiss became popular with the British and the US and the us adopted it's first Machine Gun, the 1909 Benet Mercie Machine Rifle, these guns were the ones generally carried by US troops during the punitive expedition.
With WWI Colt jumped on the bandwagon and developed the second main version, the 1895/1914 with the ribbed barrel, initially purchased by the Canadians with tall tripods but these were cut down very quickly due to wartime conditions. The Canadians used them until
into 1915 until they were replaced with Vickers guns.   The Canadians then turned over their diggers to the Belgians....this is how the Belgians got theirs and they used them during the War in addition to whatever they could get.
The Russians got into the game, purchasing the Colt 1895/14's to supplement their 1910 Maxims.    The Italian Navy also purchased them extensively and used them on most of their naval vessels.  I saw a picture of one MAS exquipped with four diggers.  The French obtained a few and they were used at least experimentally for
early aircraft. 
As the war progressed, Colt which was making Vickers under contract sold their digger tooling to Marlin Rockwell which took up the continued Russian and Italian Navy contracts.   Marlin quickly improved the 1895/1914 into the Marlin 1917 (sliding inspection cover on side with larger entry ammo cutout and other improvements) which was still sold to the Russians and Italians but also 2500 were sold to the US Army for domestic training use.
The type continued use in the Russian Civil War and the war in Finland and probably the fighting in Poland. The Czech Legion had them when they did their epic journey out of Russia mounted behind sandbags on top of their trains.   The last documented I think combat use of the digger was oddly in the US when a National Guard unit used one rather effectively in the Battle of Blair Mountain against the striking miner "army".   
The digger, even the Marlin, tended to overheat quickly and was never a sustained fire type of weapon (Marlin in the US testing would only use the gun in 500 round contiunous firing tests while other MG's were fired for 1000 rounds continuous and this probably contributed to the lack of Marlin 1917 acceptance.
Those are the main three types of   "diggers".
The navy ordered a subtype, but the front lever was removed and a piston put in it's place...these only saw a small production and I don't think were successful at all.  Some have survived however.
However, Marlin greatly revamped the digger and with the piston made radical changes into a tank and aircraft gun that would have had major impact had the war continued to 1919.  As it was, about 1/2 of US fighter planes were equipped with
Marlin aircraft gun in the last few months of the war, replacing the Vickers.  Also the Marlin aircraft gun was used in the Tommy Morse Scouts used for training in the US. The tank version, while hardly regarded disappeared with the large scale tank production that did not materialize with the end of the war, but it probably saw service with the six ton tanks that were produced in the US near the end of the war, the copy of the FT-17.   Post war of course, the Brownings eventually pushed all the old types aside.  I did run accross a picture of the Home Guard circa 1940 with Marlin diggers in Britain, I assume sent over as part of lend lease or outright purchase. What is also interesting is that the wooden ammo boxes had camoflage paint.

-- Edited by hoodoo on Wednesday 11th of August 2010 02:57:52 AM

amongst many details on this dramatic painting a Canadian Colt.

Great painting Kieffer - complete with Ross rifles, by the look, and might that be a few Lee-Enfields as well? I fear the hero with the head bandage is not long for this world.

Hi Steve,

it's a shame, I don't know the name of the painter. The position of the Colt could cause the problem I mentioned before...

Thanks Ivor. Interesting to see the feed-wheel (like an incomplete revolver cylinder) - no wonder the cyclic rate was low but the likelihood of jamming must have been reduced. Reminds me a little of the Dardik "revolver" feed mechanism except that fed from a magazine, fired from the cylinder and used trounds instead of rounds and ... well, quite different really, just reminds me a little bit.

Rectalgia wrote:

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Interesting to see the feed-wheel (like an incomplete revolver cylinder)

I think that's a typical Colt thing, working out the revolving mechanism as was done on a rifle and implied here more or a less too.

 

- no wonder the cyclic rate was low but the likelihood of jamming must have been reduced.

Apart from the cooling problem it must have been a reliable weapon according the records. Somehow it was pretended that the lever mechanism acted as a kind of cooling pump, in 'commercials' which of course wasn't true. Firing rate was low, at the other hand you could say that this gun was an ammo-saver I think. I don't know were the critical point lays, I guess that on war planes MG's the rate plays a crucial role more than in (ww1) infantry use. Sinister calculations actually.

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Ironsides wrote:

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Hi heres the patent

Cheers

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Thanks too Ivor! Was the tripod patented too? Again a lot of brass was used. I always wonder why, as it is an expensive material, though easier to mill as steel. Relatively soft as it is prone to wear, though it's 'resistant' to corrosion (naval use), and for instance the housing of the St Etienne must have been a cooling night-mare again I guess. The Colt's quadrant and turning wheel were made of brass but may be production (there weren't that many I think, the US took only 1500 with them) shifted in iron or steel?

regards, Kieffer