This is a very nice original WW1 Vickers machine gun with its transit case  dating from early 1918.

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On 21st March 1918 the German Imperial Army did a massive full frontal attach across the whole of the British Western Front in a bid to win the war before the US army had time to deploy their troops.

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This very large attack had been anticipated since Christmas 1918 by British intelligence and relayed to General Haig,  commander of The British Army on the Western front.  For months the Germans were amassing Huge amounts of troops just behind there third line.  Ever since Russia left the War,  the Germans on the Eastern Front were being moved towards the western front at speed.

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By late 1917 the British Army just did not have the sear numbers to stop a massive German attack,  so in early March 1918 General Haig went to see  David Lloyd George at downing Street and begged him for more troops to be sent to the western front, but his request was turned down. 

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The British Army had developed defences plan in depth, reducing the proportion of troops in their front line and pulling reserves and supply dumps back beyond German artillery range.

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In theory, the front line was an "outpost zone" lightly held by snipers, patrols and machine-gun posts only.  Most of The British Army's best ever Snipers died in  late March 1918 trying to keep the German Army at bay as well as fixed position Vickers Machine Gun teams.  The fate of these machine gun teams was also sealed as there positions were over run one by one by the Germans on  21st to 22nd March.

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The Advancing German Army were under orders to take no British Army Snipers or Machine gun teams prisoners but to shoot them on sight.

 

This Vickers machine gun dates to early 1918 and has a 'K' Series serial number and at time this Vickers was in production and at the same time, time  was ticking away for the British Army on the western front,  just waiting in there Trenches for the German attack that must come.