British-made Japanese Lewis Guns...?

[gunhistorian]

In a document I uncovered doing research on a book manuscript project, John Ball of Soley Armament (U.K.) wrote in the 1930s that he had sold a quantity of British (surplus) Lewis guns (aircraft model, I believe) to the Japanese -- probably the Japanese Navy. (He also wrote some very perceptive information on Japanese intentions -- better than some of the pre-war intelligence reports that I've seen!) Interestingly, Ball left his collection of stone age (and other ancient) weaponry to the Japanese Imperial Army Museum. As Ball died prior to 1941 -- but at a time of increasing hostility toward the Japanese in the U.K. -- I do not believe his collection ever made it to Japan, it being broken up and sold at auction prior to World War II.

 

Anyway! I haven't seen "The Belgian Rattlesnake" book or any other "authoritative" source and was wondering if anyone has any info on whether the British Lewis guns ever made it to Japan and if any are still in existence. Because these were originally .303 British, I'd suspect they were either rebarrelled or rechambered to accept the 7.7-mm Japanese (rimmed?) round.

[1gewehr]

On page 388 of "The Belgian Rattlesnake", Easterly goes into some detail about the beginnings of Japanese Lewis guns. According to his research, BSA was making Lewis guns for the Japanese Naval Air Service by 1929. These were in .303 caliber, which the Japanese called 7.7mm Rimmed.

[MG08]

One thng to note - the 303 British aand the 7.7mm Rimmed are essentially the same. There would be no need to rebarrel anything. The Japanese Navy adopted the round with the gun. I havea type 92 that was early Japanese production, and as well finished as the British BSA guns. Later ones I have seen recently are pretty rough on external finish. Now, the IJA ( Army) adopted the MG-15 and the type 89 ( I think- I am sure Iwill be corrected if not !) and it is in 7.92mm Mauser (8mm) too. Makes trying to keep supply up a bitch. I have one of these type 89s as well. It is a cool gun - I actually found a japanese marked double drum for it........

[jolague]

very interesting. I have a type 92 Jap Lewis Gun (aircraft) as well. Mine is dated to 1944 but is in excellent shape, inside and out. I have always been curios as to why the Brits sold the Lewis Gun to the Japanese other than financial motivation...

[MG34bar]

Back when I had a couple British Lewis Guns (both BSA guns in .303) I purchased several items from a Japanese Lewis to keep as "spare parts". I figured that they would need a bit of fitting to use on the British guns, but when I made use of the spares I found that all fit perfectly (rear spade grip; bolts, etc.) without any fitting at all. Seems that the Japanese made their guns as exact copies of the British ones (other than the larger trigger guard).

 

Joe

[jolague]

Very interesting on the Japanese parts for BSA guns. As of now the Japanese parts are scarce and usually sell for gold when found. I run my Jap Lewis Gun off of as many British parts as possible and put that Japanese parts away. I have to admit in using British parts into the Jap Lewis Gun is pretty much plug and play.