TOPIC:

The Maxim wheeled carriage shown above was a major limitation to the mobility of MGs. It meant machine guns could seldom get into the front line (South African veldt being full of boulders and dongas), the Queen's maxim making it onto the crest at Tabanyama on 21 Jan being a notable exception..
I would be interested to read about the transition to tripods, which changed everything. They were adopted early by Natal volunteers (see NP and NC photos above) and I have read that tripods were introduced about end-Feb 1900.
Any info?

The Marquis of Tullibardine had this to say when giving evidence to the Royal Commission:

On all occasions tripod mounting should be carried on pack saddles, in addition to wheel mounting – the tripod not being carried on the gun carriage, but on the horse, the gun, as a rule, being carried on wheels, with a spare horse carrying the tripod mounting handy, so that in case it sticks, or rough ground is encountered, it can be quickly placed on the pack saddle. This is especially necessary, and ought to be a regulation, if there is any shell fire. In this case, no wheeled Maxim can stand up against shell fire, but a tripod Maxim can be hidden and used to great effect. The gun carriage, in this case, can be used to great advantage as a dummy to take in the enemy and draw their fire, as a tripod Maxim, when carefully worked is quite invisible. I was in charge of Maxim guns during the relief of Ladysmith, and in that country, under that fire, wheeled Maxims could not be used, but in the latter part of the war wheeled transport was preferable.

Did you find you could carry your Maxims without hindering you at all?
– Yes, perfectly. We could take them anywhere – not if you had an infantry carriage, but with the cavalry carriage. The best plan is to have a cavalry carriage and a tripod mounting carried on a separate horse – not on the carriage.

And you had that?
– Yes; and if there is shell fire you simply change the gun on to the other horse, and they will shell the carriage while you can get along with the gun in another direction.

(Royal Commission, Minutes of Evidence, Vol. II, p. 453; The Marquis of Tullibardine, Royal Horse Guards)

It's difficult to understand the thinking behind the British authorities' initial decision not to equip their Maxims with tripods, a piece of kit that was readily available from Maxim-Nordenfelt / Vickers, Sons & Maxim from the outset. The Priced Vocabulary of Stores for 1898 does not list tripods, and the Handbook for the 0.303" Maxim Machine Gun for the same year similarly makes no mention of such hardware. The only options available at that time were carriage, parapet and cone mountings.




The first model of the tripod that Maxim-Nordenfelt made for their machine guns, but which the War Office did not purchase (Revue d'Artillerie, 1889, Plate XXI, Fig. 52).



In the 1890s, Captain Allan Peebles, 1st Bn. Devonshire Regiment, dreamt up a rather cumbersome design, which saw service on the North West Frontier in 1895. Peebles appears to have taken delivery of the army's very first Maxim in 1888, and was given the task of putting it through its paces before the gun's general distribution. The fact that he came up with a design for a tripod suggests he felt this was something the gun lacked. A photograph of the 1st Bn. K.R.R.C., taken c. 1895, shows a Peebles tripod in use during the Chitral Expedition. However, its absence from the 1898 Priced Vocabulary of Stores suggests the design hadn't been officially sanctioned by that date. A description of the Peebles tripod does, on the other hand, appear in the post-ABW 1903 Handbook for the 0.303 Machine Gun, where it is given the designation "Mounting, tripod, .303 inch Maxim Gun, Mark I". Later editions of the handbook continued to include the Mk I tripod until at least 1915.
Peebles died from wounds received at Panjkora [Laspor] River, Waziristan, on the North-West Frontier, in April 1895.

It seems it was not until the turn of the century, a decade after the introduction of the Maxim, that tripods were finally recognised by the War Office as a necessity. A photograph taken in England and published in The Sketch on 28 Feb 1900, shows Royal Navy ratings with a tripod-mounted Maxim, captioned “The new Maxim-Gun Mounting for Field Service in South Africa”.




Captain Peebles’ Tripod Mounting (Navy & Army Illustrated, Vol. X, 21 Apr 1900)





Maxim Gun detachment of the 1st Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps with a Peebles tripod, Chitral, 1895. © National Army Museum.




“The new Maxim-Gun Mounting for Field Service in South Africa” (The Sketch, 28 Feb 1900)




A photograph of the machine gun production line at the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield, published in April 1900, shows Maxim tripods being made there. The model depicted is described in the 1903 Handbook for the 0.303 Machine Gun as the "Mounting, tripod, .303 inch Maxim Gun, Mark II". I have found one photograph of this type of mounting in use in South Africa, potentially with a Canadian unit.
The majority of ABW photographs show tripods similar in design to those made by Maxim-Nordenfelt / Vickers, Sons & Maxim. These were given the designation "Mounting, tripod, .303 inch Maxim Gun, Mark III".




Machine gun production line, Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield Lock. Two tripod-mounted guns can just be seen in the distance (Army & Navy, Vol. X, 21 Apr 1900).






As Rob has mentioned, tripods had already been adopted by the Natal forces before the war.
The ZAR Staatsartillie also had a number of tripod-mounted .303 and .45-inch Maxims, which had been captured from the Reformers and Jameson Raiders. A photograph of Johannesburg Fort, taken shortly after the British entered the city, shows a discarded .303 "Reformer" Maxim amongst captured arms. One of the "Raider" Martini-Henry-chambered Maxim-Nordenfelts was captured with de la Rey’s guns in March 1901. The resolution of the photograph of this piece allows it to be identified as a gun originally dispatched to Bechuanaland on 21 June 1890, with serial number 279.


Staatsartillerie tripod-mounted .303-chambered "Reformer" Maxim, found abandoned in Johannesburg Fort




The tripod-mounted Martini-Henry-chambered Maxim-Nordenfelt captured with de la Rey's guns. This example was made in 1889, pre-dating the merger of Maxim and Vickers. The serial number (279) allows it to be identified as the gun originally dispatched to Bechuanaland on 21/06/1890. It is one of the eight captured from the Jameson Raiders on New Year's Day 1896






A couple of British examples:


A British example mounted in the blockhouse at Vredefort (King's College Collection)





Practising (or posing?)


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Excellent stuff. The Marquis of Tullibardine used a Maxim plus tripod near Spion Kop, if this sketch from Black & White Budget is accurate.

It turns out the Peebles tripod was recognised by the authorities, receiving the designation "Mounting, tripod, .303 inch Maxim Gun, Mark I". However, I don't know when this happened - presumably after 1898, as no tripods feature in the Maxim handbook for that year. Unfortunately, I do not have a copy of the 1901 edition to hand, but this designation was being used by the time of the 1903 printing. I have amended some passages in my last post to reflect this.

The 1903 handbook describes three marks of tripod.




MOUNTING, TRIPOD, ·003 I CH MAXIM GUN, MARK I.
WITH LEATHER HOLDER; PACK TRANSPORT.

The mounting consists of a frame, pivot, crosshead, traversing platform, trail and three legs.
The frame, A, is of angle and sheet iron, to which the legs, B, B, B, are attached underneath by joint pins.
The legs are of steel tube, one being fitted with a screwed foot, C, for adjustment on uneven ground. For transport the legs S can be folded up against the underside of the frame.
The traversing platform, D, is bolted to the top of the frame, and is fitted with a cam bar, E, which locks two stops, F, F, in any desired position, so as to allow of the gun being traversed or held in a fixed position. A traverse of 28 degrees can be obtained.
The pivot, G, is bolted to the top of the frame. The crosshead, H, which carries the gun, is attached to the pivot by a clip, I, and is formed with an arm to take the elevating gear.
The elevating gear, J, consists of an inner and outer screw (right and left-handed) working in a gunmetal nut. It is actuated by a hand-wheel and clamped by a handle. It will admit of any elevation up to 14 degrees 11 minutes, or of depression to 25 degrees 16 minutes.
The trail, K, is constructed so that the forked ends, L, L, rest in two brackets, M, M, riveted to the top of the frame; the other end is provided with a foot, N, to rest upon the ground. A seat, P, is attached to a bracket, O, fixed to the trail. The seat can be adjusted at different heights by means of a split pin.
A leather holder, Q, is screwed to the top of the frame to carry the spare joint pins for the crosshead and elevating gear.
Weight of mounting, complete, with spare joint pins, 85 lbs.






MOUNTING, TRIPOD, ·303-INCH MAXIM GUN, MARK II.
WITH LEATHER HOLDER: PACK TRANSPORT.

The mounting consists of a crosshead, socket, and ammunition carrier, mounted on three legs.
The crosshead (a), to which the gun is pivoted, is formed at one end to take the elevating gear (b), and at the other has a stem to pivot in the socket (c), the upper end of the pivot and socket form a ball and socket joint to facilitate traversing. The crosshead can be clamped as desired by the handle (d). A traverse of 360 degrees can be obtained.
The elevating gear (b) consists of an inner and outer screw (right and left-handed) pivoted to a bracket (e) on the gun, and working in an elevating nut (f) pivoted between the cheeks of the crosshead, and is clamped by the handle (g). It will admit of any elevation up to 16 degrees.
The socket (c) is jointed to the legs at (h) and formed to receive the ammunition carrier (i), which is secured by two bands (jj). The ammunition box is held in position by a projection (k) and a thumbscrew (l), and revolves freely round the socket with the crosshead.
The legs are of tubular steel, one being made telescopic for adjusting the mounting on uneven ground, and is clamped in position by a handle (m). The lower ends of the legs are fitted with forged steel feet for steadying the mounting on the ground.
A leather holder is strapped to the telescopic leg to carry spare joint pins for the crosshead and elevating gear. A box containing spare parts, and a spare gun barrel in a case, are issued with each mounting.
Weight of mounting 56 lb.
A certain number of these mountings have been fitted with a shield of the pattern used with the Mark III. infantry carriage.








MOUNTING, TRIPOD, ·303-INCH MAXIM GUN, MARK III.
WITH LEATHER HOLDER: PACK TRANSPORT.

The mounting consists of a crosshead and pivot, mounted on three legs, and elevating and traversing gears.
The crosshead, A, to which the gun is pivoted, is formed with an arm, C, to carry the elevating gear, and tits on to the pivot, B.
The pivot, B, forms a socket, H, inclined to the rear, for attaching the rear leg, I, which is made of steel tubing, and is fitted with a shoe, P, to which a seat, Q, is connected.
The elevating gear consists of an inner and outer screw (right and left-handed), B and F, working in a gunmetal hand nut, G, and pivoted to a bracket on the gun and the arm, C, of the crosshead.
The traversing gear consist of a bracket, K, with two screws, L, which can be clamped for any desired traverse by the handle, M. A traverse of 25 degrees can be obtained.
The legs, 0 and 01, are of tubular steel, and are pivoted to two studs, N and N1, on the front of the pivot. Two sockets are provided to receive the top part of the front legs when in the firing position. These legs are held in position by wing nuts, and are fitted with shoes to steady the mounting on the ground. For transport the wing nuts are loosened, the front legs withdrawn from their sockets, and swung round alongside the rear leg, and secured by a strap.
When firing, the ammunition box is placed on the ground on the right side of the gun.
Weight of mounting 49 lbs.

















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In his battle-piece "A Chip Off the Old Block: Charge of C Squadron 5th Lancers at Elandslaagte", Caton Woodville includes a Maxim in the foreground. In this instance the gun is shown being operated by one of General Kock's men.

Although usually pretty accurate when it comes to uniform and accoutrement detail, his rendition of the Mark III tripod appears a little muddled. I also wonder whether the fact that the Boers had two Maxim-Nordenfelt 75 mm guns at Elandslaagte led Caton woodville to believe General Kock had Maxim-Nordenfelt machine guns. I am unaware of the Boers having had such weapons at Elandslaagte.



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