The Vickers machine gun was an extremely-successful development of the Maxim gun design for the British army, and was used from World War I until the late 1960s on land, sea, and air. It can be visually distinguished from the base Maxim gun and other derivative designs by its ridged water shroud around the barrel, and by the large muzzle booster.
Vickers guns were commonly mounted on tripods for use on land, while aircraft guns had a perforated barrel shroud to turn it into an air-cooled gun. Vickers guns were commonly used as hull machine guns for British tanks during World War II, and Vickers guns of larger calibers even served as anti-aircraft guns on British warships into the early Second World War.
The Vickers was finally officially retired from the British Army in 1968, replaced by the FN MAG.
