Lewis gunner on the firing step of a trench, near Ovillers on the Somme, 1916

Photograph, World War One, Western Front (1914-1918), 1916.

The Lewis Gun, with its distinctive barrel cooling shroud and top-mounted drum magazine, was the British Army's most widely used machine gun during World War One. Each Lewis Gun required a team of two gunners, one to fire and one to carry ammunition and reload. All of the members of an infantry platoon would be trained in the use of the Lewis Gun so that they could take over if the usual gunners were killed or wounded.

From an album of 22 official photographs.