Princess Royal Fortress Military Museum > Records

First World War Black and White Photograph of Three Soldiers with Machine Gun

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1916 - 1918

Overview

Small black and white photograph showing three soldiers around a machine gun. The soldier in the forefront is crouching low to the ground. He is wearing a uniform shirt and tie with his sleeves rolled up, a sun helmet and a wristwatch visible on his left arm. The second soldier is manning the machine gun with both hands, wearing a slouch hat with the brim down. He also has a clearly visible wristwatch. The final soldier sits to the side of the gun behind the barrel. He is not wearing any headwear and is looking straight at the camera. The reverse of the photograph is annotated in pencil with the name of one of the soldiers. The photograph has significant damage that obscures over half of the lower part of the image. The reverse shows considerable staining.

Historical information

The photograph shows 3 soldiers with one credited as Tom Collins. This is understood to be Lance Corporal Thomas Joseph COLLINS 682. Thomas was born in New South Wales and enlisted on 19 November 1914 at the age of 21. He joined the 9th Light Horse Regiment and embarked from Melbourne on board HMAT A47 Mashobra on 29 January 1915. He served at Gallipoli and then Egypt and transferred to the 3rd Light Horse Brigade Machine Gun Squadron in July 1916. He was promoted to Lance Corporal in 1919 and returned to Australia in August 1919 on board HMAT Oxfordshire.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-12-2022.1.38

Item type

Photographs

Themes

War and Conflict > World War 1

Material

Photographic Paper

Width

89 mm

Height or length

65 mm

Inscriptions and markings

Reverse “Tom Collins on the gun”

Contextual information

The 10th Light Horse Regiment was raised in October 1914 and over men 500 enlisted within 8 weeks from all over Western Australia. Some of these men subsequently transferred into the 3rd Machine Gun Squadron that provided support for the Light Horsemen. Originally established as machine gun sections in each regiment of Light Horse, the sections were later amalgamated as Machine Gun Squadrons under brigade control. This gave each Light Horse Brigade fire support, with the squadrons equipped with Vickers medium machine guns.
The soldiers in the Squadron were drawn from the three Regiments of the Brigade and supported the Brigade and its subordinate units throughout the Egypt and Palestine campaigns 1916-1918. The first major test of the machine guns came at the Battle of Romani in August, which confirmed the Vickers proved extremely reliable, firing thousands of rounds without changing barrels. The machine guns were successful at providing both overhead cover and enfilading fire, and due to the good observation available in desert warfare targets were engaged at ranges far greater than that possible on the Western Front.

Keywords

First World War

3rd Machine Gun Squadron

Place made

Egypt

Year

1916 - 1918

Primary significance criteria

Historic significance

Scientific or research significance

Social or spiritual significance

Comparative significance criteria