The Nordenfelt machine gun

Source: WIkipedia

I have a particular fondness - if that's the right word - for primitive hand-cranked machine guns, the Maxim gun is a little new fangled for my tastes! Being that Molatero is a tad behind the times and it's army desperately in need of modernisation I imagine there are quite a few of these peculiar weapons still in service.

Of particular note is the European manufactured Nordenfelt. I became aware of this gun in a novel by Douglas Reeman about the Royal Marines during the Boxer Rebellion called 'First to Land'. What struck me was the notion - expressed in the book - that the British sailors and marines apparently preferred the old hand-cranked Nordenfelt to the Maxim, which was then just coming into service (what serviceman ever likes 'new' things).

Anyway, I was trying to describe the operation of this antique machine gun to my brother - badly - and have been in search of a video that better illustrates how this five-barreled  wonder worked. As usual YouTube has come to my rescue with this very informative little segment by (appropriately) 'Forgotten Weapons'...