The Vickers K was a development of the Vickers-Berthier (VB) light machine gun, adopted in 1932 by the Indian Army.

[1] With lighter moving parts and the VB locking design, the Vickers K had an adjustable rate of fire between 950 and 1,200 rounds per minute; faster than the German MG34.

Some were made in 7.7mm for the Belgians[citation needed] before the war and at least one example of the ground variant survives in a Brussels museum.

The gun is fitted with a single spade grip at the rear of receiver, with trigger to control fire.

Land Service’ machine guns found their way to a variety of British commando and reconnaissance units which operated in Europe during 1944 and 1945.

[citation needed] The Vickers K was fitted to light and medium bombers in RAF service such as the Fairey Battle and Handley Page Hampden.

The gun continued in service with the Fleet Air Arm and its last recorded use by the navy was by 812 Squadron RNAS Barracudas in anti piracy patrols off Hong Kong in October 1945.

The Special Air Service adopted it for their hit and run tactics, mounting it in pairs on their jeeps.

Over the years, it was assumed by some that the latter services took the phased-out VGO because they could obtain no other suitable machine guns but with its high rate of fire and low-friction locking design (which proved resistant to jams from sand), the LRDG and SAS found the G.O.

Royal Marine and Army Commandos used the VGO for infantry support/squad automatic weapon briefly around D-Day.