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ORGANIZATION AND TACTICAL EMPLOYMENT

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 247 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ORGANIZATION AND See also:

TACTICAL EMPLOYMENT 2 Although See also:machine-See also:gun See also:tactics are still somewhat indefinite, at least there are well-marked tendencies which have a See also:close relation to the See also:general tactical See also:scheme or See also:doctrine adopted by each of the various armies as suited to its own purposes and conditions. For many years before the See also:South See also:African and Manchurian See also:wars, the machine-gun had been freely spoken of as " a diabolical weapon before which nothing could live," but this did not contribute much to the See also:science of handling it. Most military See also:powers, indeed, distrusted it—actuated perhaps by the remembrance of the vain hopes excited by the See also:canon d balles. It was not until the second See also:half of the See also:war of 1904-05 that the See also:Japanese, taught by the effective handling of the See also:Russian machine-guns at Liao-Yang, introduced it into their See also:field armies, and although See also:Great See also:Britain had provided every See also:regular See also:battalion with a See also:Maxim-gun See also:section some years before the See also:Boer War, and a Volunteer See also:corps, the Central See also:London Rangers (now 12th bn. London See also:Regiment) had maintained a (Nordenfeldt) gun section since 1882, instruction in the tactics of the weapon was confined practically to the See also:simple phrase " the machine-gun is a weapon of opportunity." More than this, at any See also:rate, is attempted in the See also:drill-books of to-See also:day. One important point is that, whether the guns are used as an See also:arm, in See also:numbers, or as auxiliaries, in sections, they should be See also:free to move without having to maintain their exact position relatively to some other unit. It was in following the See also:infantry firing lines of their own battalion over the open that the See also:British See also:Maxims suffered most heavily in South See also:Africa. Another of equal importance is that the machine guns must co-operate with other troops of their See also:side in the closest possible way; more, in this regard, is demanded of them than of See also:artillery, owing to their mobility and the relative ease of obtaining See also:cover. A third See also:factor, which has been the subject of numerous experiments, is the precise value of a machine-gun, stated in terms of infantry, i.e. how many rifles would be required to produce the See also:fire-effect of a machine-gun. A See also:fourth—and on this the teaching of military See also:history is quite definite—is the need of concealment and of evading the enemy's shrapnel. These points, once the datum of efficiency of fire has been settled, resolve themselves into two conclusions—the See also:necessity for combining See also:independence and co-operation, and the desirability of See also:Mercury's winged feet and cap of darkness for the weapon itself. It is on the former that opinions in See also:Europe vary most.

Some armies ensure co-operation by making the machine-gun section an integral See also:

part of the infantry regimental organization, but in this See also:case the officer commanding it must be taught and allowed to shake himself free from his comrades and immediate superiors when necessary. Others ensure co-operation of the machine-guns as an arm by using them, absolutely free of infantry See also:control, on batteries; but this brings them See also:face to face with the risks of showing, not one or two See also:low-lying gun-barrels, but a number of carriages, limbers and gun teams, within range of the enemy's artillery. ' At See also:San-de-pu 1905 the Japanese machine-guns (Hotchkiss) sustained damage averaging, i extractor broken per gun, i jam in every 300 rounds. It should be mentioned, however, that the machine-gun companies were only formed shortly before the See also:battle. 2 In field operations only.

End of Article: ORGANIZATION AND TACTICAL EMPLOYMENT

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