Machine gun and the great war part one

The machine gun was a product of the "second industrial revolution". Its development was started by the invention of Hiram Maxim (1840-1916), born in the United States, of the first automatic firearm in 1883. Harnessing the energy released when firing a cartridge, Maxim produced a weapon capable of firing multiple bullets by simply activating a trigger. Their innovation fueled broader development of automatic firearms. Since the late 1880s, their military potential was hugely improved by the availability of small-caliber smokeless shells.

In 1914, the major combatant nations had provided their armies with machine guns of similar scale. Russia, Germany and Britain used weapons based on the Maxim system, while France and Austria-Hungary used indigenous designs: the 1907 model "St Etienne" and Schwarzlose respectively.

Power of Fire Direct

The German army had late become powerful with machine guns, but its tactical employment in 1914 proved superior to its enemies. German machine guns took advantage of the long-range precision of the weapon, and the fact that machine guns were an asset of the regiment (rather than a battalion) allowed them to group them for maximum effect. This efficiency created the myth that Germany deployed far more machine guns than its opponents in 1914.

Following the start of the war of positions, machine guns gained notoriety as highly effective direct fire weapons. Theoretically they could fire more than 500 bullets per minute, but this wasn't normal in combat, where "quick fire" usually consisted of repeated bursts exceeding 250 shots per minute. The effectiveness of these gusts of between ten and fifty bullets was enhanced by the exploitation of ballistics and the precision offered by shooting from adjustable supports. At distances of 600 metres or less, machine guns could create fixed lines of fire that would never rise higher than a man's head, with deadly results for those who tried to move through them. Or the weapon could change position between bursts to offer what the French called feu fauchant (cutting fire). At a further distance, their bullets were falling into an elliptical "beat zone", which gave them an area fire capacity.

Machine gun groups could intertwine their shots. Under favorable circumstances, such as in Loos on 26 September 1915, or on the Somme on 1 July 1916, this was devastating. But even though this is how machine guns are best remembered, new methods of using them were developed from 1915.

In October 1915, the British Army placed all its Vickers machine guns under control of a newly created machine gun body (a replicated development in Commonwealth contingents on the Western Front). This radical and controversial step was taken to regulate something that had become a tactical necessity: the grouping of combat machine guns. But with all the army’s machine gun experts in one body, innovation was also spurred.

Power of Indirect Fire

The most notable result was machine gun bombing. Groups of machine guns, centrally controlled, were used to fire over previously marked target areas. Exploding the curved trajectory followed by their bullets, machine guns could fire indirectly, as miniature artillery pieces, even over the heads of friendly troops. These techniques required precise maps and a firm foundation for mathematical calculation. It is important to point out that, since the Western Front strategic imperatives forced the British to move to the offensive, they meant machine guns could be used to support the attacks.

Machine gun fire was used to "fatten" the meticulously planned artillery bombings that preceded British and Commonwealth raids, such as those on the Vimy and Messines ridges in April and June 1917. Even more crucial tactically were "SOS bombings", fired in response to flares sent by infantry facing enemy counterattacks. SOS bombings exploded the "beat zone" of long-range machine gun fire to saturate previously registered areas where counterattack forces were likely to advance.

Other armies began to adopt this "scientific" form of machine gun, both the French Army and the German Army's specialized machine gun shooter detachments began using indirect and air fire in late 1917. The US Expeditionary Force troops also used it during 1918.

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THE WORLD FAMOUS HISTORY AND PAST EVENTS

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