The Great War - Machine Guns
In no war previous to the one concluded in 1918 had the machine gun taken such a prominent place in the armaments of the contending forces. The popularity of the earlier machine guns was retarded by their great weight. Some of them were so heavy that it took several men to lift them. All through the history of the development of machine guns the tendency has been toward lighter weapons, but it was not until the great war that serviceable machine guns were made light enough to give them great. effectiveness and popularity. Such intense heat is developed by the rapid fire of a machine gun that unless the barrel can be kept cool the gun will soon refuse to function. The water jacket which keeps the gun cool proved to be the principal handicap to the inventors who weere trying to remove weight from the device. The earliest air-cooled guns were generally unsuccessful, since the firing of a few rounds would make the barrel so hot that the cartridges would explode voluntarily in the chamber, thus rendering the weapon unsafe.
There are in existence guns of Chinese manufacture which carry dates of the early 17th century, but at this time various types of mitrailleuse, a gun which discharged several barrels at the same time or in rapid succession, were known in Europe. The early machine guns were more of a novelty than a useful weapon; although they could be rapidly discharged, a long time was required for loading, and the guns were heavy and unwieldy. The reintroduction of the breech-loading principle and the general use of the cartridge type of ammunition about 1860 paved the way for the true machine gun.
The Gatling gun — a weapon consisting of six connected barrels revolving on a common axis — was a remarkably efficient weapon for its day and wrought its share of havoc in the American Civil War. The French used a mitrailleuse in the Franco-Prussian War — a gun with no less than thirty-seven barrels.
The menace of the newly invented torpedo-boat in the seventies was the most potent stimulant to the development of the machine-gun. In the Gatling Gun, which was in use until the eighties, there were 6 to 10 barrels, grouped around a central shaft, and revolved with worm gear in the breech. The guns comprised a group of 5 barrels, of 37 millimeters caliber for naval service, revolving round a central shaft, and provided with a cartridge feeding hopper, a breech block containing the firing mechanism, and a hand crank for operation. Each revolution of the crank handle fired one barrel, extracted one cartridge and began the loading of another barrel. Only one barrel, therefore, could be fired at a time.
It was not until Hiram Maxim in 1883 invented the automatic weapon that bears his name that armies really had a true machine gun. Ingenious Yankee mechanic that he was, Maxim built upon the idea of making the recoil of the gun perform every operation from loading to firing. Before his time machine guns had all been operated by hand. The Maxim was the first gun which required neither operating crank nor reciprocating lever, and the result is that the other types have disappeared. The energy derived from the recoil performs all the functions of loading and firing and extracting the cartridge case. When smokeless powder was invented, the Maxim machine gun came fully into its own; for then it was possible to take up a concealed position and spray death without betraying clouds of smoke. By the end of 1885 Maxim had taken out over a hundred patents in connection with his gun. All possible covering methods were conceived and patented in different countries, thus barring the possibility of infringement by rivals.
The chief function of the early machine-gun was that of repelling the attacks of the new torpedo craft. Very quick and accurate training and elevating were therefore necessary, and consequently heavy, slowly-moving guns were inadmissible. It was necessary that one man should be capable of pointing the gun quickly, so that guns of large caliber to fire heavy shell were ruled out, and only small shell were employed. Although a bursting shell would scatter, and some of the pieces might strike the boat, yet to penetrate it a massive shell would be necessary, which would require a gun too heavy to be manipulated. For these reasons the employment of shell fell into disuse for the machine-guns.
The Maxim used in the British army service was of rifle caliber (0.303 inch), but precisely the same mechanism is embodied in guns of different calibers for other European nations, ranging from 6 millimeters to 11 millimeters. The rifle cartridge of 0.303 inches (7.7 millimeters) used in the army is adopted in order that the same bullets may be served out for rifle firing and for Maxims. It weighed 215 grains, and was made of lead cased in cupro-nickel. The heavy Maxim guns, or “pom-poms,” were used chiefly as naval weapons. They were of 37 millimeters caliber (1.457 inches), and fire about 300 rounds a minute, the shells weighing about 114 pounds. The guns are mounted in various ways for naval and for land services. In essentials they resembled ordinary Maxims, but their greater weight entailed some modifications.
Since England always had a war on her hands with some savage tribe, it was but natural that the British army should have given the Maxim machine gun its first practical test. In the Matabele campaign of 1893, the Afghanistan war of 1895 and the Mahdi conflict of 1898, the frightful demoralizing effect of hundreds of shots discharged like water from a hose was convincingly demonstrated. During the Spanish-American war of 1898 and the Boer war of 1899-1902 the Maxim machine gun was first used effectively against civilized people. If there was any doubt as to the efficacy of the weapon — it had been argued by some conservatives that the gun was much too complicated and that it jammed too easily — it was dispelled during the Russian-Japanese war. Such was the deadly effect of the machine gun in Manchuria that every European power at once increased its machine gun contingents. After the Balkan campaigns of 1912 and 1913 it was generally conceded by military officers that neither infantry nor cavalry could be effectively used without the assistance of the machine gun.
The older Maxim models weighed about fifty-five pounds. By skillful designing the Germans reduced this to thirty-five pounds. The latest English Maxim model was still lighter, weighing but twenty-five pounds.
The machine guns used in the Great War all fired infantry cartridges. The opening of the breech, loading, closing of the breech and firing was absolutely automatic so long as the marksman kept his finger upon the firing trigger. Since as many as six hundred shots may be fired in a minute, ammunition must be supplied in great quantities in an uninterrupted stream. To accomplish this the cartridges are fed either in belts or in metal magazines. Such is the rapidity of the fire that the barrel becomes dangerously hot. Hence every machine gun of whatever make is provided either with a water jacket, like an automobile cylinder - a heavy machine gun - or with cooling flanges and projections - a light machine gun. For this reason machine guns cannot be built in a size and weight with that of the infantry rifle.
The French used the light Chauchat automatic rifle and the heavy Buteaus; the English used the Vickers heavy type and the Lewis guns in both heavy and light type. The American army, after exhaustive tests, adopted the Browning machine gun, in both the heavy and light models, as its standard weapon.
This invoked much criticism, as the Lewis gun, invented and perfected by Isaac Newton Lewis (Colonel U. S. A., retired) was being used with great success by the British. The Lewis, of American origin, was of rifle caliber only, is very light, weighing only 25 pounds, and requires no mounting, being handled like a rifle. Yet it will fire from 400 to 700 rounds a minute automatically after the discharge of the first bullet.
The mechanism is operated by a portion of the powder gases which are generated at each discharge, and the recoil is eliminated by the friction of the gases, which is approximately equal to the recoil. The rapidity of the firing depends on the quantity of gas admitted and on the tension of a spring. The gases are also utilized to prevent the temperature of the barrel from rising above 350 to 400 deg. F. The cooling arrangement consists of a long tube of aluminium encircling the barrel and surrounded with radiating vanes, along which air is drawn by the action of the gases. The cartridge magazine, of sheet steel, holds 50 rounds. It can be removed and another substituted in 2 seconds. The cartridges, arranged spirally, are taken from the magazine by an operating rod, which is itself moved by the powder gas from the previous explosion and which actuates the numerous automatic movements of the gun.
Although Maxim's original idea of using the "kick" or recoil in order to perform the functions of loading and firing still met with approval, machine guns were also in use in which, not the recoil of the barrel, but the pressure of the powder gases, was made to operate the piece. The Hotchkiss and the French Berthier gun are perhaps the best examples of this type. The inventor of this gas-pressure type is Freiherr von Odkolek, an Austrian officer. All these guns were cooled by air with the exception of the French Berthier.
A water jacket is the most effective means of cooling the gun. In order that the steam arising from the water may not betray the position of the piece, it is conducted by a hose either to a water container or to the ground, where it is quickly precipitated. Glycerine is added to the water in order to prevent it from freezing in winter. While air-cooled guns are free from the objection of generating steam, they are necessarily much more complicated. Some of them are provided with pumps which automatically drive air through the passages to be cooled. The early machine guns were carried on wheeled carriages like ordinary field pieces. That proved a serious error, because they were much too easily seen at a distance. Consequently tripod mounts were soon adopted. This tripod mounting was usually detached from the gun during transportation.
While on the battlefield the parts of a machine gun (tripod, barrel, ammunition, and so on) can be carried by infantrymen. Over long distances, however, the guns are usually hauled by animals or cavalrymen. The vehicles on which the infantry weapons are transported may serve to carry part of the crew, as in the German army. In the French, Austrian, Japanese and Russian armies machine guns were carried by animals entirely and the gun crews march on foot. In the German, Dutch, French and English armies cavalry machine guns were carried on vehicles and the gun crews either ride on horses or on the vehicles themselves. If only animals are used for transporting cavalry machine guns, as in the Austrian, Russian and Japanese armies, the gun crews are, of course, all mounted. Machine guns are carried by horses, mules, dogs, motorcycles, automobiles and sleds. Indeed almost any kind of vehicle can be employed for transportation, which is speedy and not too conspicuous.
The chief function of the early machine guns was that of repelling the attacks of the new torpedo craft. Very quick and accurate training and elevating were therefore necessary, and consequently heavy, slowly-moving guns were inadmissible. It was necessary that one map should be capable of pointing the gun quickly, so that guns of large caliber to fire heavy shell were ruled out, and small shell were ineffective. For these reasons the employment of shell fell into disuse for the machine guns, and single shots ranging from those of rifle caliber to about four pounds in weight were adopted, chiefly those from one pound to one and one-half pounds.
An idea of the importance attained by the machine gun in the war is conveyed by the formation, under Royal Warrant, of a new branch of the British service to be known as the machine gun corps and to be divided into three sections: cavalry of the line; infantry of the line, and motor machine gun service. A machine gun record office will be established later. The war establishment of a machine_ gun company (headquarters and four sections each of four guns) would consist oi headquarters, one officer, one warrant officer, two staff sergeants, two artificers, and twenty-six rank and file; unattached, two Royal Army Medical Corps men; and the four sections, eight officers, eight sergeants and 100 rank and file. This made a total of 150 officers and men to a machine gun company. Each of the nine officers was mounted, and in addition there would be forty-three draught horses and four bicycles.
The Germans made a special study of the mechanics and of the tactics of the machine gun; they introduced a very light model of the weapon and entrusted the handling of it to experts. They have employed machine guns to enfilade their first line trenches, have used them in concealment in rear and well to the front in the firing line; while in the offensive-defensive the guns have been used to produce the fire effect of large reinforcements at critical moments.
The machine gun had no tactics of its own: it is used mainly as a support to infantry, and it is said that the fire of three properly handled machine guns is equal to that of a company armed with rifles. The most effective range for machine-gun fire is between five hundred to one thousand yards, though they can be used for greater distances. Machine guns are used to lay a barrage in front of an advancing infantry, co-operating with or taking the place of heavier artillery. All airplanes used for military purposes are equipped with machine guns, and when mounted upon a special tripod and provided with tracer bullets they are used as anti-aircraft guns. Tanks and armored cars carry machine guns, and usually the first boat of a naval landing party in hostile territory is equipped with them.
'It is, perhaps, not overstating the case,' said the Gazette (London), 'to say that while we hold our trenches with Infantry, the Germans hold theirs with guns and Maxims, so that while their ordinary daily wastage is less, comparatively, than ours, they are able to transfer their infantry, without excessive risk, and to reinforce threatened or weakened sections of their line. We have of late greatly augmented the number of our machine guns with our troops, and are supplying better and lighter models; we are doing much to increase the mechanical and tactical skill of our machine gunners; we may remember that the machine gun is, after all, a weapon rather of defense than of offense, and that from the time when the present siege warfare comes to an end much of the war value of the machine gun will have fallen away from it.'
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