Machine gun manual

by H. Douglas

GENERAL REMARKS OF INTEREST.

1. Lack of any organised method of using machine guns. Young and inexperienced Officers are left in many cases to do what they think best with their sections, without any previous consultation or plan as to how guns can be most usefully employed.

2. Lack of any attempt at co-operation between the sections of the units working together in any particular action.

3. Lack of initiative and push. This is usually due to want of knowledge. Though the machine gun is a weapon of opportunity, opportunities seldom occur to those who passively await them.

A good Machine Gun Officer, by keeping himself thoroughly in touch with the situation, must have an opportunity to use his guns with effect.

4. This lack of co-operation is seen both in the open and in trench work. All this points to the fact that co-operation between the whole of the machine guns taking part in any action is not sufficiently studied.