4. The guns being located by the enemy through an unnecessary opening of fire ordered by an Officer who is not an expert in machine gun tactics.
FIRE ORDERS.
The system of fire orders as taught at Hythe previous to the war has been most successful.
Machine Gun Officers are also of opinion that, though it has often been impossible to give orders by word of mouth, the systematic training of all ranks in this system tends to ease of control under difficult circumstances, and when a number of guns are being employed for combined action.
This training forms a basis from which other methods of control can most easily be evolved, and inculcates into the men the necessity for assuring themselves that any orders received by them are passed on by some means to those concerned.
“INDICATION AND RECOGNITION.”
The methods of “indication and recognition,” as taught at Hythe before the war, have proved most useful. This fact has been brought out in the accounts of the most successful machine gun actions, as has also the great value of the use of range cards and indication points. Targets are generally easy to indicate, as men are more alert than in peace-time.
Training in indication, recognition, fire orders, and judging distance, can be given at any time, as no apparatus is required.
This is also valuable, as it trains all ranks in a quick understanding of directions given, study of ground, and trains the eye in quick observation.