Machine-Gun Tactics

by R. V. K. Applin

The number of machine guns allotted to the permanent works of Port Arthur is given as 38 by the United States Official Report, while Nojine, in The Truth about Port Arthur, gives them in detail as 28, the distribution of which is shown in red figures on the map at the end of Chapter IX. The ten guns unaccounted for were probably mobile, and used for the defence of the harbour and the various landing-places in the neighbourhood of the fortress.

The mobile machine guns of the fortress will be used on the advanced line of defence with the mobile troops, and should be divided into two—those allotted to the outposts and those allotted to the local reserve.[41] Those allotted to the outposts must be placed in carefully selected positions commanding the approaches to the section of the defence to which they have been posted. These positions will usually be in minor works such as redoubts, emplacements, and lunettes, and they will be selected for their good field of fire, particular attention being paid to their command of dead ground in front of other works. Great care and trouble must be taken in concealing the guns and providing them with good cover, not only from rifle fire, but also from artillery. An endeavour should be made to command all wire entanglements along the front with machine guns, and the angles of traverse of each gun should be carefully laid off and marked in white paint or tape, so that they may be used in the dark accurately to sweep their area of ground. Too much stress cannot be laid on the importance of the accurate laying and sighting of machine guns by day for use at night, and it must be remembered that they are the only weapons which are capable of bringing a rapid and concentrated rifle fire on a particular spot in the dark, and are therefore invaluable to the defence during a night attack.

The detachments of guns on outpost duty at night should be told off into three watches of two men each, whose duty it will be to remain with the gun in readiness for instant action. The gun should be loaded and laid, and the men on duty should watch the front. Where the gun is in an emplacement or other loop-holed work, one man should watch through the loophole in turns of half an hour at a time. The strain of peering into the dark and listening for the sound of an approach at night is so great that no man should be required to do this duty for more than half an hour at a time, while the chance of a man dozing during a short spell is much reduced and the acuteness of the senses has not time to get dulled. Very strict orders must be given to insure that fire is not opened prematurely; and where infantry sentries are on duty near the gun, it may be advisable not to load the gun, but merely to insert the belt in the feed-block in readiness.

It is always advisable to have the gun ready for any emergency at night, and the following will be found an effective method of preparing the sights for aiming in the dark. Cut a piece of white paper, previously prepared with luminous paint, into the shape of a triangle, and paste it on the slide of the tangent sight so that the apex of the triangle touches the bottom of the V of the sight. Cut also a circular piece of a size that will fit on the foresight just below the tip, and paste this on the foresight. On looking over the sights in the dark, when the luminous ball on the foresight is seen resting on the apex of the luminous triangle on the tangent sight, the gun will be truly laid for the range for which the sight is set.

Machine guns with the local reserves must be light and mobile; they will be used in a similar way to those with infantry, and to assist in counter-attacks, particularly against the advanced infantry positions and sap-heads of the besiegers. They may also have opportunities of enfilading a trench or firing into a work that has been captured by the enemy. When used for this purpose they must be brought up by hand under cover and open fire at close range from a position that commands the interior of the trench or work, and if possible enfilades it. Great risks are justified in bringing up machine guns for this purpose, as the results of a successful fire action will usually be decisive and far-reaching.

The following is an example of their use in this manner during the siege of Port Arthur:

“On the attack on 203-Metre Hill, machine guns on Akasakayama flanked the position and enfiladed the attackers. Four hundred Japanese were sheltered together in a parallel, where they were completely screened from fire from any part of 203-Metre Hill. Suddenly two machine guns, which had been concealed on Akasakayama, where they could fire directly into the parallel, opened fire. Within a few seconds it was turned into a veritable pandemonium, a seething mass of humanity, where men were wildly fighting to get away, trampling on the wounded, climbing over piles of corpses which blocked the entrance, and trying to escape down the coverless hillside. But the Maxims did their work as only Maxims can, and within a few moments practically the whole force was wiped out; a few men were shot dead as they ran down the hillside, but nearly all the others were killed in the narrow trench. It took the Japanese days to extricate and carry away the fearfully intermingled corpses.”[42]

There are so many instances of the successful use of machine guns in the defence of Port Arthur that it will be impossible to quote more than a few of the most striking to illustrate the principle on which they should be employed.

At the third general attack on November 26th, at 2 p.m., a large force of Japanese assaulted Sung-shu fort, and having crossed the moat through a bomb-proof passage, they gained the parapet of the rampart and swarmed over it. “Into this seething mass of humanity the machine guns of the forts and batteries on An-tzu Shan poured such a tremendous fire that the attackers were mowed down, crushed, dispersed, and sent head over heels to the moat again in less than half a minute, before a single man had reached the interior of the fort. The same fate befell a fresh attempt undertaken at five o’clock.”[43]