France.—The guns in use are the Puteaux and the Hotchkiss. The unit is the regimental 2-gun section. Four-horsed carriages with limbers are used with cavalry, tripods with the infantry sections. No shields. Weight of the Hotchkiss in use, 50 ℔; of the tripod, 70 ℔. The Puteaux was lightened and improved in 1909.
Germany.—As already mentioned the German machine-gun units are classed as cavalry “detachments” and infantry “companies.” The “detachment” or battery consists of 6 guns and 4 wagons, the vehicles being of a light artillery pattern and drawn by four horses. The gun (Maxim) weighs 61 ℔, and its fighting carriage 110 ℔. The “companies” have also 6 guns and 4 wagons, but the equipment is lighter (two-horse), and is not constructed on artillery principles, nor are the guns fired from their carriages as are those of the “detachments.” The weight of the gun is 38 ℔, and that of the fighting carriage 75 (some accounts give 53 for the latter), the difference between these weights and those of the mounted equipments, affording a good illustration of the difference in the tactical requirements of the cavalry and of the infantry types of gun. The fighting carriage is a sort of sledge, which is provided with four legs for fire in the highest position, but can of course be placed on the ground; the height of the gun, therefore, can be varied from 3′ 6″ to 1′ 6″. The sledges can be dragged across country or carried by men stretcher fashion, and sometimes several sledges are coupled and drawn by a horse.
Japan.—The Japanese Hotchkiss, as modified since the war with Russia, is said to weigh 70 ℔, and its tripod mounting 40. Each regiment of infantry has a six-gun battery and each cavalry brigade one of eight guns. Pack transport is used.
Russia.—Since the war eight-gun companies have been formed in the infantry regiments, and each cavalry regiment has been provided with two guns. The var organization is, however, unknown. Both wheel and pack transport are employed for travelling, but the guns are fought from tripods. Early and somewhat heavy patterns of Maxim (with shield) are chiefly used, but a great number of very light guns of the Madsen type have been issued.
The Austrian gun is the Schwarzlose, of which some details are given above. Pack transport is used, one mule taking the whole equipment with 1000 rounds. Weight of the gun 37.9 ℔, of the tripod 41 ℔. The height of the tripod can be varied from 9¾ in. to 2 ft. above the ground. It is proposed that each cavalry regiment should have four guns, and each infantry regiment two. Switzerland adopted the Maxim in 1902. It is used principally as a substitute for horse artillery. Denmark and other small states have adopted the Madsen or Rexer light-type guns in relatively large numbers, especially for cavalry. In the United States the British organization was after many trials adopted, and each infantry and cavalry regiment has a two-gun section of Maxims, with tripod mounting and pack transport.
See P. Azan, Les premières mitrailleuses (“Revue d’Histoire de l’Armée,” July 1907); Le Canon à balles, 1870-1871 (“Revue d’Hist. de l’Armée”, 1909); Lieut-Colonel E. Rogers in “Journal R. United Service Institution” of 1905; Capt. R. V. K. Applin, Machine-gun Tactics (London, 1910) and paper in “J. R. United Service Inst.” (1910); War Office Handbook to the Maxim gun (1907); Capt. Cesbron Lavau, Mitrailleuses de cavalerie; Lieut. Buttin, L’emploi des mitrailleuses d’infanterie; Major J. Goots, Les Mitrailleuses (Brussels, 1908); and Merkatz, Unterrichtsbuch für die Masch.-Gewehrabteilungen (Berlin, 1906); Korzen & Kühn, Waffenlehre, &c.
(C. F. A.)
[1] The French term mitrailleuse, made famous by the War of 1870, reappears in other Latin tongues (e.g. Spanish ametralladora). It signifies a weapon which delivers a shower of small projectiles (mitraille—grape or case shot), and has no special reference to its mechanical (hand or automatic) action.
[2] Meudon Château had long been used for military experiments. The peasantry credited it with mysterious and terrible secrets, asserting even that it contained a tannery of human skins, this tradition perhaps relating to the war balloon constructed there before the battle of Fleurus (1794). Reffye had also many non-military tasks, such as the reproduction of a famous set of bas-reliefs, construction of aeroplanes, and the reconstruction of triremes and balistas.