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8/12/2019 Some Notes on Lewis Guns and Machine Guns
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S O M E NOTESON
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L E W I S I T h S A N D ~IACRINEU N S[These notes are written by a regimental officer with
considerable experience in handling Lewis guns and
Machine guns in the present ~var. They should beread in conjunction with S.S. 106.]
s s u e by the Gene ra l Staf f
SEPTEMBER, 1918.
LONDON:
HARRISON AND SONS, ST MARTIN’S LANH , W .O.,PItINTEI:S iN OOLiINARY TO 1118 MAJEsTY.
8/12/2019 Some Notes on Lewis Guns and Machine Guns
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SOME NOTES ON LEWIS GUNS
AND MACHINE GUNS.
I. PRINCIPLES OF EMPLOYMENT.
I. Now that two Lewis guns are added to the equipment of each
Company, any officer may find himself in command of this new
weapon, and he should therefore have sonic notion of tho best useto which it can be put.
These notes are designed to help officers in this. A good many
of the remarks may be platitudes to the more experienced officers,
but I know that many have had little opportunity of studying any
form of machine gun.
2. The principles of machine gun~,in their simplest form, neces-sarily come into such a subject, and I have dealt with them at some
length for three reasons
1 A Lewis gun is a form of machine gun arid takes over some
of tile work previously done by Maxim and Vickers guns.
Some of this work they do as weii as aVickers, somebetter,
some worse. An officer commanding a Lewis gun ought
to know what work is best left to a Machine gull andwhat
he can take on better himself.
2 Machine guns work so cioseiy with infantry that much
misunderstanding can be removed if the infantry officers
know something of the principles on winch they are used.
3 One of the main jobs of Lewis guns is knocking out enemy
machine guns. And to hunt anything successfully you
must know its habits.
II. CHARACTERISTICS OF LEWIS GUNS AND
MACHINE GUNS.
1 . Lewis guns share with Machine guns the following character.
istics :— i. They can at any moment open a heavy concentrated fire,
and the volume of fire is not decreased till more than
66 per cent, of the team become casualties.
In a Company, every casualty sustained lessens the volume
of fire.
B 12363 ) Wt.w. 7039—0026 25u 9/10 II S P. 16/03S
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ii. They can give a maximum volume of fire fromaminimum
of front.
For a short burst, the fire of a Lewis gnu equals that ofabout 20-30 rifles, and it can be fired from a single loop-hole, or, in the open, from a frontage of two men.
iii. Fire control is easy, since all time firing is done by one man.
2 . Lewisguns differ from Machineguns as follows
i. They aro cooled by air and not by water. They therefore
get hot much sooner end will be red hot if 700 or 800rounds are flied rapidly. If more are fired theymay burst.Compiny officers, therefore, if requiring only one gun~
should useboth alternately. Again if one company hasa
hot time while anotherhas nothing to do, the latter shouldbe prepared temporarily to exchange guns with time former.
ii. They are morO open, and therefore more exposed to dust,
wet and mud than Machine guhs. They also contain a
greater number of easily broken parts.
iii. Time magazines are more easily damaged than the belts of
Machine gulls. If a full Of lO is dropped on lmardgro rindit will probably be so dented that it will not lit, the gun.
The bulk of time magazines therefore must be carried in
boxes sufficiently strong to protect them and these areVery Imeavy .
846 rounds in time boxes issued to us weigh 1 02 lbs., while a
box of 1,000 rounds of S.A. ammunition in bandoliers
only weighs 75 lbs. more. Boxes carrying 1,000 roundsof Machinegun ammunition in belts weigh 78 lb.
iv. Time main advantage claimed for Lewis guns over.Machineguns is that, needing no \vatcr, they are lighter and somore mobile,
But company officers must remember that th~mobility of a
gun depends largely U~Oflthe mobility of its ammunition. Theymust’ therefore be prep~.redto provide men to lend a hand witim the
heavy magazine boxes in cases ofa long rapid advance orof casualties
among time section carriers.
3.. To sum imp, a Lewis grin is rather like that inetitable starter irs
the Grand National about which all the prophets say that “it willwin if it stands imp.” That generally means that it hasn’t a chance
unless it has a first rate training with a real good jockey. In the
same way stoppages and breakagcs in a Lewis gun can only be
prevented andminimized by having realgood menwho will keep their
guns inorderand use then properly. Company officers, in selecting
men, should imagine that they have a new motor car amid wish to
eboose one of their men to be trained as ehauileur. A Lewis gun is
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a more delicate piece of mechanism than a motorear and needs more
constant attention. A rough stupid man can put it out of action
for a long time in cleaning it ; and a careless irresponsible man willwaste endless ammunition if lie fires it, and will have his gun red hot
at the critical moment.
IlL—TACTICAL HANDLING.
The simplest way to arrive m i t the purposes to which Lewis guns
may be put is to consider first the work machine guns have done in
thepast, and then see what part of this werkLewis grins should takeover, and also if there is any further work forwhich they are specially
adapted.
I. Trench Defence.
I. In normal times in the trenches the first duty of machine guns isdefence. For this purpose brigade machine gun officers make
arrangements for theirmachine gun~in the front trenches to join in
forming wlmat is called a “ belt of fire “ across the entire front..Every machine gun officer, on taking over a sector of the line, is shown
or provided with a map something like Fig. 1.If this h)el t is properly constiucted it is clear that no considerable
body of the enemy can cross No-man’s land without terrific losses,so long as time machine guns remain in action. Time emplacements
from which Machineguns fire to form this belt of fire are called
“ battle emplacements” ; they must be well concealed arid strong
enougim to resist anything but a direct hit from a large shell. Each
gun should have analternative battle emplacementcovering the sameallotted field of fire, in case one should be knocked in. “ Defence
emplacement would probably be a better name than “ battle
emplacement for these emplacements are designed for defence, and
f o m an attack different positions would often be selected.2 . Two points should first be noted about the siting of these
emplacements
i. Time guns all fire diagonally.This is for three reasons. a They cover more ground. A
greater space of No-maim’s land can be swept without
altering the aim, and together they form a belt of firethrough which the enemy attack must pass. Fewer mciiwill thus be needed to Imold t ime tiench. b) They are les3likely to be seen, because they are d c f m l m m m l e d from the
nearest part of the enemy’s t r encimes . c They enfilade
an enemy attack, and shots which miss or pass through a
nearparty may hit time next..
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hence it follows that a gun sited in one company is probably
looking after the front of another company oreven another
battalion. Time men on duty with niachine guns must not,therefore, be looked ocr by company officers as sentries in
theordinary way. Theironly concern is to keep their gunstuned up to prevent anyone from tampering with them,
and to lookout alongtheir line of/ire. W’c had one emplace-ment, for instance, in tile middle sector at Ypres, wimere
the sentry could only watch his line of fire at night through
Ilie loop hole in his emplacement.
ii. Each gunhas its own p~rticulargound to cover which may be
large or small and s bag as it cov3:s t im it sitisfactofily it fulfilsits main purpose.
Company officers sometimes look t imrough an emplacement and
criticize it adversely on the ground ilmat it has a small field
of fire. Sucim criticisms cannot be intelligently imiadc unless
the critic knows t i m e r ~ 1 m m pose for w i m i c i m the gun has becim soplaced.
3. The formation ofsuch abelt of fire looks very easy on amap, but
in practice many points have to be considered. In time first placeall time guns, so far aspossible, must be sited forgrazing fire anti not
for plunging fire. In otimer words, time trajectory of time bullet should
coincide with time slope of time ground foras longadistance aspossible.One of time great advantages of time Maxim or Vickers grin is its fixed
platform. The gun can be laid along its line at dusk and fired witlmcffect at any hour of the night, but this advantage is lost if the sins
of time gun lies to be continually changed. Time Gcrnman front line
machine guns surely traverse at all. The traversing fire that sonic.
times comes over our lines is generally from a rcseri-c t rencim.) itfollows, therefore, that a hugh commanding position is a disadvantage
for afront linegun, especiallyatnight. See Fmg. 2.
4. When your trench line runs rip a slope, it is generallybetter to
cover the front by siting your grin at time bottom and firing up the
Slope for tim~ollow~greasons :— i You are more likely to get an
attacking party atnight on the skyline. ii Time emplacement at time
top of time ~bpe would be more easily spatted, and when spotted will
be mare easily shelled. iii When firing down a slope time bulletsthat miss their immediate object generally bury themselves
in the ground. Wimen firing up over a ridge time outside bullets of
the comic may do damage on the other side. In fact one can
generally site a grin with this secondary object in mind, and work
out the aim with a map, chnomne t . e r and compass so that such bulletsare likely to fall somewhere us uful—cither to enfilade an enemy
trench further up tue line or lilt a village, headquarters, dump, or ross-roads behind.
.
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“Mad Ahick” of — the generic name of a family of
machine guns in that neighbourhood, is a good instance of this
practice. He fires at the top of our parapet where he canpartially enfilade it, but is so placed that shmots which pass overit will fall in tim neigimbourhmood of—.—. Luckily lie h m a s mistaken
the contours and cannot get observation of his fire, withm the result
that the centre of his effective beaten zone is gemmerally halfway
up the tower of — Church. If lie retired two or three hundredyards amid fired at the same mark anti elevation, he would make
street a much more unpopular promenade.
5. This is an important point for Lewis guns as well as Machine
guns. TIIC main criticism that c~nbe brought against bothis that they fire so rapidly that eveiy shot cannot hit and therefore
they are wasteful of ammrmnition. This charge can largely be
answered by so firing that time outside shots of the cone imave a
reasonable chance of hitting a secondary target. To accomplishthis successfully the directing gunner must imave a’ good bump of
locality and a thorough knowledge of time map.
II. Straftng in Trenches.
1 . While the formation of a belt of fire, to economize infantry indefence, is thie first duty ofmachine guns posted in front line trenches,a certain amount of useful strafing can also be done on occasions.
But only in exceptional circumstances should this be indulged
in from the battle emplacements or they will soon be discovered.This work can generally be best done by reserve guns from rising
ground behimmd the trenches. Dunips, approaches, cross-roads,
~c., can often be fired on. But if an attack is contemplated, anyapproachmes or communication trenches that can be reached should
be hef t alone till the day of attack, or the enemy will defliade themwith traverses or choose a safer line,
2 . Patrols, working parties orgaps in the enemy’s parapet can bestrafed from the front line and for thus purpose less elaborate
~e.mp1aeements may be made, often in comnmanding positions.
IlL Lewis Guns in Tren*hes.
1 . Now arises the question, what part of the machiine gun work in
the trenches can Lewis grins usefully take over 1
The “ belt of fire” business is, in the main, best left to Machineguns when these are available, because, owing to their fixed
platfornms~they can better cover their lines by night; but there
are occasions whmen Lewis guns can usefully supplement them.
For instance, your trench line may run over a flat-topped ridge.
Botim slopes may be swept by machine guns shooting upwards, but
neither may sweep time flat top. The top would be an unsuitableplace for a permanent emplacement and in any came it would be
wasteful to retain a Machine grin for so small a space. A Lewis gun
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placed near would make this secrire, see Fig. 3a. Again, in the
middle sector at Ypres thiere was ahollow with a hedge in it running
at right angles to our t r enc imes and we had to keep one Machinegunsolely to watch it—see Fig. 3b Here a Lewis g r i m m would do the
work perfectly well.
2 But it is in the strafing thirst Lewis guns will be most usefuL
There is practicallyno front.line strafing that cannot be bettor done
by Lewisgrins. Time work does not need long-continued fire; amid two
or three Lewis guns couhh quickly he concentrated to join in mmcli
worlt without leaving any gaps in the belt of fire, as would occur iffront line Machine guns were moved for this purpose.*
3 . Again, any work in front ofourown lines is more suited toLewMguns. At Fleurbaix last J u m m e the Germans used often to work inthn daytime on a new trench 40 yards in front of their line—dead
ground from our parapet. I asked peri imission to take out a. Maxim
througim time hong grass to stalk thmern, but time Colonel refused because
if we were surprised by an e n m e m n y patrol we would have difficulty iii
getting so heavy a gun away. Here was an ideal opening for a
Lewis grin. Similarly inan enterprise on the G e r n m a m m trenches two
Lewis guns pushed out into No.ma~’sland on either side of the
point of attmmck would keep clear the raiding party’s hue of retreat.
IV. The Attack irons Trenches.
1. In any attack tue duties of all forms of machine guns are ito cover time advance of time infantry by keeping down orunsteadying
the enemy’s fire; ii to prevent or delay the enemy fronm bringing
‘reinforcements ‘to the threatened points; iii to help in the fight for
superiority of fire before time assault.
In a trench attack iii) will not occur. The necessarysuperiority
must be obtained beforehand by greater ‘weight of artihlery.and byholding thc supremacy of No-man’s land.
‘Let us picture atypical trench attack and seo how Machine guns
and Lewis grins can attain the first two objects.
F~rs1phase.
In the preliminary bombardnient Lewis guns can do nothingend Machineguns very little. 1 have seen it suggested that machine
guns should enfilade any communication trenches that thmey can in
order to catch Germans retiring to the shelter of the second line.I ‘do not agree with this. Impatience is a very general fault on our
‘side. Whenwe see m u chance of inflicting sonic small danmage on times m n e n m y we are far too apt to do it at once instead of saving up the
‘blow for some time when it will have a real importance. As an
example of t l m i s when officers in time front line spot an enemy machine
~Note by General Staff.—Lewis guns are not, however , sui table for “strafing”by lmidircct fire and should not b e uicd fo r this purpose se e S.S. 100,Append ix A, 3 a .
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gun, even if it is doing no damage, they often call on the artillery to
shell it. Even if our guns k m m o c k it out, another will quickly be
brought rip to sweep t i m e same g r o r m m m d f r o r u m a safer position andnothing material m s bean guinel. On the other h m a m m d , if time gun
were left in fancied s curit; till time morning of an attack, and then
kmmocked out, the G e r m i m u m s ~nobably could not replace it in time to be
of any service. In just time same way, by enfilading conmmunication
trenches early in a bombardment you may c m r t c h m a few men. But
time trench can be easily cleared and will be marked as dangerous.If you leave it alone and strafe it anionthe enemy are returning to the
front line to meet one attack, time eflect will be far greater. You
may block time trench and upset the German orgmnisution.3. ‘When t i m e bomnbardnment ceases, our imifantry goes “ over the
top.” As soon as time enemy sees them, every loophmole will beopened
and parapets mnanumed. An intense fire will bepourcnl upon our men
both from time enemy’s front line and from any positions behind
commanding No-man’s land. However severe our bombardment,some m a c h m i m m e grin emplacenments are sure to be left, and it is from
these that time gmeitest losses will be dealt.
4 Time Vickers in rear can deal with time enemy’s second line
positions; thmey can alsodelay reinforcements. They can do this byenfilading communication t r enclmes ; by shooting over others whichcannot be directly enfiladed they will make tire enemy stick to time
t rencim instead of c o m ’ n i m m g up nmore quickly over time top. They can
also often search ground which time artillery cannot effectively shell,
as it is lucre that reinforcements will probablybe collecting.5. But before time arrivalof Lewis g u m m s itwas always very difficult
to silence time e r m c m m m y ’ s front line, It is clear that this cannot be
properly done fronm our own trenches beeauso our fire would at once
be nmaskcd by our own attacking troops. As a suggestion, ga-psmight be left in our attacking line, especially in a salient opposite
well-shelled trenches, for machine guns to fire through, see Fig. 4.Brit this covering fire must chiefly be clone by g r u m m s placed well in
front of orir own trenches, which can COimt inUe firing till time imafantryis past t h i e m m i . For this purpose t ime higlmt and eas~ concealed Lewis
gun is particularly well adapted, and Vickers gumis can also be usedin tiremost favourable positions for cdver. How these guns get there
is immaterial provided that they reach theirplaces unseen before the
attack. They may go out the night before, dig themselves in andstop there; or t imey mayprepare their shelter at niglmt and crawl out
to it in time later stages of time bombardment orunder cover ofa smokecloud. ~ They s i m o u m l d get as far forward as possible so long as tirey
are out of bombing distance of enenmy sapsand not in time line of fireof our own wire.cutting grins. Since they will fire diagonally, aposition behind a hillock wlmere they are covered f r o m m a time trenches
opposite m u ighmt be a goodone. But each positionmust be chosen on
its merits.
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0. If Vickers guns anti Lewis guns were used‘ togethaa- , time Vickers
guns shonuld sweep time enemy’s parimpets and thmeir breastworks at
loophole height, since they a m ’ o u m m o r e sinted to sustained traversingfire.
7. Time special job of Leavis guns is knocking otut macimine guns.
But to do this one must study their imabits. If a Lewis gunnerhears a machine gun firing straigimt opposite h m i n m it is a great
temptation to fire at the sound but this would m n l u m i o s t always bo
useless becausa Gerrmman gums like our own fire diagonally and are
clefiladed from time front.
German front line machine guns have narrow loopholes because
they traverse very little. They all have strong head cover, Corninglow down in front so thmat they can only b e hit by short range fire.They fire diagonally so that they can only be hit from the dimect ion
in which they are firing. Lewis gunners, therefore, have t im e bestclmance of putting out time grin whose builcts are coming nearest
themselves; and the strike of machine gun builets on the gioundis time best guide to the place from which you can put that machine
gun out. German machine gun loopholes are generally near the
g ronmnd level.
8 . Every gum, Viekers or Lewis, must have assigned to it its ownparticular length ofenemy t r e m m c l m before it is sent out. The Vickers
guns will cover, between them, time wirole parapet: while Lewis guns
W O U 1 1 be given a particular length of parapet to watch for machine
guns. All t lmese lines should be diagonal. Sec Fig. 5.9. Only two menshomulni go out with time gun, time rest waiting in time
trench behiimd ready tobring on ammunition when time gunadvances.
V i t } m time gun must be sufficient a u m m n m u u m m i t i o i m for its iimmmnediate pur-pose as well asa load for No. 2 to take forward.
Second phase.
10. Time Lewis guns, Imaving ceased fire as time infantry passed,
w o m m i n l r e m m m a i n in position m m m s t i i they were assured that the trenehms
had been carried. In ease of failure timey would cover the retreat..As soon as time infantry were well into time front trench the guns
would move forward anti join thmeir compammies.
1 1 . If the attack was proceeding feir t imer they would endeavour tocover the next advance precisely as they covered the first. If,
however, t h m e . y imave to meet a conmnter.attack at once, they mustbe arranged to form abelt of fire across time front preciselyasmachimegrins do i m m the trenches, and they will continue to do this until a
further advance is to be made, or time machine guns come i m p to
‘consolidate time positions won. Occasionally a Lc~visgun may be
used to defend a straight communication trench b r m t thmese arerarely found near the f r o m m t line; g e m m e r m u h l y these trenches twist too
m r m c . l m and are better defended b u y bonmbers , while time Lewis grins
prevent a direct rush over the top. If time counter-attack c onmes
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before you imave time to organize a belt of fire across the whole
battalion, companies ~houhchseparate their Lewis guns, to fire
inwards across each other’s front.12 . It may happen that X Battalion captures its trench, but Z
Battalion on its hef t fails to do so. ‘One or two guns of Battalionmay then be usefully employed with time bombers working t imeir
way alomig t i m e t rencim to time hef t . Agood position for such a gun is~hmownin Fig. 0. In any case where one battalion finds itself in
front of time general ahigmmunent, the Lewis grins of time middle com-panies must be prepared to forna the belt of fire by tiuemselves across
time entire from’it, because the grins of time f l m u m h t conupammies may have
to be drawn back to protect time fiamiks of time battalion.13. The bestpositions for time Lewis gnus should always be chmosen
before the gums thiemselves follow rip time attack. It is very
dangerorms to nmove guns laterally across time firing line. Time guns,
fohlowiumg up from time rear, shouldalways bedirected straigimt to theirpositioums. Company commanders should arrange with their
Lewis gun officers as to who is to carry orrt timis iimportaiat duty.In the authmoriZe h personnel of a Lewis gmu team, no provision is
nmade for seormts, range-takers or observers. I suggest that Lewis
gun officers simould, have a liberal allowance of rurrners trained in
this work.14. Provided time gun is not overimeated, ammunition may be used
freely from time first position time guns occupy. But time moment
gurus go forward thucy must fire more sparingly. Ousce you arein time emmemy’s t r ene imes every round of arnmnunition increaseS 10
times in valnie, anti must be econonmized accordingly. All fur t imer
supplies will have to pass through time enemy’s curtains fire.
V. Lewis Guns in Open Fighting.
1 . The main principles that goverus time rise of Lewis guns are the
same us open fightimug as tinder time circumstances already described.
2 . The guns will sometimes have to he used for covering fire. If,
for instanmce, the conspany is surprised by rifle or macimine-gun firewhile in artillery formation, all Lewis guuss will at once get into
action to cover time deploynment.
3. Similarly in an attack, where the infantry imas to advance over anexposed piece of ground, Lewis guns will be pushed ahead sec~ethy
to cover time movement. In former timures companies would ~masssuch ground by advanciimg by altcrrmate platoons or sections,. oneplatoon firingwhile t ime umext advanced. NowLewis g u u m s can provide
time necessary fire and the whole comumpany can pass quickly overwitimorut halting. But where there is a l o u m g stretch of open ground,
time cover inug can better be done by time overhead fire of Machine
guns. Maciuine guns can fire farmore continuously and c a m s put in
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accurate simootiag at rangesup toa mile and a half. At this distance
thmeir bullets have a steep angle of descent and are tlmerefom-e better
calculated to demoralize troops in t rcnchmes. Still for shuortdistances of exposed ground Lewis grins are better, because, by time
use of pre-arrangcd signals, they can open fire at time exact moment
t imat tire iumfantry advances.4. Lewis g u m m i s are also useful for shift i img hostile advanced pickets
or unexpected nmachhie grins.5 . Sue m covenimmg lure often h m u r s to be m m s r d when no clear target pre.
scnts itself, but even so it may be of real value, in Souitim Africa the
men of time squadrons used to jibe at our machine guns and say
they never hit anything but, they added, “ we like to hear thempopping because they imuake time Boers sbmoot so badly.”
0. Tlmormgh in a war like this covering fire often has to be used,
gunners , m m r m s t never lose sighmt of time real object of all kinds ofmachuine g u m m m s which is the anniluilat~onof a body of time enemy.
They are weapons of opportunity, and in general jurist lie Ion’
till they cars get the greatest effect. They n m m m s t get as near as they
safely can to the enemy, when ourside is advancing,and conversely
they must allow an attacking enemy to connie as near as they can
without unnlue risk. This margin of safety varies according tocircumstaumces. An enemy patrol of 50 men might he allowed to
approach within 50 yards. if, there are several patrols eoumverging
on tIme grin, this distance must he increased. The distarr.ce wouldbe lessened if there were concealed barbed wire in front of the
grin, and so on.7 . If one g u m s is firingata party of the enemy it shouldopen fire at
that part of time enemy nearest to hihtely cover and traverse inwards.Time encimsy will probably ruin into time line of fire in tryimmg to reach
cover.S. If two or snore grins are used for the same purpose each mnist
have a separate point of aim. With two guns e u n e i m would start atan
extremmae flank of time party and traverse inwards; ~f there were four
g m m n s , the otimer two would lay on time centre and traverse outwards
to heft a,’d right. All t imese points of aim must be settled before-hand.9. It is impossible to go over all time situations that m u m a y occur in
open figimting, but time following remarks may cover seine of thmem.Time best mark a Lewis grin can have is cavalry. Cavalry has no
terrors for airy machine gauss if time latter are ready for action.
Except in time case of covering fire, it is ageneral rule forLewisguns that they should not open fire n m u m l c s s tiuey imave a reasonable
chance of inflicting very severe losses. There a m ’ e tiuumcs, howeverwhmen this rule will not hold good, viz. :— i In a rcaignmmrmd delaying
action, guns would open at extreme range to delay time enemy by
making h u b s ’ . deploy early. ii If an enemny is retreating lucky burst
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t imere is no object in waiting, because yonir target will get no nearer.
hi It is worth having a long shot at particularly tempting marks.
A battery limbering imp, a machine gun section on time move, ageneraland his staff, should, like awoodcock, be strafed by everybody.
If thmere is a gap in our hiuse, a Lewis gun on ei t imer side of it,
sluooting diagonally across each otimer’s front, will prevent an
enemy getting t h r o n m g h m till it is filled i m p .
In almy orgmusized scheme of attack or defence as opposed to
patrol workor sumiall emuterpri so) eacim Lewisgun must begiven its ownpartictular line to deal with, arnl from this line of flue it must emily
move in exceptional circumstances, Sucin a case might be a local
raid by time emsemny. If time rakhing party seemed likely to gain afooting inA sector and B sector was m m o t attacked, thegun defending
B sector nsighmt be swung uound to iselp time defence of A. But inall s n u c i m casts oneman of thegun team must beoudered to keep watch
along time original line, so timat i m e c a m s switch time gunback time moment
a tmmrget presents itself on that line.In defence Lewis guns should m a o t beordered to cover to
9wide
it stretch of front. This would o m a l y lead to an imscfficient watch, wimile
if several targets presented t imemuselves time gun would be constantly
changing from ouse to the otimer and do little meal damage to airy.It is much better to give a gun a smaller line—say, one field and ahmedge—evcn if the whole line is not covered. For if you prevent
tiseenemnyfromcrossingtwo fields here and two fields t imere , you will
break U I and disoiganise his hue, and im e will attack your infantry
with little chance of succcss.
Fimmahly, ‘Len- is gums simould be h m m m m d l e d as a sailor handles a
submarine. In a square straigimt figimt with a Vichurs a Lewis gun
stands no more cimanee than a submarine in a similar encoumater with
a battleship. Botim only succeed by popp imag up ummexpec ted ly ,delivering a rapid c m r m s h u i n g blow, a m u d then, when they are dis.
covered, trusting to escape by their mobility and invisibility to some
other unexpected place from whicim tisey can repeat time dose.
IV .—GENERAL REMARKS.
1 . T I m e qrmes t i on may be asked. Is it wortim wimile to try towork
timis somewhat elaborate organization? Why not use time Lewis
g r u m s s as a kind ofsuperior rifle, just hike any other rifle is usednowTo this t imere are two answers.
i At time lmrcseuat moimsent rifles are not, in practice, used to the
best advantage. Time most iumsportamst principles s u m u m m m c d up in thae
expression “ Fire control” are, owing to the cxtreme difficulty ofap~mhyiumgt imeni in action, ingravedammg~rof beiumg disregarded. Even l m t rencimes o m a e sees seustrics at u u g h m t f i r i u m g off mounds imapimazarch in
time direction of time opposite tm’ench, imus tead of each bay beiumg given
some definite a i n m i u m g nsark along w i m i e h m its occumpants c a m s fire witim
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13
greatly simplified, since only one milan I S firing Ire equivalent of
twenty rifles, and therefore time fullest attentioim devoted to this
subject is never wasted. ii All autommaatic rifles and machine guns are extreumuely wasteful
of arnumunition unless used on time principles already described. It
is only by sucim methods that they get their Itill effect. Hithertowe have been far behind time Gerimmaims in material of this kind now
we may be aborut eqrualto them. But even ifwe get a prepommderancethe advantage will largely be lost umsiess we get out of everyweapon
the full workof whuicls it is capable.
2 . And from this another poimat arises. It has been said that
Lewis guns and macimine grins get tbmcir best effects by diagonal fire.Why not carry fimis to its logicalconclusion 7
Many of us saw s o m s s e t h i m m g of time fiasco of time 9 th of May, 1915.
I got full accounts from men wimo wemit t imrouglm and came back. Allof them told the simile story thmat, once they were timmough the
Germuman fromat line they were swept by machine g m m n s from both
flanks, but not a r m s a m s could tell inc even roughlywhere those iuachmine
grins were situated.
3. And ifyou thuink of o m u r on-n pract~eattacks it is easy to see howsuch a thing imapp en ed . We are given a compass bcarimig on which
to march. The officers fund some objectat w i m i c i m tIme flanks of timeircommand m i r e to aim a m s d their best N.C.O.’s are wimohiy occupied in
keeping this direction. Time officers divide their attention between
seeing timat thedirection is kept, s t smdying thedangers anddifficulties
of time gm’ound to be traversed and looking for sigims of time enensy in
their objective. The remimainder are watciming for the officer’ssigmmais. But nobody is hooking to time place f r o m i m winch casualties
will conic—the flanks, imahf m i g h u t n m m m d half left, where machine gunsmay be hying safely dcfiladcd from their own front.
Nowthis sidelong glance m m m i g h m t well be time special duty ofLewisgun
teams. In their pesit ioma in the fourthm line tisey have fewanxieties
about diu-cction. if a few grins with a small supply of ammunition
were sent for-ward to assist time advance, time remnainder of the teams
carrying hmeavy amusUnition would suflice to mark time line which the
grins could rejoin as tire battalion passed. Similarly no injury
would be done to the direction of time line if spare mcmi of Lewis gun
teams were sent forward to points ofvantage from which thmey couldwatch our flanks and signal the guns forward if tisey saw signs ofany
danger from timose directions. I feel confident ilmat if seine such
arrangenment were made, our losses in an attack would be very
greatly lessened, and no German machine guns would inflict imeavy
casualties upon us, as they did on May 9th, without being in any
danger themselves.
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Frauni~2
MACHINE GUN DEFENJ JNG A LTN~.
A Machine Gun in a commanding position.
B M~ehineGun in ‘ow position.
I~emembcrthat both guns are shooting diagonally, so that A positionwould leave many gaps through which an enemy might pass. In 13)
position there are no gaps.
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1 4 3
Finuna 3 .
A .
B .
Exsani’r~Esof ground in front of trenches better defended by Lewis guns
than by Machine guns. ~
In botis cases you are supposed to be looking straigimt to your front
out of your on-n trench. The machmine guns are firing away from you
diagonally.
Similar eases will occurwhen any sunken road or
- deep ditcis cuts our line.
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