MILITARY SCIENCE

MUSEUM EVIDENCE

RELICS AND PORTENTS

A WELLINGTON CAPTURE FROM

THE TURKS.

(Written for '.1 The Post.")

A recent article; in the "Evening 'Post," headed "Rapidity of Fire," stressed the military importance of 'in- | yentive progress in' automatic machineguns and automatic rifles j and—at least | equally important—the necessity of 1 making, the best tactical use of such wea- | pons. In some wars machine-guns have been called failures, when the failure was due to incorrect tactics and poor training of the personnel. To make the best tactical use of machine-guns, or of any other weapon, correct understanding of its uses and high training are necessary. I Neither can be obtained unless there is 'a I highly-trained instructional staff, possese--1 ing knowledge and initiative. New ZeaI land must not lose its excellent instfuc- ! tional staff through neglect. It is not generally known that the Military Museum at Trentham Camp contains a Maxin? machine-gun. and Mark IV. (the latest) tripod, manufactured wholly (except the barrel) at Petone Railway Workshops. In cost, Petone could not compete in machine-gun construction with the British factories and arsenals. Nevertheless, manufacture of small arms might be possible- in the country "in a pinch." '' The British Army has had a number of niachine-guns. There were the Gatling, the Nordenfeldt, and the Gardner, all hand-operated ; then the automatic principle came in with the Maxim, which was first.used by British troops in the Ohitral "Expedition in 1895, when it stopped the hillmen's rushes, and did effective work in the fight' for the Malakand Pass; and the. British Army .to-day has a direct descendant of the Maxim in' the Vickers,. which is a lighter and improved Maxim. Tho Vickers (water-cooled) is the standard machine-gun of the British Army; auxiliary to it is the still lighter and more specialised air-cooled Lewis gun, a kind of automatic rifle.' , The cavalry machine-gun is the air-cooled Hotchkiss, which is mucb lighter than the Vickers. There is some quest for an improved automatic rifle that could be used in the place of both the Lewis and tho Hotchkiss. ' It would be of great advantage if the" infantry and the cavalry used the same automatic rifle. The Madsen gun has been suggested as a suitable dual-purpose weapon. GERMAN AND FOREIGN TYPES. The, Trentham Museum, which is a place of instruction in the latest, as well as in the obsolete, contains specimens of the older machine-guns as well as those now in use. The latter include the Vickers, Lewis, and Hotchkiss;'the German standard machine-gun, which is a Maxim; and the Austrian machine-gun, called the Schwarzlose. j The French and Japanese .armies use the Hotchkiss. . The German machine-gun is at a digI advantage, compared with the British i machine-guns, in not possessing an allI round traverse, owing to its mounting i being on the sledge principle; but it has | the advantage of a very good telescopic sight. It is seen in the Museum with full i equipment, including a charcoal heater Ito contend against' the freezing of the water-jacket (cooling contrivance) 1. ' ' ! The German light machine-gun, corresponding to .the Lewis, differs from the Lewis in being water-cooled. The British Army uses the Lewis in its aeroplanes. The German army has' three i ] different patterns of machine-gun (all' air-cooled) for use,in aeroplanes. Multiplicity of patterns is no advantage. I The Schwarzlosei has' reduced ;the original fourteen springs of the Maxim to | one. - This Austrian gun is considered to be very effective. I. THE NEW AND THE OLD. A new German machine-pistol is one of the most interesting exhibits in the i Museum. At the other end of the acale is an old hand-operated Nordenfeldt, of .45-inch calibre. (Machine-guns and rifles have now all the same calibre —in the British Army—.3o3 inch.) This ' • kind fit Nordenfeldt. was used against the Zulus in 1879, and was also'used in J ' the Nile Expedition of 1884 by the Navy, j 1 under the late Lord Charles Beresford. [ The gun in the Museum has two barrels, 1 but others of the same date have up to i ten' barrels, in order to increase the i rate of fire. Modern machine-guns are single barrelled. j There is also in tEe Museum a .45-inch > i Maxim, one-of the first Maxims brought out.' It is understood that this was , captured <by one of the - New Zealand ! Contingents from the Boers in the South , .African War; . I In bombs and bomb-throwing appa- I ratus and rifle-grenades there are many I interesting exhibits, especially of British and German weapons. In addition to the well-known Mills bomb, there are egg bombs, cricket-ball bombe', pineapple bombs, etc.; and samples of the home-made Gallipoli bombs, fashioned with the aid of some. explosive, a jamtin, and a time .fuse.

There is a German howitzer shell •16 inches in diameter, aiii so on; down tha scale.' Sixteen different, calibres- were collected from the Turks in the' Sinai campaign alone... There are two, excellent German-made field guns-that were among the New Zealand Army's most memorable captures from the Tnrks. They were taken daring the Sinai.campaign by the Wellington Mounted Rifles, and are a subject-of pride to this district as well as to the Dominion. . ,"' GAS AND FLAME -WARFARE.. The appliances of gas warfare—and of defence against , it—are in evidence. Germany does not seem to have equalled tEe appliances with which-the British countered her resort to this form of warfare, unless in the quality of her Ragalarm, which, is very deep-throated. The German trench-raiding clubs (or knobkerries) are curious, but German *'constructive, genius is seen to much more advantage in well-mounted; observationglasses. ' ' ' ■■'.■• '"' '■•/' . ■■■■ .■. | There'are samples of flares, i. and also of the 'flame-thrower. The latter is like a coil" of piping with a, nozzle,, through which played the Greek fire generated in the apparatus itself. A diabolical-looking affair, possibly, of more moral than material consequence. Something more welcome is the exhibit of the wonderful. mnnitional worit done by British women during the war. This is a fine^way of ; recording what women did for the Empire.' Swords of various kinds take the story back centuries, and Bedouin throwing spears link it with the barbaric Yet all these exhibits of the warfare of the ages agree.in one thing-—that power is for him who' has weapons and can use them. The weapons will not avail ■without the will anrl the skill. That is why, in warfare, the moral so heavily outweighs the material.