VALUE OF THE WEAPON.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 310, 1 October 1915, Page 3

VALUE OF THE WEAPON.

Some of the chief advantages and characteristics of the machine-gun—-that remarkable weapon which won its first great success in the Russo-Japan-ese war, and the possibilities of which were most promptly and fully realised by Germany—are well set out by a writer in Land and Water. First of all, he refers to the mobility of the weapon. The gun, weighing as it does 381 b, and its tripod mounting 4511 b, it can be easily and quickly taken wherever an infantry soldier can go. It can thus be used to support infantry closely. -\.lso*undcr certain conditions it can sometimes take the place of artillery though under no circumstances is it ever a match for artillery. It is most important to realise this latter point. This weapon seems to have been cursed by its name. It is not a gun, and to look upon it as such is to seal its doom. If looked upon as an exceedingly quiekflring and accurate automatic rifle, then, and then only, can it be properly handled, and its best effects realised. The invisibility of the maxim is another point in its favour. When in action it presents a front equal to that of two men with rifles. It is very easy to conceal the gun, the least fold in the ground being sufficient to hide it from view. An advantage of the machinegun is its vulnerbility. The closest formation possible for a firing-line is one pace per man. A hundred and twenty "-non, therefore, occupy, roughly a hundred yards, and the target presented to the enemy is a hundred yards in breadth. The machine-gun only occupies a front of one yard, or a hundredth part of the front occupied by infantry having the same fire effect i> is obvious that ten per cent, of casualties in the infantry firing-line reduces the fire effect by just that amount, while from 30 to 40 per cent, would silence it altogether, or render it mieffective. But provided a machine-gun team is well-trained, and every r.scrnber of it interchangeably it can suffer from SO to GO per cent, of loss without its fire effect being in the leas:, diminished.