Page:Machine-gun tactics (IA machineguntactic00appl).pdf/118

 hill, as causing them such losses as to amount almost to annihilation. The brigade lost more than half its numbers and two-thirds of its officers.

When it is remembered that this mitrailleuse was not automatic, but had to be operated by hand, that it had 25 barrels and a maximum effective range of only 500 yards, and that it cheerfully engaged in the artillery duel at ranges between 2,000 and 4,000 yards, the only wonder is that, having accomplished so much, the reasons for its failure were not immediately apparent, and that it has taken nearly forty years to convince the world that tactics are as necessary for the effective employment of machine guns as for infantry. The general principles for their tactical employment have already been dealt with in Chapter II., but they are so excellently condensed in Sect. 187 of the German Regulations, that at the risk of repetition they may be quoted here.

"Machine guns enable commanders to develop at fixed points the maximum volume of infantry fire on the smallest possible front. Machine guns can be employed over any country that is practical for infantry, and when they are unlimbered they must be able to surmount considerable obstacles. In action they offer no greater target than riflemen fighting under like conditions, and they can, in proportion to their fire value, support far greater losses than infantry. They can utilise all cover that infantry