Page:Machine-gun tactics (IA machineguntactic00appl).pdf/173

 CHAPTER VIII

EMPLOYMENT IN THE FIELD IN MINOR OPERATIONS

SMALL WARS

Callwell, in his well-known work on this subject, defines the small war in the following terms: "It comprises the expeditions against savages and semi-civilised races by disciplined soldiers, it comprises campaigns undertaken to suppress rebellions and guerilla warfare in all parts of the world where organised armies are struggling against opponents who will not meet them in the open field, and it thus obviously covers operations very varying in their scope and in their conditions."[A]

The British Empire, "upon which the sun never sets," is seldom without its small war in some remote part of the globe, and it is safe to affirm that there is never a small war in which the machine gun does not play a prominent part.

Wars against savages or semi-civilised peoples differ fundamentally in principles and tactics from war against a civilised enemy, and the tactics adopted will be governed by the object