Page:Machine-gun tactics (IA machineguntactic00appl).pdf/194

 pushing up by-lanes or across fields to a position near the guns. Ammunition will usually have to be carried to the guns by hand, so that great pains must be taken to get the cart as near the position as possible. The selection of the position will be governed by the facilities it presents for surprising the enemy in close formation at effective range. The range must be accurately found, and fire must only be opened by order of the section commander. In selecting a position care must be taken that it offers perfect concealment from view, and that the guns can retire under cover to their carriages. The neighbourhood of conspicuous objects, such as single trees, a gap in a fence, etc., must be carefully avoided, and care must be taken to secure a good field of fire for as great a distance as possible to the front, while the flanks and any cover within effective range which the enemy might occupy must be watched by scouts. It is in this matter of careful reconnaissance, of selecting ground and occupying or watching all neighbouring cover, that the successful use of machine guns in enclosed country mainly depends. The enemy is obliged by the nature of the country to move in close formation to pass defiles, roads, gaps, or to avoid crops, woods, and villages, and it is the intelligent anticipation of where this will occur that gives the machine gun its chance for decisive action. The hedges, orchards, lanes and woods, and other features will afford endless opportunities