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 CHAPTER II

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

"Each arm has its special characteristics and functions, and is dependent on the assistance of others; the full power of an army can be exerted only when all its parts act in close combination, and this is not possible unless the members of each arm understand the characteristics of the other arms."

The above paragraph from ''Field Service Regulations'', Part I., 1909, aptly illustrates a principle which should be impressed upon every serious machine-gun student, for the principles of machine-gun tactics are based upon those of the arm with which they are co-operating.

The machine gun cannot yet be regarded as a separate "arm" in our service, nevertheless it possesses a power peculiar to itself; and until this power is studied and thoroughly understood, the principles that should govern its employment in the field cannot be grasped, and consequently its effective use is dependent on chance or accident, and for every success scored a dozen failures will occur, any one of which may be fatal. The preceding chapter has dealt with