Page:Machine-gun tactics (IA machineguntactic00appl).pdf/60

 EXPERIMENT IN INDIRECT FIRE

The following is an extract from an article by First Lieutenant A. E. Phillips of the 10th Cavalry, from the Journal of the United States Cavalry Association for July 1909: "To determine how many, if any, of the bullets from the machine gun would strike troops in front of an assumed 'hill' over which the gun was to fire, canvas frames were used to represent such objects, the targets being concealed from view.  "The target consisted of a strip of target cloth 6 ft. high and 15 yards wide, along the bottom edge of which is pasted a row of kneeling figures with an interval of a yard from centre to centre. Across the target and parallel to its top edge was drawn a narrow black line tangent to the tops of the heads of the figures. Value of hits on any figure = 5; value of hits on the cloth below the line = 3; value of hits on the cloth above the line = 1. Canvas frame, 8 ft. high, placed 200 yards in front of the gun. Rapid fire:  First Experiment

Range 800 yards

-+-+-      |             No. of Hits. | No. of ++-+-++           Remarks. shots. | Figs.| 5's. |  3's. | Total. | -++-+-++-      |      |       |       |        | 30    |  5   |  10   |  12   |   22   |  Line of sight was 5 ft. below 30   |  8   |  10   |   9   |   19   |    top of obstruction. All |     |       |       |        |    shots over. -++-+-++-